Some good points made on here regarding our Boxing Day friendly. Overall I was reasonably happy with our performance considering we have only been back since back end of November.. It takes time to weld a new half back partnership together and I feel we will have to be a little bit patient going into the new season before we start to see the fruits of Powells labour… The warm weather week training in Tenerife will enable our lads to get some combinations going .. As for our forwards.. I think they are in for a tough season and some will have had a taste of things to come with what I thought was a well drilled Leeds defence in the first half at Headingley. We had some experience missing up front though with Pitts , mc Meeken Hood and Atoni all who have played SL. Also unlike previous years when we tended to cobble a team together I actually think our team will be looking forward to testing themselves in what will undoubtedly be a much tougher competition. Patience will be key to the season..

[quote="Adam_Harrison9":oohml8aq]This sums it up for me. We will need to be far better at competing in terms of intensity and line speed up the middle in future games as Leeds controlled territory and marched us down the field for the first fourty minutes which strangled us. We defended our line superbly well which was pleasing but if Leeds would have kept their first team on we'd have lost that by 30 in my opinion. However, we've got Atoni, Storton, Mcmeeken and Pitts to likely come into the seventeen in terms of middles as well as Johnstone who willg ive us some punch in our exit sets. I thought we looked extremely weak carrying the ball out of our own yardage which is my biggest concern this season I think in terms of our backline. Apart from Johnstone they're all a bit lightweight.[/quote:oohml8aq] You missed Jowitt, Hood and Doyle.

[quote="Trojan Horse":1g466jjb]You missed Jowitt, Hood and Doyle.[/quote:1g466jjb] I wasn't referring to all we had missing. Just the ones most likely to make an impact through the middle in terms of winning the arm wrestle. Not sure Hood, Jowitt or Doyle will necessarily help much in that department with ball in hand.

[quote="Adam_Harrison9":id1y4m6k]I wasn't referring to all we had missing. Just the ones most likely to make an impact through the middle in terms of winning the arm wrestle. Not sure Hood, Jowitt or Doyle will necessarily help much in that department with ball in hand.[/quote:id1y4m6k] They would certainly stiffen the defence up which in turn would improve field position and have an effect on where we play our sets out. Hood especially is a strong defender. Regardless, those 3 would strengthen the team in a few areas, not just down the middle.

The full game is now on YouTube, still the Leeds commentary not TC

[quote="Trojan Horse":31mluv5u]They would certainly stiffen the defence up which in turn would improve field position and have an effect on where we play our sets out. Hood especially is a strong defender. Regardless, those 3 would strengthen the team in a few areas, not just down the middle.[/quote:31mluv5u] Hope Hood is not around a lot ,struggled in is last stint in S L .Need more than a player who can tackle at 9 as not even got a kicking game. Defence looks decent, lot more work to do in attack . Hope Russell plays 9 and Lino 7 .If we are struggling to make some ground ,we got 3 good kickers on the park