Is it really down to discipline?

I know I'm biased, but many penalties were given for no obvious reason.

It almost seems, at times, that referees now decide when not to give a penalty at the tackle, rather than the other way round.

We suffered badly in the first half - did anyone hear Radford say he knew the ref would even it up in the second half?

Agree with you there, we pushed our luck at nearly every tackle.

A Big Plus is that we have still got Mcdonnell, Biggs, Crookes, Arundle, Miller, Tuson, Green, Pitts and Watts (Plus youngsters) to push their way into the team.

Wouldnt be too surprised to see a departure or two?!

Spot on in every respect. And it's not about bias I see the same thing in other games watching as a neutral.

They weren't at first, but they got much better when Heremaia came on. Paleaaes's in the build up to our first try seemed to start us off.

Me too. What I really can't understand is why we use a different kicker on either side of the pitch when Rankin was making more distance than Horne every time. Just get Rankin to jog across 20 yards and do the lot.

I can't understand why we don't try to gain more yards. It's been the same for years, back to Agar's time. Obviously if the kick is taken from centre field you need to make sure you find touch, but if you're nearer the touch line why not go for more distance and put the opposition under some pressure?

Agreed. They all had a great first game debut (first game back in Carvell's case) and I was very impressed with them all.

Thing is we gave him plenty of opportunity to blow up. Some of them were pretty borderline, but I've never been a fan of lying on until the last second (or looking at the ref for guidance like Senior used to). Get up as soon as you can and make them start playing it quicker

Its a fine line isnt it,surely the aim is to NOT let the opposition have quick play the balls.

There was one in the second half on our right side which was a joke. We got 3 or 4 men in the tackle and mullered the Cats player backwards over on his back. If there was ever a dominant tackle that was it and yet we got penalised for lying on. Ellis was involved with others. The problem I have is that the 'top' sides have built their impressive defensive records by doing exactly that - getting multiple men in and winning the collision buying them more time. What's good for one team should be good for another.

I found that quite refreshing as it's clearly not just us fans that think along those lines

Sometimes FC are their own worst enemies when it comes to penalties particularly when laying on in the tackle. We're no good at it and never have been in my opinion so it's something I'd like to see dropped from our play. Tackle, release, play on.

I'm sure that is the aim and some teams have that move down to a fine art. We don't and give away penalties as a result.