Our first teamers getting spanked by their youngsters.

With the teams on display we should have won this game comprehensibly.
To get stuffed so badly isn't good to the paying speccies.

Doesn't mean a great deal at this stage but the margain of defeat given the team line ups is the worry. Still sometimes you learn more from that kind of friendly game than a win. Plenty to work on over the next 6 weeks.

A good first quarter and last 5 minutes. Other than not much to shout about. Owen had a stinker.

After today's showing, young Johnston should be above Owen in the squad, at least Johnston tried, 3 year contract?

Johnston looked good today. We were scratching our heads about Owen's three year contract.

Our young players all went well and Miller & Hall both looked sharp but Leeds certainly exploited our right hand side.
Ash Handley (Ryan Halls understudy) scored 5 tries and whilst you have to give him credit for playing well, it may be a worry for Webster, just how easy it was for a young Rhinos outfit to so easily rip us apart.
At least it wasn't raining/snowing and there were plenty of folk there.

Trinity showed some nice touches and at this stage of the preparation it's not the end of the world but I would say it is a setback.

Trinity we're going fairly well until Leeds realised how poor the right hand side was and from that point on totally exploited it to run away with the match.

My main concern apart from sloppy deffending which again could almost be excused to a certain extent given the time of year is the real lack of pace in the team, and where it is going to come from, at times it looked like they were almost going in reverse they were so slow.

Smith and Miller seemed to combine well but the main problem was a lack of strike/direct runners for most of the game. The backrow started to do it towards the back end of the game running strike lines and it worked.

Not ideal and it shows there is still a lot to work on but not the end of the world either. For me it was just great to get a rugby fix again!


Anyway more importantly Merry Christmas and a Healthy Happy New to you all.

Agree. We were saying exactly the same thing. Owen was terrible, could neither tackle or run with the ball and seemed to have no pace for a winger. On this performance you'd have to question why Peter Fox was let go and can't get a game because he could at least run with the ball.

Think Johnstone was one of the few positives from the game along with Miller, Ashurst, Hall and Kirke. Simon and Paea were a bit disappointing.

Johnstone was quick, strong and overall good defensively (like the throw of Aiton to the floor which not many could do). Taking his opposite on and passing inside for Miller's try was true class. He should take the winger positions with Riley.

Thought Wakey seemed to not be on the same level of fitness as Leeds and energy levels dropped after the first 30 mins. As said there is a lot of work to do not only on defensive structures but also in the gym possibly.

my main concern is fitness again if your not the most talented then work twice as hard as anyone else in training.

owen looked like a traffic warden in defense today,but that is nothing new there imo

i was really surprised when you signed him,cas were apparently delighted to get his £100k contract off their books

your halves looked very good in parts

Same old Trinity? Yep! No pace in the team. Knock on from kick-off receipt at 0-12. Headshot from Anakin at 6-18. Ball steal Ryan. Knock ons, take your pick.

Nice day out but guess over-riding thought for majority of 10,500 crowd was what the hell is Owen doing on a Rugby pitch. It certainly aint taking part in the game!

Agreed send Owen on loan and use Johnston and Riley as wingers

This must beat all known records, moaning after one pointless pre season friendly. What did you expect, the season is still two months away, I doubt we will see that centre partnership too often. I wish I had a pound for every time someone suggests a player be loaned out, I could buy a place in Portugal, but following the first friendly.

Problem is, with Owen we're all waiting for him to show us some +ve action. He was opposite a school kid and a full back who had the physique and hair of a lass but still he looked 2nd best.

Owen is crap - simples

To be honest, I didn't think your bunch were that good in spells. The first twenty was all you and Leeds hardly got into Trinity's half. Owen was awful, that's one player out of 20+ and it may well have just been a bad day at the office. Plenty of quality in the side and plenty of time to get things sorted. Decent support from you lot too and the Santa kit was the winner of the god-awful snowman job.

Owen lined up to be this years scapegoat then??

Don't rate Clawson, never have, until he leaves the team will always struggle in this department.

Seems a popular bloke, we'll know in the rugby community, sadly that does not make you good at the job.

Festive Challenge 2014 highlights www.therhinos.co.uk/matchdaytv/? ... a&id=19877

Festive Challenge 2014 highlights www.therhinos.co.uk/matchdaytv/? ... a&id=19877

I'm not going to read too much into the game, it's a one off, a lot of debutants, players out of position and nowhere near in season ready condition.

Most of what I think has already been mentioned on this thread including how on earth does Richard Owen deserve a 3 year contract.
Tom Johnstone isn't a suprise to those who've watched him progress.
Craig Halls a good signing but has his flaws
To see the best of Miller he needs to be allowed to settle into one position
Washbrook is either a back rower or nothing Dan Smith is a better option though.
Agree very much with Mopsey regards fitness, if we can't be the best then we should at least be the fittest team in the competition!

For me the main difference was that Leeds looked as if they had been playing together for years but Trin looked like strangers. I stuck up for ages for Rich on the Cas board as I thought he came in for some unfair stick but he was shocking today. He's got the lot if he want's to use it and can be outstanding on his day but the main problem seems to be in his head.

Its a bad time of year for him right now.

Makes you wonder why he made himself available yesterday?. Thing is its a pre-season game, he scored some important tries that won Wakey a fair few games last season. Probably best for the pitch fork brigade to remember that.

Are you saying you're happy with his performance? I don't want to pitchfork anyone, unless it's in the backside to get them to perform better!

Some players are carrot and some are stick, I'm not sure what makes Richie tick, and we desperately need him to believe in himself as we don't have a wealth of options. Us slating him on here probably doesn't help, but we can't change what we saw!