Herbert certainly looked homesick - NOT

He looked fairly quiet and just seemed to pass the ball on without much organisation. Nevertheless it was only his first game. Hope he imposes himself a lot more though.

He took some pressure off Kearney though and gave us some more kick options. Some of kicks were great and some not so, but I guess he'll need a couple of months to settle into the team properly.

There were some instances of his play on show. Without patronising Sykes, imagine him in the following positions:

First try - after the initial break he opened the play up a peach with a great ball on to Kearney, who fed Olbison. I couldn't have seen Sykes doing that.

Royston's 2nd try - the play was marooned in the middle, but Herby pulled a cracking pass out for Platt.

sums it up pretty well

He was obviously rusty. But it helps to have a genuine halfback on the pitch. We saw a few longer passes from Herbert which we haven't seen since Briggs in round 1.

His short balls on the inside will put a lot of players through gaps this season too.

I thought Herbert went OK today seeing as it's his first hit out in the Super League.

Some of his attacking kicks were a bit off the mark but I imagine that will improve over time.

He controlled most of our attacking threats and gave us another dimension which we haven't had in his absence.

Herbert looked as if he really, really needed the game. I would have thought with a new No. 7 it would be realistic to wait half a season before he has a good understanding with his teammates and before they get where he's coming from, and that would be if he was match fit, which he can't (obviously) be yet.

I thought he showed some nice touches and a promising ability to both see possibilities and to pass the ball there, but also played a very safe game, didn't get too involved, and his kicking was way off. And with all that, it all still looked ten times better than playing without a scrum-half.

Also, why was he practising place kicks before the match? He was still at it when the rest of the team had left. Just in case Ah Van went off? Seemed to float some nice ones over, anyway.

I noticed that too - possibly practicing as Ah Van went off against Crusaders near the end, so maybe was just to keep his eye in just in case Ah Van had a reaction and had to go off?

Those were my exact thoughts at the time, I think even if Kearney had of been first receiver then it wouldn't have resulted in a try but to see someone with half a brain out there was good to see yesterday. I think once Briggs is back we may well have some decent rugby to watch as he is definitely our organiser!!

I had a guy next to me at the game moaning about Herbert's kicking game. I mentioned the fact he's been injured for the last month and he responded "Don't give me that"

Stupid response really, as a kick will pressure the hamstring if you're going to get any force behind the kick.

So, I'd put Herbert's less than brilliant kicking down to being a little gun shy and having a bit of ring rust. I'm sure as the weeks go on he'll improve and more so as he forms a partnership with Briggs.

It was good to have an actual half back of the field for the first time in nearly a year. It certainly helped Kearney as he wasn't needed to shoulder as much responsibility and was able to be more expansive.

That can certainly effect someone's kicking game.

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I had a guy next to me saying exactly the same thing. I said "he hasn't played for a month the lads bound to be rusty". Hamstrings can feel fine but one over extension and ping.

Overall he played well, yeah a couple of kicks weren't brilliant but again that's time. As above he was involved in those two tries and gave some great ball out. Looked to be blowing out of this at the end of the game. Can't wait to see him link up with Briggs

Having and extra kicker on the field always helps anyway as your opponents can never be sure just who is going to get the ball for the kick, which makes it more difficult for them to close the kick down.