The first half we fell into old habits of being too passive. We never got a roll on and although Cas made their share of errors we never made them pay as we came up with mistakes or penalties. For some reason we weren’t switched on. Much better in the second half and we had our chances but left too much to do.
I thought we struggled a bit up front at times. I hope our props next year show a bit more aggression. Manoakafoa is a bit of a pussycat and didn’t run his weight much. When we did spread the ball we looked threatening when Gaskell was put into space but too often the passing was hesitant and slow which meant we didn’t click and Cas could snuff us out easily. A few times there was loads of crossfield running but nobody willing to run the lines to create space. Anyone can defend against that. I thought Arundal looked a bit lethargic. I can see why Hull loaned him out.
On the plus side Gaskell looked very dangerous. I thought Addy did alright at prop when he came on and we did well considering Ferguson was off permanently. The switching off for the Clark tap and try was poor but minutes earlier we could have gone level, if only anyone but Fakir had been there I think we’d have scored and gone level.
Good atmosphere at Cas too. Hope we’re back there soon.
