Talking of Joel Monaghan, his performance once again begs the question; why didn't we sign him as a replacement for Senior?

It is simplistic to pin point the style play for the whole problem but, it is a large factor none the less. This year we have been playing a very tight off the shoulder passing game, with plays made very close to the defensive line. However, the problem with that style of play is that timing has to be perfect and on Saturday we lost possession on several occassions because the passes were a fraction of a second too late. If we can rectify those slight errors in execution, we will improve greatly. In short, I can see what they are trying to do but, they are yet to be wholly successful in doing it.

My impression on Saturday was that we had made enough breaks to win the game and demonstrated that we could beat them, if our defensive game was up to scratch. The stats seem to suggest that impression was right. However, as things stabnd is our defence is terrible. O'Meley's two tries plus a dive from dummy half and simple step inside on Saturday suggest that our work around the ruck, ability to dominate the tackle and line speed are poor. In my view, the coaching shows up when a team doesn't have the ball.

Things have a Dean Lance feel about them.

Still, it is early days and I see little point in sacking McD right now.

I don't think anyone is actually calling for BMD to go, moreover they are expressing some concerns regarding the style of play. If we continue to play this way, where every ball is a try scorer for one team or the other, it's going to be heart attack stuff all the way this year. We need to temper our style a bit and play the footie when we have built the platform to do it from.

It's going to have to get a lot worse for me to call for the coach's head part way through the season.

McDermott isn't the problem for me - what we are seeing now is no different from what we saw last season. Unfortunately the side doesn't have McGuire to get them out of the crap each week. This is a side in need of some major surgery - too many over the hill/journeyman players.

Having Lowes as the assistant is also a mistake for me - great player but a failed coach should not be anywhere near a group of pro players.

That would make him one of Leeds' better performers on Saturday then.

I agree, it's difficult not to like him.

Just a small point, but I'd argue that things like dropping the ball from the kick off are actually symptomatic of a lack of intensity if they happen often enough - just as much as individual missed tackles or dropped passes. The impression I get is that Leeds have a disturbing lack of both intensity and structure at the moment - something they showed at times last year as well.