Wire fan Rob Watson looks back over Friday's loss to Castleford Tigers - in the spirit of 1955!

AFTER climbing Mount Brisbane the next step was always likely to be down and The Wire ran into the wrong opponents with anything other than their best.

It actually started pretty well with The Wire having the better of the opening 15 or 20 minutes and did actually have the lead courtesy of Andre Savelio’s try that was a result of Kevin Brown’s accurate cross-field kick.

Then Castleford struck back emphatically with a burst of four tries in less than 10 minutes, the sort of burst that some Wire teams of recent years have been known for.

It needs to be acknowledged that Castleford were exceptional and if they can avoid injuries to too many key players and be in good form at the right time of the season they look like genuine title contenders.

It’s long since been the case with rugby league that the more dazzling an attack, the more likely a defence is to stand off it, even though those defenders know that with such an impressive attack it is more important than normal to do the exact opposite of standing off and shutting the space down for that attack and give them as little time as possible.

This game turned out to be a classic example of what happens when an excellent attack is given too much time.

Line speed wasn’t quick enough overall and when players did close down the space there was way too much grabbing and not enough shoulder contact.

Among the glory of beating Brisbane, the cold hard facts of Super League are starting to become clear – The Wire have lost their first two games, and their next half a dozen or so games look tricky to say the least.

Obviously it’s extremely early in the season but it would appear that there’ll be at least seven teams in with a good chance of making the top four play-offs, so being one of the four who make it looks like being far from assured or straight forward.

I’d be surprised if the top four was as clear-cut as it was last year.

We’ve seen with Leeds last year and the contrasting form of Chelsea and Leicester in the football over the past two seasons that success the previous year is no guarantee of more success the following season.

It is time to stop this downward spiral before it gets going and set about establishing themselves as the best team in Super League, which I’m sure was the goal at the start of the season.

As with a few times last year The Wire seemed somewhat lost and rudderless without Kurt Gidley in the team, and had Hill been playing I dare say the line speed would’ve been quicker.

However, with a squad as deep as this players missing shouldn’t be that much of an issue - after all, there’s no way of knowing who might be missing come crunch time in October.

The quality and spirit are undoubtedly there, now it’s time for the old requirements of consistency and composure to come to the form to allow the third ‘c’ of class to shine.