Tonights Game

[cumbria_warrior]

Most the team played well, stand outs for me were Marshall looked dangerous in attack with Gildart every time they had the ball. Sam T had a great game and his tackling was hugely improved, looked far more interested than he did last season.
Just need to keep him in halfback. Escaré looked quick. Struggle to pick a poor performance to be honest

[No straw damn us]

All has really been said, a very good second half performance but we cant get away from the fact that Salford will probably be down in the basement at the end of the season.Sam was superb and ran the show for me, Escare added a bit of pace when he came on and the forwards were good without being great.Sarge though proved he is no centre.

I must have watched a different game to a few on here Cant see what Sarge did wrong played well in defence and made Davies try. He was not great but did as much as most on last night. I am not enthralled with his signing but at least willing to give him a break first game for gods sake.

I agree. However I think he made the wrong decisions twice in the second half. On the first one he passed to Davies who was pretty much covered when a little kick to the corner would have been the better option, then conversely he kicked to the corner when a pass to Davies would have been better IMO.

[ian.birchall]

One worry for me watching the 2 min highlights was the enormous amount of strapping on Gildarts knee at the beginning of the season.

[Southern Softy]

I thought the biggest plus was that as the match went on, we got stronger. All the other sides who played had (mostly) decent first halves and then faded away but if we can keep this fitness advantage, we should do well in the early part of the season.
As for players, Escare must play at full-back all the time with Sam in the halves. Powell and Tommy can alternate at hooker if necessary.

[moto748]

However I think he made the wrong decisions twice in the second half. On the first one he passed to Davies who was pretty much covered when a little kick to the corner would have been the better option, then conversely he kicked to the corner when a pass to Davies would have been better IMO.

Just what I thought, in fact was saying just that in the pub last night. Maybe it was thrown into sharper relief by the excellence of our left edge. Will Burgess walk back into the team? I expect he will, tbh, but there's certainly competition for places, which is good.

[No straw damn us]

However I think he made the wrong decisions twice in the second half. On the first one he passed to Davies who was pretty much covered when a little kick to the corner would have been the better option, then conversely he kicked to the corner when a pass to Davies would have been better IMO.

Just what I thought, in fact was saying just that in the pub last night. Maybe it was thrown into sharper relief by the excellence of our left edge. Will Burgess walk back into the team? I expect he will, tbh, but there's certainly competition for places, which is good.

To be fair to Sarge they were both split second decisions but I think he got them both wrong. On the other hand even added together they weren't as bad as the one Gildart made/didn't make v Leigh.
I thought Marshall did well, but should have scored from the kick in the first half. From that mistake Salford got seven tackles, came upfield and scored the first try of the game.

[moto748]

I thought Marshall did well, but should have scored from the kick in the first half. From that mistake Salford got seven tackles, came upfield and scored the first try of the game.

Didn't get in in time to see that.

Yeah, Gildart's v Leigh was a shocker. We can laugh about it as it was only a pre-season friendly, but had it been in a league match...

[Josie's friend]

Imo Sarge wasn't too bad

[catman]

Reasonable start to the new season, nothing to go over the top about but we looked sharp, fit and enthusiastic. The pre season training has done its job, now comes the difficult bit we've got to improve by about 5% every week something that last year we didn't do if you remember we started well then our level of performance fell away after the wcc.

Salford will struggle this year if they don't improve on that I know it was cold but in the second half it looked like they didn't want to be there.

Last thing Sam at 7 looked good it will be interesting to see if he starts there regularly especially with Escare looking sharp ad well

P.s. Doesn't it feel good to not have that Wakefield game as our last result, let's get it out of our memories

[Fan4Fifty]

It's mostly been said. Went with no great expectation which by half time looked like being confirmed. Second half some really slick handling but all down left side. Sam T in control when at half back; Escare, Williams, Marshall, Gildart all played well

My concern though is that our forwards won't always give us the platform for the backs to shine especially against bigger, better and more aggressive opposition than Salford. We still don't have an Alex Walmseley, Scott Taylor, Chris Hill type 'leader' and I think we'll still struggle for dominance against some forward packs.