Just Browny

Leigh have wiped the floor with Catalans second half. Dragons look like Steve Price's Warrington tonight: fine until the last 20m and then no idea what to do with it.

Lovely try by Leigh.

'Gripping' game in the RU parlance. Catalans look better in the arm wrestle, Leigh have had one attack from slightly freak scenario but nailed their skill and have been very tight in defence.

Hmm absolutely classic example of the VR just being there to repeat whatever the ref said. No evidence that the ball went forward; looked sideways at worst.

Ten minutes gone and there hasn't been a single stoppage yet. Edit: 12:30 and the first stoppage comes from a Catalan knock on.

Agree that we shouldn't throw out the VR just because it's not perfect. We should try to improve the quality of the tools we give to the VR and throw out the 'on-field call' because this stops the VR considering a decision objectively. Instead, I'd want the VR to tell the ref what he/she thinks the decision should be and their level of confidence (e.g. (a) 100% confident the ball was grounded, (b) ball appears to be grounded, but picture unclear, (c) ball not visible but no evidence it was knocked on) and give the on-field ref the final decision. On the Captain's Challenge, again I think it is inevitable that occasionally it will be a close-run thing. I marginally prefer it because it gives the referee the chance to tell a team to 'put up or shut up' when they are complaining about a decision.

It does seem odd to say we can have video ref and indeed use the Match Review Panel to hand out bans, but not Captain's Challenge, based on the number or quality of the cameras. I think we have seen this season that the camera angles we have and quality of image leaves a lot to be desired.

Are you his accountant?

Cullen is a nice guy. He is passionate and knowledgeable about the game and has played and coached at a high level. This might sound patronising but is not intended as such. He sometimes speaks with the rhythm and vocabulary of someone who didn't have to be particularly articulate during his school or playing days, and therefore learnt public speaking later in life. This means he sometimes sounds a bit verbose and deliberate in his speech (see also, to some extent Phil Clarke and Alan Hunte). This always seem to wind people up when he was on Sky so am surprised to see people being so complimentary now. In any case, he was a decent coach for Warrington and gave everything to the club on and off the field. It was right that we moved on but also sad that it didn't fully work out.

It's not really James Graham; it is just some bitter Saints fan I think mate.

Tough game, not much between the sides on the day. Nice to get a bit of sun on the face. Fitzgibbon far and away our best, some of the other forwards looked laboured and Leigh hurt us with offloads all afternoon.

Yes, feel like the title of the Worst Last Post belongs to either Mick Gledhill or The Parksider.

Confusingly Wigan seem to be playing at Huddersfield.

There was a fair bit of euphoria after last week's win, so it will be interesting to see if Warrington can knuckle down again against a tough Leigh side who perhaps have a bit of a point to prove. It's good to have Vaughan back for this one.

I've read this month's Forty20 magazine. Some of it is very good, some of it is middling. Definitely not dead.

Oof. Unmitigated kudos to Cas fans heading over after a home tonking by the same opposition last week.

I didn't think it would be too long before you started. It's going to be a long month.

I think we sometimes argue that Catalans or London would be stronger if they had a nearby rival in the same division, because that competition might drive better performance and local interest. As a relatively isolated city (compared to the West Yorkshire and NW conurbations), the two Hull sides have presumably benefited from the same sort of effect. And while Hull is a large, but not enormous, city, presumably the clubs enjoy support from some of the surrounding areas too.

Repeat

Do you do the editorial for Rugby League Journal by any chance?

I am mate; tongue was firmly in cheek.

Living, as I do, near Huddersfield I can confirm that St Helens is a pain to get to by public transport from Huddersfield. There isn't even a direct train from Warrington. Hoping it will be at Salford, that would the logical mid point.

I am not yet ready to attribute our upturn in fortunes to Wigan, but have admitted on another forum that I seriously underestimated what Powell would bring and he has been very good so far. He and Hayes bring a tidiness and simplicity which is, in theory, what we signed Drinkwater for but hasn't much been in evidence.

The draw was shown live on the big screen in the ground, but with no sound so it wasn't clear that the women's draw was taking place first. So you can imagine there was a lot of swearing in the Warrington end when 'St Helens' was drawn first, since it looked like they had already proclaimed themselves the winner of the ongoing match.

I agree. As well as we played, there were two spells in the game yesterday where Saints could have taken the game away from us: - Between about minutes 25 and 35, where only some dogged desperation tackling and a forward pass stopped Saints racking up 2-3 quick tries - Early in the second half when Saints took two when they had us on the ropes. I was relieved that they kicked the goal and Lomax immediately made that daft error from the kick off. Nevertheless, it was still very encouraging. What pleases you as a fan is seeing the team playing with adventure and desire, and being able to see what they are trying to do even if it is not always working. There was plenty of all that yesterday, combined with a few dreadful errors by Saints.