Which is fine, but the club marketed the @rse out of this game as the first of the New Dawn era. "One Winner" was the strapline. Would have been better playing Saints IMO.

Of course we would I said as much in a thread last week. Derby friendlies are a waste of time. Even the marketing didn't fool me.

No one likes a smart @rse.

Well they got that one right.

Can't understand why people are questioning playing Rovers. The players and coaches got out of if exactly what was needed imo. You can train all you like and look good but its in the high pressure game situations where the your preparation is tested.
physically I thought they stood up quite well which must of been pleasing for the new conditioning team.
Defensively once again their were some good signs which I know sounds odd on the back of 36 points but I think we're not too far off.
Attack wise it is difficult to say as the 14-3 penalty count limited our time with ball in hand in attacking positions, however I think Mckinnon could pose a real threat and score a lot of tries once people read his runs down the central channel. Martin looked quite sharp and I think he'll do a good job. The halfbacks kicking again pretty poor.
mentally I honestly think we were still in Tenerife admiring how well we'd trained. Our intensity and speed were off and when rovers pressured us our decision making was poor.
Thats what I got out of it and I honestly believe this game has been good for us and the coaches/players got a hell of a lot out of it, which I don't think you would get playing any other club first hit preseason.

Good point about Mckinnon.......Sharp had the chance to put him through a hughe gap early on but just didnt read his run.....he looks a very very good full-back indeed.

Reminded me of Briscoe when he first came and I we always got a good Try return out of him.

Excellent post. You can't underestimate the fact that the penalty count meant we did a huge amount of defending which eventually told as you would expect. Considering how little we had of the ball when we had it we looked dangerous. Just need to improve the kicking game, Horne did too much and I wanted more from Seymour and Heremaia on that front.

Pen count was 5-12. Otherwise, excellent post.