No idea about Mamo he'll be threatening a few positions along the backline if he continues that form. Talking of backline's I couldn't believe how young yours looked and how well they stood up which must give you some optimism for next year?

I know most fans would prefer to be in SL but the Championship will be an interesting league good luck

Yeah it’s a massive learning curve for us this year but it’s a very young squad we have, some organisation from the new coach and we’ll be fine. I’d do anything to be back in SL but without any decent financial backing, we’d be relegated again straight away. The backline gives us optimism and they’re all out to prove themselves, the championship will be a great contest this season.

Mamo is a fantastic player but not good enough to displace Ratchford at FB.
Hope Danny Walker goes well for you, bags full of talent and isn’t afraid to tackle but because of his small stature, he’ll need protecting.

From our new signings;

Austion looked the part with a good kicking game, some nice passes and just as a bonus, a really good defensive contribution. He's a big lad and aggressive in the tackle so that's perhaps something we hadn't really twigged when his signing was announced. Or at least I hadn't.

Walker was great scooting from the PTB / offensive line and will punish any defence that leaves the smallest hole. His passing was good. I am intrigued to see how he develops over the year assuming he gets plenty of match time. He's not very big so I hope the refs will look after him during the game because there doesn't seem enough meat on him to feed a crow.

Lama Tasi and Jason Clark I thought were so so. Tasi looks a little light to be mixing it with bigger forwards and didn't make the same impact that Hill and Cooper (or Westwood for that matter) did. Hopefully they were easing themselves into the season and we will see a lot more from them as the games come.

Mamo looked really good in attack, both on the wing and in the line, so I was impressed. I hope his defensive game is equally strong but unless I fell asleep, I didn't see much of that.

Good start from a strong squad. Widnes were up for it and for the first 30min were playing good rugby and we're loving up the pitch easily. The got the ball out wide well and tested our goal line defence. Once we went ahead there was ko looking back. We grew into the game and scored some pretty clever well worked trys. You can see there's a bit lore adventure going forward and some moves we've worked on that should improve as the season progresses.

The debutants played well austin looks a much better signing than Roberts, he was involved in the organising and partnered up well with both brown and Patton. I think we were best going forward with Austin and Patton but that may be down to a tired defence. Walker looks like a very good bit of business as a replacement for Smith and dwyer. He will work well as an impact hooker but looks like could grow into a starting hooking roll but time will tell. And Mamo will cause price some headaches this year youcan see him taking the first opportunity he gets to start and make it hard for price to drop him. Tasi n Clark were OK but maybe their performances overshadowed by the other threes debut games

Its hard to read too much into it there were many changes made and it was a tough contest but it was not at the intensity and pace I would expect against Leeds but I think that if we can clik early then we can expect to watch us play a lot better going forward this season and expect should we get to a final we can score more than one try.

Where was Matt Davis?

I think those not playing today will be next week if fit

Enjoyed the game with some nice tries scored. A big well done to Widnes, certainly in the first period they were competitive. Would like to see them back in SL.
Agree with the optimism over Austin, he looked very good for a first game and looks like he wants to be here unlike that slapped bottom Mr. Roberts.
Shout out for a very impressive performance from Mamo, looks like a very good signing giving real competition for the back line. Good to see some robust runs from Sita. He can obviously do it but to get a shirt will have to show that level of determination and 'go forward' more often. He is the type of player who when running like that gets people off their seats. Keep it up Sita.

Could this be our year?. Well every year is our year but hopefully this year will finish with a GF win.

Looking forward to the Leeds game

I know it was only a friendly, but 3/8 conversions doesn't look good - have we sorted out a goal kicker for 2019 ?

Yes Ratchford Goodwin and Patton how many do we need?

One good one?

They are all good. They can all hit 10 in a game none of them are any less a kicker than Tomkins..yet Wigan won the GF without a single goal landed.
If we want these kickers to be hitting near 100%, then we ought to be making it easier for the kicker when we score tries.
It really is that simple.

Quite surprised at ppl saying they were impressed with sita. He pretty much did what he did during the middle part of our purple patch last season. Still seems snagged out after making one of them runs though.

Understand what you are saying but yesterday we got a good half a dozen decent runs instated of the usual one or two. He is no Les Boyd but for me it an encouraging step in the right direction. Let's be honest, anything less than a significant improvement over last year will not get him a shirt.

I thought Benny livened things up as well when he came on.

A number of plusses from yesterday, looks good for the new season

Who missed the 5 kicks?

True that. I’ve said for a few years, we always seem to score out wide. Having prolific wingers is actually a bit of a double edged sword. Regular tries, but difficult goals. Either way most of our tries are out wide aren’t they?