Did Rocky Hampshire play yesterday?

yes mate last 20 played Friday aswell

Nice one, love to be stood near his dad if he scored against us! Be great to see him celebrate a Cas try!

Finn controlled the Leeds game and had a stormer....great signing etc...

Has an off game and gets panned now as not up to SL standard despite playing it for the last two seasons. Most games are won and lost in the middle as Avenger alluded to with defence pushing out..plus others talking about lack of yardage from the Trinity pack....we don't have a Wally Lewis who can win a game on their own virtually.

It's pre season guys and what it may show us is that Cas will be a top 4 team again this season.

Meanwhile Trinity were missing Mikael Simon and Scott Anderson who would be in the 17 every week. This would strengthen up the pack. I'm sure BS will be looking at his best 17 and players like Walton who is the size of a prop playing well at centre will be in contention IMHO.

Any injuries at half back though and we'll struggle.

Where did Walton play yesterday?

Lyne, Tupou, Gibson, Johnstone was the back lineup at first. I'd maybe like to see tupou on the wing and Walton in at centre for lyne.

has this sliding defence format cause confusion on where to stand, I was always taught as a winger make your man and really on your , as a was taught not always to commit until the player came to you or tried to go around you and make him feed to the winger in which you then can double up, are players in the middle condensing too much make the defence to much to do to cover on the wings

I dont think anything was terribly wrong with the performance except that it was all just too slow. If you watched the leeds game where we played at a much higher tempo the contrast was clear. Leeds worked the ball out wide (as they generally do), but every time they did the defenders were there to snuff out the move and bundle the wingers into touch.
Against Cas we simply did not have the enthusiasm to get across quickly enough. How many Cas tries were milimeters from being hammered into touch?
It was generally a lack of urgency, that we conceded as many as we did.
Slightly more worrying was our lack of attacking threat , i thought Finns constant short ball asked no questions of Cas s defence.
We didnt have "fire in the belly" as the OP says and paid the price, hopefully when it counts we wont make the same mistake.

A view from the Wheldon road end.

Just a few observations from a position most of you were unable to see from, although some of it was obvious from where ever you were standing.

In the first 15 minutes I couldn't believe how easy it was looking. Your defensive line didn't seem to move up at all allowing Lynch, Jewitt, and Millington a 10 metre run before a hand was laid on them and then their momentum carried them further. Gale and Mcshane seemed to have been given the freedom of the pitch and yet from where we were stood some of your scrambling defence looked amazing when we looked certain to score. You seemed content most of the time to employ the 5 drives and a kick tactic. however on 2 occasions when you had set plays close to our line Finn seemed to be expecting runners who never materialised and this lead to 2 or 3 players arguing amongst themselves. (not always a bad thing) I wondered if that was why you then went back to the 5 drives ploy.

I think some are being a little hard on young Johnstone as he will very rarely face a any one else as fast as Denny.

For the last 20 minutes we had a back line of Monaghan, Crooks, Shenton, Denny, Rocky, and Gale. Add to that Luke Dorn zipping round the back and they'll test any one. Young Rocky got MOM against Fev but he impressed me more in his short spell against your selves, very cool head for a young kid and a lovely pair of hands that would be wasted at full back.

Some one earlier in the thread described the A and B markers as lazy well in those last 20 minutes you could substitute the word lazy for knackered as the whole team seemed to be shot.

Finally it may have been hard to see from the "railway end" but BJB looked very disinterested in the 2nd half and his kick returns were very half hearted and he just seemed to surrender to the kick chasers. Only a friendly I know but after the last few Cas tries the Wakey players were stood in separate little groups with their heads down rather than all standing together and talking to one another..

No doubt we'll all have a better idea after the league game when points are at stake.

id rather get it wrong in a rehearsal so im glad we lost gives us something to work on and then get it ok on the night when it matters

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Exactly! That's simply what 'friendly' games are.

Sorry my entry was poorly typed. I meant Walton has impressed so far and although didn't play yesterday may be in contention for a starting centre position when the season starts...

Lynne had a decent game against Cas didn't he? Scored a try and stopped a certain one on opposite wing hold one up over the line?

Still find it hard to understand why Wigan would loan Rocky Hampshire to Cas. Wigan and Cas will compete for a top four place, it may be that Cas finish in top 4 at the expense of Wigan, why loan one of the most gifted players of his generation to a team you are likely to compete with. Rocky would have been brilliant for us and we would never be a problem for Wigan.