For different reasons to me though, I'll bet!

Not sure I agree, you may well have benefited from a more free flowing game , but when a side has played 20mins with 12 men, it effects the sides fitness immensely and that showed when you got your final 2 tries. It probably did help Wakey for it to be a bit scrappy, but it did us no favors getting penalised nearly twice as much as well as the 2 sin bins. I would have liked to have seen the match end with 13 v 13 on both sides because it was brewing up to be a good finish, before the Mllard sin binning.
I liked the fact that the lads, showed some fight and got themselves back into the game at 20-28. If we could add a touch of power in the forwards and a playmaker/kicker and still show the effort and fight they showed, we should win a few.

i cant fault the attitude the wakey team showed,imo you couldnt have played any better with 17 players you had on the field.child ruined the game and was equally bad for both sides that said i dont think the scre flattered cas despite a patchy performance we bombed at least 3 chances and the goal kicking was poor to say the least which kept you in the game for a long time,with a bit more fluency it would have been 50 or 60 points .

i thought rinaldi made a difference when he was on the field and the young prop worked hard but you after worry for him with that work load on a week to week basis that he doesnt burn out.

all in all a it was pretty much how i expected the game to go you will win a few games but if you pick up injuries its going to be a long year has i feel you may just struggle to recruit any quality players now the season has started.

Been to Cardiff this weekend, the journey down was horrendous with all the text messages saying one thing then the other. Have to say it is a far better venue than Scotand, having been to both just for the day and also for a weekend, would definitely go again next year if we were in super league. It's a good atmosphere in the city before and after the games and it feels warmer even in February!

Told you

Now I haven't read every post on this thread but the early ones seemed to be bagging the team and Kear’s selection. I know I've come late to the discussion but I don't agree at all.

In my view we were not as good as the opposition, but we knew that before the game. What we did show was great spirit, still playing well and hard at the end when the game was gone. With the team we had and the recent distractions, I thought it was a very good performance across the board.

Team selection, I can understand. Millard has not played well in preseason. I think the others have, so give them the chance. Some of the posts about selection are ridiculous, suggesting that Hyde should not have been in at SO but then suggestion Morrison or Howarth. First, give Hyde a chance as he hasn’t looked bad in preseason, and second, the other two may be able to cover but they are not stand offs and would not have improved things apart from another forward defending.
Thought playing Tommy Lee at LF worked to a certain extent without being quite a masterstroke. He obviously decided that with Hyde playing debut at SO, he needed help and having another ball player in would help. His kicks were good. His defence was good. Personally I like Howarth and wouldn’t keep going with this but it was worth a try to mix things up in a game where we were always up against it. Easy with hindsight to point the finger.

Criticising the defensive pattern because the winger gets caught out isn’t the full story. This very rarely happens because the centre has gone missing. It happens because the forwards are struggling to hold in midfield and the whole line gets dragged in. Shouting “stay with your winger” isn’t really helping. They will just run into the gap along the line. Thought George did well to cut the wide man out, and he got a big hit as well and didn’t break in two so he’s improving fitness.
I can’t imagine Kear tells them to leave a big gap out wide to let some tries in. In a tight defence in midfield the centres and half backs need to come up fast, with the winger and fullback covering the kick. We are just flat footed, which is at least a joint issue with player and coach. Not all coach.

Of course if we had loads of moeny I'd swap a few players out,but overall I say what I said in preseason, they are not perfect but they are putting the effort in against the odds. For that they’ll get my support and money. There have been plenty of previous years where more skilful players have not played for the team……this is better in my opinion

This is exactly the point - if Millard hasnt played well,why pick him at all.
But then to compound it,JK picks him on the bench.A complete waste of an interchange player.Lets not forget JK has a track record of wasting interchange places,Blanch/Morton/Blaymire selected on the bench spring to mind.
Has JK realised its a 17 man game?
What concerns me is time and time again he wastes interchange players,so what exactly is his game plan when he has an out and out centre on the bench,or an out and out winger or fullback.Unless of course he bases his plans on 16 players!!!

I have absolutely no qualms with the effort put in by the guys on Saturday.
I dont imagine JK tells them much at all as his coaching methods/techniques are so dated.
We have some promising youngsters,but i fear JK does not have the ability to bring the best out of them.

I can't disagree too much with what you say as we are just swapping opinions. What I can't work out though is why Kear would be such a bad coach when it was only two seasons ago he was bringing the best out of all our players (project players and otherwise)
I'm putting it down to player quality rather than Kear as the game hasn't changed so much that he is suddenly out of touch....however, the evidence is starting to build against him. I hope he proves me right and you wrong mainly because there is not much to replace him with but we'll see.

Quote: coco the fullback "The season is picking up already. We're not bottom of the league. Cas are not top. Leeds are losing.'" news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... efault.stm Yes you are bottom of the league Yes Cas are the top of the league No Leeds didn't lose I woouldn't bother wasting your money on lottery tickets

Quote: coco the fullback "The season is picking up already. We're not bottom of the league. Cas are not top. Leeds are losing.'" news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... efault.stm Yes you are bottom of the league Yes Cas are the top of the league No Leeds didn't lose I woouldn't bother wasting your money on lottery tickets

Is your keyboard haunted?

Not quite. At the time of posting (when Leeds were losing) Cas were top of the league. The poster had forgotten about Crusaders' points deduction...