'It looked and felt bad on the day and there's no getting away from a very disappointing display.

There was a lot of despondency about among the players and supporters afterwards, but on reflection the margins of failure were a lot finer than the immediate impression.

We were on the receiving end of an eight-to-one penalty count against us in the opening 25 minutes that left us three scores adrift and with the match virtually over as a contest.

If you analyse those penalties, some of them were pretty pernickity as the South African referee wanted to make an early impact, and they had a disproportionate effect on the rest of what happened.

Wharfedale kicked two of them and put another into touch near the corner-flag and then scored following the lineout.

After that the bottom line was that we were unable to hold the ball long enough to get ourselves into scoring positions.

Unfortunately, once we were chasing the game after that difficult opening spell, we didn't keep the ball well ourselves and attempted to use it unwisely, made mistakes and gave it back.

Even so, we actually made more clean breaks than Wharfedale in the match, but because of our poor passing we couldn't make them tell.

They had an outstanding individual in full back Andrew Hodgson, who looked a cut above everyone else on the field.

He has played Rugby League for Bradford Bulls and looked as if he could play at a higher level."

It's clear at this early stage that it is perhaps a more competitive league than ever, and that with the playing squad available - and a third of them are young and inexperienced - it's going to be a challenging season ahead.