Pretty anonymous. He played about 15 mins, Dud. Like everyone else in our side, he wasn't able to stop Garbutt and Singleton and the Leeds offloading game.

you only played fc b team you got hammered by leeds a team

Could only listen from time to time at work, and much as I wanted him to be a success you didn't hear him mentioned much. Think he'll struggle for game time this year unfortunately.

Better - yes. Country mile - nah. More like country 5 yards.

Leeds looked like a team who had played together for a long time and their systems showed that. Defensively solid too. Burrow and Garbutt a class apart and Golding excellent at Fullback.

Hull KR a team of strangers getting to know one another equating to below par execution.

you must have been in the cricket stadium the game I watched was pretty even baring the odd thing as mentioned

and

As sharp as we've come to expect from you there Razor.

I assume that the distinction between hammering and merely playing a team lies at ~25 points then? #BlameJordanAbdull.

But here's the thing: while there have certainly been worse teams in SL than those Rovers fielded in recent years, there came to be a feeling, IMO, that we were never far from a pratfall. I'd list them, for me it'd be cathartic, but I know others users prefer to look forward without picking at the scabs, so I'll leave it. To say they were numerous is sufficient.

So for now we're happy just for signs that a corner has been turned. A normal preseason, with performances in friendlies that don't fill us with foreboding. A fixture list we can look at with anticipation rather than apprehension. A coherent recruitment policy. A derejection (new word) of loan signings. Desire and all that other stuff that I have come to value if not completely understand in recent seasons.

It might not last, but so far no nasty surprises.

really? pretty even? you hardly got out of your half in the second half


scoreline was a hammering but doesn't reflect the game? crackers

Wembley was a hammering, there was certainly a gulf in class that day. However I would disagree with the term hammering for last nights game. Leeds were certainly the better side and in all fairness that is not something that surprised me, it is obvious to all who watch RL that last season was abnormal in terms of what we expect Leeds to do, the loss of key players through either retirement or injury combined with the difficulties of finding a stable training base certainly hit you and was reflected in your results and subsequent league position. From my point of view the Leeds of last night was back to a solid defence with the ability to punish any mistakes that the opposition makes. The defensive pressure that you put on Rovers caused the mistakes that were converted into points. In contrast Rovers were unable to do the same, partly I believe through inexperience of both the majority of our players and of playing together. In reality there will be many SL teams who will be leaving Leeds on the wrong end of a much worse scoreline. Obviously just my opinion but I would certainly not expect to be meeting Leeds in the middle 8's if we are fortunate to get there.

Obviously you disagree with Rover 2000, Tad. Keep it real though.

Yes, you were the better team in the second half only. You defended very well throughout. You were well worth the win and it was good to see Leeds rediscover their 2015 mojo.

However, the scoreline doesn't really reflect the difference between the teams, which I expected would be more heavily weighted in your favour. Our unfamiliarity with one another, our lack of concentration, your ability to punish errors, the luck of the bounce, a sublime but flukey Joel Moon pickup from a crap pass and a dodgy refereeing decision to disallow us a try from a flat pass were the reasons.

Hardly the dry bumming of Wembley 2015, but after your 4th try 5 minutes into the second half, the game was over and you were able to relax.

ok your team did show passion on I hope you are back in super league ,my point was we played a very young team against you .

And your full strength side scraped by a league one side who'd never played a game before so I guess nobody is king

Absolutely, and apart from (arguably) Oldham in 2017 we didn't play a team as weak (no disrespect intended to the Hull youngsters) as the one you fielded in the friendly derby. However, Oldham did beat us.

So while we shouldn't get carried away with how much better we looked - I'd probably look like Jonah Lomu in his prime if I was playing under-8s - the very early signs were, with the relevant caveats, were positive.

A bit of confidence gained versus an understrength Hull, and then Leeds keeping our feet on the floor without embarrassing us. It's worked out pretty well.

Come on Frankie, you are better than this...

full strength

I'm not

The Hull FC lot on here really do seem a bit cut up that an fc team with an ave age of 22 got (as I understand it) beaten by a Kr team with an ave age of 23. Yes nobody is denying that fc had a young inexperienced side out, and we had at least half of our first choice 13. But we did what we needed to do, which was to beat what was put in front of us. Instead of whining at us, you would be better asking your club why they put such a weak side out against us.

Hull are playing quite a few friendlies this year and seem to be waiting to ease in most of their senior players, while giving some of the more junior players a chance to stretch themselves.

The result doesn't and shouldn't matter. We looked like a good Championship team (which was a relief) playing against a team of very mixed ability. Leeds, playing a more familiar looking team, was always going to be a sterner test, but from what I've heard there were some encouraging signs, again allowing for the quality of the opposition.

I know necessity is the mother of invention, but Liam Salter in the second row as I witnessed at Leeds is stretching utility value assessments beyond credible limits Mr Sheens. It's hard enough seeing Chris Clarkson at prop.

What next - Ryan Shaw at loose forward or perhaps Graeme Horne at centre.

Id sooner see us experiment in trial matches rather than when the season starts. Personally I think that Salter is a good stone away from being able to play in the back row but don't forget that he played a big chunk of his Academy rugby as a second row forward (successfully too) so going forward it could be a viable option.
I am taking it that Sheens is looking at ways to accommodate Salter, Minns and Heffernan into his 17.

Doubtful, more like Jona Lewie.

I agree with you entirely. You have made the point that I was trying to infer in my post above, but failed. Namely Salter and Clarkson are a good 1-2 stones too light for the position they were asked to play against a much larger Leeds forward collective. I know Tim Sheens is still looking for forward reinforcements down the line. Ben Kavanagh signed too late to play at Leeds as well.

Butler-Fleming is still to debut into the back line, which may push Salter further down the pecking order at centre.

Would be surprised once jbf is fit if salter gets a look in in the three quarters, too small for back row too.....

Looking at the HDM reports about the preseason training camp, this is infinitely better than the reports of preseason 2016 which didn't really exist apart from allegedly helping out with flood victims to promote team bonding. Makes you wonder what the hell Chester was thinking.

11 days to go......

Feeling more optimistic about this season then I have done for years!!