To be fair, we handled Cas pretty well for 30 - 35 mins, but did a lot of defending in the process. My issue is that we were just so dominated in the middle, our backs had no where to go.

The defence lurched between good and horrendous, at least 3 of their tries came from busting through 3,4 or 5 attempted tackles - not good enough in SL.

Having said that, I thought we were unfortunate again at certain times in the first half, that bizarre shoulder charge call, Finn not quite being able to get to the loose ball which let them go over in the corner.

I think we can play a lot better as a group but need to start gelling fast and as that comes on, speed up the attack.

Positives, well we’ve got HKR next week, with the numbers they have out, we won’t have a better chance than in a long time. Then the next home game against the French could go either way.

Negatives, the game in-between those two.

We're not in the World Club Challenge are we?

Agree with that and add England to our best player. We have currently players playing no where near what they're capable of. Kirmond, Scruton and Finn although not the only ones, they're a a pale imitation of themselves these first 2 games.

In Kirmond's case, unfortunately it looks like injuries have caught up with him and he's just not capable physically of performing like he did a couple of years ago. There's no way he can Captain imo when he seems to be struggling so much with his own game, it's no benefit to either side. As for Finn we know what he did at Cas, we knew he wasn't a flash player but for them he did the little things right and guided them around the park. Atm there's non of that on show and the pairing of Finn and Miller look like they've just met each other for the first time before the game.

Some how we've got to find some domination and aggression in the forwards, Simon we'll add a bit of that but we need a lot more and we need to try some new faces, maybe try Annakin, Walker and Molloy and give Hal a crack at SO, it can't hurt and may give the other players a kick up the . Without our forwards setting a platform our backs will continue to look crap. Add to that if we don't find a win or two, players confidence is going to continue to fall and then we'll really be screwed.

When we played Leeds at boxing day, yes it was a friendly but still I actually thought our defense looked pretty good, came up quick as a line and they worked well with each other and hardly missed a tackle. What's happened since then, sloppy tackles, poor reads and a real lack of dominating as a group in the tackles and slowing the PTB down.

I always thought it'd take time to gel as a side, with a fair number of new faces but it's so frustrating when they're making silly mistakes and some players are just not performing.

Not how I saw it. Finn could have easily dived on that ball but instead he just stood by and watched the Cas player pick it up. I thought we could easily have been going in 6 all at half time. Instead we gift them two tries and the game was pretty much gone by the time they'd scored straight after half time.

Right, I thought England and bill tupou went well. How arthritis was ok but his passing from dummy half can be painfully slow at times and if he sped it up he could be a good hooked.

I thought that we did ok in the first half but again made too many mistakes and cas made us pay which was the difference. As for the 2nd half we were awful. Not only was our tackling at time attrotious but we never looked like scoring.

I don't like to bag individual players but I am afraid from what I have seen from him so far he is not good enough. He is just too slow and his kicking and passing game is below standard.

Finally I would just like to say that even though we let in 7 try I thought our left hand side defence was good. Cas didn't get through on that side once so I think we have to credit arundal and bill tupou for that.

If Kirmon, Scruton and other forwards are injured or completely off form then replace them with Molloy, Simon, Yates and Walker for the Hull KR game...

Thought Walton had been playing centre in pre season? Surprised that he was ahead of Molloy or Yates for interchange second row yesterday.

Don't see how we will win at Hull KR tbh. Injuries or not they'll be targeting us as well be targeting them - and our performances there recently have been diabolical. Their halfbacks (even withou Campese) are infinitely superior to ours.

I think looking at all the posts we seem to agree that on paper we look not bad a side and can compete, but at least 4-5 are nowhere near the quality levels of previous years, and that's what's killing us, we all need to be at the races week in week out as we haven't got world class match winners, too many players have gone missing and arnt giving the goods, we can just afford 1-2 at most but anything above that then however we have prepared for the game is out the window,,
I'm giving it another few weeks, before commiting to the doom, however Warrington away in few weeks will be a marker to any improvement as that was a horror show last year,,

Again another baffling decision from a coach that is held in high regard. Walton should be centre or not in the squad. Other options are better at second row i.e. molloy and centre is one of our weakest positions!

I thought we play HKR next week then Warrington away the week after, then the French at home the week after that?

We do.

For me, the most concerning thing is the tackling.

Here is a link to the highlightshttps://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/rugby-league/10167673/castleford-40-6-wakefieldrl

If you watch at the one minute mark, this is just plain embarrassing!

It seemed bad enough at the ground yesterday but, watching it like this is just horrifying.

At the video session (which I'm assuming they have but, with this shower, it doesn't pay to assume anything) hopefully there will be some very embarrassed players who feel the need to put things right.

Already at this stage of the season, is fitness rearing it's ugly head? It's hard to generate line speed and maintain structure and discipline when you're blowing like a billy goat.

People (including our coach) are mentioning the penalties. Hand on heart, does anybody really think that was much of a factor? Penalties go for and against all teams but, good teams play what's on the pitch in front of them. If you don't like penalties, be fitter and more disciplined so you don't have to be as reliant on slowing the ruck down as much.

We are falling into the same patterns as last year. Blaming outside factors that we can't influence. Take ownership of your problems, deal with them and move on.

Yes you need luck in this this game. But more often than not, the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Was going to read B Smiths post match interview this lunch time, saw it on the wildcats website this AM but appears to have been taken off WHY?.

As sad/hard as it is to say it; you've got it spot on with regards to penalties. I don't think I've heard a post match interview with Smith yet where he hasn't criticised the ref.
I understood it last year as it took some of the pressure of of the players, but continually blaming the ref and the interpretation in the UK just gives the players a cop out and they start to believe they're beaten as soon as a string of penalties go against them. That's how fans think, not coaches and players!
I have to say that, at present, your standard of fitness would concern me too. This could be down to your preseason being conducted exclusively indoors. Heavy pitches require different conditioning and you can see that the players haven't done much on them and are blowing far too early. I'm sure they'll look better on a summer pitch, but can you afford to wait till those pitches come, if they even do?!
I'm sure I'm not telling anyone anything they don't already know, but Halfback is a key area for you too and to go into the season with your hopes pinned on Finn & Miller was a massive gamble. It was all the more baffling when Godinet was allowed to leave, but it is what it is and I'm sure that what you have will be enough to stay up. The question is how much longer can you go on like this?