am surprised there isn't a separate thread for this yet. Ok I will start with the negative coz i wanna finish on a high, as soon as anyone busts our line we panic and cannot defend and they score. the gaps between players at time in the middle of the park is not good, dixon got stepped and griffin was jogging across when he should have smashed him, dixon will get stepped in a 1 on 1 situation with chase 99 out of a 100 times, u need your man next to u to smash him. we desperately need a stand off. danny williams is terrible under any form of pressure from a kick, hence he is always kicked to, was a little bit dissapointed owen wasn't given the chance ahead of foran who needs to up his game 100%, Mauro is still not fit but is looking better every game. Ok so there's the grumbles, positives. Dixon was MOM and was outstanding, cannot believe saints let him go, .also thought jordan james had another good game.We saw the best and worst of theo last night, defensively he was ball watching a couple of times however ball in hand he has balance and pace. What theo can do is natural, he doesn't think he just does. For me he plays better as a scrum half and first receiver taking the ball at pass and running at the line similar to smith. Also this has to be the first time where we have front row who can actually put us on the front foot, every time the props got the ball they made yards. Noble has a lot of work to do defensively but offensively we look good. we deserved to win because we played more offensive and expansive rugby, this obviously comes at the price of the defense. Cas are crap and if they loose chase good help them, as they look stock. I feel we will have a very tough month but we must stay positive and work hard.

Thought McGoldrick was MOM for me. Definitely his best game for us so far. Theo looked class and Dixon was everywhere. Thought James was good too and I'm not his biggest fan.

Defense needs plenty of work, and I'll be happy with a gradual improvement until the end of the season. Defense takes time to build as it has so many component parts from ability, fitness, reactions to mentality, adaption, and repetition. None of which will come quickly.

Good win defence needs work but it held firm when it mattered
No trys conceed before half time and a try just after rewarded proactive not reactivate play

As long as we continue to improve ill be happy

apart from is try, the only thing he did was at the end and give the ball away.
he should get his P45

I thought there was a few positives from last night, and in spite of what the sky commentators said last, we moved the ball quite well on a number of occasions, Sneyd and Fages look quality going forward and our goal line defence stood strong towards the end. On top of that, we finally had some size on the front row and actually matched a fellow super league team in the physical aspects.

Other than letting Chase run riot, our main problem was defending that left flank. Several times they broke down our left and scored just afterwards, which shows how desperately we need a left centre. Doubt this new lad from Sale is ready to go straight into the first team, so I would imagine it will be Gaskell when he gets back to fitness.

What about his dummy for Ashursts (may be wrong) try? McGoldrick is a game winner, his kick v Hull KR won us that game and his interception last night.

I was impressed with Sneyd again, Theo was very positive with the ball and Mauro made some decent hit ups and offloads. I neared the worst when Gibson went off injured and I wasn't surprised they cut us open down that side a few times, but we 'did enough'.

after the lack of discipline at the death,on his own try line,was the blind,suicide pass.



Let us hope he continues to be a game-winner.I appreciate it was his first game back after some time but Theo got through considerably more work than he did throughout the 80 minutes,and with the games ahead of us we need his experience and guidance for the younger players.
Martin Gleeson being the best example,to the point of having words with Theo as he left the field at half time,after a stray pass nearly cost us.

I am sure the experts say that to win when not playing well is the sign of a great side.
Rock on...

Think Theo has something you can't teach or learn and that's just vision, his little deft kick last night was sublime.
Think Mauro took the ball in very hard, Foran for me has to be involved at all times as he runs the show when he's on and along with Gleeson is the onfield leader haven't had for a good while.
Think that getting Emmitt for Boyle was excellent business and that in Walne we have a young forward who good as he already is will only get better when he matures.
Snyed while not possibly the best defensive full back does look to have the beating of the first man every time he touches the ball and should have a very bright future in that position if we stick with him.

I was fuming though that when Cas only had the one real quality player on the park we kicked to him continually from restarts, we needed to be keeping the ball away from Chase as often as possible, also a gripe is the link play down the right hand side might work occasionally but Chase soon spotted it and intercepted, we need to not use that virtually every attacking set. I'd much rather we used that as a feint and actually from time to time went down the other flank.

Do also think we miss an on field enforcer, when Tansey did his high tackle there wasn't anyone nailing him, OK I don't want to see anyone getting sent off for fighting but sorry when someone commits an act like that there should be someone giving him a slap like a Forber or Young would have done years ago.

DID THE REDS HAVE 14 PLAYERS ON THE PITCH NEAR THE END OF THE GAME?

I disagree. He missed his tackle which led to Cas running 3/4 of the pitch (from which they eventually scored a try). Also, he almost literally threw the ball away with 5 minutes left when he decided to throw the ball to nobody. I can't really give him praise for the interception either because Chase threw it straight at him!

My negative was Mauro again. He looks a bit fitter but I was suprised at the number of times he threw the ball rather than using his bulk to break through tackles like Jordan James tries to do.

My positives were Dixon and Fages. Fages in particular has a massive amount of natural potential. Bearing in mind he's still only 18 (?) he will come on leaps and bounds with better quality players around him.

Thought the referee had a stinker, could not control the off sides, holding down. The game looked to fast for him . Seemed in bewilderment many times at what to do next. Missed loads of forward passes, think there was one penalty for an offside late in the game.
Being very fit and able to run fast does not make a good referee, at least he was the some for both teams

Just read a statement from Danny Orr, in reference to cas, saying, "we we're out muscled". OMG, when was the last time we heard that against SL opposition. Emmit looks a cracking deal, what were cas thinking when the let him go in return for particularly unathletic Ryan Boyle, and Walne isn't letting anyone down. Collectively the front row is actually better than last seasons.

Couldn't agree more, our front row are laying a good platform. We are still missing a Stapleton or Cashmere to give us some experience up there though.

I thought Foran looked sharp at acting half-back. He was getting the ball away from the ruck area quicker than Wayne Godwin does. I've a feeling he's played hooker before.

Indeed...

...but that's a good thing, surely. It means the opposition don't know what he's going to do. Saints used to use James Graham in a similar way. Mauro certainly has the ability to put a decent pass out (he threw out a real defence splitter at Wakefield that led to a try) so why not use it?

Maybe it was a deliberate ploy to make sure he wasn't involved in that first play, because all the receiver ever does it shovel it on to the nearest forward. He never tried anything different did he?

I thought he did OK. Gave very few penalties and let the game flow. I'd prefer that to a nit-picking performance with lots of whistle.

Don't really understand where this anti-Foran stuff comes from. He looks quality to me; very sharp, vocal, good organiser and a good kicking game. He is obviously still a little unfit so can only get better once his fitness improves. Maybe people knock him and Mauro because they're Veivers' signings?

.

Neither Foran or Mauro did themselves any favours by arriving so out of shape, which might be causing Foran's lack of pace. Neither let us down on Saturday, and Mauro showed plenty of strength, unless we find a true world class forward he's worth keeping hold off.

I have a sneaky feeling Foran will become like Josh White was, most people knows hes crap but some will back him to the end and then he will leave our club never to appear on the rugby radar again due to his lack of quality

I think Foran needs to go to the toilet before going out onto the pitch, either that or he's got his legs on the wrong way!

True , He has a distinct way of walking/limping , gingerly .He must be carrying either an injury or an impressive set .

Foran is nowhere near as bad ad people have made out. Don't get me wrong he's no world beater and I think we already had better in Sneyd, Evalds, Theo and Owen but even so the criticism is harsh.

The criticism of Foran and Mauro is because they arrived massively unfit and if anything appear to be getting less fit. They've been here since February and there's been no improvement in their fitness. As you say about Foran 'he's no world beater', so why on earth did he get a three year contract? I breathed a sigh of relief when they both waddled off on Saturday.

I thought they were signed on 2 year deals?

They arrived unfit because they had only recently begun pre-season training in Oz, this move wasn't in the pipeline for months it literally happened in days. Neither should have played vs London but Veivers thought he knew better. Mauro in particular was unfortunate to pick up his injury which hampered his already lacking fitness.

I thought both contributed more than enough on Saturday night, especially Foran who had more impact at dummy half than Wagga.

Well this is the issue, isn’t it? The lad looks a bit slow at half-back, a position we recruited him for. So we’ll make do and mend as we’ve always done...

I thought Mauro looked fitter than he did at Wakefield. He is giving us some go forward, so he's worth a place in the 17. We are still far too reliant on Darryl Griffin for taking us up field the hard way.

Foran is an odd one. Someone questioned his tackling ability, so I tried to watch him carefully on Saturday. His tackling is pretty poor, to be honest. However, other aspects of his game are worth persevering with. His distribution is okay and he talks to the players around him, organising attack and defence. I'd keep him close to the ruck where there are a few others to help in the tackling department. Out wide, he's a liability with someone like Shenton running at him. (It wasn't his missed tackle that set Shenton off on a long run, though)

In all fairness he was asked to do a job at hooker and he did it well, I don't see how that's making do. Now we've got a settled camp and a decent coach there's no excuse for either Foran or Mauro to flourish.