Quite a few have played down there though, and Karl has coached in that division, so I'm sure the players will be prepared.

Mullaney
Shaw/Ulugia
Purtell
Baile
Uisele

Gaskell
Siejka

Sidlow
AOB
Clough
Olbison
Pitts
Walker

Tahraouoi - replaces Clough
Davies - for Sidlow
Shaw/Ulugia -shuffle as necessary so Ulugia replaces Mullaney
Walshaw - for Olbison
Mellor - for Pitts
Addy - Walker
Brook - for Siejka
Halafihi for AOB/Conroy
Conroy for AOB/Halafihi

Not suggesting all those subs even if that were possible, and of course other options eg Walshaw for Purtell or Baile

I made a trip down to watch Batley and Dewsbury on Boxing day. At one point during the first half the game became farcical with the amount of scrapping going on. Roby was the man with the whistle that day and poilced it fairly well. Hopefully the Championship referees do that same.

I'm expecting a massive amount of physicality and 'Biff' next season.

On paper that teams looks pretty good. Don't think teams will like visiting Odsal. I think you lot will win the league pre merger.

It looks like Danny Williams has been added to the squad for Sunday, no news yet who he's replacing.

Bulls are 14-6 up at the break, with tries from Jay Pitts, Ryan Shaw and Adrian Purtell. It sounds like Lee Gaskell and Jake Mullaney are having great games so far.

Mullaney's been great so far.

Mullaney is playing v well and the halfbacks are combining well.

We've had a hurricane at our backs in the first half. Could be tougher playing into it now.

James Graham's fat brother is doing a good referee impression in his old Saints shirt too.

Plenty of reasons to be optimistic judging by some of the performances today. I thought Gaskell and Mullaney had great games and the latter was very nimble on his feet. Walshaw is a big unit in the 2nd row who I think will be a key player for us next year. Of the so called 'unknowns' I though Luke Shaw looked a decent player who can cover a few positions in our backline. He prevented a certain try with some great strength to hold the Cas player up over the line.

Jimmy certainly made use of his squad and we saw a lot of different combinations in the backline, particularly in the 2nd half. I know the result isn't really important but I think our lads probably feel they could of won the match if it hadn't of been for a pretty harsh sin bin which then led to a try and a suicidal offload by Ulugia that gifted Cas possession and ultimately a try.

Positive start though and we definitely gave Cas a good game.

Thought tahraoui and Davies had good debuts. Tahraoui in particular looks a handful. Mullaney was standout player being involved in all three tries. Thought the sin binning turned game to a large extent. Was certainly very harsh. Looked like a lot of time has been spent on defense which looked a lot better than last year. Only downside was injury. Looked like baille did his hamstring.

Overall think well take a lot more positives from game than cas who looked a shadow of last years team despite the result.

It was good to get out and see a game of rugby after such a long gap. Also good to honour Andy Lynch.
It was difficult today to tell which was the Championship and which was the Superleague side. OK I know it was only a friendly but that still bodes well. As previous posters have said I thought Mullaney was great and Shaw looked promising. Who was the young lad who kicked a 40/20 - was it Nathan Conroy? I thought he looked lively.
I think Karl Davies will be immense for us this year. I thought he looked a handful in attack and defence and showed a good passing game. Tahroui might take a little longer but also showed good signs. A good hit out for us, I just wish we didn't drop the ball as much as we did in the second half.

Good hit out. Loads of positives to take away from today. Siejka and Gaskell played Roberts and Gale off the park in that first half. If they'd have played the second half together I think we would have kicked on and won the game. Mullaney looked dangerous every time we had the ball in their 20. Good kicking game as well. Far too many positives, I think I need a sit down.

We played a game with more than 2 props as well. Lord have mercy.

Thought we played well - as mentioned above, it was impossible to tell which side was the championship outfit, and the result was irrelevant, so well done Jimmy Lowes, the first part of the job is done.

As well as what has been said already I thought our goal line defence was much better than at any time last year.

I thought Pitts was very busy and took his try well. I was impressed at how Siejka steered us around and worked well with Gaskell.

Did Nathan Conroy feature today? He was listed in the squad but I'm pretty sure he didn't play.

What team would you go for following today against Leigh? Assuming here that. Blythe, Fergie are fit and BAille is injured

Mullaney
Shaw
Blythe
Purtell
Williams
Gaskell
Siejka
Clough
O'Brien
Sidlow
Ferguson
Walshaw
Pitts

Addy - covers most positions
Ulugia- covers 3 quarter line
Samir
Davies

Very good hit out I thought. Also a very good turnout of Bulls fans filling the railway end despite the miserable cold.
I'd echo others, Mullany was dangerous with ball in hand and Gaskell looked lively throughout both are clearly SL level players and should cause mayhem in the championship. Seijka played well in tandem with Gaskell and none of the new boys looked out of place against a good superleague team. It was all a bit scrappy from both teams to be fair - typical pre season fare, not helped by one of the softest and unnecessary sin binnings we'll see all year. Cas have a few more gears to move through, but looking at today I suspect so do we.

I hope Bailes injury is not too bad, looked like a hamstring, Im guessing he'll miss the rest of preseason.

Overall got to be pleased with today, its great to be back thinking about just rugby and not off field nonsense.

Conroy didn't play IIRC. Halafihi came on for O'Brien and was ok but when O'Brien was on we looked a lot more organised and threatening around the ruck.

At full strength I would go with:

Mullaney
Shaw (Impressive debut today)
Purtell
JPB
Williams
Gaskell
Siejka
Clough
O'Brien
Sidlow
Ferguson
Pitts
Walker (C)
----
Addy
Davies
Luauki
Walshaw

After today's game it's a really tough call as everyone looked like they were out to impress. There is loads of competition for places. Ulugia looked very dangerous as well.

In a good way or a bad way? I won't be judging any of the new players on a few friendly performances in a new country/competition but I thought he struggled a little. Hopefully he was trying a bit too hard on his debut and will settle into the side in the coming weeks.

Ulugia is bigger than I thought he was. He had one great run out of defence which he ruined by throwing an unnecessary pass from which Cas scored almost immediately.

He didn't get much chance to impress since he only played about 30mins in the second half. In that time we were playing into v strong wind and it played havoc with our passing. Perhaps it wasn't the right tactic to chuck the ball around in ghat weather.

I thought Shaw went very well. Williams was solid as was Uaisele. Good to have competition for places.

Interesting to see Harry Siejka was given man of the match in the League Express match report.

He did seem to move the side around well and his kicking was quite good.

We missed him when Lowes brought him off to give Brook a go. The Brook sin binning didn't help. He looks like more of a runner than a playmaker.

Sin binning definitely didn't help. I thought it was a pretty rubbish decision anyway to be honest; From my angle Gale appeared to walk forward into Brook and then fell over him. Considering he could just as easily have pinged Galey for moving off the mark, the sin bin on top was a total over reaction imo
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