Better game management, we would have won.

I thought Dixon looked alright at full back, he brought down two Leeds players one on on one, dropped two high kicks, got lucky with one that Mantellato (I think) cleaned up and re took the other at full stretch. Don't get me wrong, he's not good defensively (and I've posted my views on one on ones with full backs many times) but going forward, he chimed into the line on both sides very well and looked threatening.

Sio looks a real signing, quick, strong, confident. Will go well.

Mantellato, kicking machine and very willing to do a lot of work.

Goulding. Wasn't convinced at all about this signing but made some very good runs out of defence and was always looking for Sio, that right side will be OK, also tight in defence.

Campese. Quality. Ran the game, plays within himself and brings the team together,if, and it's a big if, we can keep him fit then he can take us places. Intelligent. Can't remember the last time I thought that about a half back at Rovers, probably not since The Ginger Messiah.

Kelly. Everyone's going to love this bloke. Had to do far too much in defence in the first half and ran out of steam but sniping and looking all the time, very quick of thought.

Allgood. Great drives, made metres all afternoon, looks a quality acquisition.

Burke. Solid, made some hard yards out of the twenty.

McCarthy, not sure he's more that a beard at this point.

Donaldson. Generally good, didn't stand out but didn't look out of place.

Overall I was pleased, despite losing a game we should have won, we got over excited at times when a steady kick that found the floor would have been better.

More entertained and enthused for a long time and the try that came from a quick PTB, Kelly's great pass, Goulding's super shift of the ball, Sio's twice bouncing off of Burrow was the best try we've scored for a long time.

Looked good today and I feel much more optimistic about our chances this season than I did after last season's opener against Leeds. We will improve and gel even better in the coming weeks and we now have some nous in attack and some good props.
However, some of our familiar frailties are still there, namely our fringe defence (particular left flank), our line speed in defence, our inability to play with full 80 minute intensity and our match fitness.
Kelly, Campese, Allgood, Walker and Blair played well.
Goulding, Cockayne, Donaldson, Sio, Burke, Carlile, Green and possibly Mantellato (awkward Runner, but good Kicker) were all OK.
The rest were below par, especially Welham. Dixon started like a drain, but got better in the second half and made 2 try saving wrap tackles in the last 10 minutes. Macarthy - he's looked less than impressive in 2 successive games now and needs to step it up.

Considering the whole team has been thrown together over the close season I thought they performed better than most would have imagined. When the lad lost the ball when going over I breathed a massive sigh of relief, that would have been game over for me. Our fitness told in the last 20 particularly, and overall we did enough to justify the 2 points, though on another day we might have struggled to claw back two big deficits. Worth £23 of anybody's money.

I agree, I expected a humping and we were in the game until the seventy seventh minute.

If we'd played with a little more intelligence, we'd have won.

McGuire had his usual good game against us and the next time I see him in Rothwell Morrison's I'm going to kick his and then run away like a cowardly custard because I'm more than fed up with it now.

Overall, it was a an entertaining game to attend and we ain't had a whole lot of that over in east Hull for the last few seasons.

Interchange killed us. We had 1 prop & they had 3. Their constant offloading was designed to take advantage of this & grind us down & it told big style in the last 20 mins.

We could / should've been far enough ahead to defend this but the contributions of Thaler & Welham had crucially kept them in touch.

Ah well, watching this game 12 months ago was depressing, but not today. Cracking game, great atmosphere, only disappointed by the result.

Watching the highlights you seem to be great in attack and poor in defence, hasn't this been the problem for a few years now?

Dixon should be no wear no FB, he makes Eden look great defensively, he is poor under the high ball and his one on one defence is awful, even on the highlights he should have done better for about 3 trys.

new team same old defence. 64 yes 64 missed tackles

Chester has made himself accountable for defence aswell so I'm sure they're in for a b*llocking. Very ironic that the song sung "open your eyes" as McGuire went over for his second via the easiest-to-spot crossing in the entire world. Not blaming the officials but they made some awful decisions that lead to about 3 tries!

I don't think Dixon was as bad as some are making out he missed a couple of tackles but who didn't he was left exposed when certain players jumped out of the line he also did a couple of cracking one on one tackles overall I was very impressed with the display considering I feared the worst when weyman and Bailey didn't make it we actually looked like we could go the length of the field to score for the first time in about 5 years kelly looked great so did campese and Burke looks quality

Quote: bishops finger "new team same old defence. 64 yes 64 missed tackles'" Certainly a concern, superleague.co.uk/stats/player_stats

Quote: bishops finger "new team same old defence. 64 yes 64 missed tackles'" Certainly a concern, superleague.co.uk/stats/player_stats

Kieran Dixon missed not "a couple" but rather 6 tackles, and made 7.

Very poor ratio, especially for a full back.

Top 4 in the missed tackles table all from Rovers. Poching (you are defense coach right?), hang your head in shame.

Well how would you cope with burrow running at you like a rampaging ant!

I knew it was high. But good god, 64 tackles!!?? 8th worse count in Super League history. Sort it out Mr Poching!!

Amazingly, Thaler wasn't on the list, which is kind of surprising given the number of Rovers fans laying the blame entirely at his doorstep.