Sounds like a decent first hit out, got some minutes into the boys, good to see the young lads holding their own against a strong Cas side aswell. Hopefully no injuries and Chamberlain is okay.

[quote="ComeOnYouUll":3a2kmys9]Bloody hell, we've won away.[/quote:3a2kmys9] That sentence didn't need "away" great effort from the younger lads to win against a more experienced Cas team!

full time, first win away in over a year? pleased to see the youngsters keep the scoreline to zero in the second half. Match fitness more important than the result.........saying that, may not see a certain dobbin poster for a few days who has made himself look like a muppet

sadly I have to report that on the final hooter its 64-8!!! Borough a revelation!!!

[quote="Yippee try yay":2oc0w3h0]Haven't seen Balmforth mentioned do we know if he's got on or not, seems Burough has played most of the game with Hutchinson on now.[/quote:2oc0w3h0] He came on in first half at 9 and was on again in 2nd half but more in the halves. He’s certainly shed the pounds and looks very trim and possibly a bit too trim.

[quote="Chris71":1nca2g4h]He came on in first half at 9 and was on again in 2nd half but more in the halves. He’s certainly shed the pounds and looks very trim and possibly a bit too trim.[/quote:1nca2g4h] Great to hear, hopefully he'll pack on a bit of muscle over the next few months.

[quote="The Dentist Wilf":1zna4rjf]sadly I have to report that on the final hooter its 64-8!!! Borough a revelation!!![/quote:1zna4rjf] You got some of those dodgy binoculars, I heard a pair was going cheap due to a banning order

[quote="number 6":3bwk2hee]full time, [b:3bwk2hee]first win away in over a year? [/b:3bwk2hee]pleased to see the youngsters keep the scoreline to zero in the second half. Match fitness more important than the result.........saying that, may not see a certain dobbin poster for a few days who has made himself look like a muppet [/quote:3bwk2hee] I mean today doesn't count as a game in official stats but yes, the last time we won away was at Craven Park in July 2023. Last win outside the city was against Warrington at Magic on June 4th 2023.

Not much to read into it but a few thoughts. Forwards looked good - Ashworth made a difference and 2 solid shifts from Sao - and generally more intent to offload than last year on show. Didn't see much of Rapana but he looked good in attack and defence. Distribution better but kicking/last tackles pretty average.

[quote="ComeOnYouUll":2ztjc366]I mean today doesn't count as a game in official stats but yes, the last time we won away was at Craven Park in July 2023. Last win outside the city was against Warrington at Magic on June 4th 2023.[/quote:2ztjc366] Nice to get a win, but not as prestigious as being the Amsterdam Challenge Runners Up.

[quote="Chris71":3s7zajzn]You got some of those dodgy binoculars, I heard a pair was going cheap due to a banning order [/quote:3s7zajzn] Good job Chris

Sounds like a good run out.

Don't know what to make of Cas this year, they have some good fast backs and some real quality in their pivots with Horne, Rimbu and Asi but their forward pack is going to cost them big time this season Watts and especially Westerman are still great but both are getting on.

Just got back from a pleasent afternoon at the jungle. Overall you can't complain at our first hit out with the new team. Obviously second half playing all the youngsters in the backs we played our best rugby with lots if energy, scum half looked good (Kemp?) but I would say we did get a bit lucky with cas bombing lots of chances on our line. Burough I thought looked a bit slow and ponderous and seriously needs to speed up his distribution, Balmforth was much quicker and we looked a better team with him playing hooker. In fact what was obvious to me is how much quicker we played in the second half compared to the first when the whole team looked slow from hooker to both half backs. Cas aren't a great side and we struggled to even get out of our half apart from one occasion where we scored. Rapana was a bit quiet but in the centres for some reason, hardaker other centre was a bit more lively but made a few mistakes. Briscoe shouldn't be anywhere near the team imo - play Martin So in conclusion not a bad first hit out, think the right formula will be to play a mixture of young and old, if we play it safe then we could be too slow and whilst we won't get tonked won't b playing much exciting energetic rugby, we just need to find that formula.

[quote="Sebasteeno":i1lyci7j]Just got back from a pleasent afternoon at the jungle. Overall you can't complain at our first hit out with the new team. Obviously second half playing all the youngsters in the backs we played our best rugby with lots if energy, scum half looked good (Kemp?) but I would say we did get a bit lucky with cas bombing lots of chances on our line. Burough I thought looked a bit slow and ponderous and seriously needs to speed up his distribution, Balmforth was much quicker and we looked a better team with him playing hooker. In fact what was obvious to me is how much quicker we played in the second half compared to the first when the whole team looked slow from hooker to both half backs. Cas aren't a great side and we struggled to even get out of our half apart from one occasion where we scored. Rapana was a bit quiet but in the centres for some reason, hardaker other centre was a bit more lively but made a few mistakes. Briscoe shouldn't be anywhere near the team imo - play Martin So in conclusion not a bad first hit out, think the right formula will be to play a mixture of young and old, if we play it safe then we could be too slow and whilst we won't get tonked won't b playing much exciting energetic rugby, we just need to find that formula.[/quote:i1lyci7j] I agree with most of that Seb Kemp will overtake Charles as our next line halfback.Its just a pity that he doesnt have real pace Sezer and Cust never in the game and our lack of pace was there to see as Seb said. Martin should be in the team no doubt The worrying thing is that its expected when you change the team and add six young players as we did second half that the performance and scoreline takes a hit but today was the other way round and they won the game for us I know its a first hit out for the senior team but from what was on show today i wouldnt get too excited about what is to come

Here’s the rub NRL is so high level competitive that Coaches work on the smallest details to win games. Cartwright is truly in that model. We will focus on the absolute basics for at least 2 seasons. Attrition rugby, waiting for errors from the other side and make no errors yourself. High completion rates etc So it may well be boring but it’s what we need to win and grind out results. The pack has to get on top of other packs and that’s non negotiable. I’m happy to watch hard working lads try and grind an opposition down and win games 16-10 rather than 32-18

Echo, what most people have put, we looked rusty first half and was a great effort particularly by the kids to keep Cas scoreless. We do lack pace and maybe some creativity, but think our pack will do enough to win us games and we will have alot more Steel than previous years. Let's be honest very few fans expect us to get close to the play offs, but do think we should be aiming for 8th/9th, the advantage we have over every club except, the top sides is our youth depth, we have players who are SL ready to fill in just about every position. If we can slowly improve the next couple of seasons and our fans still we us, I could see us challenging in a couple of seasons time.

How did big John and zac go? I don’t expect chamberlain or holmes to play too much for you guys

[quote="oggy123":2uxwd2oj]How did big John and zac go? I don’t expect chamberlain or holmes to play too much for you guys[/quote:2uxwd2oj] Jon played well and was running things down the middle, played about 60 mins too. Zak had some nice touches but was well marked by Cas and dropped the ball a few times, Chamberlain suffered a leg injury and it looked quite serious tbh

Glad to hear about John, guy oozes class! He will carry you through games if he’s fit!

Is holmes injured already? He seems barely to have played the last couple of years

[quote="Jake the Peg":2pdz2s3g]Is holmes injured already? He seems barely to have played the last couple of years[/quote:2pdz2s3g] "Oliver Holmes will be monitoring having taken a precautionary stance on a knee injury from his time at Leigh Leopards this pre-season." Taken from HDM article this morn

Yesterday was a run out that was needed to put some of the things done in training into practice in game time pure and simple. Some stuff they’ll be pleased with and other stuff not so pleased and under Cartwright it does appear the ‘not so pleasing’ stuff will be worked on. Still a long road ahead, don’t think any of us are or will be getting giddy for some time yet. What I will say is that whilst we were clunky and timings a little hit & miss as you’d expect, it does look for the first time in years we actually seem to have structure about our play particularly defence. While it was still only a pre season game was pleasing to see the young players didn’t look too out of place which bodes well for the future.

These young players must now be properly nurtured and not over exposed. I have far more confidence that the club is better placed to do that now both from a financial point of view, the coaching set up and the fact that in Myler we have a knowledgeable rugby man at the helm. Something we haven't had for a long long time. Great start but nothing to get too excited about.

[quote="Jake the Peg":18nqq9wn]Is holmes injured already? He seems barely to have played the last couple of years[/quote:18nqq9wn] Thats why we signed him so he is fresh for 2026 season