Ooh, a bunch of injured players returning for the Cup. What a shock. Anyone would have thought they couldn't give a toss about the league, but it must just be a coincidence they are all fit at the same time.

Or give Watkins some decent ball.

Bunches of players providing sudden and miraculous returns to action at key points during a season after extracting the urine during the regular season league fixtures is nothing new at Leeds. The club and the players crafted this method into an art form twice from 5th and should have done the same from 6th but screwed up in the 6th V 7th home play-off against WBFFFSLR.

This particular art form also played key roles during several CC rounds when certain players suddenly recovered their fitness levels.

It'll be interesting to see what players Leeds have available this Friday.

Bet Achurch plays (sorry, "is selected", he hasn't played all season).

Watch the first 40 from Friday. Can't catch a cold

Mobility is an interesting wider point. Won't get into the 17 v Hudd point but think we have a serious, hard to fix issue of lack of mobility/pace in current squad and in particular the pack. We know achurch is leaving and have jjb, ferres and falloon out of contract at year end. At start of year I would have thought this would be the last year of JJB but he has stormed back. If he gets another 1 year deal we have lots of slow back row men.


Stevie ward will help but if you compare our pack to Wigan the lack of athleticism is a big problem in my view. In back row they have some real pace Farrell, Tomkins , Bateman and isa. Their props are also far quicker. A lot has been written about some of the limitations of Wigan props but as all round players I think. Flower is a fair bit better than any Leeds prop except cuthbo. I think Crosby is also a shade better. Sutton is a real prospect and although clubb and in particular tautai make errors they are all mobile. As a collective our pack is way down in comparison. Suspect the hope is Walters can improve his overall game as he has clearly been picked from RU for his athletic potential.

Add in slowing halves and I believe it is a key factor In our low scoring attack.
For me it also means opposition teams see limited threats from us. This is over simplified but stop hardaker and Watkins getting clear and you can probably catch all the rest.


Some interesting choices for recruitment and retention lie ahead but not sure any quick fixes.

Yet with pretty much similar squad, probably slower because of Sinfield, Peacock and Leuluai we scored the most points last year.

As for the rest, one of the big issues with RL today is that we end having picking utility athletes over guys who can play a certain role.

Is your reliable source called Horses Mouth by any coincidence?

Just a little common sense I think.

Well, Moon, Mags & Delaney still missing. 8 out of arguably the first choice 17 not fit to play, again!

We're just keeping players fresh ready for the middle 8's campaign. They've won everything else, might as well go for a new 'league' title and win the middle 8's

Which is why pace matters.

How many of McGuire and Burrow's tries were scored backing up breaks and half-breaks of each other and others. A sizeable number for both.

Sutcliffe made a break looked inside and found Lilley. Sure, he could and should have given Watkins a walk-in but having pace on both sides should have been a try either way.

After cheaply handing over a lot of ball on early plays on the Hudds line, that opportunity was the one Leeds had to take. If we could have had a 2 score half time lead that would probably had been enough to squeeze home.

Could still see one of Moon or Mags tomorrow i am informed

We have been spoiled. In their younger years they were both extremely quick. Mags in particular had real pace. Burrow still has considerable gas, for me it's why he still causes defences trouble and deserves a place in the team.
The one and only real advantage of being small on a rugby pitch is being quicker off the mark than bigger guys. A lot of big men can really shift once they get going (Ian Kirke is one example of that), but small guys can be quick over 10-20 metres. There is not a lot of benefit to being small playing rugby beyond that. As a small guy I can speak from experience.