30-8

Bulls comeback haulted as Leeds score again.

Leeds 30 Bulls 8

Joel Moon in again for Leeds.

Leeds 34 Bulls 8

Jimmy Lowes now giving the U19s lads a run out for the final 5/10 minutes.

Attendance here today: 11,608

Gaskell goes the full length and grabs a late try for the Bulls.

Leeds 34 Bulls 14

Full time: Leeds 34 Bulls 14.

Bulls win the second half after a very poor opening 40 mins.

Why are we persisting with Seijka as a goal kicker? Didn't someone say Ryan Shaw finished last season with over 80% success rate with conversions? I can only assume Shaw won't be playing if others are fit.

Right, that's it. Pre-season over, time for the real thing.

Wondering that myself. Mullaney and Gaskell can both kick too and you'd expect them to be in team most weeks. Would have thought we would have given them all a try. Could be case we are doing on training field and sjelka is looking best option I suppose. Only difference between kicking in training an in matches is effect of crowd noise so I guess it isn't as important for coaching staff to see different options under match conditions.

I was diappointed with our first half performance today and our second half at Cas. We just cannot keep dropping the ball as much as we are doing. I think the forwards were competetive, especially Karl Davies who will be a handful in the Championship. I thought Tahroui was better than at Cas too. I think we need more leadership from Siejka who I thought was fairly quiet. As someone said earlier we could have done with that Huddersfield game. Hope Mullaney is OK as he showed his class again.

Not sure what I think of today's performance really. We were outclassed in all areas in reality. But it was a good run out.
I was quite impressed with Seijka (am I ever going to spell that right?) and thought Sidlow was class. He was giving the team an absolute b*****king after one try.
Please tell me that Chev is not going to be at centre all season.

I doubt Chev will be a first choice centre. More worryingly he did better today than Purtell who probably is..hope Purts can find some of last seasons form once again.

Over played a little in the first half which made it far too easy for a good side like Leeds. Thought we defended well at times and were much improved in the 2nd half. I think Sidlow will cause havoc in the Championship, he's got decent pace as well when through the line. I think the hit out will have been a lot more use to the players and coaches than a game against lesser opposition.

I thought it was a decidedly mixed bag from us yesterday. Whilst it’s easy to say that Leeds are a great side with much better players we didn’t play as well as we did in the first half at Cas. I thought we overplayed in the 1st half and pushed the pass when it wasn’t on. As a result we never really put any pressure on Leeds who looked very rusty at times. We defended our line well at times but let a couple of tries in by getting drawn in too easily to the Leeds playmakers. Sinfield and McGuire may be slower nowadays but they caused us problems.

I expect Walker was in the centres because of injuries to Blythe and Baille. Both he and Purtell struggled with Moon and Watkins’ footwork but who wouldn’t? I’m not convinced about Adam Henry.

I was disappointed to see Shaw drop two bombs that weren’t the most difficult but he took his try very well indeed. At times I thought our halfbacks tried too hard and threw passes that were never on, more composure is needed. We seemed to move too sideways on occasion without any runners straightening the attack. We were at a pace disadvantage out wide I suppose.

Siejka was particularly at fault when he rushed out of the line, missed the tackle on his man and then missed another for Moon to score. His goalkicking was underwhelming too. He was better at Cas though.

On the positives I thought all four props looked good. Davies and big Samir much more impressive, particularly Davies who ran in hard behind the ruck. The backrow too did well and Conroy looked full of running.

The second half we showed much more composure and forced quite a few dropouts thanks to better kicking and taking the right options in attack. By then all the interchanges were taking a toll on both teams organisation but all in all I felt better than I did at half time.

Looking at Leeds I thought their young fullback looked very promising. Briscoe caused us problems as did Cuthbertson and Ward. They might lack a yard of pace in the middle but they’re still good enough to get in the top 4

Pretty much agree with Bullsye's summing up.

To those saying this that and the other about the performance, yes, you're probably all correct, but we're in the championship now, and Leeds are one of the very best SL teams. Much of the stuff which didn't come off againt one of the better teams in RL, most probably will at the lower level and in any case, that is exactly what practice games are for - for trying things out. Most promising thing to me was that we didn't stop trying oh, and yes, that we learned the lessons of what is most likely to work...

I do think we have a habit of panicking and forcing the play, but I'm hoping over time that will improve.