Six débuts last night by my reckoning. Any stattos know when the last time we fielded so many new players? 2002 would be my guess since we basically bought a new (rubbish) squad that year.

My ratings:

Lineham - the quietest of the lot, with one poor error. He hardly saw the ball though and in defence his side got a lot of pressure. He will be ok.

Jack Hughes - or 'J'accuse' as my French-speaking wife already affectionately refers to him. Strong, hard-working, harshly penalised once or twice. A very solid signing.

Cox - couple of big runs, he is bigger than I remembered. Promise.

Westerman - really put himself about and looked up for it. The challenge will be getting that level of commitment every week. Undoubtedly talented.

Jullien - saw this lad at London Skolars last year and at that level he was a stand-out. Obviously a different game at SL level, but he still managed to make his presence felt yesterday, even though it is odd for a centre to come off the bench. Looks a capable squad player.

Gidley - the brains we were lacking at the sharp end of tight games last year. One or two errors sure, but as someone said he was all over the field and looked like he had been in the side for years. Very pleasing.

I think your summary is a about right. It's all good news. All we need now is for Dodds to prove himself and then later on Ryan Bailey will play and drop a 40 yard match winning goal. We Wire fans are on Cloud 9 this morning. Yahoo! I've not even mentioned King Sandow yet.

45 tackles for Gidley last night as well... He is going to bring so much to this side.

Put himself about abit like great signing for you guys.
May i add i think you may win the GF this year good luck

I said to many colleagues before your game last night that Gidley will be the difference in the tight matches for you this year... definitely in the reckoning for silverware this season if everyone is kept fit, I think

Good to see Gidley barking out the orders behind our tryline whilst Leeds were lining up their conversions, something which us Wire fans have craved for years!

Gidley was great...especially if you consider the hit he took very early on in the game ...he was in involved in tackling a Leeds forward, I forget who, and got absolutely steamed ....I actually thought he was going to have to go off! He looked very shakey..but he got up...shuck himself down and got back into it

Very impressed with the two 'bargain' signings, Cox and Julien, both ran very hard when they came on and made plenty of ground. I have a feeling that if Cox stays fit he could be the bargain signing of the season. People seem to have forgotten that he was in the England KNights squad a couple of years ago.

I was really impressed with cox as well. He looks difficult
to tackle at pace, and he has plenty of pace for someone that size.
The only problem was that I felt a bit weird shouting "come on cox"
when he was running in.

I tried to watch the game from the French Alps but even from 10,000 ft I could only see a blur of players. I have now watched it curtesy of YePipe and was pretty impressed. What struck me most was the sheer determination to defend at all costs and the will to win - if that was last season we would have folded. I have seen Julien's defence before, he is very uncompromising and at 20/21 ? will hopefully mature into a fine centre. If he could add some finesse to his attacking game he would be an outstanding prospect. Probably a good replacement for Atkins in that game as well ? since defence was the key to winning the game.
Gidley was good value in the warm up games and looked a complete professional against Leeds (he also looks to be the de facto captain, regardless of what the website says) . I agree with all the other points that have been made, plus he can goal kick from any angle which is a big upgrade from Ratchford's stint last year. I felt a bit sorry for Hughes, but all players have an off day and he will surely settle in to be an automatic choice. Cox seems to give his all when he takes the ball up, if I was a greedy man I would like to see a bit more muscle/weight on him. I still think we are a bit lightweight in the pack and will have to work hard against the bigger sides such as Saints, but as the days get lighter and grounds firm we must surely have a very mobile set of players to punch holes in most teams.
Top four for me this year, and if we steer clear of injuries perhaps a final ?

I was watching Wire v Saints in the Oak Tree in N-L-W a few years back when Toa made a break

"Go on Love" i shouted in a pub full of Saints fans, not my finest moment.

Very few give Gidley credit for it, but when he plays in the defensive line and takes on as much of the defensive workload as any of the forwards, you usually find the forwards are also better in attack and defence just because they are relieved of doing so much work.
Coaches and other players notice, but very few fans pick up on how the much the forward pack benefits from having a half doing 45 tackles.
It's just a shame your other half is Sandow, who probably attempted 7 tackles and missed 5 of them.

Quote: roopy "Very few give Gidley credit for it, but when he plays in the defensive line and takes on as much of the defensive workload as any of the forwards, you usually find the forwards are also better in attack and defence just because they are relieved of doing so much work. Coaches and other players notice, but very few fans pick up on how the much the forward pack benefits from having a half doing 45 tackles. It's just a shame your other half is Sandow, who probably attempted 7 tackles and missed 5 of them.'" The match stats are here www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12199. I think that Sandow has been brought across for other reasons.

Quote: roopy "Very few give Gidley credit for it, but when he plays in the defensive line and takes on as much of the defensive workload as any of the forwards, you usually find the forwards are also better in attack and defence just because they are relieved of doing so much work. Coaches and other players notice, but very few fans pick up on how the much the forward pack benefits from having a half doing 45 tackles. It's just a shame your other half is Sandow, who probably attempted 7 tackles and missed 5 of them.'" The match stats are here www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12199. I think that Sandow has been brought across for other reasons.

made 13 and missed 4 according to league express, he also scored a try, and created another, as well as creating a couple of halfbreaks for his centre.