Enjoyed the first half and not sure if we eased off, Bradford got their act together or the numerous changes disrupted us.
Clear to see that Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire should not be on the field together.
Burrow was poor, McGuire just about edged him and Aiton for me was much better at hooker than Burrow.
For me Sutcliffe should be on the bench and if we must spare Aiton then Sinfield to hooker and Sutcliffe to SO.
Cuthbertson and Singleton played well but Ward for me was MOM.
Golding looks good but maybe a season too soon.
Let's hope Zak is fit and ready to play against HKR.
JJB, Kylie, Burrow look to be on borrowed time for me.

JJB I thought went ok today.
Kylie, if he's a starter that's not great. If he's coming off the bench to fill those 10 minute cameos where Peacock goes off then I think it's fine, a better option than Kirke or Bailey off the bench.
Burrow, was the poorest today IMO. However in his defence, he got 30 odd mins today, his first of pre-season, he missed a few matches post Wembley, had to come off for the final 10 mins at Wembley, and only played a few matches prior to that because of a 3 month lay off with his collarbone. He's not played loads in the last 9 months TBF to the guy and his game is all about sharpness and speed.

I really don't quite know what to make of the performance really. Individually nobody really stood out however, there definitely seems to be more of a willingness to offload the ball within the team which has been badly needed for a long time. However, not enough players hit gaps and our support play isn't great, and the lack of structure and cohesion was evident again today, but you expect it a little bit at this stage. Worryingly though our last tackle options and our kicking game were terrible today, no variety and poor execution

What a turn out for the big man, well deserved. Well done rhinos and Bulls fans.

I thought it was a typical preseason match. Lots of rustiness, lots of subs to disrupt the pattern of play. Nonetheless I thought Leeds looked good when they upped the tempo but it was a bit of a scrappy sort of display. I like the look of Cuthbertson and Ward. Golding looks like a good prospect. Watkins and Moon looked threatening when they got the ball in space but they were facing some pretty slow opponents.

Briscoe was a handful. He’s a frustrating player. On his day he’s good enough for England but seems to go through long dips in form.

You’ll go alright this season and make the top 4 or 5. You can see how Sinfield and McGuire slowing down might be a problem in the big games but they had more than enough to beat us. Then again Saints won the GF without a halfback so who knows?

Yes good poin about Burrow.
I hadn`t realised that amount of time was missed.
Still do not think we can have the three of them on the park at the same time though.
JJB was ok but not IMO a starting forward.
Singleton for me has looked much better at prop.
Agree about Kylie not atarting. But 2 stints at ten minutes is not good enough for me.
If he was smashing the opposition in those ten minutes then yes.
However I fear the worse this season.

The positives were;

Cuthbertson. In the two games I've seen (yesterday and boxing day) he looked superb. Good hands, great lines and a good appetite for work. If he carries this into the season proper on a consistent basis he's a cracking signing at age 30 and should assist the transition from Peacock and Kylie to the younger props no end.

Ward. Another good outing. I'm still not convinced 2nd row is his best position but if that is where he is going to play his extra size ought to help. This is a big year for him.

Golding. Without doing anything too spectacular he did everything well and just looks like one of those juniors who is "ready". It's a comfort to know that he's tied up long term, just in case Hardaker commits any future brain farts.

The crowd. Fantastic and a decent turn out from the Bulls.

I shall not dwell on the many negatives. It's pre-season. It's there to highlight them so hopefully they will be fixed. Like Bullseye said, the plethora of subs didn't help the rhythm of either team really.

...oh and even though the game was a bit scrappy by the time he got on I was mildly impressed with Minchella's effort.

Just looking back at the tries concedes. The 1st and 3rd were down to slack individual errors but the 2nd Bradford try we need to work on. It was a poor attempt by Hall coming out of the line but just moments before we switched McGuire over the right defending next to Briscoe after he'd spebt the previous 25 or so minutes next to Burrow on the left. Add in that we just subbed Ablett off in the left 2nd row position for the less experienced Walters and in a blink of an eye we went from having a left side defence of Ablett/Moon/McGuire/Burrow/Hall to one of Moon/Walters/Burrow/Hall.

McGuire switching which side he defends on is something I noticed last year (when Burrow was playing too) and I'm not that keen on it tbh as I think it can cause confusion with guys around him, particularly the left side as he mostly defended there but would like yesterday suddenly be out on the right edge.

There were periods in the game where McGuire and Burrow were defending on the left next to each other, which I think is what they were trying to avoid as it's a soft target for opposition back rowers IMO.

IIRC last season when all three played it was Sinfield and McGuire outside Watkins, and Burrow on the left outside Moon?

Well someone's a ray of sunshine!!

It's pre season so very hard to make proper decisions on how the season unfolds. I actually think we looked a lot different to last season and appear to be moving the ball more in contact and have seen some better lines run by our forwards.
Feel fairly optamistic at the moment. We ain't the strongest team but I can't see it being as doom and gloom as some think. Cuthbertson seems to be a good addition and also we seem to have some
Good youngsters coming through and hopefully they will get some game time

I agree, if we are to change our game style it unlikely to come to fruition in a dis- jointed friendly game.

I am willing to at least give us half a dozen games in before making a decision of where the coming season maybe heading.

You not entering the 'finishing positions' prediction contest then?



I suppose like any league-based competition where you might finish in a given season is dependent on how much you have improved / weakened since the last one, but also dependent on how much other teams have improved or weakened too.

I don't know much about the players others have brought it, so I have no real idea what we are looking at either!