Boxing Day v Rhinos

Quote: Sesquipedalian "Probably what's to be expected from a new team, defensively very solid for the most part, Rob Burrow making a couple of trademark busts hat lead to two Leeds tries.

Isaac John looked lively but Smith looked a bit quiet, Kyle Wood came on and played very well, Andy Ellis was excellent with his distribution and general play. Dean Collis scored a try that was down to pace, agility and strength something we've not had in a centre for a long time.

Morton looked weak in defence and was replaced by Walshaw after missing a straight one on one which lead to a 2nd half Rhinos try.

Mathers looked very shaky under the high ball but worked his nuts off bringing the ball out from within out 10mtr line.

Mellars looked big and strong in the other centre and Cockayne was very solid and hard working.

Southern was tough in defence and certainly axed a few, Johnson, Amor & Wilkes were very solid but Raleigh got bossed by their forwards and came up with a few handling errors. Trout, Walshaw and Wildey all stood up well in attack and defence.

We bombed a couple of try scoring opportunities and Leeds got a couple of soft tries but all in all it was a fair score line and reflected the game. Smith & John need more ame time together and Wood could be a very astute signing who might overtake Smith if he fails to fire.

Morton didn't do himself justice or any favours and might find himself losing out to someone else if he continues to look defensively vulnerable in the friendlies.

Raleigh probably played himself out of the starting line up although he did put his hand up for a fair share of work it just wasn't of particularly good quality.

I'm not disappointed, we are going to be hard to break down and will hurt people in the tackle. We will get better the more games we play and the understanding between the players grows.

That's also true of our attacking game, we did show plenty of ability to ship the ball around with some deft three quarter line passing moves but timing and cohesion will improve with games.

All that said, I'm happy enough and with Aiton, Lauitiiti, Kirmond and Washbrook still to add to the team it's rather promising.'"

There's Fox to come in as well, agree with the above, encouraging signs from the lads and by the looks of today the brand of rugby is going to be quite exciting, especially when they get to know each other a bit better. Hopefully we'll see them improve throughout the warm up games.