Surprised at the negativity tonight. I thought that Catalans performance was very much of a team that will be up in the top 4 this season. They were strong down the middle and played with high intensity. That said, I didn't think we played that badly. The 2nd Johnstone try was a clear knock on. They scored four/five tries from kicks and I don't think they made a single line break. Although they won the metre battle and territory I felt our defence was generally good from a contact perspective but we kept turning the ball over in silly areas second half which gave them ample opportunity to post points. We scored every time we got within their twenty which bodes well and thought we looked good attacking wise in that respect.

Disappointing thing for me was we still haven't learned how to defend kicks and we need to learn how to manage a game and when to twist. Lyne getting pushed into touch when we would have been in their twenty was a killer when trailing by two points and Lino trying to offload in his own half on tackle 3 when within 2 points. You've got to be smarter than that and not panic. We could have just completed and tried to put the pressure on them not to make an error but instead we began chasing a game far too early that we didn't have to. Catalans were a physical side and I think aaprt from saints and maybe warrington we won't come up against another team that strong down the middle.

Thought Pitts, Gaskell and Butler did well. Not sure about the kicking game of our halves mind. Think that could be a weakness for us this season.

On tonight’s performance it looks it could be.
I was disappointed with our speed tonight Catalan were far quicker and pushed us back time and again . That needs fixing and fast .
Half backs for me in next game would be Smith and Lino.
I don’t blame Lineham for Johnstone’s tries but I think Kershaw or Tafua in his place. Oh, and we could try setting a move up to get the ball to Murphy.

Dont blame lineham although he seemed to lose alot of meters when bringing the ball out,

There’s some really good posts on here that sums the evening up for me.
Thought Catalan duffed us up with the physical/ wrestling side to their game.
Mistakes here and there stopped us gaining any real momentum during the game, I think we scored to get us back to 16:18 then forced the error only for recce to be slung into touch. Shortly after we managed 3 mistakes more or less on the halfway line, meaning we conceded too much territory ,and it was during this time that I thought the game slipped away from us.
Thought we were game though but need to cut the errors out..if we want to give ourselves a chance of winning matches.

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If Tafua can't show enough form to get picked ahead of Lineham or Kershaw, then we should be asking why have we brought him over (presumably on a decent wage) just to sit on the side lines. Pointless signing or a player out of form, I wonder which it is ?

The lads were obviously playing against a better side on the night, but credit to them they stuck at it, and until they made a spate of errors mid second half, they were still in with a shout.(although they never looked like winning).Need to have some sort of strategy with the kicking, not just kicking straight into FB's hands every time.They also learnt a harsh lesson tonight,(again!),you'll never win games with an error count like that, you've got to build pressure!

Same old, same old. At least three forward pass infringements. Last clutch of straw slipped away by a typical Lyne brain-fart and that crazy 5th tackle run from acting half by Smith within our 20m.

That drop to the ground with his head in his hands by Pitts when he throws those gift interception passes reminds me of Scott Grix dropping down on his knees and thumping the ground following his errors. Patent Pending.

Thank God we didn't have to face Leigh with Jack Smith wearing leopard skin under wear tonight.

Just watched the TJ try where Lineham went for intercept. Clearly a forward pass, amazes me how not one of wakeys 3 marginal forwards got missed yet that one wasn’t picked up by the officials. I can’t wait to see the highlights. Looks like 2/3 of the Catalan try’s had questions on them.

For the actual game. I’m disappointed but not too down.

I said a few days ago Catalans would attack us on the edges and they did just that. Our edge and kick defence needs some work.

I thought in the middle we were mostly equal to Catalans. There were no line breaks I saw certainly down the middle. Defence overall was good. Certainly something to tidy up on the edges though.

We had a 10 minute spell where we gave the game away. Starting with Lyne running out towards touchline on 1st tackle. Then a few forward passes, knock on and getting caught on the last. It’s such a shame that we weren’t smarter thst period in second half.

I think the in field kicking needs to be better too.

I thought Grant was inconsistent in his reffing and use of six agains. It was infuriating the amount of wrestling that was happening.

Prime example - Whitbread landing fast on his front tried to get up 3 times to be held down and no six again. Yet late in thst second half a Catalan player landed on front close to line and tried to get up (soon as he got down) and ref couldn’t wait to wave his hands for six again. I absolutely hate that rule, it’s so inconsistent and just makes the referees look bias. The sooner they scrap it the better. I won’t get started on the offsides.

Regardless though we need to be smarter. I don’t think it’s cause for concern just yet. Thought we were mostly a match for Catalans. Just need to make some small improvements.

That right edge needs addressing though.

What’s up with that pitch? Doesn’t bode well for us having to play on it numerous times. Is there an issue with it?

Thought it was a game we could win … but probably wouldn’t…bit disappointed but not downhearted…

Hard to show form in 3/4 games that he’s played since he’s been here. 164 games and 88 tries in a far tougher comp for the Sea Eagles says to me he’s a good un , but not mash’s signing so who know why .

Just had the chance to watch our supposed nearest competitors Leigh against Salford ,and a far more composed game from them was on show , slick passing and plenty of attacking shapes thrown at Salford ,but mistakes at crucial times proved costly , ultimately losing to a superior side , but that’s where we need to be sooner rather than later if we are to prove the pundits wrong

I’m a little surprised by the levels of negativity on here.

Looking at their tries in the first half 2 had forward passes in them, not just line balls but significant forward passes.

Obviously Murphy should have done much better with the try resulting from the kick (ignoring the forward pass in the build up) and if the video ref is there I’m not sure the Catalans try stands that TJ catches and then the ball spills out over the line.

We started the second period well and after conceding did well to get field position to score ourselves and at that point I think there were 2 points in it and we had the momentum.

The Catalans fullback drops the ball and we are in their 40 with 6 tackles and have the ability to attack and build pressure. Lynn runs into touch on tackle 1 and we then have a nightmare 15 minute spell where we lose the game compounding error after error, think it ended up being 5 errors in a row and as a result of that period the game is gone.

Is it disappointing to lose, obviously, but was the performance as bad as some are making out? Absolutely not in my opinion.

I think in spells we showed some nice attacking play/shapes and made some good meters ball in hand. We just failed to do that consistently and that 15 minute spell absolutely killed us.

My main area of concern was we seemed to get bullied in the clash of the middles, and Smith was off the pace at 9.

Most of the issues can be fixed up relatively easily as the season progresses so whilst I’m disappointed I’m optimistic there were more good signs than bad.

My expectation prior to kick off was we will be fighting for our SL survival this year but I saw signs we are in with a chance of winning that fight.

I went to the Hull friendly. One arm had a support on his forearm and he looked unable to tackle properly. I suspect he's injured and they didn't want to risk that injury till he's able to give 100%

He had an arm support on v Hull and looked impaired. Suspect injury is why Taufua didn't play

Catalan had 1/3 of their starting 13 missing including both halves, fullback, starting prop and second rower. If we are to survive we simply need to be winning these games. Our kicking game is what concerned me most, they just rolled us up field while we struggled to make the 35m.

We were up against the best wing combination in the league and they really punished us outside, as they will a lot of teams. Nearly every time we had sets on their line we scored, which is very promising, but we didn’t allow ourselves the field position to be in their 20 often enough, which to me was a result from kicking it down the fullbacks throat time after time allowing them to start on their 30 pretty much every set. Sloppy individual errors and at times inconstant referee compounded this.