Well, that ended up going the way most of us expected.

I'm positive about it, to be honest. We matched them first half, they obviously got a well-deserved 'hair dryer' from their coach at half-time, and came out with real intent. From that point it looked like what it actually was - a game of men verses boys. They had some big lads who took advantage of tiring young kids towards the end - a couple of their tires were actually fortuitous and made the scoreline look worse than it really should have done.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of Scurr, Green, Culling and Doyle. I thought Bustin did reasonably well, but Roche was anonymous and Margrin can go back to London Skolars for mine.

The question is, I guess, whether will we see any of these lads again this season? Given that we aren't getting relegated or promoted, I hope we will see a few of them drip fed into the first team over the coming weeks.

Matched them first half, but injuries, tiredness and their experience told in the end but I thought we didn't disgrace ourselves.

Kear reckons Keyes, Hitchcox, Evans and Gibson should all feature in the reserves next week. That’s going to make a big difference getting them all back at once for the business end

Wow, that is fantastic news! Apart from the Gibson bit

If we can get them back to fitness and pick up a bit of form then we could have a really strong end to the season.

Ryan
Hitchcox
Webster
Evans
DFG
Lilley
Keyes
Crossley
Willie
Kirk
Farrell
Minchella
Wood

Flanagan
Roche
Peltier
Storton

Given the disparity in experience we did well to stay in touch with them as long as we did. Once the injuries happened it was always going to be tough, especially losing a back and a forward. As the game wore on we were going to tire.

Absolutely cannot see why anyone feels the need to whinge after that performance.

Yes agree with that,similar to what I've said above.

This cup appears to be voluntary as evidenced by the sides not taking part. So given we've opted not to try and win it, you have to ask why we entered it in the first place.

Circumstances?

I also wouldn't be sure that the RFL told everyone the full plans before they comp started. In fact, I am pretty certain the RFL didn't have full plans, and winged it.

Crazy and weird aspects included
(a) no prize money. Not a penny for winning it. You're not apparently even allowed to sell the trophy for scrap. I think maybe the winners now get an hour each on a sunbed or something, or I might have made that up.

(b) no idea what to do if a club qualified for both CC Final and 1895 Final. So far as I know when that became a theoretical possibility, the wheeze was that you wouldn't play in the 1895 Final even though you qualified, and the team you beat would get the "benefit" instead

(c) having to play a major QF so postpone what could easily be a crucial league game, send part-timers to play on a short midweek turnaround and then back to a 3rd, league, game at the weekend.

If we had have been knocked out the Challenge Cup by Keighley (nearly happened), or Featherstone (even more nearly happened) or Leeds (was expected by most) then we'd have not only had one or more 'free weekends' to rest players, but would have played Barrow on Sunday with our full squad.

It's just the way it worked out...