Maybe, but the last time I felt that way was at the start of 2018 with an unknown coach and a much poorer squad. We looked terrible in the first 3rd of the season, and despite being particularly boring all year we actually won a lot of the games that counted. We just didn't have the quality game-breakers in the two finals.

When we recruited Burgess I was as sceptical as anybody, but the alternatives available would definitely have been 'same-old, same-old'. One thing you can't accuse Burgess of is a lack of drive or passion or a reluctance to drop those out-of-form. The other pleasing thing is that finally we do seem to have some decent back up talent waiting to displace anyone who isn't 100% on their game. Burgess has made no secret of his desire to let those guys step up.

Even back in the 'golden period' of Smith, did we actually look that good in pre-season? I guess we'll know by the season's half-way point whether this result was a harbinger of doom.

I would be less worried about looking rusty in pre season if we had a squad with Briers, Morley, Hill, the Monaghans, Louis Anderson, Bridge, Grix, Carvell etc.

Absolutely, can't disagree with that, but there hasn't been a squad in Northern Hemisphere RL for a good few years with that luxury of abundance of quality. Even the Saints squads of the last few years haven't been outstanding on paper. They've just worked very well as a unit.

No idea if Burgess is the right guy, but I do know that having the current Wigan / Saints / Cats squads wouldn't make a blind bit of difference with the weak culture we've had in recent years. And I don't think taking any old NRL coach just for the sake of them being NRL would make a difference either.

This season's a 50/50 for me. Worth the gamble - not many options available and a coach who we know is the opposite of soft and cushy.

Got to keep our chins up and work with what we've got. Can't sack 'em all & start again as we know that doesn't work. Would love to have started season with a full squad but unfortunately we have to start in two weeks time. Get behind 'em & encourage can't really see another way.

What did people think of Musgrove.

You are right about our numbers, like yours should have been white.

Don’t think we ran out of steam, Leigh changed all our first choice pack at about 30 minutes just before you scored. As far as I could tell we played the second half with just Hardaker, Moylan and Lam, from our first choice 13. I was a bit surprised that none of our starting pack came back on as this is our only warm up game.

Agreed glow, we never ran out of steam, our boys are fitter than a butchers dog. I went to the game yesterday, and i was totally impressed with what i saw.

What perplexes me is that surely the whole point of a friendly like this (apart from the testimonial aspect, in this instance) is to prepare for Round One as well as possible, by giving the likely 1-17 match fitness and enabling them to work on their combinations in a match setting rather than just in training. I'm not sure how making wholesale changes at half-time is beneficial in that regard. Losing the match doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of things, I suppose, but it feels a bit deflating all the same, at a time when we should all be excited for the new season. As has been said earlier, though, we won the friendly against Leigh last year and it turned out to be a very poor indicator of the seasons we would both go on to have.

drinkwater being left out the entire game says a few things

This may be sacrilege considering he is a home grown player and exciting in attack, but from the highlights I am not sure Connor Wrench's defence has improved much from last year.

Were there any clues about 'how' we intend to play this season?

Provided we have enough fitness to avoid picking up a raft of injuries in the first few games, I don't mind us being a bit undercooked early on as it is a ridiculously long season and many a promising opening has burned out mid-season. But it is important that there is some kind of plan for what team we want to be and when we will be it, as there are also precedents of coaches saying 'we will come good' and nothing obviously changing from one game to the next.

I can only think that we are more concerned than we are letting on about injuries. If all the squad were fit surely our "first" team would want to play together for more minutes.

Don't worry everyone, we're just lulling the rest of the league into a false sense of security and superiority before we steam through the season unbeaten [size(Copyright Rubber Duckie Enterprises)[/size

Seriously though, if we're 8 games in and there's still no visible difference to last season then no amount of fresh coaching blood will change things, be it Sam Burgess or Wayne Bennett.

Let's wait & see.....Come on you Wire!!

If things don't work out for Burgess ,Sam Allardyce might be available .

I was there as a neutral, when Mulhern/Asiata/Ipape/Amone were on Wires pack was no match (although missing their best forward in Vaughan).

Positive for Wire was some of the young lads who played the second half looked handy and not too far off SL level.