Despite losing the penalty count, the fact that is was only eight must be considered an improvement, even on last week?

one of the best improvements for me was the players just getting on with it, rather than challenging the refs calls

You are quite correct on the drop goals tvoc, had the game been at say 7 points difference I am in no doubt we'd have booted it into touch. I just liked the boring ruthless nature of sticking another point on the board to rub a bit more salt in.

The only penalty that annoyed me was when we were penalised for interference at the PTB when our player was trying to get back onside & their guy lost the ball, then IMV Fitzgibbon (who had hands on the ball nearly every time he was involved) did exactly the same causing our guy to drop the ball which led to Silverwood giving them the scrum for a knock on.
Otherwise no complaints.
I've not re-watched the game so can't recall the players involved except Fitzgibbon.
Tvoc will no doubt correct my misconceptions.

IMO both drop goals were sensible and professional. It allowed us more time to regroup the defence.

The season hasn't started for Leeds yet.

It doesn't start until Round 4.

Last week we drew the penalty count (12-12) this week we lost it but conceded fewer. I think discipline was pretty good last night but penalties always have and probably always will be in large part determined by the man with the whistle rather than the players actions. Silverwood is trying hard to allow the game to flow while the new interpretations around the tackle area bed in with a stream of advice coming rather than too much whistle. I'm fine with that but we need all the referees to act as one.

Hull have 'won' the penalty count in the opening two rounds but lost both the games.



Point taken re the difference between a 7 and 13 lead. In this instance though I'd have liked to see Leeds attack the line, grubber into the in-goal, gain a repeat set or turn the ball over with Hull 100 meters or so from our line. I'm all for rubbing salt in the wound and the more of it (4 or 6 points) the better.

The short kick off option came up trumps for Hull two out of three times from memory (albeit one was a poor call from Child on the touch-line.)

___________

Anyone of a certain age with a reasonable memory will recall Leeds almost (and probably should have) lost a Challenge Cup Final through taking a second drop goal, conceding possession from the following short re-start and ended up relying on Derek Noonan dropping the try scoring pass with the line at his mercy on the 6th tackle of that set.

A re-run of the whole game was shown on BBC4 last year.

Had the final two minutes altered?

The good old days where 40 minutes of rugby actual took 40 minutes in real time to complete (give or take a minute) and all the physio had was a bucket of iced water, a wet sponge, some smelling salts and his own ingenuity.

Phil Clarke would have loved it.