Think someone forget to tell the lads it wasn't a sunny day in July so not suitable for our preferred style of play.

Terms of personnel not much to learn. My worry for the last few weeks has been whether the squad as a whole have had enough time to recover both physically and mentally from last season's effort. With the game against NZ two weeks after the GF and the squad enjoying last week at the SPOTY awards it does feel like we'll be a few steps behind the rest of SL in terms of preparation at this point.

Our whole pre season is geared for peaking for the WCC

But with the experience we had out there today a very disappointing performance all the same

Wakefield defence was pretty good and their kicking game was a massive difference, especially in the first half as ours was none existent as was McGuire all game and Burrow for the first 50-60 mins.

I thought we would have given Baldwinson more than just the last 9 minutes

Golding was rightly adjudged the MOM for us and Garbutt was his usual self and Singleton tried hard as well and I thought Achurch also had some decent moments and was given lots of minutes

Falloon knocked out twice with his front on jump into the tackle technique so hard to judge him as I bet in his 2 spells he only had 10 mins combined

Galloway had a few half decent runs and odd good tackle but lost the ball (or was adjudged to have) three times in all so not the greatest debut but the conditions were dire, especially first half.

Let's hope there is a lot more to come from him as the first impression he left today was more Ben Cross compared to the immediate impression Cuthbertson made in the same game last year

The plodder Finn ran the show for Wakey with a great kicking game in the conditions

A well deserved win for Wakey and on that plucky showing they should/could avoid finishing bottom

Today we were poor, no other word for it really.

That said, take it in context. First game of the new era, terrible conditions, England players missing, ward, Delaney, jjb, sutty and mullally out injured and its just the first game of preseason.

Golding was good and got mom. Actually thought all of the outside backs were ok. As has been said, the biggest issue was the halves. Mags never turned up and if that continues through pre season that's a huge worry. At this point though I'd chalk it up to an off day.

The forwards were generally solid with garbutt and singo doing well. Falloon looked like a no nonsense hooker though is clearly a few brain cells lighter after today. Galloway was the biggest disappointment for me. Never threatened to break a tackle and couldn't hold the ball - though he tackled well. Again, chalk it up as just one bad game but I don't want to be seeing many more like that.

Hats off to wakey. They were more enthusiastic and organised. Finn moved them around well. They know they need to start the season well to get confidence and they looked in good shape.

I never go to friendlies (live too far away), but...

On McGuire - didn't he get slated on here after last years boxing day game?

On Galloway, he's probably rarely, if ever, played in those kind of conditions

Positives for me were Golding & Lilley look every bit ready for the next step in their respective development i.e regular 1st team RL.
Garbutt and Singo were very strong for us and lead from the front.
However 6 & 7 very poor until we moved Lilley to 7 i lost count how many times we lined up for a set move and RB ran it solo when it blatantly wasn't on and conditions dictated he'd never be able to get the pace and step needed for his darting runs from DH let alone a set defensive line who only had to be paitent enough to watch him run up his own arris!
Galloway was poor imo id hoped for a bit more from an experienced pro with his CV but given the"bigger picture" too early to be too judgemental.
Finally i like the idea of giving young lads game time so i was a bit peed off Baldwinson ,Smith didn't get longer or that Oledski/Jordan-Roberts failed to appear at all.
For Wakey as has been said well deserving of their win well organised and took their chances although a bit too premature to be hailing B. Smith the best Coach in the League or that they won't finish bottom imo.

I know Leeds were missing Hardaker and Watkins but Sutcliffe was the miss for me.
Leeds had flashes but no real direction.
Our newly organised defence was able to run everyone down.

With him and assuming McGuire steps up at 7 the team could be very different.
Not sure how the WCC is going to go though. Could be tough going.

Plodder or not Finn makes a big difference to our team.
Good start for us but that's all. Long way to go yet.

Wish people would stop banging on about Sutcliffe being the saviour. You (we) will all realise before long what a huge miss Sinfield is going to be. GH should have gone balls out for Widdop. Mags can't do it on his own. Lilley is one for the future. Sutty is not a half

Given Suttys performances AT 6 pre-injury you were clearly watching a different Sutcliffe.

Well Sinfield has gone.
Sutcliffe is the best you have.

He may not be the saviour but he's very good and if it were me I'd build the next generation around him (and a couple of others too)
If you don't want him Wakefield could take him on loan if you pay half his wage. As a favour.

Although 8 man benches were announced apparently only 6 players were permitted to be used so 2 guys were always going to miss out. Agree that Baldwinson should've gotten several more minutes really.

Think the game showed two different attitudes. One club treating it as a key part of their build up to the new season (Wakey) and the other club just running out because it's the traditional Boxing Day fixture for the club (Leeds).

Agree with this. Awful day and too early to judge any players. Our last tackle options and general kicking were very poor. Not one decent bomb or kick to the corner. Wakey deserved it and showed a lot of hunger in defence. Think smith is after a flying start to season. They looked sharper and further down pre-season track than Leeds who were pretty dumb in the conditions

was out in the company of widdops mum and dad earlier in the week his dad said leeds offered widdop a great deal he was very close to taking t but his dad talked him out of it, as for galloway he is a pretty average player watched him for the last 8 years , strong defence wise in the middle but a plodder ball in hand

Why would his dad talk him out of it?

Galloway a Bailey mark 2....without the niggle. ....

Galloway is a lot better than Ryan Bailey - he at least has a desire to get stuck in - not be the 3rd man in a tackle when his team mates has done all the work. I'm sure he won't hide when the going gets tough something Bailey was very adept at doing