Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:48 am  

Bentley given his "Phil Clarke" motivation for this season. "Decent but not top end player". Apparently Mad Micky is a genius. Play that to him before every game. We need someone who isn't scared of ruffling some feathers. JJB and Ablett wound everyone up. Bentley will win a GF ring with this team

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 6:46 am  

Bentley loses his cool too easily - that's not ruffling feathers in the way ablett used to. Decent but not top end isn't a million miles away for me. The frustrating thing is that it seems so easy for him to make that transition simply by exercising a bit of self control.

As for the game, some good stuff on show. I thought the likes of croft, Newman, mom had their best games of the season and while the grounding of ash's first looked a bit scruffy at first glance, there was actually some really smart play to control that ball. Most wingers would have fumbled it. Lovely step from Ruan in the build up to his second and great vision and execution by Smith to put him in.

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 7:34 am  

Loved RS reply in the presser when asked about Sam Tomkins comments about Bentley. Sams a great player and entitled to his opinions and the south stand also have their opinions about players! Priceless

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 7:55 am  

Excellent performance, one or two flaws on view however they are fixable. Wonderful defensive display bags of courage and commitment from all the team. I was pleased with the Bentley signing you need a junk yard dog forward, ok he will be suspended from time to time but he seemed to be involved with every tackle. Likewise away at rovers, our last try was an absolute belter. The saints game will be a full house ,hopefully we may get some more players back.

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 9:45 am  

Good two points that. Always nice to get one over our French “friends” and that cynical, sourpuss McNamara. We hung in there well, especially in the first half, and at least commitment isn’t an issue in the first three games. Not sure we’ll be able to absorb that much pressure against certain other teams, and failure to clear our line and constantly turning the ball back inside for periods of the game will ultimately cost us points down the line. As a spectator it was an awful game for long spells. Stood in the rain, absolutely no atmosphere, and the video ref taking an eternity deliberating over tries and “head high tackles/shots”. A 3pm kick off not finishing till nearly 5pm is an absolute joke, and if this is what every game is gonna look like I’m sure there will be plenty of people voting with their feet. As for the atmosphere, better get used to it. With London visiting twice and Catalans once more, nearly a third of the season will see an empty away end and little to no atmosphere. What is the RFL’s fascination with having us play Catalans three times every year, are we being penalised for having a local airport ? It’s about time time the RFL did away with this unfair nonsense and made it a 14 team league. Idiots.

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 9:59 am  

Anyway on what I’ve seen so far so reckon we can finish in the top three this year.

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 11:15 am  

Bentley on form could become a great player over the next few years. He's young enough to keep improving.

The problem is you're always waiting for that brain part card coming out. If he can control himself better he's an asset.

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 11:57 am  

KaeruJim wrote:

Anyway on what I’ve seen so far so reckon we can finish in the top three this year.

Not quite sure on that. Fridays game will be really good test for us in that regard. Exactly the type of scenario where we let ourselves down last year. Get the two points and the Saints game is teed up perfectly.

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:24 pm  

I still think 4th/ 5th if we can get a few wins while under strength.

Re: RD 3 | Catalan Dragons (H) : Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:32 pm  

ArthurClues wrote:

Not quite sure on that. Fridays game will be really good test for us in that regard. Exactly the type of scenario where we let ourselves down last year. Get the two points and the Saints game is teed up perfectly.

I think we beat Cats with almost their full strength side and us missing our best prop, Fusitu’a and our best impact prop. Also I think we’ll play a little tighter and reduce the errors as we play on. Not saying Cats played amazing but our D also stifled them.

I think we’re better than Salford and KR - who else is there other than Wigan and Saints? Leigh without Ipape are different. Wire maybe but not convinced.