Good post. We've had a bloody hard start. 7 games in and we have already played Warrington, Leeds, Catalan all away and we now play a very in form Shudds side next week.

So earlier on when you said that their injuries were 'not in the same league' as yours you were wrong?

I don't think they are as bad. I certainly didn't think they where as bad as they are prior to actually having a look at the Catalan squad. Shock horror an opinion changes slightly when you look closer into a subject.....

Is your conditioning an issue? When Rovers present "High Performance Manager" was at FC he presided over the 2008 and 2009 injury crises which some on here suggested were to do with inadequate rehab/massage etc. Rovers seem to be hugely competitive in the first 60 but are rolled over in the last quarter, perhaps down to stamina and fitness training (or poor rotation).

As Mild Rover says, you've had the toughest of starts. And it appears accepted on here now that injuries [udo[/u compromise a team's ability to perform after all.

At times tonight we interchanged three forwards at the same time. Maybe trying to get an advantage but it must take effect later on with the lack of interchanges.

Very disappointed with the loss but I'm pleased they've stopped the rot and not totally collapsed in the last 20 even though they lost the game in the last 20.

The fact they only conceded 3 tries is encouraging but there's obviously some issues there.

Last season our back row played the full 80, this season they won't so that's more interchanges aswell. We really our props to do more minutes.
Looking at the list of players the dragons had out shows what great depth there squad has got, and the real lack of depth ours has unfortunatly.

our coach sandy said on tel text that their 2nd try was a knock on he said he saw it from the TV stream and he said again all matches should have a video ref

but

it might have been worse

The ridiculous sub plot undermines any serious point that you (are not) try to make.

Josh Charnley labelled our training as "too easy" and wasn't interested in staying with us should Wigan not want him.

New coach surely new ideas now though

Aye, But aren't all the back room coaching staff the same?

For me there seem to be a few too many Morgan ideas hanging around, possibly through Chester?

Josh Hodgson has the makings of a first class player but we're still playing him all over the park. Hooker is far too much of an important and difficult position to play to basically be doing a bit of it now and again and then messing about somewhere else, particularly at this stage of his career.

It's almost like the club held back on a 'fresh start' by keeping some sentiment.

Something I made a point of acknowledging in anticipation of our inevitably having a rough run at some point.


I mention (un)availability of players only to indicate that we shouldn't panic. In terms of our rivalry with Hull FC, if you finish above us it'll be because you were the better team over 27 rounds.
For its own selfish sake, a club has to be honest with itself. We shouldn't be blinded by what we want to believe. At the moment I see mitigation for our mediocrity, but we are pretty average right now, irrespective of whether Hull are on the up (and early signs look moderately promising for you from the little I've seen) or not. We're not one of the top teams and wouldn't be even with a full squad available. IMO, if we're patient things could well get better... up to a point. Without cash available for transfer fees and to stretch the cap 6th - 10th is par. SL, innit? Not meant to be easy.

You could call it continuity though - it's not like the last few years were so terrible that we were looking to start from scratch.
A new team takes time to gel and adjust. Signing Briscoe, Fox, Newton, Galea, Jake Webster et al. saw us climb from 11th to 7th, but we only got 3 more competition points in 2008 than we had in 2007. It was their second season when we started to look much improved. No guarantee it'll pan out the same way this time, but it might. Might even be sooner - last seasons late charge to the play-offs showed what a bit of a turn in form, confidence and luck can do.

FC injury crisis could be partly due to the fact that at that time you bought players into the club that were ageing and already crocked! Only O'Hara and Galea could fall into that category. As far as only playing playing for the first 60 minutes, I think that is more likely to be down to lack of concentration than lack of fitness. The game plan is forever changing due to the unsettled side and I think players are losing the plot at times.

I am hopeful that we will be able to play sides for the full 80 when our first choice team is fit and we will be competitive with most teams.

Concentration and fitness are not mutually exclusive.

They are not mutually inclusive either.

Indeed. Anyone who said as much would be wrong.

Just seen the Blanch try...not surprised Sandercock was upset

When the rub of the green is against you, these are the type of decisions that seem to happen.

Its tough but thats what the team have to overcome, but it could have been a different story if Rovers had converted the first half possession into points. With hindsight they should have gone for goal on three occasions, and bombed two very good try scoring chances.

Overall, it was an improved performance and in my opinion it was down to Sandercock's hand being forced to play a more orthodox line-up. Fingers crossed he will build on this performance against the Giants.

Dont they have a video ref at all catalan home games anymore? i know they used to.

no,just an extra official at each end - there are no tv cameras from the companies cos' there is no tv deal - the Wires game is on SKY so will have the VR - when Al Jazeera starts their broadcasting in may there will be VRs

didn't one of the gams in england at the weekend not have a VR but two extra officials ? maybe at Salford ? can't recall exactly

Only the sky games in the uk have VR, we tried it once a couple of years ago but it never went any further. I just remember a couple of years ago they had a VR at all games in France, you never saw the video but the ref had the option to go to it. Didn;t realise Cats had lost there tv deal with Orange.