Agree with the last posting, playing like that we will loose more than we win, every team that we play will see the game as their cup final, prepared to spend extra energy to prove a single game of proof they can beat the best whilst knowing their next weeks game they will be short on energy & their body needs a rest, this will not help us of course.
Our half backs are not good enough to win the championship, gale goes quiet, Link has wild passes in his game & poor decisions !

Hardly any of our new signings will have played in conditions like that before. Hopefully they won’t ever again!

Fev were more motivated than us and more enthusiastic.

We clearly have issues in the halves.

Lino is neither an organiser nor is he a runner, he’s just very very average.

I’m not in the doom and gloom club to be honest.

We need to focus on comps we can win, I think the players had that in the back of their minds too.

Having Thornley and Jerry out reduces the quality of our exit sets and that is something we need to look at.

Should we struggle against Fev in the league on a better pitch in better conditions I will be concerned but at the moment I’m comfortable with where we are despite the loss today, which in real terms counts for nothing but bragging rights for a couple of weeks.

It was a bad day for us today but plenty of good signs despite that.
Some of the tactics weren't right but ultimately its about quality of what we are trying to do.....and that will improve with time and better weather.

If anything was to seriously concern me about today’s performance it was the unwillingness of some to roll their sleeves up and embrace the hard slog, physically relentless, tough war of attrition. Championship teams may not have full time athletes, they may not have a squad full of talent and potential but they will bring that dogged, hard nosed, grind and front on challenge for 80 minutes.

If we can’t or won’t meet that challenge then we will get turned over and as I’ve said before, we’ll find ourselves on the team bus asking how did we lose that game?

However we chalk that up we just lost our first real challenge against one of our contenders for top spot. That’s something that needs rectifying in the season.

Season starts on Friday and Bulls will be loving the fact we had a tough slog that went into extra time.

Luckily we will have a few players available (hopefully) in Thornley, Croft, Cozza, Bain, Lawford who can step in.

I’d like to see a few players move back into the positions they were performing well in early pre season like Griffin > second row and Pitts > 13.

With Taufua on the wing too I think I’d go for Croft on the edge for a bit more size.

Something like :

Jowitt
Walmsley
Pratt
Thornley
Croft
Lawford
Lino
Bowden
Hood
Atoni
Ashurst
Griffin
Pitts

Doyle
Uele
Vagana
Bain

The weather conditions and that pitch were a leveller no doubt, in fact maybe a slight advantage to Fev who
obviously have played on that pitch in those conditions before.
I'm not too gutted about going out of the CC and the best team won anyway so we move on.

Fridays game will be more of an indicator as to where we actually are, and hopefully the weather will be better as well.

Did Noah Booth play yesterday?
Was on the Bench.. can’t remember seeing him come in all the Mud.

I don't think he ever came on.

I think we probably underestimated the Featherstone pack - they have some big units and playing on that pitch was a big advantage for them. Should be the same for both, of course, but they handled it much better than us.
It was an awful day, poor visibility ( their 'floodlights' are a joke really!) And an awful way to lose a match.
I'm totally against the golden point crap and always have been but regardless of that the best team on the day won.
On better pitches and weather I don't think Fev would live with us but that's how it goes.
We have to learn from it, get over it and move on .

I've heard that Fev have got the sprinklers on the pitch this morning, getting it ready for Good Friday

Actually the POR pitch normally recovers pretty well given half decent weather. However if you think Fev are just mudlarks then you might be in for a shock again if the pitch is firmer. A team can’t win without decent half backs taking them round the pitch and the best two by far were a young French kid and a former Trinity hooker not deemed good enough.

Harry Bowes is a good little player and I was disappointed we let him go.

I didn't realise Bowes was playing for Fev yesterday- I too was sorry to see him shown the door.
I've been a defender of Lino in the past but he was certainly not cut out for yesterday's mud bath.
I agree it's time for a change but who plays hb, because Gale was no better than Lino and at least Lino tackles and his goal kick gave us half a chance.

Let’s hope so…
Be interesting to see if you get a home tie next round.before we play you again on the 29th
Our halves need to learn how to manage these grounds better especially this time of the year but I’m of a mind to think that come the sunny weather trinity will look and play a lot better rugby than yesterday…
Good luck in the next round….
Hope you draw cas…. Would be a belter!