Opening night of our season & we had a possible 48 points (with missed goals) against a very good/physical side, defence needs a bit of work but i really cant think of a game were we have been this good in attack..even considering the weather & also our first competitive game.

Crazy that we score eight tries at home and are clinging on at the end.

Plenty to work on but we knew that anyway.

Some encouraging signs though.

My review of the game would be that we were comfortably the better team, but need to make sure our discipline is good and that we don't switch off when we think the game is won in the future.

Our defence wasn't that bad imo, there's work to do, but it's just tweaks. In the first half Catalans had 70% of possession, that is just unheard of in rugby league. Despite all that possession they only actually broke us down properly twice, the third was a good kick, but I'm never overly concerned about conceding from a cross field kick since they are a lottery really.

In the second half they never had a look in for 20 minutes, then we took our foot off the gas, they started playing basketball, and they came back. I think it's a good reminder that against good teams it's not over until the hooter blows.

I thought considering that our pack has been much lamented in pre season it was pretty much a no contest. All of our props made easy yards and this gave us the platform to put some really nice plays on. Rankin looks a find, and I like Westy in that role, he showed some slick hands and was involved in lots of our good attacking plays. Talanoa looks strong carrying the ball up, Thompson scored a cracking debut try, Feka ran hard, Carvell did what he always does and Paea is a machine (so much for him only doing 10 minutes like the Rovers fans said he would). So I'm happy with the rag tag bunch of nobodies that are our signings so far.

I think the main problem was our right hand side in defence. Neither Crooks or Lineham are bad tacklers imo but there needs to be a bit more communication and Lineham needs to have faith that Crooks will make the tackle.

Other than that, a very positive night, although we need some goal kicking practice this week.

We won, and we did some encouraging things in attack, we need a kicker, but not the defeat I expected. Well done boys, well done Lee.

Goes to show we were blessed with Tickle, with regard to his kicking. That said, it was an awful night with a strong wind. Of the six that were missed I'd perhaps expected at least two those to be landed by a reasonable kicker.

Right side needs addressing defensively.

A right mixed bag off FC last night, did look good in attack at times and looked shocking in defence at times.

As for Thaler, I don't think he penalised FC enough, constant hands in and messing around at the play of the ball, practically anything to slow the play of the ball down. Think you would have been pulled up more against a bigger club than Catalan. The incident with Elima didn't look good, be interesting to see what punishment is handed out.

I thought Catalan where the best team for the majority of game, FC had a fantastic 20 min spell in which Catalan couldn't get any possession and capitalised. Standouts was Whiting, Heramia(sp) and Westerman. Great try by Rankin to! The biggest factor of the game was Deauru(sp) pulling out just before kick off for Catalan. Goal kicking for FC could be a problem but it looks we might have a similar problem.

So you guys would still rather have Tuson or Thomson than Tickle? You would have been well out of sight if he was kicking.

So we were lucky? Fair enough.....

I can count the number of times we have been lucky on my fingers, but to count the number of times we've been unlucky I'd have to ask another 4 friends to also takes their socks and shoes off!

Agree with this.

Let's face it, with all the will in the world the chances of us witnessing a lap of honour around Old Trafford in October are non-existent. Similarly, we should have too much in the locker to have any serious concerns about the dreaded drop. Mid table remains our natural habitat (along with Catalans, as last night showed).

If we are going to occupy our normal 6th-8th spot, let's hope we do so in an entertaining way. It may be a little nerve shredding at times, but at least we walked away last night with a win, some excellent tries to cheer and a good night's entertainment.

Given the current state of the first team squad, I don't think we can realistically hope for too much more than that.

Who was kicking off for us? Was it Whiting?
Kicking two out on the full is no good! Not sure why he kept going right to the sidelines, it's something I've never really known us to do.

It certainly was an odd choice. That type of kick-off is a very high risk strategy with a low percentage success rate. It's the sort of play you need to attempt when you are 2pts down with a couple of minutes remaining and something out of the ordinary is required.

There really was no need for it last night, particulary the second one a few minutes from full time, which put us under immediate pressure in the closing stages for absolutely no reason. The fact it came from one of the more expeirenced players was all the more puzzling.

Quality

a scrappy game to watch, you did well to stay with Catalans first half with very little possession, but once you'd got back into it Catalans turned off. all made for an entertaining finish.

What an absolute crock of shiite. Even easty would be more sensible than that

In a way you were but only in the sense you had a few deficiencies highlighted without them costing you the win. Better they came to light last night than next week IMO.