He did a cracking chase back and tackle on the Cas winger. He is quick for a prop.

am sure they will play alot better once the season starts. its been seen a few times teams have bad friendlies but then do really well in season

That was Oliver Roberts.

Are you sure? It was number 16.
Mind you my eyesight is not what it was...

We weren't at full strength but we only had Carvell, Kearney and Sammut out who in my mind are guaranteed starters. I wouldn't count such as Blyth, George and Gaskell as guaranteed. Put Kearney and Sammut in and that could be our first choice backs. Add Carvell and we would have had our 4 props and back rowers out there today.

Thought it was Sidlow too.

Pretty sure it was Sidlow, he's grown his hair.

Not the best performance as the scoreline suggests! A few players had complete nightmares and gifted Cas some possession on our line. The young guy Saltonstall was targeted and our left side looked very dodgy with Addy, Purts and the rookie winger.

Once they got a few scores ahead our effort levels nose dived and the tackling got increasingly sloppy. Nothing like the scrambling defence we saw versus Hull a couple of weeks ago. Only a friendly though, I expect we'll look different again in a couple of weeks and hopefully fired up to make amends.

Correct; Sidlow on Clare.

Ok, I will try that delusion.



I did not go to the Hull match, so in comparison to today, what was the difference? I would have put Hull a better team than Cas.

The difference is simple. We tackled against Hull while Castleford cheated by running down our left wing and scoring.

Hull fans should be really worried if Cas can beast us by 50.

Dewsbury must think they've a good chance of winning the Challenge Cup as well.

Couldn't be ar**d going, they couldn't be ar**d playing,Why anyone gets
bothered about practice matches is beyond me, Lets wait for two weeks
and then see what happens

It was definatley sidlow that chased back. I wassuprised at how fast he was for a prop

the price tag put me off. The crowd was 1900 wasn't it? £15 is a ridiculous price to charge just to watch an opposed training session, which (apparenty) is what it was in the 2nd half when Bradford were just waiting for it to be over.

As a cas fan I can be content that we must've played very well even so, but you can't really base your life story on it.

Thing is, if you guys get 2/3 injuries, which is bound to happen at some point, that could well be your starting line up. And based on the scoreline alone, that might be a bit of a worry.

No doubt if injuries didn't exist you'd finish 7th-10th I reckon, but it's a bit of a lottery there.

It's gonna be a tough season to call!

Thought we were poor to be honest. Not sure what Franny was hoping to learn from the team he put out and maybe there are solid reasons why a stronger side couldn't play.

That said, I had to laugh at a guy sitting behind me. He was clearly totally convinced that winning this game was the whole point of the exercise and after going on about what his mate "ought to be putting on his f***ing twitter" about charging to see this rubbish, he went to to say, "just look at Cas....they're f***ing treating it just like a training match....."

By sounds off it that was pretty much strongest team we could put out. Only one rested and not actually injured or carrying a knock was carvell afaik. Didn't think pack was a major problem yesterday tbh. Biggest issue was defence down addy/purtell/saltonstall side. None of those three would be first choice for positions they were playing yesterday IMO. Hopefully Blythe back before start of season to play . Gaskell to fill in at FB allowing kear to revert to wing and sammut back in halves. Needs a big improvement in two weeks.

Bulliac my sentiments exactly. Being more of a glass half full than empty type of guy, im struggling to find any liquid at all. I really did not think Cas were tested that much. The sloppy tackling and the ease that Cas were able to score on the wings surprised me really. Bradford were never comfortable at doing anything.

Friendly or not it is still a humiliating loss. It is relegation season and while everybody is "somehow" expecting the team to be around 7, 8, 9th place come season end, well I would not put any money on it just yet .

I noticed Cas's body language as they came out in the second half, brimming with confidence. Bradford just capitulated. Get the leadership in order please.

Can I make a bland truism please? Clearly a friendly is not a hard and fast indication of the year to come but on the other hand we got a right kicking. In what years have we got a pasting pre-season and gone on to have a good year? There must be some bored stato out there....

Apologies I didn't recognise Sidlow. That was a fabulous chase back then for a prop forward. It was worrying how quickly the heads went down though. Noticed when Foster and Saltenstall?? dropped the bombs that not many other players went up and patted them on the back as is usually the case. Really did not look up for it most of the game. Still, only a friendly so no points lost or gained thank goodness. As bad as that was it was my first friendly so the first live rugby I have seen since the end of last season and it was fabulous just to be there.

Stop being so upbeat. Its creepy.

But I happen to know that Powell had his team playing differently as he had inside knowledge of Franny's masterplan to play crap to lure Cas into a false sense of security. There's no flies on Powell.

Ha ha, yes indeed!

Franny's plan to lure them into this false sense of security was pretty good I thought, though I suspect that after a point it, well maybe, becomes a bit self defeating. Cas played well, there's no getting away from that, but we didn't really give them anything to beat and some of our attempts to tackle were just laughable at times.

To be fair, I'll forgive the lack of penetration, given we never got any 'go forward' in the entire match it's hard to bag the creative players for not coming up with the goods.

One thing is pretty certain though, and that is that the pre-season game has nothing relevant to say about how the league game will go - and I'm certain that Powell isn't daft enough to think it has.

Pumpetypump↓
Re: Cas Friendly
Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:11 pm
Flip Flop wrote:
As bad as that was it was my first friendly so the first live rugby I have seen since the end of last season and it was fabulous just to be there.


Stop being so upbeat. Its creepy.

It is a bit. Sorry. Lol

You can't have been wathching. Peurtell and Addy went to pat them on the back but they had both gone by the time they got there