IT’S only a couple of days since our last game in Super League.
But after such a disappointing defeat against St Helens on Sunday, I think we all feel we’ve had to wait far too long to get back out onto the competitive field!
We know exactly where we went wrong against Saints, and tonight against Catalans Dragons we’ve the chance to put that right.
Our ball control on Sunday was pretty ordinary in the first half, we didn’t complete as well as we should have and St Helens ended up attacking our line consistently.
In the second half, we did create the chances, but the fatigue we had from defending in the first half contributed to us not playing as sharply as we would have liked.
So now we’re looking to bounce straight back tonight in what will be a very tough game against Catalans, as they always are.
They proved it’s not going to be easy after their excellent home win over Hull KR on Saturday, and that’s bound to give them confidence for this game against us.
There’s no doubt the return after injury of Thomas Bosc will improve their side and he is a pretty pivotal player to them playing well in attack. He’s a player we will have to keep a close eye on, that’s for sure.
Tonight’s fixture is obviously the start of the busy Easter campaign, and although many people in the game believes the schedule is far too much, I personally find it really enjoyable. I want to make sure I play both games as I did last year.
I think it’s great for the game over here, and for the fans to get a couple of games in over the weekend is something they all seem to enjoy, especially when you look at some of the crowds the fixtures help generate.
There’s no doubt it takes quite a toll on the players’ bodies, but it’s just another challenge we have to go through during a season and we have more than enough depth in our squad to deal with it.
And we obviously added to that depth last week with the recruitment of Danny Brough (pictured above), who made his debut for us against Saints last weekend.
I thought he had a very solid game, he showed some nice touches and I’m sure he is going to be a player who will be very good for us going forward.
As I said last week, it’s bound to take a bit of time for Danny to settle in, and I don’t really think anyone expected him to perform miracles on his first appearance.
The key right now is learning to play with Danny and vice versa. We’ve probably got a process of trying to integrate him into the team and, although that may take a bit of time, there’s no doubt we will see the benefit of that moving forward.
