Burrow poor?! Am I reading this right?!

We lost a lot when Burrow came on and Aiton went off. Aiton was tremendously solid in defence and an absolute menace at dummy half. Burrow finally got into the game in the last 10 minutes.
Achurch , Delaney and Burrow contributed to our defence falling off beginning of the second half. I thought we were the better side first half and handled Cats, who chucked the ball everywhere, pretty well.
I'm sure the plan would never have been to take Aiton off at that time against Cats big pack, in the circumstances you can't really blame Burrow who is brought on to do a particular job these days but you have to say we took some time to adjust. You just have to compare the way Aiton was dynamic and quick at dummy half to Burrow's static slow passing.

Also, what was it with ignoring Watkins for most of the match. He was up against a forward the entire game. The Sky team are not exactly razor sharp but even they knew that if Watkins was given some early ball he could cause havoc. Moon was very good though, probably my Leeds MOM.

Overall a good result against a desperate Cats side missing some quality. Boys showed character to turn Cats second half momentum around, especially losing JJB and Aiton who were so dynamic.
Cas will fancy it though, especially if Aiton is missing.

Is Burrow the new 'Kirke' then???
Reading some of these comments, you'd think we were at the bottom of the table and just been hammered by Wakefield.
I say very well done for an overall good TEAM performance.
Bring on the Tigers.

I know you were. But rugby is all about scoring more points that the opposition and IMO without Burrow yesterday this would not have happened. With regard to Sutcliffe I have been critical of him in the past and still have to be convinced that 6 is his best position, however he got better as the game went along and played his part in the victory with a self assisted try, 4 tackle busts, 2 clean breaks and 21 tackles with no misses! So like I said on this occasion we did need them both on the field at the same time contrary to your point.

I don't think either side would be happy with their error count or their 5th tackle options, or some of their defending, but the game was on a different planet entertainment wise to the bore-athon that Salford and Widnes presented us with on Thursday. There were some great offloading skills shown by both tems and McGuire's try was absolutely fabulous. Moon was immense the whole game.
However, if Aiton is missing along with JJB (which looks likely) and Ablett, Delaney and Achurch don't get up to speed, we are going to get beaten by Cas who will be bouncing at home against us. We can't cough up the ball as much and we can't give away as many stupid penalties. Kylie coming back would hardly add much energy either based on his showings so far. Going to be tight.

Would like to see Walters come in for JJB. Looks to have put on a bit of size this year, so see if that translates to running & hitting harder.

But I also have a bad feeling that Vas will turn us over.

Does anybody else think that in Henderson & Pelissier the Dragons have two of the most annoying opponents to play against?
Also you can take the boy out of Bradford but you can't take Bradford out of the boy. Whitehead always seems to lift his game when he plays the Rhinos, whoever he represents.

I am not decrying Aiton's efforts who was in good form again but to suggest Burrow "finally came into the game in the last 10 minutes" is totally inaccurate and not a fair view. Both he and Aiton played 40 minutes each and Burrow got into the game with an assist for Singleton after 17 minutes and made the space for the McGuire try one minute later. This period turned the momentum in our favour



This is harsh on Burrow. Catalans are a big and dangerous side and were a hand full throughout the game. They certainly started off the second half strongly helped by some sloppy Leeds play and we missed JJB's work in the middle of the field.

On defense you could have mentioned Hardaker being put on his backside twice by Whitehead as he scored his two tries or his habit of buying the dummy.



I would agree with most of this but Aiton and Burrow play in different styles and to make a fair comparison you have to also compare running abilities. Both made 7 carries with Burrow making more metres and 2 try assists (3 if you count his contribution to McGuire's try) and was equally dynamic in his contribution. We should be praising both players.

A Moon is an unsung hero.

Another immense tackling stint by Stevie Ward, closely followed by Brad Singleton. Thank god for the old timers!

Thanks



Burrow still had to time the pass to make Singleton's good angle work. Without Burrow's skill to create the space the fine work of Hall and Moon would never have been seen. Burrow was also backing up and could have scored himself.

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You have been listening to the Sky commentators. Burrow is one of our best one on one tacklers and made the tackle on Pomeroy. Hall is not at his best at the moment and it was his mistake that allowed Cardace to go past him to score what was a good try by the way.



Well that may be! But on this occasion I was commenting on the outrageous suggestion that his performance was poor

Got to say I'm chuffed with the 2 points, ask Wire what a banana skin Catalans can be. There's plenty of room for improvement, but that applies to every team in the comp at this stage. Thought we did well in the 1st half against the wind, but indiscipline, some bad decision making, and refs calls made for a nightmare start to the 2nd half which ultimately could have cost us the game. We missed JP while he was off, and probably missed Sinny's calming influence when the momentum began to change so rapidly, but the young lads played their part in what could be a vital 2 points come September. I'm happy for the team to fly out on the morning of the game, it makes sense to get a good nights kip in the Lodge without someone playing Plastic Bertrand at full volume outside, I'm surprised more team don't do it TBH. The flight time is nothing, and routines aren't compromised. I bet there was a terrible stench in the video refs booth as the ball ricocheted around and Cuthbertson touched down. I can imagine the look of horror on their faces as they jettisoned the entire contents of their bowels into their underwear. The whole facade of pretending to look impartially at events was laughable, and the idea of donning false beards, dark glasses and oversized hats to escape afterwards obviously didn't appeal to the refs. Fortunately it didn't cost us, and barring a couple of injury concerns, it was a good days work.

We've won there four times in a row now. How many of them were under the 'one day there & back' routine?


As leeds owl says, it's a wonder more teams don't do it.

With JJB playing a prop/loose middle man role this year I'd bring Yates back into the 17 otherwise the bench starts to look too 2nd row heavy, and Achurch shouldn't be used as a prop if it can be avoided.