Castleford fade as Dragons show what they are capable of

 Where to start with this one eh?

I was about ready to take my foamy cool beer and head out into the garden to take in some rays rather than watch this match. 

Castleford were hitting us at over a point a minute until the quarter hour mark before we managed to battle our way back into it. 

The performance of Israel Folau on the left edge and his desire to include Tom Davies outside him was key to the swinging of momentum. 

The Cas sin bin before half time also helped leaving them short handed in the boiling heat of Leeds. 

The second half was more of the same and as terrible as we were against St Helens last week, we were awesome against Cas this. 

So what can we take from this performance? 

Not a lot really, I think that we are in for a roller coaster ride (as usual!!) for the rest of the year. 

Reports of an extension for Folau

According to the French rugby union website Rugbyrama, Israel Folau has resisted the temptation to follow Dimitri Pelo and Fouad Yaha into the Top14 by refusing to sign a contract with Montpelier for that sports following season. 

It is reported that the Australian is close to agreeing a contract extension with the Catalans Dragons, a deal which will keep him in the 13 a side code. 

I am not sure how I feel about this to be honest. 

Much as I deplore the views he has shared, the investment the Catalans have made deserves a greater return than the couple of games before lockdown ahead of him clearing off to union for a bag of money. 

What is a positive sign is that the club are working on contracts for next season already with the key thing being keeping the strong core of the side together. 

The Folau Pledge

On the back of yesterday's announcement by the club and subsequent editorial on this site, our editorial team decided to try to turn this into something positive.

Impotent rage is simply that, and a waste of emotion to boot. Instead, we're going to try to turn our attention to making sure some good comes out of this all.

This writer is making a pledge.
For every minute Israel Folau plays for the Dragons this year, I will donate 10p to charity.

The charity we've chosen is the Albert Kennedy Trust.
They do great work with vulnerable young LGBTQ+ people. 24 percent of homeless young people identify as LGBT. Of those people, 77 percent believe that coming out to their parents was the main factor for their homelessness. This charity aims to help those people and last year they provided 6,075 nights of accommodation to vulnerable LGBT young people.

Each week, we'll update the running total and include YOUR donations too. Pledge for a game - maybe when your team is playing the Dragons - for a month, for the season, whatever. Maybe just chip an idle two quid if you can at some point between now and the end of the season. Whatever you feel.
However you wish to join in, DONATE HERE and send us a screenshot of your receipt on twitter or the messageboard and we'll add your amount to our totaliser (widget on the homepage coming soon).


Please share widely and join in if you can. Let's help make a difference and get something good out of this whole sorry mess.