Rhinos Defeat the Bulls In Season Warm UpOne of Superleague’s fiercest rivalries was reignited at the Emerald Headingley Stadium this afternoon as the Leeds Rhinos took on the Bradford Bulls in a pre-season friendly match, the inaugural Keith Howard Foundation Trophy.Mark Dunning´s side had a tough task ahead as Leeds coach Rohan Smith named a side with a blend of youth and experienced as he continued to tinker with the fringes of his squad after last weekend´s defeat to the Leigh Leopards. The Bulls outing last weekend against the Huddersfield Giants fell foul of the big freeze, so this was a final opportunity ahead of their start to the regular season against Whitehaven next Sunday.The ground in front of the Western Terrace looked more like a sandpit than a rugby field as the two sides took to the field on a cold winter afternoon.READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Rhinos Defeat the Bulls In Season Warm UpOne of Superleague’s fiercest rivalries was reignited at the Emerald Headingley Stadium this afternoon as the Leeds Rhinos took on the Bradford Bulls in a pre-season friendly match, the inaugural Keith Howard Foundation Trophy.Mark Dunning´s side had a tough task ahead as Leeds coach Rohan Smith named a side with a blend of youth and experienced as he continued to tinker with the fringes of his squad after last weekend´s defeat to the Leigh Leopards. The Bulls outing last weekend against the Huddersfield Giants fell foul of the big freeze, so this was a final opportunity ahead of their start to the regular season against Whitehaven next Sunday.The ground in front of the Western Terrace looked more like a sandpit than a rugby field as the two sides took to the field on a cold winter afternoon.READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Some good stuff in there after a scrappy first 20 minutes or so where we seemed to push the pass a bit much.

Evaluating the new lads.

Lisone looks like the prop we were missing and his work rate is better than I expected.

Roberts looks a real handful albeit a little raw.

Tindall looked far more direct than last year.

Ruan good ball in hand but defensively a bit naive.

Liked Gibbons involvements. Sinfield also looked far more physically ready for first grade. I know it won’t be to everyone’s liking but Smiths approach to pre season clearly appears to be to try things out, contingency plan and give everyone a run while also trying to protect the first team a bit.

hi leeds fans im not here on a wind up but i think you are in a lot of trouble this season with the your squad you have - you will struggle to get on the front foot so you will have to fight the bottom clubs to save yourselfs a bit of credibility.
i think you know this is true but you really will have to fight really hard to keep that credibility. i do think you will keep your credibility to go into a better 2024 season, but be warned you are up against it.

Based on 2 friendlies where we’ve chopped and changed players and had basically kids playing for the majority?

Give over.

Thanks for the warning. We'll make sure to pass that on to Rohan and hopefully he realises that the pre-season games determine how you'll do in the season. Obviously ignoring playing different combinations, players out of position and not the teams we'll line up with.

That post was brought to you by the word 'credibility'

Myler
Fusitua
Newman
Macdonald
Handley

Austin
Sezer

Oledzki
Leeming
Tetevano
Bentley
Martin
Smith

O’Connor
Lisone
Gannon
Sangare

So out of this fully fit probable 17, how many have actually played together yet? If that side is going to be staving off relegation I’d hate to see how some of the other ones in SL get on.

Credibility???
Our last competitive game was the Grand Final.
Yours was in the Championship.

Not another Leigh Lopords fan, what’s wrong with them, they all seem really insecure

The strongest side we have put out in preseason was in the first 40 against Leigh and even then it wasn't really really strong.

In all honesty, when looking at the two lineups yesterday that started the game I was expecting more from Bradford.

Me too especially with all the hype coming from Odsal.
If Toulouse don`t go bust and Fev build on last season they should easily be the two fighting it out for promotion.

I thought Bradford were really poor, especially their discipline.

What was Pattons beef with with Martin all about?

I thought it would have been quite a competitive game yesterday given we didn't play a particular strong squad & Bulls we're pretty much at full strength for most of match but i felt Leeds were very comfortable for majority and never looked like losing after Gibbons early try in second half. It was friendly so the results didn't really matter both teams got what they needed out of it which was valuable game time for there players.

I was impressed with Ruan who seems to be excelling at great pace hopefully he can keep it up as I don't think he'll let us down if required to play SL this season. The same goes for Gibbons looked solid when he came on yesterday and some nice involvements for a couple of our tries. Lisone seemed to enjoy himself yesterday playing at headingley playing with a smile on his face and had some good carries, just feel he needs another couple of weeks to build up his match fitness. Luis Roberts had some great touches but he bombed a certain try for himself but no big deal. O'Connor & Cam Smith were very good as well both very hard working players and very skilful as well especially Smith I personally think he's in top 3 loose forwards in this country. Sinfield looked sharp as well when he came on looks to have some much time on ball wonder where he got that from. I think Rohan will go full strength as he can next week for HKR can't wait for season to fully start

Yeah, Ruan was excellent. I thought Lisone showed some good signs too. Sinfield is still some way off from becoming a regular but he come on a lot in the last year.

I have been a big fan of Cam for years and it is great to see him now developing into an integral member of the squad. Fully deserves the recently signed new deal and the 13.

What are everyone's thoughts on Walters at the moment? IMO he is pushing hard to be in the 17 for round one.

I was quite happy with how we went. We had about 5 first teamers missing from that squad and played a few fringe players and kids in the second half. Of course we dropped the ball a lot and gave away some daft penalties but compared with last season this is progress, particularly in defence. There is always media hype around Bradford but ask any fan and they'll say that we're a work in progress and some way off being a promotion candidate.

Leeds look to have a handy squad and I hope we can get a few on loan at some stage.