Reality check last night, reasonable performances from the pack with Hock outstanding. Backs couldn't cope with Castleford's line speed and were totally outplayed. Fortunately there are quite a few worse teams than Cas in the league so with a few changes we should be OK.

Two things stood out, we need maximum appearances from Higham and Hardaker would have solved our obvious fullback problem.

Gareth Hock had his best game in a Leigh jumper, and Danny Tickle gave his all, some good touches by Drinkwater and AJ had a gud un, not enough from the other guy's to mention in despatches.

Vea, would be better suited to Championship rugby he offers very little in attack or defence, and I am sure some others don't need reminding that they will have to step up their contribution, Mr Dukes has a squad, let's hope he experiments with it.

All that said, we can take some positives in that we did not roll over and die when we could easily have been on the end of an embarrassing scoreline, there are some different opinions on this thread has to how Cas will fair this season, for me, they will be the team to beat in all comps, they bombed a certain couple of tries, but the speed they throw the ball about and the lines they run are superb everyball carrier has options inside and out to pass to, and with Gale calling the shots the best playmaker. Cas will beat some teams with a higher score and a bigger margin than they beat Leigh.

Think Brown may be the answer to our fullback problem

VL, I agree with you, I'm not despondent,it's only one game but I take nowt for granted, Fridays game against Leeds at the LSV will be very hard , I hear plenty of Leythers saying how we are going to turn them over

really?Leeds are still a good, a Leyth pundit even predicted McDermott will be the first SL Coach to lose his job

.For e we should get this Top 8 thing out of our heads,you earn a top 8 place,some Clubs have been trying for years to get there and not achieved it,let's stop believing our own Hype,we CAN beat Leeds on Friday but we must do much better than last night.Our team just needs a bit of tinkering with the line up, not much,I'm not predicting a Leigh win on Friday, I'm just hopeful.

One word, discipline ! It was shocking.

Ridyards defence was again wanting and their offloads killed us.

Still, the pack did well and once up to speed, we will perform.

Just cut out the niggle Leigh !

I thought AJ was caught out a couple of times last night. He kept jumping off the wing to help Crookes when Crooks clearly had Shenton covered. He let his winger have a walk in for a couple of tries. Crooks was clearly not happy with him. Last season in the championship he had a habit of doing it and it paid off for him but at this level he has to trust his centre to do his job in defence. Which Crooks is clearly capable of doing without AJ's help. Leeds will target that next week.

Our kicking game was poor early on which meant we turned over too much ball which led to a nightmare twenty minutes in the first half. We need to be able to prevent those situations developing. I'm surprised nobody has suggested we were hard done to in the second half: two of Cas's tries should have been disallowed and we could easily have had another. Would have given us a bit more respectability. I thought a number of individuals did well but can't help thinking we could have done with a couple more trial games. Forty minutes pre-season against super League opposition is surely not enough.

I agree with Hock going well, also Stewart. Riddy was smothered and Pelissier seemed a little lost and ineffective and then with about 15 mins to go something seemed to switch on in his head.

Maybe I should feel a little deflated but it was a good match, we weren't horrible and it was a great atmosphere. ~8,500, good chats with many Cas fans around the ground all night and the realisation that I'm going to need triple socks for some of these late night summer rugby fixtures.

Brilliant to see the Leigh shirt back in Super League. No reason to be negative whatsoever. 1 goal for the season, stop in Super League and Derek will make that happen. I'm sure the boys are already targeting and speaking with new players so survival is achieved. 12 years since they were last in Super League the lads did us proud - I think you would be nervous and a bit too try-hard with that pressure. Give them time to learn and grow as the season progresses and enjoy the ride as you watch that growth. Looking at the Leeds game last year and the Cas game last night, it's clear that Super League teams know how to niggle without getting penalised.

Gaz Hock was superb as always leading from the front and with ball in hand and some possession, Leigh can score points, absolutely no doubt. Think we missed Fui (absorbing 4 tacklers each drive) and personally I'd liked to have retained Lee Smith for the experience he showed last year - maybe there was more than disclosed on that one. The jury is out on Hampshire, seems a bit frenetic.

I think we can do Leeds next week. Stay positive and remember, if they can successfully learn to be runner-up last night, they can learn to win next week.

Agreed.. Hock getting penalised for obstruction is ridiculous.

Having watched it back over , not as dissapointed as last night

The spear tackler should have been binned , obviously Powell as all other coaches will do is tell their players to niggle Hock , but Hicks should have had the card out before Gareth hit the floor , spear tackling isn't ' niggle '

We held our own for 20 minutes but didn't execute either a score or force a drop out despite having opportunity to do so , Cas did and we started to tire , they will punish better teams than us if they aren't matched early on

We must offload the ball , we cannot just keep battering away at SL defences , the stats showed we matched them in completion and field position , but they offloaded and built pressure which tired us out , also I have to say they did get more than their fair share of ' bounce of the ball ' last night

But we re group and go again , for me Hock was our MOM , we did our best work with him on the pitch

Good post Gubby.

The new rules we seem to be missing.Drinky was kicking old school rules,when simply just keep hold of it, is the answer.

Hock's go forward was excellent last night, especially during his second spell. Stewart went well too. For me the problem was that too many players looked exhausted after 15 minutes. I wonder if this can be put down to adrenaline more than lack of fitness. Evidenced by the way our "escape" sets from within our own 20m were often not gaining more than 30m, however Cas regularly making 50+. Castlefords interchanges were superb too and we couldn't live with their bench. There will be more than a couple of sides who'll lose by more than 28 at Cas this year, they look an excellent side. Onwards and upwards.

Yes,our kicking game was poor. We will put that right next week.On the last tackle you need to choose the right option,we chose the wrong decision too often. I don't think keeping hold of it on the last tackle is the answer either.Maybe a grubber kick inside the 10m, or further away, do an up n under, but make sure it's not too near the try line,or alternatively,kick it into touch and grab a breather if necessary.

They went for goal to ensure that Leigh had to score 4 times, which was pretty much out of reach,Irrespective of going 70 meters to score again.

Correct Cokey. It made it a 4 score game, no other reason. If anyone thinks that Gale was saying 'we'll take these 2 because we know we'll go 70 metres and score from the restart' then they need to give their head a shake! The thinking would have been 'take the 2, make it a 4 score game, complete our next set and go into the sheds 4 scores up'. I think a select few of your own fans are being a little harsh. If I was a Leigh supporter I would be taking more positives than negatives from the game. Hock looked strong, Hanson his usual solid self, Stewart has a lot more in him when the team gels more, halfbacks that are prepared to move the ball about, Higson ran the ball back strong (but looked like he struggled with the mentality side of standing behind his own sticks more than he's used to) and Higham still to come back in to give more direction around the ruck. This season is a learning curve and Jukes will learn more every week. I am 99.9% certain that you will retain SL status and be a lot stronger next season for the experience. Be thankful you are not in Widnes' position, as I think they are really going to struggle this year. Good luck against Leeds, I'll cheer for anyone against them!!

Thats my point Cokey,if theres nothing on,on the last in the 20/30m then just keep hold.Kick and hope becomes costly.

Derek, Harpo Marx talks more sense than thee



Leyth to finish in the Top 8

Frank Blackburn hair will grow back before that.Charlie knows.

If you're in the 20/30 you want to either score or force a drop out , we kicked poorly and didn't chase well enough , at least 3 times we let them off the hook in the 1 st 20 minutes

I agree with you there Brian. A good few of our Championship winning team seemed to struggle to get used to the pace and intensity that a good SL team plays at. It could take another two or three games before they can adapt to those levels.

The adapting needs to be played out at home.Hence team selection for Cas.

I think some supporters are over optimistic thinking you are a shoe in for top 8 and some too pessimistic after one game against a very good Castleford side. It should be noted that you had a lot of players making their debut against a team that has had a core group of players together for a few seasons. I do think you have a horrible start of games and like many struggle to see where you will pick up points in these games. Who you peed off to get the start you have I do not know. Compounding this run of games is the amount of new players you have brought in, I reckon we will not see the real Leigh until round 8-10 at which point a shot at the top 8 may be beyond you. I am not saying this side will not be good enough to get a top 8 spot but possibly could be too far away points wise. I would say that if you do end up in the middle 8's then injuries permitting I would expect you to navigate it comfortably.

Common sense post..

We are use too hinderance.