I appreciate it is only a friendly and the main aim is to get through it without injury but couple of nagging worries over our go forward again.

It was a real struggle for the team to make any yards with the exception of when Clark, who I thought went well, and Bullock were on.

Let’s hope we can bring in some quality go forward ASAP as we need it.

Only really noticed that in the second half when we were playing kids.

My problem was the end of sets. Biggest difference between the sides, obvious area of improvement needed last year but don't think we put in one decent kick.

Not too concerned but between injuries and players returning from Australia late I'm not expecting us to shoot out of the blocks

Clubb in his 8 minute spell looks 5 stone over weight. His pre season has been spent @ Pizza Express takeaways.

Didn’t really see anything in that game to give me much encouragement that 2021 is going to be any better than 2020 in consistency or reliance upon French/Hastings to do something to be honest. Go forward was poor and we lacked general direction on the field.

Whilst I appreciate it’s a friendly, and the first one at that, i expected far better than what was served up.

I was impressed with Clark. He put in a shift and was probably the best prop.

Hopefully it's (very) early signs of him kicking on for his 2nd season.

That game showed why we needed a friendly. We looked second best when we started to change things around. A couple of players are well off the pace at the moment and you can see why we pay big bucks to some but who were mainly absent today. I agree that our go forward still seems weak and when we win so few collisions we will always struggle. I hope that Harry Smith has got that one out of his system. His kicking was poor and he is still not a dominant figure. We have got plenty of fire power to come back in but I am not confident that Leigh will roll over for us. Byrne did well.
On the plus side we generally defended well and once again the youngsters did not let themselves down but a couple really need some game time this season or they will end up not having played much in two seasons.
My big worry is that most of our best forwards got a run out today and nobody really dominated. We cannot rely on one up runners to win games.

I agree there. Showed up well, perhaps a kick up the booty was what he needed.

This problem just becomes more and more prominent.

Same old pattern of making next to no metres in our own 20, clearing kick, defend in our own half. Pattern continues until we get a penalty.

We were useless with the ball partly because there was no energy left to attack with (obviously the missing players are the other part).

Smith and Bibby really poor, Clark was the only one who stood out. Bateman did OK in the first half.

Might be a struggle early on until the big names come back and get some game time.

I wouldn’t read a great deal in to a friendly but we do need to find some go forward through the middle from somewhere. It isn’t going to come to any great degree from Singleton or Partington but they do bring other qualities. There will be a big reliance on Bullock and Havard. Looking at today Clark and Kilner could really push for a place in the first 17.

It's mega frustrating how bad our last play options are. When you then factor in how good our defence can be, it's almost criminal.

If you stuck a Deacon in this side, we'd be pinning teams back in the corner and then forcing errors with our D.

Kinda negates one of our best assets really.

Smith really did have a nightmare today unfortunately - his kicking game is normally a strength but really struggled for any distance or accuracy.

I actually liked how angry he looked with himself - shows how far off he was from what he expects.

To be fair to Harry Smith, and I've watched him from him being 15 years old, that's the worst I've ever see him perform from a kicking point of view. I don't know if it got into his head about the one he dropped over the line for a certain try but it sometimes happens that things don't go for you. It's how you react that is important, and I think he'll be fine.

I didn't think there was much of an issue with the pack. The established players played pretty well. The young players defended well when they were on. I'm not sure what people were expecting but it was a bit of a slog for both teams down the middle. The main difference was the kicking game. Our last tackles options were almost always poor, Salford came up with some decent end of set plays. It meant they got the better of field position.

I thought our struggles to get out of our own 20 or 30 were more to do with our absentees in the outside backs, as it's their quick carries and footwork that helps in that situation. Sio, Sarginson, Watkins and Inu were more effective on that front.

There's not much you can really take from that game. It was tight as you would expect with the conditions. Salford took advantage of our left edge defence which was a bit of a weak spot but except for dealing with last tackle plays I thought the team went okay.

Manfredi out for a few weeks with a thumb injury.

He can’t buy a bit of luck.

So you are the fan that's put him on a pedestal

Last season he looked very good with the right kind of support around him but I do not think anyone said that he was the finished article. He had a bad day at the office today but then everyone does. Most of us have learned not to go too far either way based on one performance.

Meh, it's a friendly. In 2013 Leigh tonked us 30-6 in pre season and we went on to win the double. I don't think it bears much resemblance to what would have happened if 2 points were on the line. Things I picked up (with one eye on the game to be honest, I get bored quickly during friendlies when I'm not at the ground and the subs start coming on) Singleton put a couple of big hits in defence. Hardaker and Bibby had a serious case of the dropsies. I didn't notice Hanley for good or bad which is an upgrade on his debut, glad he has that Saints game out of his system now.

Edit - scratch that about Hanley, I missed the last try where he was bulldozed.

Manfredis injuries are a liability, we have let 2 very good wingers go in Davies and Burgess and are relying on him staying fit, it’s not working.

With regards to today’s performance I’m not too worried, our top 5 attacking players were all missing so our attack was obviously not up to par, decent defence and a good run out for some young lads. McDonnell is never a centre though and Bibby is not a winger, just hope we don’t go with that combination for the first few rounds...

totally agree

So now I get it we have half the team missing all attaching players- Manfredi,French,Hastings,Marshall,Field,Gildart and our attach isnt that good.
We defended well, forwards played well, youngsters played well, all is well for the future, as pointed out we wasnt that good last season just got to the final and won the shield maybe we could do one better and win the final.

Granted it was only a friendly, but it again highlighted for me that Tony Clubb should be nowhere near our 17.

Sadly though I think we know he will be.

After albeit brief sightings yesterday of the props, I’d have my selection order as-

1-Bullock
2-Singleton
3-Havard
4-Partington
5-Clark
6-Byrne
7-Kilner
8-Clubb

But I expect Clubb will slot in at 5 and get a place on the bench and the others will slip a place.

You can't keep everyone,Davies wanted guaranteed first team rugby and Burgess's attitude stank most of the time,he only played when he wanted to

Yeah i must agree,whenever I've seen him play both first team and the reserves at Robin Park he has always seemed to be on top of his kicking game,everyone is allowed an off day although you wouldn't think so judging by some of the comments on here

How good do you think he can be Brian? This isn't just based on yesterday but I feel in general he is a little over hyped. IMO potential to be a mid table SL half but not sure he's the international prospect that some have made him out to be.