I would say that the Rhinos outside backs will rip apart Hall or Horne BUT I think it is too much of a risk to play Burns without having Hall in the side 'just in case'.

That being said Salter might be able to defensively handle the pressures of playing against such good backs.

Personally I'd put Hall in and as for Costigan not starting the game? I aren't sure where that comes from? He is a player that has shown up well in pre-season and while a tad over weight I would say game time is the only way he's going to shed the pounds during the season as they don't do much cardio work during the season in training. His passing game has certainly shown we can be dangerous out wide and he can take some pressure off down the middle when needed.

Justin Poore is a starting prop and nothing else IMO.

Either way the players sat up in the stands shows just how strong we are. Not a luxury Craig is used to.

Two patchy friendlies? And i meant they were making their debuts at home.There not gonna gel instantly are they?

I must admit I was disappointed at the amount of heads dropping fairly early in the second half, I'd have hoped for an improvement in this area, taking into account the experienced players we've signed.
Having said that I won't criticise too much just yet. Lets at least give the coach and players chance to put things right. I'll be more concerned if one or two backsides aren't kicked, maybe even places lost, in the wake of this showing.

At best we matched a decent Leeds side for the best part of nearly 50 mins. Hopefully in the weeks to come, Keating/Burns partnership we'll grow and we'll control games more and build from there.

At worst we conceded 6 unanswered trys in 30 mins, in an otherwise tight game for 50 mins. The latter part of Sunday could've been any of the previous Rovers sides under CS, with similar deficiencies on show once the opposition shift the ball.

If we're being proper negative (and selective!), we've lost 9 out of the last 10 games we've played, obviously this is juking the stats, but a losing run is a losing run etc.

Like Dudley says, let's see how we go from here. One poor result - yes, but we're only one good result from being ace again.

Yeah, similar to last season off the back of a very poor run at the end of 2012. 2012 and 2013 were both rescued by decent runs roughly mid-season. Winning 5 on the bounce off the back of Gansongate II last year, immediately prior to the bad run you mention.

Or maybe they were ruined by tailing off late in the year, depending on which perspective you prefer.

Perhaps the theory is that if we go in slightly under cooked this time, we won't be spent at the business end of the year? Though players often refer to preseason as creating a well of fitness to draw on all year.

With 3 more of the 'Big 5' to come in the next 4 weeks (and not taking Cas for granted by any stretch), the danger is it'll get worse before it gets better. Hopefully there's enough in the well of optimism, to get us through it.

Like I said, juking the stats. Included in the 'run' is two pointless friendlies and a game with loads of juniors making debuts etc (albeit against a v poor London side). Ironically the win in the sequence was an against all odds win at Leeds.

I wouldn't buy into the theory that if we're short at the start of the year, we'll be alright by the end. Obviously you don't want to be peaking in February but competitive sporting logic would dictate you wouldn't purposefully start off the pace.

I do think we all may be a tad guilty of being a bit OTT, on the back of just one game ... but, IMO in comparison to the top sides, in the fitness department we always seem off the pace. We can go toe to toe with them for short periods, but after a while - you sense we're at our very limit and cave. Maybe I'm guilty of bigging us up and it's as simple as, we're just not up there with these top sides. Superior skill and application also allow the top sides to perform at the top level for longer.