Aiton's absence made a difference, assuming he'd have been picked. Burrow had a decent game scooting from dummy but his distribution from there left much to be desired. Not blaming him for this, it's simply not one of his strengths.

One of the earlier posters expressed doubts about Brown's abilities as a coach - I have to disagree. Considering the absences they had to cope with, I thought their organisation and application was superb.

Bizarrely, my main concern was our much-hyped three quarter line. Last night was the second game this year where a title rival nullified their threat almost entirely. I wouldn't categorise them as flat-track bullies just yet but Saints certainly gave them a lesson on how to attack.

Leeds came up against a Saints side who simply played on pure passion last night, you have copped this a couple of times now including rush's first game in charge when we played way above ourselves. It was a freak performance, that team couldn't do it week in week out, you were just unlucky to be in the firing line, again.

1. lets just keep turning the ball back inside

2. why oh why play Ward at centre - he looks lost

3. We have one of the best centres in the world - please give him the ball

4. Bailey has been dropped for disciplinary reasons - dont treat us like idiots be honest

5. why put all high kicks up to the competant full back and not the inexperienced winger

6. There is no lack of effort but gameplan and tactics were poor last night , and i cant remember the las time i came away from a game so dissapointed with our performance (maybe saints 2seasons ago)

7. Credit to Saints though with so many players out , they were deserved winners

I can't think of a more apt useage of the term holding out. Regardless of how much territory / possession we had we never looked like scoring. Saints breached our line on a few occasions in the second half & should have won by more. That we kept it level until (almost) the end is credit. Most other SL teams would have been wallopped. You obviously feel we should have mullerred them?!?!?

As difficult as it is for some people to accept, sometimes it's just not your night.

PS I watched it if you really need to know.

Leeds played with tactics to grind out a win and win by a point. Rather than giving the ball width and providing the best outside backs in the league with opportunities to win easy.

It was clear McDermott wanted to play one up rugby and complete the sets when really on the 4th and 5th tackles it should have been given to the backs to threaten Saints. Anyone can defend one up rugby.

Stevie Ward is not a centre, why place BJB on the bench if you have no intention of bringing him on.

I don't think we played particularly bad last night, it was just we played ridiculous tactics for the game. If we had got the offload game going and distributed to Watkins early more we would have won with ease.

I am very fed up of seeing McGuire too now. He is greedy, slow, always runs it in rather than pass and does some dumb things. Right at the end on the 4th tackle he ran towards touch when we were setting up for a drop goal. I'd 100% prefer Sutcliffe at 6 for the rest of the season.

McDermott seems unable to adapt to changes during the game and adapt his rotation policy. JJB playing with injured arm and unable to play at all in the second half.

Why not bring on JJB to full back, Hardaker to centre and use Ward in the second row. The second time this season we have left a sub on the bench for the full game. Just name sixteen players next time.

Offensive guile from the halves is lacking.With all that possession and territory they just did not ask enough questions of the saints defence.Add to that that there were some forwards in the Leeds pack who were passengers.Kirk with 4 carries, Clarkson is only championship quality, and Singleton's ball control is abysmal when he's on.

Six offloads in the whole match (3 Peacock, 2 Ablett, 1 Watkins) is pretty pathetic.

I'll defend Kirke in this instance, thought his defencewas outstanding, always winning the collision. He ran the ball in hard on his very rare carries too, it's a mystery why he didn't take it up more particularly as we were playing such one-out rugby and wouldn't know whether that's down to himor whether it was the plan.

says on saints board JP made 247 metres and did 44 tackles.another great effort if true.think he did the full 80 too.

Is McDermott's strategy to wear JP out early, encourage him to retire early (at the end of 2014)? Henceforth making Big Brian the most influential voice in the forward department. At the moment the players listen more to JP and not McDermott.

The tactics were wrong last night, instead of continually taking them on down the middle we should have moved the ball out wide. We have two of the best wingers in the SL who's only role in the game last night was to retrieve the ball after it had been kicked long by Saints.
The turning point for me was Saints second try when I thought we should have received a penalty when Makinson was stood in the way at the PTB which meant the Saints defenders could force the dummy half over the line for a drop out from which they scored. It was quite crucial as it gave saints the ball and six tackles near our line.
That said fair play to Saints they showed more endeavour in our twenty and deserved the win.

Good point about Makinson stood in Hardakers way RR we said at the game surely it was a pen for either not square or offside??
That said we did ourselves no favours with so much possession and very few points to show for it.

I was suprised that McQuire was well below par was expecting him to have more creativity but he still seems to be just a support player. Thought Sinfield didn't have enough influence on the game was left to Burrows to run across the defensive line to try and open up gaps