That's not realistic it's a touch pessimistic for me - yes beat us but why thump us?

Personally if we do get thumped and all teams do occasionally it's more likely to be London or similar where we may not generate the intensity.

No it's not, it's realistic!
If he had said "the big sides WILL thump us" that would be pessimistic.
To think that bigger sides could thump us, is only being realistic, as we are not a big side, and they could.
Personally I'd like to think we can give anyone a game, but the realisation will be, that some we won't.

Back to Mathers, I was as furious as anyone at the ground with him for the first try, watching it back this afternoon he may have been a little bit unfortunate, and for the rest of the game I thought he played excellently!!!

Yes, like you say at first I was furious but the more I watched the replays, he seemed like he overrun the ball and couldn't turn back around quick enough on that pitch, it became a bit more obvious as the game went on, that player were turning like The Titanic.

I disagree. I won't be too bothered if any of the big clubs give us a good hiding as we are no where near their league. However, we need to be matching sides like London on a regular basis this year if we are to prove we have progressed from last season.

I was concerned early on as to how we were going to get out of our own 20. Whilst Southern was my man of the match, I don't think for a minute he is prop and we probably need to bring either Wilkes or Johnson into the starting 13 to stop stronger sides over powering us. Having said that, I think we will worry a few sides with our speed of play the ball and our ability to get the ball out wide so often.

I think it was a straight forward mistake by Mathers, but from that moment on I thought he had a blinder. I think when a player makes a mistake like that, they don't make it again for a long time. So hopefully it's out of his system after the first game without too much damage being done.

At first, I thought it was a classic Mathers brain-fart, but as the game went on, it became clear that players were having trouble pulling up quickly when at full tilt, so that may have been a factor.

Either way, he had a fantastic game from that point onwards and adds another dimension to our attack when he joins the line - so long as he's scoring more than he's costing, he's alright by me, especially when Cas are paying half his wages.

There you go great justification

Mathers has a brainfart
"Cas paid for that"

Mathers turns a game
"Money well spent Wakey"

or even better

Mathers turns a game and Wakey win

"Cas paid for our win"

Precisely!

Ithought Mathers played really well and following that error he was one of our stand outs, looked great with and without ball in hand and superbly suppoted by Fox, I don't think many teams will be kicking the ball to either of them to often in the future

Attacking wise Its a long time since we has a full-back as good, gets involved and knows where the try line is.

I agree with all previous posts re: Mathers.

He played well.

It looked a springy surface but the ball from a kick died after the first bounce perhaps causing mathers to be slightly out of position/off balance or just unexpectent
With a few players down with cramp near the end I wonder if the pitch will have a wembleyesque effect on players in that way, or wether it was just because it was the first game.
Something else to add to the list of things to watch out for.