Not having the "it's round one" brigade. That's why we have friendlies, the intensity of Wigan, Leigh and dare I say, Cas this weekend disprove that line of thinking. Anyway a wins a win and we've got off to a winning start at least.

Also, pain in the neck to suffer from another "I have a try" call, whys it always us? No way you could tell if they'd got that down. Good job it didn't cost us the match.

Yep ... once the ref says "I have a try" it is hard work.
The video ref. should have looked a bit more though ... cos it was not a try.

Said that earlier in the thread. What really annoys me with it if he sends it up as a try then he must think it’s try so why not just give it. In that instance he is clearly unsure so it should just be left to the video ref full stop and not then having to go with the ref if he can’t make a choice. I’d say go back to benefit of the doubt but thinking of that while I’m writing this I’m not sure what the answer is.

A few tough buggers on here to say there are question marks over Russell - especially as he is a guy we had almost zero expectations of going into the season.

Did he have a rampaging game? No. Did he miss tackles and let his opponent dominate him? Also no.

He made quite a few decent tackles and looked willing to take the ball up. He's a good size so, if he gets a bit better ball from the halves he could grow to be a bit of a threat. We will see.

On the match, I thought it was a 6/10 showing against a limited team but we did find a way to wrest the game in our favour and ought to have put a couple more scores on in the 2nd half. Crowther and Walker were excellent I thought; Dufty had a very patchy first half but showed a bit of class in the second.

It was clear the ball did not reach the line, I honestly don’t know what the video ref saw that we didn’t.

I didnt think it was a terrible display...... we did look a bit rusty, but you have to give Hudd's some credit.. i thought their defence was excellent first half.

But when we needed to, we stepped it up and won the game. So that's a positive.

There was plenty of effort... Just not a huge amount of end product.

We do look slow and laboured with ratchford in the halves though... as many have said, be nice to see leyland get a game soon... Russel i thought got through alot of work defensively.... didnt really do anything with the ball... got to give him time to settle though.

main thing i took away from the game was 'YES THE RUGBY IS BACK'

There is no perfect solution. But i do not believe the ref. really thought it was a try ... but his best guess was that it could have been.
The video ref. just seemed to give it without really looking at it closely.
If the on field could send it up with... "Not a clue so it's up to you" we might get some better decisions.

Thought Musgrove was our best prop today

Playing Steph and Aaron gave the team a little more size over Leyland and Tai that was lost in our pack.
They probably made the difference of a much closer scoreline.

It is round one it's like your 1st day in a new job get the 1stfew rounds out the way then normality resumes

Currie and Russell in defence, and Musgrove in go-forward were the best of our lighter pack imo.