Quote: Saddened! "Hardly a classic in terms of free flowing attacking rugby, but a tight, tense game tonight. We started poorly, plenty of dropped balls from Swift and Douglas in particular, but we defended superbly, Leeds were really up for the game and we stood up to the superbly. Throw in LMS and Walker and I think we'd have been clear by a couple of scores.
Highlight of the game for me was Tommy Makinson's cover tackle. It had shades of Keiron's famous tackle at Knowsley Road, it looked like he had already beaten him from where I was, sensational stuff.
Plenty of resilience and togetherness from the boys tonight, loved how quickly they went in together when it threatened to kick off and no one put a foot wrong in defense. As for the new boys Douglas defended well and I think will end up a great signing for the club. Ryan Morgan got absolutely nothing to work with but still came up with two promising half breaks. Tommy Lee surprised me as well, got to give him some credit as I gave plenty out when we signing him.
Credit too for KC. It would have been very easy to fall back on Jon Wilkin's experience and play him in the halves tonight but he kept faith with Danny Richardson and it paid off. I thought he looked very classy tonight, clearly ready for Super League, putting plenty into the tackles and looking composed with the ball. Brian McDermott put the defeat down to our superior kicking game and it was Richardson who pinned them on their line a few times. The pack was solid tonight, Amor and Thompson were solid and Walmsley made crucial inroads in the second half.
Stand out MOM though was Theo Fages, he was everywhere both in attack and defense.'"
Regarding the new boys. I thought Douglas was pretty poor tbh. He looked pretty shot to me and I wonder if all those consecutive games he has done in the NRL have caught up with him. He looked very unfit and slow. KC was spot on taking him off nesr the end as he was the weak link. I'm not writing him off as he looked good when seen him for titans and Scotland.
Ryan Morgan looks to have some real class about him. Looked a threat with the limited ball he had.i think he's going to be very good providing we get him the ball.
Tommy Lee was the pick of the new boys for me. He looked up for it and gave us some real aggression. He's also a unit.