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.

Morgan didn't get a decent pass after his two good touches in the first half. Shame really he looked like the one player who could cause Leeds trouble.

Having two halves, both of whom can tackle both positionally and one-on-one, was a real relief after the last few years. In fact the defence was more or less faultless. Everyone deserves credit on that, but particularly Fages.

With the ball, it was a different story. Leave aside the errors, and the story of our attack is summed up in the difference between the defence our halves had to do, and the defence they didn't have to do on the flanks. Real echoes of last year, in that we just don't seem able to get the ball wide with any purpose. It was so frustrating that Morgan's touches suggested a bloke with footwork and speed, but compare the amount of decent ball he had with the amount of ball Walker had. Even in the 75th minute, Leeds were shifting it from one side to the other with regularity. We seemed to be gritting our teeth to get as far as a kick on the fourth.

I'll be generous in that we prepared for this season with all moves coming off Smith, so there's bound to be a greater impact in terms of disruption in attack than in defence. But we need to find a way to use our threequarters for more than two dummy-half drives in each set.

On the individual front, like I said, no problems with anyone's defence, but Douglas isn't going to want to give away that many penalties and drop that many balls again. Likewise Peyroux and Greenwood need to offer a bit more go-forward than that. I don't know how many carries they each offered, but it didn't seem like many. Swift needs more glue on his hands, and Roby really has to challenge more than that if he's finally going to get a spell in the game. No point resting him if all he does is exactly what he did last year, but for only 40 minutes instead of 80!

Win's a win, though, and Leeds were no mugs. Defence won that one, and I'll take the two points.

2 poor teams, least you both have the middle 8s to look forward too.

Despite the rustiness in attack thought it was a decent game especially with the efforts in defence from both teams. Pleased for KC in sticking with his young guns in Fages and Richardson as they didn't do much wrong so that's the first experienced game under there belt.
Also thought Lee did OK in the first half did a solid stint allowing Roby to run at a tired defence in the second half. Makinson,s tackle one of the highlights of the game. First match of the season and the 2 points we will take very despite not being a high quality game.

I,m assuming this is your first season watching rugby league, we need to tell you that trying to be mystic meg is not a good idea based on the first game of the season. Widnes and Salford fans will tell you that from 2016.

He's a Cas supporter. Likes to wind up other supporters on thier forums.

Chuffed with that performance. The defensive attitude was outstanding from 1-17 and in attack we always looked for a potential offload.
Lee and Roby worked together brilliantly and as such, Roby looked more of a running threat as a result.
Richardson & Fages showed a lot of intelligent game management for their age.

I'm really excited for this season.

Quote: Judder Man "I,m assuming this is your first season watching rugby league, we need to tell you that trying to be mystic meg is not a good idea based on the first game of the season. Widnes and Salford fans will tell you that from 2016.'" https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/yo ... nd-sadists Don't give them the fuel bud.

Quote: Judder Man "I,m assuming this is your first season watching rugby league, we need to tell you that trying to be mystic meg is not a good idea based on the first game of the season. Widnes and Salford fans will tell you that from 2016.'" https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/yo ... nd-sadists Don't give them the fuel bud.

Quote: Judder Man "I,m assuming this is your first season watching rugby league, we need to tell you that trying to be mystic meg is not a good idea based on the first game of the season. Widnes and Salford fans will tell you that from 2016.'" https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/yo ... nd-sadists Don't give them the fuel bud.

Quote: Judder Man "I,m assuming this is your first season watching rugby league, we need to tell you that trying to be mystic meg is not a good idea based on the first game of the season. Widnes and Salford fans will tell you that from 2016.'" https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/yo ... nd-sadists Don't give them the fuel bud.

Amazed at some opinions on here and would be suprised if they were the same if you had lost by 2 points . A really poor game between 2 average sides with very little skill on show . The best i reckon the two sides will do is to finish 5th and 6th in either order .

Average is now the norm for Superleague.

I don't agree. I've had the problem over previous seasons where I've just our squad against what we used to have in previous years. I've compared our squad to Cas in the past and found us wanting, but we don't end up finishing outside the top 4 do we. We're stronger than last year, even with Richardson at 7 and we finished in the top 4. We're stronger than last year and were only 3 points behind the leaders Warrington, 2 behind Wigan and level with Hull. I know Cas have also improved, but improved enough to make up the 9 points on Saints? Possible I suppose but far from the guarantee you make it out to be.

It wasn't a really poor game either, I'd contest that. Bar the opening 20 where there was a lot of dropped ball, it was a very, very similar game to a Grand Final, tight with defenses on top. A lot of people are making a direct link between the low score and low amount of breaks and low skill and a lack of creativity. That wasn't the case. The move Saints put on with the pass to Richardson and the reverse inside ball to a flying Makinson was superb, the move Leeds put on down the right for both the Makinson wonder tackle and the forward pass disallowed try were both great moves, as were some of the moves where Leeds were bring it out from their own line. Leeds put a lot into the off the cuff attempts at our line late on as well, it's just that no one clocked off in defense at all.

Thought your defence was excellent and for a first game v Leeds, plus lots of pressure, I'd be happy with that.

Thought you moved the ball better in the 2nd half with a few good moves which I didn't see last season. Also
Thought Richardson did well at sc and obviously Fages was excellent.

Thought your new additions were very encouraging as well.

I backed Leeds to win last night, in part due to the general comments on Redvee, but I think
there's a lot to take out that game for you guys. I think you'll be there and there abouts.

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.