Stuck here in Surrey so couldn't make today.

It looked like we were predictably outclassed by a very strong Giants team but are we showing signs of improving? Are there new patterns to our play, better defense? I feel we would have been even more heavily walloped last season.

Reviews are much appreciated

Yes please, how big was the crowd, home v away?

You will have to wait till that we'll known Fax Rugby Guru GFB gives his verdict.

Crowd 2014

Well I couldn't find many positives from today apart from having a run out. Hardly any moves or clean breaks. Defence at times o.k., poor at others. Shudds looked stronger and quicker which is to be expected unfortunately. But, as winning at HKR meant nowt, neither does today. Decent crowd for a training session about 50/50 of 2,000 ish. Grove, shudds. Durham White Velvet 4.2 % Mmm!

Without wishing to steal GFB's thunder Charlie, i was at the Shay today with Mrs LTD and we felt the following was where we are at:
Hudds put out a very strong side.
They were simply too big, too fast and won the ruck area and punished Fax's mistakes with clinical finishing.
We struggled to make many breaks against a very fast defence(offside at times but got away with it so you play to that)
That said they was some great scrambling defence on show.
We finished strongly at the end of both halves (better than letting opposition do that like we did last year!)
Not a Hull KR player in sight
Ground very heavy so negated Johnstone and Greenwoods twinkle toes!
Both Aussies showed some good touches with the prop getting hitman award and M.O.M.
All props contributed and will cause some problems against lesser opposition.
Some fisticuffs at times but nothing to worry the disciplinary board.
The PA announcer and system needs a review ! I didn't realise our new off season sigining was Norman Collier - complete with on/off mic!
Attendance announced as 14!
Plenty of Hudds fans in East stand and also a section in South stand
Golden gamble prize £189.
Will that do you?

That's very disappointing Malcolm, how many did Huddersfield bring.
I know it's easy for me to say, not being there, Yes it was only a friendly but a chance to see our new start against Super League opponents.
2014.

How did Robbo and Luke go.

From memory Robbo played in the second row and lasted full half then changes made. Luke was spelled with Richard Moore and the aussie prop. I am probably used to watching Luke being the dominant Fax prop and being on the field for most of the game that he didn't have the same impact today as I think the other props also contributed a lot more than those last year so he wasn't ploughing a lonely furrow today.Good sign that for me.
(Hudds pack big physical side as well-Crabtree off the bench!)

Possibly a little bit of artistic license regarding the crowd (even the North end section of the stand had a few folk in it), but from what I could see probably more Giants fans that Fax. A bit of a disappointing turnout to be honest from the blue 'n' white today - close to full price entry won't have helped though.

Game was a a bit boring on the whole, without a single real break for us until the last few minutes. Some glimmerings of a decent team for us, but snuffed out by a well organised Giants team that were obviously very keen on winning the game and showing their Championship neighbours where they belong! We kept going for the full 80, although a large squad and lots of interchanges will have helped that.

Slightly spoiled by the Giants bloke behind us, who brought his three young kids with him and then proceeded to come out with a stream of obscenities all through the game (the nonsensical stuff such as the opposition always being offside and your team never is).

It went as expected against Huddersfield's first team as far as I could see.
They are after all a top 4 SL team so come on we were never going to get near them really.
We struggled to break their line and made some silly errors but its what friendlies are for you learn from them hopefully, nobody shone but there was some good efforts from Ben Johnson at times and Cahalane.
We did look a bit out of our depth at times but finished strongly which was a good sign on the fitness front it was a heavy pitch, defence did okay worked hard and got a couple of tough calls off the Ref, still need to be a bit more creative but still better for the most part than last season. I think we need another centre as saxton is a bit too slow for me now bless him and poor under the high ball, he lost out again today for one of their tries.

Pretty much what LTD said.

Personally I were pretty impressed with what I saw despite the scoreline. It cant be stated enough the quality of the Huddersfield team that we played against.

They snuffed us out in attack which is to be totally expected, if we were allowed time on the ball against such superior opposition I would have been amazed. That said we did create one or two little half breaks and caused confusion in their defence a number of times with offloads out of the tackle, something that Paul Anderson would not have been pleased about. Our scrambling defence at times was top draw and their first 3 tries came from bad errors that lesser teams will probably not have forced. Their 4th and 5th tries I would imagine RM will be disappointed with as we were very slack and looked very tired and run off our feet which should not happen as much against teams from our division.

Negatives I thought from the game - Im hoping Sheriffe retired again after this game, nowhere near the standard we should be aiming for and unless Joe Martin is injured I cant see the sense in playing Sheriffe in front of him if RM wants to know who his cover at full back is. Potts didnt have the best of games either and with his pace negated because of the pitch I think we will get a lot more from Brown and cant see Potts getting much game time. We struggled again at hooker but that might have been a lot to do with the pace with which Hudds let us play. Other thing that will be interesting is if RM keeps up with playing a half back off the bench rather than at 13 and after today Im not sure he will know who he is going with out of Murrell, Place, and Johnson all of which at times showed glimpses of what they are capable of.

Positives - Saltonstall gave RM something to think about and had a really strong game, with Taylor rested and probably a shoe in for one centre berth he has probably put a bit of pressure on Tyrer for the other spot. Massive positive was our forwards were not run over by their opposites. Calahane is a beast and if he keeps that up we have a top player there. In Moore, Ambler and him we have some real beef upfront this season.

Another thing to consider as well was that we started the game with probably about 6 players starting who are likely to miss out starting in the Haven game. In the second half with a more likely line up on the pitch we looked a lot better than the first. laying some of the lower teams in friendlys can be a total waste of time because it can lull you in to a false sense of security but playing a team as good as this shows us where the bar is set and we will take more out of that game than say flogging someone like York or someone like that.