Fitness wasn't the problem last night it was the injured players who did not take to the field. We then lost Sammut and Greenwood mid game and Manfedi late on. That's why we lost not a lack of fitness.

I thought the first half lead was a little bit deceiving to be honest. Our backs played very well and they also took advantage of some very poor defending from Cas our wide. They had quite a few injuries in the backs and halves so perhaps that's no surprising. It did mean that we were largely able to avoid the 'wrestle' for a large part of the game and our starting pack of Navarrete and Bullock could do more running and less defending. Those two might be regular first team players but they aren't the ones you'd pick as the smart defenders. Those would be the likes of O'Loughlin, Flower, Clubb, Farrell etc. We probably don't have enough of them in the squad but that's another matter.

Against Catalans being able to bring Flower on at the same time as Byrne, Smithies and Shorrocks pretty much shored up the defence and stopped the bigger Catalans pack from having any luck trying to run straight over us. Not having Flower really cost us because as soon as we were relying more on the younger players they got on a roll and we couldn't contain them.

I'm a big fan of Byrne but I thought he really struggled defensively last night. He's got bags of enthusiasm but his tackling technique doesn't seem to be quite there yet and he ended up hanging off tackles and being turned inside out. Partington and Smithies looked a bit smarter in that department. In fact I thought Partington was outstanding defensively. Must have made 50 tackles or more. It's no surprise that the experienced forwards in the Cas pack were able to take advantage. Having to rely on young forwards might work once, but rarely works for a sustained period of time.

It was a case of Wigan playing brilliantly and then playing awful. It was more a case of Cas actually being able to make the most of their bigger and more experienced pack in the second half. We did well to score so many points early on because they could have torn us to pieces right from the start. So in that respect I see some positives from this game despite the soft tries.

Our side does still look weak in the forwards though. With top senior players (Lockers, Flower, Farrell) being injury prone, other senior players like Clubb, Tautai and Powell lacking any real form - there's a lot of pressure on Bullock (a championship player last year), Navarrete (Okay but not top quality), Isa (jack of all trades and master of none) followed by a lot of youngsters without significant first team experience. It's not a good situation. A lot of people were saying before the season started that we looked weak in the forwards and I doubt anyone has changed their mind. With Hamlin looking at a suspension we need proper reinforcements. Not 'projects', not more youngsters thrown in, actual experience forwards with a good track record.

51 tackles from Ollie Partington last night.
Had we been able to keep Sammut, Manfredi and Greenwood on the field, I think we would have won it. The loss of Manfredi caused disruption. Shenton and Eden had been invisible all night, but as soon as Manfredi went off Shenton went past Isa who was then having to defend in the centre position and that set up field position for the winning try, although it doesn't excuse the poor defending by Gildart and Burgess.
We haven't finished a game all season with four available subs, in fact we've only got past half time once with all four available.The luck has to change some time surely?

tactical masterclass???? if Jazz and grreenwood stay on cas get butchered.

Is it just me or do we get season ending injuries at Cas every year ?
Looking at Cas's injury list as well maybe the pitch there is a problem.

When sammutt went off I'd have played shorrocks at 9 woth Tommy at 7.

Bigger mistake for me though was Isa going to right centre. We should have sent Gilbert over there and let isa defend a against egodo.

Effort was 9/10 if not better for me.
Too many big men took its toll and the loss of our kicking game and Greenwood exposed that further.

I'll just mention Colin Tyrer at Wembley done by Keith Hepworth, and Kelvin Skerrett done by Dean Sampson. Both terrible injuries including broken bones.

I'm not suggesting that Cas played dirty at all last night. But you'd be correct IMHO about serious injuries when playing Cas. There is history.

Don't agree mate their pack were all over us like a rash long before they got injured, and lets face it neither of them are renowned defenders, we were still playing without the ball even if they had stayed on the pitch.
The only difference it may have made is that we would have had 16 fit players instead of fourteen, but nobody strong enough to stop the yards they were making and the offloads, we were simply not big, experienced or physically strong enough to stop them.
This will be our problem all season, not looking forward to watching against Wakey at all.

Well you could argue it was the same situation in the first half. The only difference being the players mentioned were on the pitch. You simply cannot say it wouldn't have made a difference when the only tangible evidence we have (the first half) suggests it made a huge difference.

That's before we even get to the fatigue caused by lack of rotation options and the fact that Isa was stood up when defending in the right centre position after Dom went off injured which effectively gave them the winning try!

Was it Young Kenny from Phoenix Nights?

Agreed,when they scored fir me was the start of the game turning..the injuries didn’t help of course

We definitely need to work on wrapping the ball up when defending close to the line. Our technique was all over the shop.

The biggest concern by far though is the lack of size and power in our forward pack. That's something that's impossible to fix in the short term.

good call fella

If it was, he better have that bloody Zantac