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ANDREW SUTCLIFFE

Up to the heady heights of ninth in the table after a good win against Catalans Dragons last Sunday. Not a perfect performance by any stretch but we did enough against a big Catalan pack and some interesting referee decisions.

Robert Lui will get better with more training sessions but more importantly he gave Richie Myler scope to have good game.

Catalans were poor in most aspects and our win should give us confidence going forward but there is still plenty to work on. We are still in a fight for points to ensure our survival.

Sunday morning saw the announcement of a new signing which I think took most by surprise. New blood into the pack is needed and Rhyse Martin should be a good addition. The reports from Australia appear positive too. This week is the third instalment of the Castleford fixtures. We’ve struggled at their place recently but hopefully the introduction of some returning and new players to freshen the team up will help. Can we keep up the momentum and drag ourselves away from the bottom?

LUKE CROSSFIELD

After Hull KR won the Hull derby last Thursday it was very good to see us respond with a good victory over Catalans Dragons.

It was nice to see us for the first time since the 2017 Grand Final have a genuine stand-off and Richie Myler looked a much better player with Robert Lui as his half-back.

Early days I know, however it is promising.

Adam Cuthbertson was unplayable in the first half especially.

I like the transfer dealings that we have made, the only disappointment I have is seeing Matt Parcell go to one of our relegation rivals however that had to be made to sign Rhyse Martin.

I think he is a good pick up for us and he is a very good goal kicker.

Onto Friday night’s trip across to Castleford Tigers and they had a good win over London Broncos on Sunday.

They have not been in great form before that game and it would be nice to see us get a win at The Jungle for the first since Good Friday 2015.

OLIVER HAWKHEAD

If you know anyone who doesn’t usually come to games but went to Sunday’s game then please beg them to come for the remainder the of the season.

I would say this performance was the best all year. We won the game, or rather Catalans lost the game, in the first 10-15 minutes. I thought we were relatively lucky with some decisions and incidents such as Tom Briscoe’s try and the David Mead no-try.

However I guess you ride your luck and I think it’s clear our defensive efforts are much improved under Richard Agar compared to Dave Furner.

I’m not ashamed to say I didn’t give us a chance after seeing the teamsheets.

I thought our forward pack would struggle against players such as Sam Kasiano who was the deciding factor in the reverse fixture. However, I thought James Donaldson’s tackling was tremendous and, for me, Adam Cuthbertson was man of the match. All of our subs had a part to play, however I don’t think Cameron Smith’s best position is hooker.

Hopefully we can use this victory and a home crowd to get the better of Hull KR in a crucial game.

THOMAS LAWRENCE

Well this has been an active few days hasn’t it? I must admit I had ominous feelings towards our end of the bargain with the Shaun Lunt/Matt Parcell and Robert Lui/Tui Lolohea swap deals, but I am content for time to tell.

As for Sunday, well…Sunday was a good day. Waking up to hear of the signing of Rhyse Martin foreshadowed the happiness of victory in the afternoon – we finally have what I consider as a proper goal-kicker for the first time since 2015 and with that a very good back-row forward too, get him on the plane!

What is pleasing is that Sunday’s game had a genuine ‘must-win’ feel to it given our recent results as well as recent wins for London and Hull KR, and we did the job. Comfortably too, against a strong Catalans Dragons side. Can we kick on from here with what feels like a new squad in mid-season? I certainly hope so.

Something else that we haven’t had since 2015 is a win at Castleford, but a win on Friday night would be a real bonus for us after a weekend that could have left us rock bottom, but actually left us ninth. Come on Leeds!

TIM NUTTALL

It has definitely been an eventful time at Headingley; hopefully we have come out on the right side of the transfer deals and it can improve us.

My gut instinct is that we have, although I am sorry to see Matt Parcell leave us and a shame Kallum Watkins didn’t get a send off. When Hull KR won the Hull derby, the game with the Catalans Dragons took on more significance.

Even though there would have been enough games left to catch up, it did feel like a must-win.

Thankfully the boys responded and picked up the two points, and put in a promising performance to boot.

The positives for me are that we looked a bit more threatening with ball in hand, there were decent early signs of a good partnership between Robert Lui and Richie Myler and a good strong performance from the pack.

Hopefully we can take this result into our game with Castleford Tigers on Friday, it won’t be easy but we matched them for parts of the game at Headingley recently, I think we are better since then.

Let’s hope we can get back-to-back wins.

KATIE BURROWS

A quick start and an 80-minute performance boosted us to ninth in the table last weekend.

There is still plenty to work on for Friday – there were a few senseless errors, including a howler due to miscommunication between Jack Walker and Ash Handley, which could have been costly, but overall, we were much, much better.

Richie Myler deserved the man-of-the match accolade and, while I’m not overwhelmed by the signing of Robert Lui, I am interested to see how their partnership develops and hopeful that we will continue to improve with two experienced half-backs (at last).

One thing that stood out was the reaction from the players when the game wasn’t going our way; earlier this season our heads would’ve dropped and we’d have conceded soft tries, but the fact that we didn’t showed a different side to us.

I fancy our chances at Castleford on Friday, especially if we can continue to improve. We can’t move up the table this week, but if results go our way again (Salford beat Huddersfield, Wigan beat Hull KR and Warrington beat London), we’ll have some much-needed breathing space.