I think it’s forward thinking to put reserve kickers in a game environment by practice rather than just Leyland.
Use the game for the benefits an easy tie gives us.

Well you certainly do use Ratchford, sorry Smiffy, as you don't learn anything BTW Ratchford played well enough tackled well but ran out of bit of steam towards the end, understandably so, a lot of minutes on a heavy pitch.

Just seen the tries via our website.
The pitch reminded me of times gone by ... looked heavy which of course is a great leveller. The radio commentary I listened to didn't flag it up as much as they might have done.

I thought Leyland had a much better game as a halfback, than Ratchford did and should be the starting half with Williams against the Giants.

Glad that Whitehaven didn`t get nilled and didn`t begrudge them their try, but the guy that scored it should have been sent-off for a blatant trip on Walker before that.

How the ref, didn`t award a penalty try to Walker is unbelievable. Great break by Taylor-Wray who passed to Walker who was tripped by the Whitehaven left wing to stop him from scoring.

Spot on and yes I'd be sticking with Leyland who kicked out of hand reasonably well. He seems to have settled in alright got a bit of recognition after the game from the young lads in the corner.

The big question is did he recognise you Rico.

Ha ha I don't look like my avatar so no and was too busy dangling the younger Ricoette (grandson) over the wall, as he wanted to get on the field at the end of the game. As stated earlier throwback RL, although I'm not so I could if it was raining and the long drive home yes I'm a softy Walter

How did Musgrove get on? Seems to have been an ever-present in the pre-season plus this game; any sign that he is going to do longer minutes this year?

He did OK not stand out from my viewing or particularly long minutes from him and Yates from what I recall, which could be totally wrong BTW. One thing I did notice in the first half particularly, was that he was quite vocal in an organising capacity and seemed happy enough putting a shift in.

Musgrove`s game for us reminds me how Ashton Sims played.

He just doesn`t seem to be able to break a tackle and I can`t recall him ever making a tackle bust.

Noticed this from minute one of him first playing for us. For a bloke his size he should be breaking the gain line yet Philbin a technically smaller player does it a lot more. Could forgive if it was an injury issue but it was pretty much a whole season and is this why he as featured a lot in preseason to try to get more from him.