“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!!”
….and we should by now have learned our lessons with regard to turning up over confident of our own ability, whilst at the same time under estimating that of the opposition. On that score the first few minutes on Thursday was certainly back to the future time wasn’t it? Some still look at anything other than a big win against Castleford as a bit of a disaster and yet they are a really class outfit and deserve a lot of respect.
How many times have we seen it eh? Getting our heads right from the moment the whistle went was always going to be the big test of our new found confidence, professionalism and focus and yet it transpired that there was, as we have seen so many times before, too much ‘self belief’ and too little application! In the end we weren’t bad and the game was a good one but we just weren’t as effective as we have been.
So,it certainly wasn’t a disaster and the breadth of skill and power in our current team will, I’m sure, see us win more than we lose this term! I’m convinced that it is going to be an exciting season and we will see some great games and indeed some superb rugby. For our part as fans, expectations were also running far too high; particularly for a team that has only been together for 3 games. However it was disappointing that in front of the biggest Thursday gate we have ever had at the KC, we were back to not rolling our sleeves up and doing the hard yards first and in the end we were beaten by a better drilled and more clinical outfit. However, as their fortunes ebbed and flowed, the cavalier approach made by both teams made for high octane entertainment, that kept everyone on the edge of their seats though-out the game.
When you take a utopian view of sport, the best teams should play every game (whoever the opposition), as if their lives depended on it. On Thursday I would argue that perhaps Castleford did and that they wanted it just that bit more, so that in the end the best team won. “We’re not as good as we thought we were” said Gareth Ellis and he just about summed it up. Now we move on and look for a response against Wigan!