Forget about reffing decisions. Leeds were short in certain areas today and you can't control ref decisions.

Leeds were dominated in the forwards, subsequently warrington controlled the ruck getting more quick play the balls and enjoyed the lions share of territory.

Warrington are probably the best dry weather team and when you are on the back foot they can put points on anyone. Today was perfect conditions.

In the first 2 sets of the game leeds failed to complete and last tackle plays were generally poor. Warrington put so much kick pressure but leeds never seem to put as much pressure on the opposition kicker.

However, it's not over yet. Today was the least important playoff game, as the only none knockout round.

Leeds will now face saints or hull depending on tonights result. Be mentally tough, get the performance right for next week and whoever we play we play we need to make sure we correct the areas that failed today.

As people on here have speculated all week,[i ''it's better to play each week, they wouldn't be too concerned if leeds lost, they will now be able to build some week in week out momentum blah blah''[/i (providing we bounce back).......right?

Meh.

Refused to write Hudds off yesterday. Won't write us off today. Better team won. Roll up the sleeves and get on with next week.

Correct.

Plus if us and hudds win next week, warrington will have to club call us as we'll be the lowest ranked team..

If hudds lose, they'll pick the lower ranked team and could go into the grand final underdone should we make it from the other side of the draw.

Absolutely.

This is true. JJB, Ablett and Singleton didn't get the ground they did against Wigan, Delaney didn't look fit. Thought Bailey had a decent game and we lost momentum when he and Kylie went off for Delaney and Kirke.

But how much was this down to the old bugbear of acting-half hooker play? Monaghan gave an absolute lesson in this. Burrow was dangerous for us, but only when he ran out to where he'd be at scrum-half and starting from there. The spaces Burrow and Sinfield took up meant there was no room for McGuire, who did nothing, and also meant we were a forward short. Some days this doesn't matter, today it did.

It was quite clear how not fit the late returning players looked. Whether that can be remedied or not we will see. But I fear Saints will be much too fast for some of those players we saw today.

Yeah, they had a field day. Scooting out then a cut out pass to the second runner, normally westwood or ratchford cut us open numerous times.

I don't think that was a factor for anyone except delaney.

Delaney was very poor but he wasn't the only one. McGuire was anonymous, not able to keep up with play, JJB struggled to take in a pass looking like he was going to drop each time, and how many carries did Bailey manage to make?

They were not alone, but it just stood out.

On another note I thought Hardaker was sensational and by far and away Leeds best player.

Hardaker was superb. Wire made the best of their good fortune (at a crucial time in the game) and kept the peddle down. That said they conceded 20 points so I didn't see a 'complete' performance from wire. They're definitely beatable

It was just one of those games when pretty much everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. I refuse to blame the ref, as Leeds are solely in control of how they perform, and today Warrington just performed better. It's good to see a lot of people with the same view, as a lot of people in the ground were giving the refs abuse, which wasn't called for-at the end of the day, I feel even if Leeds had have got some of the 50/50s and 'key' decisions, Warrington would have still won, and deservedly so.

I don't know how much last week might have taken out of the tank, but we looked tired, particularly in our line speed, which was woeful compared to the Wolves'. Also, a lot of errors crept back into our play, and Warrington's kicking game was much superior, so there are no real grievances over who won, and we can accept they were just the better team.

Still, we all know Mac and the boys have got it in them to turn it around next week, which, against Saints, should be a cracker.

(As an aside, Westwood's four tries, if they had been scored by another player, will have smarted a bit. As it is, I feel he is a great player who deserves a bit of limelight after all the hard work and graft he consistently puts in.)

Anyone else experiencing major deja vu?

A fair post, I'm sure once the alcohol wears off I'll fully agree. Deffo agree re Westwood though. Onwards & upwards, we're much more effective when the pressure is on. It's always harder to retain a title than to win it for the first time

Not really. The only time that comes close to deja vu is 2004 and 2008 when leeds were soundly beaten by bradford and saints respectively but managed to reverse it 2 weeks later.

Can they do that again except with warrington? The difference here of course is they'll be doing it in the final eliminator intead of the grand final, and they'll be bouncing back against saints instead of wigan.

I thought defensively we were shocking especially 2nd half and more so around the ptb.
Hardaker ,JP and Burrow were our best players imo but still missed tackles with RB and ZH also making some handling errors.
Mags had a mare and as a team we got our 5th tackle structure wrong time after time.
Again some really stupid penaltys conceded that pushed us further back and imo Achurch and Clarkson should come in for Kirke and if not fit Delaney.
I'd be tempted to drop Ablett aswell but doubt it will happen i hope he regains his form that he showed against the Pies.
Watching Roby tonight he'll rip us apart if we dont sort our defence around the ptb.
I still think if we turn up and play to our ability we'll beat anyone but we need to react better when we get poor calls against us.