They are an exceptional side to watch thats for sure, hardly a surprise that they sold the ground out tonight. Whether they are ready to win trophies i'm not sure but they won't die wondering.

Trouble is both Hudd's and Leeds already have more points in the bag than we have , but it is nice to see defensive wise we seem to have improved a lot in our first two games this season. After our game against Saints this friday night we will have a good idea if it is a continuous improvement. During the season as the games are played points difference for and against are nearly always a marker of where you are likely to finish at the end of the season. get the defence right and then a few wins under the belt will make a big difference to where we finish up, i.e. either top 8 or in the dreaded play offs.

I didn't see that coming. Cas have been impressive but Rhino's results haven't been too bad. Bookies were giving Rhino's +8 and they're not usually far out. They were tonight though.

I'm not sure when Wigan will play Cas, but if Wigan are on their way to having enough points to make the top 8 by the first time they meet, I reckon Wane will pull out all of his first squad and throw a bunch of young lads onto the pitch against Cas. Ready made excuse for if they get thrashed, and if the young lads give a good account of themselves then Wane can act as smug as usual

Tbf cas were brilliant

Always nice to see the old foe get battered

It's never good to see your local rivals doing better than you are but last night they were better than everyone else too.
Good for them.
I hope they win something and shut Wane up....but I also hope we thrash them in our games too.

Round 8, Thursday April 6th. At Wigan and on Sky.

Cas had 5 first teamers missing last night for various reasons and a hooker playing half back.
Not to mention the raft of talented youngsters who helped turn over quite a few teams last season when we were 11 first teamers down.

Tell me more about our lack of depth.......

You should tell Hemmings about this too. According to him Leeds had all their "star" players out last night.

Likely that both teams will be on 10+ points by then, so well on the way to making the top 8 cut off, I reckon Wane will include a hand full of first teamers but blood 7 or 8 new lads in that game

Which 5 players would have made way to accommodate those 5 missing first teamer's?
Fwiw we've got 11 first teamers out tonight.

Interesting that people say Wane will work out a strategy to beat Cas. He probably will, and ironically it is exactly because of the mindset of Wane, following on from the Maguire philosophy, that Powell is coaching as he does, because Wane will do his best to make it as dull a game as possible.

As Powell said during the winter, we are in the entertainment business. Play entertaining stuff, the crowds will come, can get better players and play better stuff, and the crowds grow further. Wane's philosophy is to make it as dull as possible because that's how he knows to win games, and Wigan's crowds will stay large because they have a large following. If other clubs follow Wane, their crowds dwindle, Wigan do better off the pitch, and Wigan stay on top of an increasingly boring pile.

Sport is cyclical though. Teams get dour because they learn how to suppress flair. Eventually flair works out how to defeat dour and it goes back to that. We might be entering a phase of good rugby. If Wigan fans wants to carry on watching their version, that's their choice. If they want to celebrate with silverware won by dour stuff, good on 'em. It's their summer. If it's worth sacrificing 29 dull weekends for one good day in October, that's their choice. For me, I hope other teams follows Cas's example and seek to entertain.

Its also quite possible both teams could still be unbeaten and I'm sure Wane would want to win at all costs under those circumstances.

Chase for Mcshane. Mcshane to hooker.
Roberts for Milner. Roberts to bench.
Holmes for Maher
Patrick for Cook.

not sure who the fifth first teamer is tbh. Hitchcox out injured still but is a squad player. Monaghan..who knows what he is.