Rhinos kick off the season with a win

An exceptional amount of hard work, both behind the scenes and on the training pitch in pre-season, created a buzz around the Rhinos first pre-season game. A game that promised much, after some intense training from new Head Coach Dave Jones, did not disappoint. With Quintin having less than the full compliment of players after an unfortunate incident in a warm up and a player feeling 'hazy', the Rhinos lent them a few players so the game could get underway.

After a scratchy opening with the Rhinos spilling the first kick off and everyone finding their feet after the long summer lay off, the Rhinos started to dominate the game. The scrum was looking menacing and the work around the ruck was looking good in both offense and defense. The new centre partnership of Jack Parker and Jack Green was looking slick with JG taking some excellent lines to bamboozle the opposition and make good yardage into the opposition territory. The first try was scored after Jack Parker took a simple switch ball and crashed over the line taking a few Quintin players with him. Tries came often throughout the first half for the Rhinos with decent organisation from the halfback pairing of Dan Cudlipp and Dan Rycroft, which meant the forwards had direction and consistently created gain-line advantage. There were however some lapses in concentration with Quintin's number 8 taking a quick tap penalty near the Rhinos posts to run over nigh-on unopposed.

The game was run in quarters to allow each team to have a run-down of areas in which they could improve which meant the Rhinos could receive some feedback from the coach on how best to control each facet of the game.

The game continued in much the same vein with each Rhino having the beating of their opposite number for the most part. A final score of 57-21 was recorded after Quintin scored a couple of tries in the last 20 minutes, a feature the Rhinos will have to sort out when coming up against better opposition. A good game all in all, cobwebs well and truly blown out and lots to work on in training until the next game.

Final Score: Rhinos 57 - Quintin 21
MOTM: Ahmet Kobra - great work around the park and some incisive runs in open play