Key guided Leeds to a 10th-placed finish last season

Leeds director of rugby Andy Key believes plenty of positives came out of his side's defeat by Top 14 side Agen in their opening pre-season game.

Key's side ended their week-long training camp in France by fielding an experimental team in the 31-6 loss.

Following the defeat he told Leeds Carnegie TV: "The boys are disappointed but that says a lot about how competitive they are as a group.

"It was very pleasing to see some of the performances from the new guys."

While it was Leeds' first pre-season outing, it was Agen's final warm up ahead of their season-opener next week.

Key added: "We have worked the players really hard this week with their conditioning and you would not do that if you were desperate to win a game at the end of the week.

"It was especially pleasing to welcome back Danny Paul after a long lay off through injury.

Their attitude in training has been first class Leeds director of rugby Andy Key

"The true test of our efforts this week will come next week when we play Ospreys at Headingley.

"They are a side who are at a similar level of preparation for their season as us, so that will give us a good indication of where we are with our plans.

"Agen begin their season next week so we always knew this would be a tough challenge for us so our performance against that background is particularly pleasing."

Leeds were without skipper Marco Wentzel, England pair Steve Thompson and Hendre Fourie, and centre Scott Barrow.

"We always knew that some players would not be involved this week but their attitude in training has been first class," added Key.

"The likes of Hendre Fourie and Marco Wentzel are coming back from close season operations whilst Steve Thompson is getting over a slight injury. However Steve has trained extremely hard this week and really contributed to our squad."

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