Quote: mattsrhinos1978 "Yeah the 'when they were on' regarding the team and 'in the mood' regarding Iro were two points that i had to include, neither were on or in the mood enough to make us a genuine threat to Wigan...But were both fantastic to watch on there good days.
Despite not being as up for it as they probably should of been at times, that Leeds team were still very good imo, and would of won silverware in most other eras, runners up to one of the best club sides ever in a couple of league campaigns and a couple of challenge cups.'"
I watched first half of Leeds v Barrow yesterday (I think I was actually at that match but I wasn't living in Leeds at the time), CC game from '93. My son walked in just as Leeds moved the ball from one wing to another to score. He commented on how much better rugby players were in the past. The players in that move were, Andy Gregory, Garry Schofield, Ellery Hanley, Alan Tait, Craig Innes. Skill and pace to die for. Yes, the reality was that most of that game was Leeds slugging away with a team at the bottom of the 3rd division but the ball moved everywhere. I've realized that what made "old" rugby league entertaining was the ball movement. The thing was thrown everywhere.
One thing that team did that I always thought was tremendous was doubling up the centres on the same side of the pitch. Having Iro and Innes suddenly both on the left used to cause havoc and Leeds did it a lot. They would attack from deep with the two of them in tandem and scored a lot of long range tries. Leeds also attacked from every scrum (which were a mess but partly because they pushed). When I first started watching league the "loose" forward was just that - loose - and able to not join the scrum. When they changed the law and you had to have him bound teams started attacking the space it created.