When the full time hooter went every single Salford player looked absolutely shot

Salford were the better team for mine and if it hadn't been for our 18-0 lead then I don't think we would have won. Salford for me are the 2nd best team I have seen this season after Saints. Very threatening going forwards.

We did look shot at times, but the Handley interception re-energised us.

Leeds are much improved though and would not have won that under Agar.

My concern with Leeds is our defensive line not moving forwards. We give the opposition easy 10m every play and allowed Salford to attack at pace. We needed to be in their faces to prevent their attacks from getting into full flow.

I felt we lacked a captain when we kept dropping balls and failing to complete the sets to speak up and tell the team simply to complete the next few sets and to get some momentum back rather than continue to make errors and allow Salford back into the game.

I didn't agree with the decision that led to Salford's first try. We dropped it and Burgess picked it up and tried to grubber it through to score but Leeds regained possession. He gave Salford the head and feet at the scrum. I thought we had got rid of the free play?

Felt for Walter's, he played for five minutes and missed a couple of tackles and was pulled straight off. Hopefully, Rohan isn't too hard on him and it serves as a gentle reminder for Walter's that if he wants to make it, he will have to up his game.

Walters made a really bad miss for a try by not going for the player with the ball. You just can't do that or it will be a try every time. As you say, some of the issues we have a team will hold us back - too many errors and passive defence. The last can be fixed reasonably easily, but it starts in the middle of the park.

Rushing out in defence benefits a team like Salford, that’s how saints defend and look what happened to them.

Smith did say that the plan with Walters was always for him to have a short spell.

I disagree that Salford were the better side, they had a lot of momentum in that game but couldn’t capitalise on it, bith from them making errors and our defence.

I am not saying rushing out but simply moving up as a line and not defending on the back foot. It would make our lives a lot easier.

I'm sure it was not intended for Walter's to play long minutes but he was definitely brought off sooner because of his defence. Smith was never going to say in his post match interview that he brought Walter's off early as he had a shocker.

I'm not in agreement that Leeds were better. They did enough to win though.

Agreed. They were the best side between the 20th and 60th minutes, but try as they might they just couldn't shake us off. Difference was that when we were on top we were really on top. I think Smith was being very protective of Walters in his presser, which was absolutely right.

We we’re the better side in the first twenty and the last twenty, and in the minutes in between when Salford were the better side they only managed 14 points.

So overall we were the better side IMO

Missed the game as away on hols but that was a hugely important win. Good side Salford and we sounded like we dug in well and took our chances. Well done lads.

Yeah that one surprised me too. Very obvious advantage from our knock on with Burgess being overambitious in trying to exploit it further.

I went to the game expecting a cracker. Both sides under delivered IMO, lots of knock ons in ideal rugby conditions and incompleted sets. We took our chances when they came and that was the difference between the 2 sides, other than that it was 40 minutes each. I agree that we wouldnt of won that game a few weeks back. As RS said in his presser, sometimes you have to find a different way to win and that is what happened yesterday.

Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493

Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493

Quote ="The Ghost of '99"Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493'" Yes, he scored the game breaking try

Quote ="The Ghost of '99"Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493'" Yes, he scored the game breaking try

You need to take that out of it though - Handley created an open space for them to run in a try for a high risk play that came off.
Most of the time those don't come off.

Quote ="The Ghost of '99"Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493'" Should he have made the play that ultimately won us the game? Seriously? Smith is coaching them to play what they see, he saw an opportunity, took it, scored.

Quote ="The Ghost of '99"Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493'" Should he have made the play that ultimately won us the game? Seriously? Smith is coaching them to play what they see, he saw an opportunity, took it, scored.

Some of your comments give me a good laugh at least!

Yeah, we had a long spell in the middle of the match where we rarely completed a set, and I reckon we only had the ball once in first 8 Minutes of the second half. Given that we do really well to get a win in the end as they looked to be coming home well until the Handley interception try. If he misses it, Salford very likely win the game.
Bentley, Smith, Mik and Zane all lost the ball in contact although I thought Bentley’s was a rip. Smith/ Bentley obstruction and kick off out on the full from Sutcliffe all have a good Salford side a big leg up to put us under pressure.
They made a number of line breaks but we’re thwarted by excellent positioning and reading of the game by Hardaker.

Our relatively passive line speed is all about trying to stop line breaks and not give away 6 again and penalties for off side. We just won yesterday but we could cop a big defeat later this year against a bigger pack.

Having let Walker, Mellor and Broadbent leave and not brought anyone in we have a thin looking squad.

We’ve had 2 tiring trips to France and now have a very short turnaround to HKR, 3 days less than them, I worry we may run out of gas a bit, particularly with the crazy 4 games in 2 weeks inc another trip to Catalan.

Overall though, great spirit being shown and it’s much better to watch.

Interesting to see other comings and going for next season.

Sigh. It's not hard to hold two thoughts at the same time - great he scored the try but nope it was not what he is told to do.

The ledger of tries conceded by Ash doing exactly that sort of thing over and over again vs this one where an intercept came off is not in his favour.

How do you know it’s not what he’s told to do, they may have spotted that play by Salford on video analysis and calculated what pass was going to be thrown.

I'm in agreement with you and Handley found himself in that position because of his usual coming of of position defensively and got fortunate the ball landed with him.

I'd rather our defenders focused on stopping tries rather than scoring them when they other team have the ball. Handley is a prime culprit, it came off this time, but most of the time it doesn't, he's caught in no mans land and their winger scores a walk in.

He did stop them scoring

Yes, fortunately you’re right this time.

Ha, we are pioneering a new defensive move

People seem to be bit stuck on the Handley positioning, as coming up regularly now. Rohan clearly doesn’t and probably more pleased about Ash’s many qualities, as I am.

Given how many points are being conceded by it I think it's spectacularly unlikely Smith "clearly doesn't" see this aspect of Handley's play as an issue. But he's also not likely to talk about it in press conferences, not least because our clueless media never bring this sort of thing up.