Liking what im seeing with Gidley.

T King in,Patton misses conversion 34-0

5,100+ attendance.

Livett under the post,patton converts 40-0 final score.

We had a pre-season 40-0 friendly win last year...this bodes well! Who impressed?

Gidley by a mile for me,Rhys played very well aswell.

How fluent did we look? Despite the preseason wins last year, that still concerned me back then.

Sounds like we've come on a ton with kicking. Had Gidley and Patton kicking today and not once was there a negative comment from the radio coverage. Contrast that to the last two years when sometimes every kick in the game would receive a negative comment. I'm very excited to have both Gidley and Patton kicking well with Sandow still to come.

Agreed. Gidley was excellent, Evans was also very good and Jordan Cox impressed me far more than I expected. Very difficult to tell anything from a friendly but it looks certain there will be real competition for places this year.

I thought most players looked fairly sharp for this time of the season. Handling in general was very good. The ball got stuck in the middle of the line far to often when the best option was to move it to the wing / edges. Yes, Gidley stood out for his kicking and movement, but pace was a bit slow. When Patton came on you saw the difference immediately. Patton struggled to find the gaps to kick into (apart from one very good 40 20) and to unpick their defence. Evans looked fairly sharp and was aggressive in defence. Toby King was very good under the high ball - both in defence and to score from a Gidley kick to the wing. Dwyer was Dwyer scoring two short range tries. Cox looked hungry and up for it with some good drives, it will be interesting to see how he gets on against the bigger packs. He certainly pulled more than his weight. Currie had a good run out but looked short of match fitness. Difficult to comment on a lot of the players (25 used) because they came on for fairly short stints and were very fresh. Livett was rightly mobbed for his try under the sticks as he wrong footed a tiring and disjointed defence with a strong run.

A good afternoon for the Wire fans and also for the U19 / U23's who I suspect will have benefitted a lot from a senior match, and working with some of the first team players.

It's probably worth looking at who didn't play today. Wheeler, Atkins, Ratchford and Sandow in the backs, but the pleasing thing is that we can also field a pack of Hill, Clark, Dodds, Westwood, Westerman and Bailey, with Harrison and Laithwaite still to return when fit. Together with those who played today, that's strength in depth throughout the team.

It was Jack Johnson for this try not Toby King and he took it well,the team looked lively,well organised and good defensively! It was good to see a younger fresher side with some new faces, decent start and some good combinations

Something to build on and finally some real strength and depth in the squad

Couldn't get to the game but it sounds really promising. Glad to hear the positives re Gidley and Cox.

Also hoping for a good run for Ben Evans too. He deserves a good year.

Completely forgot about him. That makes a full 13 to come in yet.