You are right about our numbers, like yours should have been white.

Don’t think we ran out of steam, Leigh changed all our first choice pack at about 30 minutes just before you scored. As far as I could tell we played the second half with just Hardaker, Moylan and Lam, from our first choice 13. I was a bit surprised that none of our starting pack came back on as this is our only warm up game.

Agreed glow, we never ran out of steam, our boys are fitter than a butchers dog. I went to the game yesterday, and i was totally impressed with what i saw.

What perplexes me is that surely the whole point of a friendly like this (apart from the testimonial aspect, in this instance) is to prepare for Round One as well as possible, by giving the likely 1-17 match fitness and enabling them to work on their combinations in a match setting rather than just in training. I'm not sure how making wholesale changes at half-time is beneficial in that regard. Losing the match doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of things, I suppose, but it feels a bit deflating all the same, at a time when we should all be excited for the new season. As has been said earlier, though, we won the friendly against Leigh last year and it turned out to be a very poor indicator of the seasons we would both go on to have.

drinkwater being left out the entire game says a few things

This may be sacrilege considering he is a home grown player and exciting in attack, but from the highlights I am not sure Connor Wrench's defence has improved much from last year.

Were there any clues about 'how' we intend to play this season?

Provided we have enough fitness to avoid picking up a raft of injuries in the first few games, I don't mind us being a bit undercooked early on as it is a ridiculously long season and many a promising opening has burned out mid-season. But it is important that there is some kind of plan for what team we want to be and when we will be it, as there are also precedents of coaches saying 'we will come good' and nothing obviously changing from one game to the next.

I can only think that we are more concerned than we are letting on about injuries. If all the squad were fit surely our "first" team would want to play together for more minutes.

Don't worry everyone, we're just lulling the rest of the league into a false sense of security and superiority before we steam through the season unbeaten [size=50(Copyright Rubber Duckie Enterprises)[/size

Seriously though, if we're 8 games in and there's still no visible difference to last season then no amount of fresh coaching blood will change things, be it Sam Burgess or Wayne Bennett.

Let's wait & see.....Come on you Wire!!

If things don't work out for Burgess ,Sam Allardyce might be available .

I was there as a neutral, when Mulhern/Asiata/Ipape/Amone were on Wires pack was no match (although missing their best forward in Vaughan).

Positive for Wire was some of the young lads who played the second half looked handy and not too far off SL level.

In this case, we shut down Warrington Wolves Inc. lay everyone off, and finally put the old culture to bed. Then Middleton and Moran swap places again and we reopen as Warrington Wire XL Bullys Inc., recruiting an entire new playing roster, coaching structure and club management. We invite investment from Sicilian Mafia types to ensure the playing staff are 'incentivised' in the severest possible sense to give a return on said investment.

That would be my pitch should I apply for KFP's position when it becomes available.

Exactly. It will mean we have not be changing the personnel/things we should be changing.

Who/what are the ever presents ?

No but we could avoid offering recent contracts of 5 years worth of salary cap to pack members that keep getting bested. Just a thought.

Can’t read too much in that game due the changes made by both teams.. Leigh looked fit and quick with plenty of back up runners.. Wite looked slow and disinterested.. the young lads who played second half a few of them have to be knocking on for a few games this season..

Taking a leaf straight out of the senior players' book then

From what I have heard the pre season game was anything but encouraging for Wire but all will be revealed in the Cats game. Then we can move on from the "it's just a friendly" defence to "time to gel".

As long as we don’t get the dreaded “We’ve trained well all week”, or “I know what kind of a team I’ve got here”

Talking of "time to gel" I understand Leigh's new half back tore us a new one? Is that correct?

I have only watched the game today & was pleased with the effort & commitment shown by the young lads, some of whom could be the future for the club.
I think we need more mobility in our attack to create second phase running & overlaps. Ironically, the youngsters seem more gifted in that aspect.

It's strange the way that the first team just didn't act on this, as you'd think the mindset and plan would be the same as how Gleeson prepared the academy team against Widnes.

It can't just be attitude can it?

one thing i did notice, nearly every single hit up, instantaneous turning for the offload, so it seemed, the offloads didn't occur but it was noticeable of the body twisting.

Hopefully with the intention that the offload is an option if it's definitely on. What we don't want is giving away cheap possession, which Burgess has implicitly stated he doesn't want to do. Williams and Walker are always hanging round to take advantage and create though, and I think Burgess has a plan for that.

Would you say the twisting effort reduced the go-forward in the tackle? Maybe we're still perfecting it and that's why we appeared to lose the collision.

Maybe didnt want to give too much await in pre season and it’s all part of the master plan.*


*CH has just got back from a lovely holiday,is jet lagged and in one of his overly optimistic moods.

Makes sense with Dufty, Williams, walker etc always waiting for an offload to be looking for it. But yeah i just hope it doesn't end up like Kasiano who ended up forcing an offload every play.

Perhaps this highlights that a top coach should be in charge of Academy teams ,throughout RL, to ensure Academy products really are the future of the game & the players can hit the ground running when they get to the top flight.