And the bit you massively miss, is that I watched the game, commented, then the stats came out.

They backed up my view in the main. He made a few more tackles than thought, and credit to that. But he missed tackles like I said, and his carries were not threatening.

He did not have an outstanding game, which is what I said, before you jumped in unnecessarily.

Correct it is a big issue...but appently we have to concentrate on nit picking certain individuals contribution and their stats.

You watched a great game !! in fact one of the best team efforts of the past couple of seasons and yet you seek to justify your jaundiced opinions with pure stats and ignore the total effects of a great combined team contribution against a really good side.

I have to agree. Everyone contributed and we look a real solid team. The dum of all parts etc

A really excellent team performance against a very good Wigan side who were made to look ordinary by the outstanding Leeds defence which totally smothered the Pies attack for the great majority of the game. That it took some wonderful attacking moves with great individual skills to score our tries and break down their defence shows what a great achiement this was by Leeds.

The form Leeds are in is in no small part due to our coaches. These performances and not just off the cuff stuff by talented players. It is down to a lot of hard work and professionalism on the training field and the gym. The fitness coaches deserve a word as our line speed, stamina and match preparation are in great part down to them. Head coach McDermott, so often underestimated by some, has shown that given a decent squad and without too many serious injuries he can produce a structured defence and an exciting attack based on good preparation and game plans.

To name Ablett at 6 was a lovely touch and when Clarkson went in to the hooker role for the first part of the game it must have thrown Wigan's plans a bit. Clarkson deserves credit too for rising to the challenge.

Every player played their part and stuck to the game plan but our much derided pack set up the platform with JP and Kylie leading the charge and Achurch fullfilling his promise and with Ablett and Delaney keeping things tight we controlled the centre field. This allowed Sinfield to bring the backs into play with such devastating effect. A word too for Sutcliffe who also was very effective.

Our kicking game on the surface didn't look special but I get the feeling that this too was part of our game plan. Our kicks may have found Bowen but they had height and with our superb kick chase we controlled field position.

So in what was a splendid team performance Hardaker, JP and Hall were my stand out performers.

The missed tackles numbers are interesting because we had the same issue vs Hudds. What are they defining as a missed tackle? watched the reply and after about 60 mins it said we'd done about 24, about 8 more than Wigan.

Nothing wrong with the third man going into the tackle low down. Perfectly legal and legitimate providing the ball carrier is still moving.

Didn't see too many examples of it being done improperly by either side, other than the one that got Leuluai rattled late on in the game.

Some thoughts on last night in general.

Very good game management. Pushed the ball at the right time, shut the game down in the second half when we needed to.

Thought we looked a better, more cohesive unit with Clarkson at dummy half and Sinfield at first man than when Sinfield spent more time at the play the ball. Certainly an experiment worth repeating.

Some of Wigan's young forwards got lessons, thought the likes of Bateman, Taylor and Farrell went missing for chunks of the game.

Positive signs going forward for both teams though. Wigan will be better with O'Loughlin and Charnley back, Leeds with the added strike power of a Burrow or Aiton around the ruck area.

Wouldn't be surprised to see these two scrapping it out at Old Trafford or Wembley.

Quote: Andy Gilder "Some thoughts on last night in general. Very good game management. Pushed the ball at the right time, shut the game down in the second half when we needed to. Thought we looked a better, more cohesive unit with Clarkson at dummy half and Sinfield at first man than when Sinfield spent more time at the play the ball. Certainly an experiment worth repeating. Some of Wigan's young forwards got lessons, thought the likes of Bateman, Taylor and Farrell went missing for chunks of the game. Positive signs going forward for both teams though. Wigan will be better with O'Loughlin and Charnley back, Leeds with the added strike power of a Burrow or Aiton around the ruck area. Wouldn't be surprised to see these two scrapping it out at Old Trafford or Wembley.'" The defensive stats would contradict that. www.superleague.co.uk/report/9978 Great game last night and so much better than some of the tick and pass games we have seen earlier in the season. I think you're correct regarding players missing, O'Loughlin and Charnley obviously big misses for us, but also Pettybourne and Flower who would have given us a bit more grunt in the middle. I agree also that we'll both be there or thereabouts come the business end of the season.

Quote: Andy Gilder "Some thoughts on last night in general. Very good game management. Pushed the ball at the right time, shut the game down in the second half when we needed to. Thought we looked a better, more cohesive unit with Clarkson at dummy half and Sinfield at first man than when Sinfield spent more time at the play the ball. Certainly an experiment worth repeating. Some of Wigan's young forwards got lessons, thought the likes of Bateman, Taylor and Farrell went missing for chunks of the game. Positive signs going forward for both teams though. Wigan will be better with O'Loughlin and Charnley back, Leeds with the added strike power of a Burrow or Aiton around the ruck area. Wouldn't be surprised to see these two scrapping it out at Old Trafford or Wembley.'" The defensive stats would contradict that. www.superleague.co.uk/report/9978 Great game last night and so much better than some of the tick and pass games we have seen earlier in the season. I think you're correct regarding players missing, O'Loughlin and Charnley obviously big misses for us, but also Pettybourne and Flower who would have given us a bit more grunt in the middle. I agree also that we'll both be there or thereabouts come the business end of the season.

Anyone else think. Taylor's try was a no try? The one replay they didn't use when it went to the video ref showed the ball was on top of Zak's foot before it was released

It was right in front of us and the ball was definitely grounded. The only question was if his momentum was stopped.

I'll be putting that one up as a question on the "Ask the Ref" thing on Twitter.

If that had happened in midfield and Taylor had got up and set off running, I'm pretty sure he would have called back. So why would he be allowed to promote the ball over the line?

Because the ball or ball carrying arm hadn't hit the ground. Perfectly legitimate try.

On the game: Great win for Leeds and well worthy of it. Great defence and, as I've said elsewhere, the best 1-5 in SL. To nullify it we'd have needed to dominate in the pack and that was never going to happen with the likes of James and Dudson and Clubb at loose forward. Add Flower, Pettybourne and, most importantly, O'Loughlin to that pack and play Clubb in the front row where he is most effective and I wouldn't be surprised to see the result reversed. Interesting that some on here think that Wigan didn't 'trouble the Leeds line' or that 'the score flattered Wigan' (sic). There were 2 or 3 occasions where we were held up over the line and several clean breaks that were just a support player or finding the right man with the pass away from tries. The last Green break where the support player was Dudson (!) for example. Not the usual slick performance from Wigan that you might expect, by any means, but to say that the margin should have been wider in Leeds favour is getting carried away a little. Leeds converted most of their opportunities, Wigan didn't. Simple as that really. That said, Leeds were undoubtedly the better side last night and your scramble defence in particular was outstanding. Hopefully that will be the first round of many this season!

Phuzzy-Whilst you correctly point to chances you had the "held up" chances were never going to be scores imo so I'm not sure they can be counted as "missed chances" per say.
We also bombed 2 or 3 scores so that said I think we were more than worthy of the 16pt winning margin.
Once again I thought our 2 "old war-horses" upfront laid a good solid platform ,our back 3 were outstanding and the whole Team effort was very good throughout.