Quote G1="G1"I was. And annoyed. I felt sorry for Barrie and agreed with the comments made earlier on the thread that whilst he had an awful game against the Bulls he kept asking for the ball in, in defeat.
I mentioned at the time that it is easy to have a low error count if you do not take the ball in and felt Barrie had been treated harshly.
None of this makes any of the statements I have sought to counter in this thread any more accurate.
We did not play Hull with 2 props. We did not play them with 2 forwards on the bench. Nobody can say with any certainty that different selections would have altered the outcome.
The 17 selected could have won that game. Had three players whose selection has never been questioned (Bai, Calderwood and Mathers) not made howlers we may well have won the game.'"
Calderwood also scored a wonder try that kept us in the game just at the point that Hull's physical superiorty was beginning to tell. As for the last Hull try Cooke simply ran between Sinfield and Ward both of whom were out on their feet.
Smith has always contended a smaller nimbler set of forwards would win the game - obviously influenced by the West Tigers who won the the NRL that year using that style - it was the wrong decision as was the decision to play Senior - hindsight is a great thing but coaches build their reputation on making the right decision when the "money-game is on"
Anyone who thinks his treatment of McDermott was anything but personal malice is deluded - Smith's arrogance was such that he believed whatever side he put out Leeds would win - sadly he was proved catastrophically wrong and it took him another two years to recover.
