Dead right. Too often we were looking for the pass and that slowed the movement down. They knew where the next pass was going before they even got the ball.

I like the way cas play they look the best team in the competition at the moment. However our performance was poor and we didn't test them. For me it was a match that I didn't expect to win but would have liked a more even game particularly in the first half.
On an observation Cas seem to spend a lot of time gesturing to the reff for a penalty or knock on, they don't need to attempt to influence decisions.

At game was really disappointed with first half, but watching it back we played ok. No body had a bad game and thought that there were some real stand out performances - kirmond defensively had a great game, all good had his best game so far.

Their half backs were significantly better than miller and williams, but it was the sheer speed of thought and action that gave them the game. Having watched wigan saints am looking forward to monday

What we have to do is try and emulate Cas' not find excuses for why they blew us away. (first half anyway)
Why are Cas' so much faster? until we replicate what they are doing we will stay as we are.
I've said in an earlier post that Cas' are not a one man team BUT I wish we had a player with the skill, commitment and enthusiasm of Gale directing play. Last one we had like that was Danny Brough.

I think we played into their hands in the first half.
Our defensive line sat back instead of moving up, allowing Cas to move the ball right across the field (probably would have worked better had Chase been playing HB).
Selecting Williams ,Miller and Wood to all start was a major error as they are all too similar and none has any compusure or can take control of the game.
Grix had a shocker as he was trying to force high risk plays early in the tackle count.
losing our centres at different points in the game didnt help our cause either.
not sure why we moved away from our back 3 taking up the early tackles as this has been working well for us.
positives for me were Fifita and Allgood played really well and the team never gave up.

all that said, Cas are playing great rugby and are the best team in the league at the moment and are rightly top of the table. It was always going to be a tough task to beat them at Cas.

They made us pay for our errors. Tom knocking on in our 10, grid kicking out on the full, giving lots of 7 tackle sets. Cut out errors and we'd be a lot closer

I thought there were lots of positive for us.

The very fact we were effectively beaten at half time and came out trying to win is a big plus and will reap benefits through the season.

Tupou making such a difference going off and coming on shows how good he actually is. Made lots of ground against a very tough defense and instantly tightened ours up.

Fifita was a targeted man and still looking very dangerous against a much more dominant pack. He seems to play better the tougher the game is.

Finn showed he still has it.

BJB shows defensive qualities every week that go unnoticed.

Arona again looked dangerous and a workhorse at the same time.

Williams improved his goal kicking


The main thing to improve is the 6th tackle play. We kicked it dead or straight to them too many times to make an impact in the game.

Cas played some outstanding attacking rugby at times in the first half & yeah they took advantage of penalties & disruption to our line up through injuries.

I'm not too downhearted, we won't be playing them every week & they'd have beaten every team in SL yesterday!

Quicker, stronger, fitter and more organised.
Yes, they got plenty of calls in their favour, especially in the fist half.
Gale is a bit too touch feely with the ref and with Kendal, this seemed to have a bit too much influence.
But, their line speed, especially early on in the game, blew us away.

Learn from it and move on.

One of the biggest differences for me was Cas aggressive defence. How many times did they drive our players backwards whilst when we were defending their players constantly made yardage after contact and got a quick play the ball.

Until we can improve our defensive aggression and start to win the collision more, we will struggle against the top teams

I find this to be a ridiculous rule, fair enough if the player catches it, but to just touch it i.e. knocking on is ludicrous.

I really feared the worse in the second half - sixty plus, but that was a gutsy performance.

It's crazy, it penalises good kicking. It forces a team to kick it shorter which gives the attacking team the advantage. The perfect kick from a restart would be one that lands right at the back of the in-goal area

I'm with you on that one, it's a daft rule. The ball either goes out on the full or it doesn't. If a player is stood with both feet out of play then fair enough, but this business of stretching one leg back and touching the ball is ridiculous. Yes, it's in the rules and Monaghan was very smart to use it to our advantage, but the rule should be scrapped in my opinion.