Were Wakefield one-season wonders?
Not likely, given the nature of their terrific win at Bradford.
The Wildcats played all the best football, showing plenty of flair, creativity and confidence with ball in hand.
And when Bradford had possession and tried to play their power game down the middle, the Wakefield pack stood tall and refused to be bullied.
The Bulls will be just a little bit worried by their lack of creativity but you'd back them to get it right for the trip to Widnes next week.
London may have been lucky to be trailing by only four points at half-time against Warrington, but they were certainly the better side in the second half at Griffin Park.
Mark McLinden was impressive in their confidence-boosting win. The Broncos have recruited well.
Mind you, so have the Wolves on the evidence of Martin Gleeson's two-try showing on his club debut.
Few gave Leigh much chance of survival ahead of the new season.
Attitudes will not have altered significantly after their defeat at home to Huddersfield.
Only some frantic repairs by a team of electricians got the match on as the floodlights stubbornly refused to work at the Coliseum.
Then Huddersfield made light work of Leigh's newly-promoted enthusiasm.
The Centurions will get better as newly acquired players become more familiar with each other on the field. And in loose forward Jason Ferris, they appear to have a talented leader.
But the improvement needed to stay up may be just beyond them. They have a crucial few weeks coming up.
Huddersfield would have been happy with new boys Chris Thorman, Paul Jackson and Brad Drew, and on this showing can look ahead with optimism.
Leeds were efficient and clinical in beating Hull.
They will look back on their opening night win at the KC stadium with enormous satisfaction as the home side are bound to be much more difficult opponents on their own ground as the season wears on.
Hull's consolation from the game will be that they can only play better and with more fluency, that they have some very good players still to come back from injury and even then they almost sneaked an unlikely win.
Wigan's hearts and minds could have been forgiven for being elsewhere on Friday night, but with or without the Andy Farrell speculation, it is going to be a tough opening few weeks for the Warriors.
Farrell's absence through injury and Luke Davico's disappearance from Wigan's plans have left them short on fire-power up front.
Salford would have fancied their chances of winning at the JJB on Friday and came close to causing an upset.
Danny Tickle gave notice that he could be up for a big season based on his personal performance against the Reds.
Another player who looks set for a big year is Jamie Lyon, St Helens' signing from Australia. Conditions were not perfect at Knowsley Road against Widnes for him to show off his exciting running ability.
But he showed another aspect of his game with some intelligent
attacking kicking that led to two tries.
Widnes showed spirit, but St Helens are purring again. Anyone who ever discounts them from the race for silverware is utterly foolish.
~RS~a~RS~Domestic~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~51~RS~){kind=small}
MMIX
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