Well anyhow, I was impressed by Watts tonight. Some good strong defence and took the ball in well, some good signs from the young lad.

Lynch, Langley, Scruton & Hall were all quality. L'Estrange was very lively again, real shame about Koppy though.


I was very impressed with how Kearney and Orford linked up, Orford is fast, his passing is pin-point and his in-game kicking is quality.

Looking forward to this season now, and am even more optimistic.

Sykes, and he must have been working on his goal kicking because he didn't miss one!

Your wern't being serious where you?

what would it take to impress you?
he had a hand in every try his passing was pinpoint an his short kicking game was frightening

Win the Albert Goldthorpe medal. Until then he's not proved anything.

Thought it was a decent run out for both teams, we still look like we have to work on our discipline, we seemed to march Bradford down the pitch far too much. Ben Cockayne looks like he will never learn in that respect, he seems to put in a fantastic hit and then backs it up with throw to the floor afer the tackle.
I thought Lovegrove looked like our best prop last night and was impressed with Fox and Colbon's workrate. Dobbo looked out on his feet by the end of the game.

Bradford looked good in parts and considering it was Orfords 1st game he looks like he'll be up to speed very quickly.

Best SH in the comp by a distance.

No mention of Orford being a O.A.P. i see.

Think you'll find Reardon played last night.

Both packs were pretty evenly matched, but Rovers were boshed at half back.

Is anybody able to allay my fears?

I haven't made it to any of the games and thanks to a monumental over sight I'll be in London next week, but from what I've heard on the radio and read we seem to be going in a bit under cooked.

Losing to a Bradford team that haven't really played together is not a good sign.

We also seem to be giving away a huge amount of penalties, one of the best aspects of our game over the last three seasons has been reasonably good discipline, we need to get this back.

Hopefully I'm interpreting things incorrectly?

Got injured in the second half.

Rovers pack was solid enough and i'd be reasonable happy with the way they played, particularly when you consider they were without Ben Galea for 78 minutes

I've only seen/heard the same as you, so I don't know. I don't think it'll be possible to make a meaningful initial assessment as to how the team looks on grass, as opposed to paper, until the end of Feb.

Maybe we peaked too early last year? Fine balance, because if you leave it too late confidence can go and even when it returns you can end up as the form team outside the play-offs.

Rovers do seem to be giving away a lot of penalties - has this been adapting to new interpretations, indiscipline or random reffing flux?
Are we playing fast or slow ruck rules this year?