A good run out for sure, for 50 minutes we looked quite fluent with the ball and our go forward was as good as last year. The difference this year is how clinical we were but also how much strike we seemed to have with Frank and Carlos providing great offloads and Fonua's great strength, footwork and good handling skills too.

Sneyd and Pryce couldn't ask for a better set of forwards to work behind. Taylor and watts were outstanding, good yards, offloads and punishing hits.

Thought Houghton looked good and washbrook slotted in well running good lines and gave good service.

For me though the team spirit and engagement with the fans was outstanding

A good performance for the middle part of the game and the pack lived up to its billing.
Pivots more fluent without Westerman, general expansiveness had stepped on.
Edge defence not great, conceding 4 tries a concern.
Rovers looked like the Dementors from Harry Potter had sucked out their souls by the end, not speaking, hands on hips.

great display of attacking rugby today impressed the way we came in number to support play when we broke the line which was often really impressed with price he looks full of running and a real handful, all the new guys impressed Frank going to be a real handful hes going to have a ball over here rovers looked very lightweight and weak

1. westerman is not going to be missed
2. taylor and watts are going to cause a lot of problems to a lot of teams
3. fonua is going to entertain - possibly at both ends of the pitch
4. rovers need all their best players on the pitch to stand any chance
5. lets hope injuries don't wreck our season and this squad could go top 4

but it was only a friendly and they don't mean anything of course

For all the woes of last yr we at least have some options that are tested and indeed some good options regarding number 5.
Tala n ellis to come back in for a start as well on today

Thoughts?

We must surely be over the beard quota.

Thought the ground staff had excelled with their pitch marking.

When Talanoa comes back in we're going to have 2 of the fast play of the ball/penalty winning metre making wingers in the league. Both him and Fonua have similar strengths and that momentum is gonna be great for our forwards n Houghton too play off. Fonua showed he's gonna be hard to handle.
All the new signings had great games. Manu looks like he's gonna add some real mongrel to us. Pritchard looks what he promised to be.
watts n taylor were great. But I thought green and Bowden had good spells too. When ellis is back I it will be a strong start and rotation prop wise!

think Bowden will make the starting 17 for Salford

looking forward to some of our attempts to pick a starting 13 for salford

oh and i thought sneyd played really well today considering he had a torn bicep