Oh dear, Smith refuses interview on Radio Leeds.

Were we so bad or were Cas as good as they seemed to be as they seemed to score at will and we offered nothing by way of a counter

I didnt go but it seems too many errors and bad 6th takle decisions? England seemed to be our best player, didnt hear Kirmonds name much.

Smith will be as frustrated as everyone else. He needs to be given the money (if there is any which is probably unlikely) to get a quality half back in ASAP..maybe the half back position was more important than Second row signings?....

Kirmond is a busted flush. He must be one of our biggest earners and if we can find anyone who would take him thanks to his reputation then i'd flog him for whatever we could get for him and use the money elsewhere.

Pack dominated for most of the game, incapable of coping with Gale making the extra man in attack and add to that James Child and its been a fairly cr@p afternoon.
Nobody in the Wakefield 17 would have made the Cas 17 with the possible exception of England.
Our ball out of acting half is just too damn slow
A really disappointing afternoon.

Another shocking day at the office! We are too slow round the ruck and the halfs can't create chuff all! All they wanna do is get the ball and pass is straight away without even going at the defence in any shape or form, Finn was brought in to do two things lead us round the park and give us a kicking game, which he's done neither. For me put hall at stand off for kr lets see if he will have a go at attacking the line, coz it 160 mins worth of super league rugby we have not made one single line break!! People will more then likely disagree but I would for kr have hall tansey and Simon in the side, hall 6 like I said tansey on the wing bill back in the centre dropping arundel and Simon coming of the bench for Walton. We need to try something to try and spark some life into this team

The problem was the right side defence Finn Kimond Gibson and Lynne.
Lynne had his best game last week but will he be dropped like Johnson because Gibson can not defend smithy should have kept the same line up as Widnes

Definitely, Hall needs to be in one of the half back positions. We're absolutely lacking in creativity in both slots. Finn is doing nothing other than unloading the ball in a most predictable way. Never once did he draw a player before passing. Try Tansey at full back and BJB on the wing thereby losing Arundel who's nothing but a liability. Of the forwards today I thought Howarth and England the only ones with any spark. The MDG beckons once again this season I'm afraid.

IMO, such that it is, the greatest skill we lack is interplay between the forwards.
Our forwards never combine in either edge or the middle channels in order to create room and pull defenders in. We lack genuine options or support play on both sides of the ball carrier which means we're getting met by three man tackles who have lined us up therefore we get dominated, lose the ruck and can't get any momentum.

Having just one creative halfback is a problem because it's easy to defend against but there are other players/positions in the team, other than the half back, who can play creatively.

Watch the Huddersfield v Wigan match again but take note of the options on both sides of the play the ball on EVERY play, particularly from Huddersfield. Those options are provided by forwards combining in different ways time after time throughout. They then have the halves laying out at the back and providing the critical plays later in the set when the defence is stretched.

One other thing, they play attacking shape which constantly puts a big second rower on a half defending 3 or 2 in from the edge, it's not an accident.

Quote: Miro "Oh dear, Smith refuses interview on Radio Leeds.'" Perhaps he doesn't like Radio Leeds Or he had something more important to do straight after a performance like that eg b******ing his players He gave an interview here: https://audioboom.com/boos/4181758-smit ... ord-defeat

Quote: Miro "Oh dear, Smith refuses interview on Radio Leeds.'" Perhaps he doesn't like Radio Leeds Or he had something more important to do straight after a performance like that eg b******ing his players He gave an interview here: https://audioboom.com/boos/4181758-smit ... ord-defeat

Agree with giving Tansey a go but I think you mean Gibson

Surprisingly I haven't seen any mention of Child's contribution to Cas's first half tally, or allowing Lyne to run nearly twenty metres with an open field in front of him before deciding to pull him back - a terrible referee!!!

Totally agree with that. Infact, it's a very good analysis. It literally is one out rugby from our forwards and it is so predictable what they're going to do, there are never any runners off them and there is never anyone offering back-up support if they poke their noses through the line. Attacking structure is also not present. I said this after the friendly with Cas: Cas have a really deep attacking line and this means they can run onto the ball at pace, we stand so flat and take the ball at a stand still. This is surely basic for a coach like Brian Smith. Surely these structures should have been perfected in the off season. I don't mean perfected as in every single play they are executed perfectly, but the players should at least be able to set themselves up in that way. But nope.

Agree Redscat,the first half Childs killed us with penalties only he could've dreamt up,second half I'm afraid he had nothing to do with the outcome.