Going back a few seasons now but I always thought Newman looked better at left centre. At right centre he always steps back in looking for a gap that never appears. That drop under play between him and Croft is pointless. Anyone remeber when/why he switched sides?

Before claiming how good the defence looks ill wait to see against the better sides. Wakefield tore out edges apart in the first half. 

We do look fitter overall, although some players still can't manage a reasonable stint. This will help with defence, and particularly our line speed is improved. However, as Seth rightly says the only time it's really been tested by a team going forward then wide was against Wakefield and they broke us at will at times. The next 2 games will tell us a lot about where we are, if we can keep Saints and Wigan to less than 20 points each then the defence is on the right track, if not then we 've got the whole gameplan still to fix.
I still think we have a weak pack, they don't work hard enough, their not big enough, and they carry very little threat with the ball.
I'm sure some people will see this as moaning, but I see it as the things we need to fix first if we want to get back to the top. No point having great Centres (we don't) if your forwards don't lay the platform first.

I think it’s a bit harsh to say the pack doesn’t work hard enough—I really don’t believe effort is the issue. From what I’ve seen, there’s no lack of commitment, but sometimes that effort is misdirected. In the games we’ve won, our go-forward has been on another level, and that’s made all the difference.

The reality is, we’ll never win games if we don’t complete our sets. Basic handling—catching and passing—is the foundation of everything, yet we seemed to forget that against Catalans. It’s frustrating to watch, but hopefully, we’ll sort it out quickly.

I agree with the handling errors part, and you could also throw in penalties conceded. My point, which I'm sure you also understand as clearly you're knowledgeable about the game, is that without the front row "working harder" gaining more metres and winning attacking and defensive collisions, we will continually be under more pressure with the ball, making the handling errors and conceding penalties as the game gets too fast for us. I'd look to fix the front row problems (and winning collisions more generally) to relieve that pressure and we break the cycle.

Not easy, but we have to do it.

How many of the handling errors against Catalans were forced because our pack wasn't making yardage? A few perhaps early in some sets, but it didn't feel like we were being perpetually penned in our own half like in the days of Rohan. One or two of the errors leading to tries were caused by backs bringing the ball out of yardage, something they should be able to do irrespective of who is in the pack. IIRC most of the frustrating errors came when we managed to get into better positions on the field, or at least looked like we had started to build momentum within a set.