On the positive I thought Singleton and Lilley showed up a lot of their team mates. Although Lilley does need telling about that poor attempt to kick a ball in the air.

I feel sorry for the faithful that made the long haul to the South of France. Then again they escaped the West Yorkshire Weather and have an evening in a French bar or eatery to look forward to

Massively disappointed by that performance, after "the cup hangover" mare against the Saints, I thought they would go all out to give a good account of themselves this week. It was never going to be easy over in the South of France and I expected that we might get shaded out, but that was one of the worst Rhinos performances I have seen in a good while.

Hudds and Cas will be fancying their chances against us after that.

Not just that though. A real lack of shape and structure in attack, even once Sinfield went back into the halves.

Not sure where Achurch was supposed to be playing, spent half his time hiding out on the wing rather than offering himself as a runner. Ablett got dragged into the middle of the field much too often looking for work rather than holding his width. There were times when you could have thrown a blanket over most of the team, and nobody seemed to have a loud enough voice to get people where they needed to be.

Good to see Gilder making RL Meltdown. https://twitter.com/RLMeltdown/status/6 ... 8861438976

Good to see Gilder making RL Meltdown. https://twitter.com/RLMeltdown/status/6 ... 8861438976

The lack of width has been obvious the last couple of weeks. Not having Watkins available really reduces our pace and threat in the 3/4s, but all not having a 2nd half who can bring them into the game has also been evident. Hopefully, we can work out the structural kinks in training by just playing Lilley, Sinfield or Burrow at 9 and go with 2 halves. We were a lot more threatening in the 2nd half with the extra pivot, but we weren't right mentally to ever have a real chance to make a come back.

Well that was horrible.

I'm not sure which is the biggest puzzle, our performance or theirsC'est bizarre...[/i

They don't need to be at the airport 3 hours beforehand. My brother and his family recently flew to Australia, they only had to be at the airport 90 mins before departure.

With all the travelling it's probably not much longer than the bus trip to London or Crusaders used to be.

It isn't amateurish. It's done in full consultation with the conditioners, physios and players. The conditioners are happy with it, they get better training in the day before.
The physios are happy, they get them straight into rehab the next morning.
The players are happy, they get to sleep in their own beds.

If it was the long travelling that caused our lack of energy and intensity on the pitch how come it didn't happen earlier in the year when we did the same thing (we've done it for a couple of years)? And what caused a similar lack of energy and intensity in our game v Saints last week?

Even if it wasn't the right thing to do, it most certainly isn't amateurish.

Haven't we done this for a few years now? Our record over there's pretty good. Or perhaps was.

No. We normally charter our own flight as a club. This was just a normal flight as normal passengers, which means they will have been there early to ensure all players and all bags are checked in properly. But yes, we normally do same day.

If this is going to happen as a result of all the effort going into the Challenge Cup this year and last,then maybe we are better out of it next season. There is more prestige in winning the Grand Final as it shows in most instances how good a team has been over the season and not just hitting a purple patch for a few games to win the Challenge Cup.
Lets just hope its not a carbon copy of last year,which at the moment it appears to be.

Judging by JP's photo on Twitter, it was a charter plane with only Rhinos players & staff on it

Definitely looked a charter, would say it would be nowhere near as comfortable as a typical Jet2 737, and probably 10/20 minutes slower too, especially important when every minute matters.

Travel timeline is well set out from the official club twitter feed, looks a tiny plane too.

If this was a "week off" then why not rest more players and let the second string make a play for the remaining games, why risk injury to the rather thin squad we have if we weren't going all out to win?

If we were then shame on the players for getting tonked.

Why should they change their plans after winning their last four games in Perpignan doing exactly the same?

It was a chartered plane by the RFL for the club! Hope that helps you look for a reason for the defeat! Club went to the same hotel to rest up/massage etc as they always do! Only difference was it was a 50 seater rather than a jet2 150 seater