In contrast to season to date Leeds looked better in first half to the second half. ... I thought Wigan were poor and should have been more soundly thumped. Maybe with better goalkicking they might have folded sooner. The score flattered them. (Why did Hardaker not take the goalkicks?)
As already stated elsewhere Hardaker as last line of defence is invaluable at times; which other FB would make the clean try saving tackles he does on the oppositon speedsters?

i wondered this myself. figured they gave it to sutty to give him exp. no idea why no one else took them. he is a quality player, sutty, but he cant kick a pen/conv for =/ sinny needs to give him a good few lessons.

I was happy to see Hardaker taking the K.O.s again. I remember him doing so at Widnes a couple of seasons ago and causing havok. He did likewise tonight. Hard to understand why he isn't used more often in this capacity.

Hardaker is no great shakes as a goalkicker either. Maybe Sutcliffe looked better in practice?

my first game this season hope to be back fora couple more and of course the finals.I thought we won at a cantor The scoreline flattered Wigan ,but remember we have had bad starts to the season too.

ahh, makes sense! sorry.
agreed Hall had a poor game

I couldn't agree more, very reminiscent of the kick offs that Pat Richards used to torment us with in previous seasons.
I really hope we can keep Zak & that he can sort out his other issues, he's head & shoulders the best FB in the superleague.

Agreed. There's bound to be the inevitable Sutcliffe/Sinfield debate on here during the week (that's another matter).....but whatever the outcome of that, Hardaker should keep kickoff duties regardless of who else plays.

But he is a ******

Embarrassing disguise tonight too.... "I'll put me hood up, no one will know it's me, s"

Going to do something I hate to do and criticise referees but feel I need to on this occasion......

Everytime we get silverwood as ref he looks frightened to death to give us anything, I believe this is probably down to him living in the area and him being labelled biased, if this continues though he should be banned from reffing us, he's ruining games (okay tonight maybe not so much, but look at saints game last season).

On another note, Hardaker showed why he's the best in the league, lord knows why sutcliffe was goal kicking, could have lost us 2 points if one or two things had gone a different way, good young player but no goal kicker IMO.

Cuthbertson looks another level, in terms of offloading props, the only player I could put up there with him is walmsley, but the cuth is on another level still!

Ash Handley good finisher, but worries me defensively!


Singleton needs a start, deserves a start!

According to Wane they dominated us at times, I'm struggling to remember these times.

Silverwood marched them down field for their first try, but it was usual Silverwood. Summed it up when he talked to Cuthbertson for the high tackle, but didn't speak to any of theirs.

All in all a good night. The youngsters showed up well and didn't look out of place. I like that they'd getting the chance when people are injured. Moon's defence was fantastic all night, put some really good hits in. But the left edge looks a bit out of sorts. It'll come good though and when it does we really will be firing.

It was a good response to the disappointment of Warrington. Hardaker, Cuthbertson, Ward and JJB were my stand outs.

And it was a great atmosphere, back to the old days

Sutty was a regular Goal Kicker in the Acadamy and people seem to have poor memories because when Sinfield first took over the kicking duties he was woeful and i distinctly remember 1 game v the Bulls when the SS were sing there's only one Ben Walker after numerous misses.
We've also seen Hardaker and Burrow take over the goal kicking and miss them in the past so a bit OTT on that score imo.
Our decision making/execusion kept them in the game but we were deservedly winners and no doubts the score line flattered them.
As for Silverwood it's time these official are made accountable for performances like that they were tackling like houses all second half and should have had more than Farrell in the bin.
Ablett and Hall had stinkers but i thought Haedaker ,Cuthbertson and Ward were excellent whereas Handley didn't look out of place nor did Yates.
A good win but plenty to work on.

Leeds absolutely took the mickey with the last 10 minutes, trying to score off every play. It's like they knew Wigan were no longer a threat after Burrow's try, and they were playing with them like a cat plays with a dead mouse. As it turns out it needed a couple of excellent one-on-ones from Hardaker to snuff out two threatening breaks from Burgess.

Wigan were in Leeds 20 three times in the first half and came away with points every time. That has to improve if Leeds want to stay where they are.

Cuthbertson and Ward were excellent again. Aiton was quietly effective with some nice touches. Otherwise, a bit of a mixed bag. Two terrible decisions from Ablett blew scores in the early exchanges, and he seemed to go into his shell after that.

Handley went ok. Held the line to take his try well. Looked a bit all over the place defensively in the last five minutes, but you wonder if that was the pace of the game catching up with him leading to a bit of mental fatigue. Got absolutely sold down the river for the high ball he dropped by Hardaker, who started going for it then pulled out for no apparent reason.

And speaking of terrible decisions...

There's little point putting a team on a "team warning" for an offence, if you're then going to spend the next 15 minutes completely ignoring the offence just so you don't have to bin someone. Some of the Wigan forwards (Bateman and Tomkins, J in particular) seem to be more interested in trying to start fights rather than actually concentrating on playing their game. Shame, as both of them have talent. Maybe they'd be better away from the Donkey Kong gorilla of a coach they have currently.

As for the non-advantage when Farrell was binned, that was an absolute nonsense. All he had to do was wait a second to see if Watkins got the ball away. If he didn't, then he could blow up and put Farrell in the bin. Didn't pick it up from the Sky audio, but I don't think he apologised for blowing up early choosing to make a joke out of it instead. Reminded me of a title decider at Central Park (1989?) when Robin Whitfield blew up for a penalty every time Leeds looked like scoring.

Referees need to be held accountable for high profile mistakes. Unfortunately with Tim Roby gone, the RFL aren't going to start dropping their remaining full-time officials and bringing in ones from the Championship.

I felt when silver wood blew up he should have awarded a penalty try anyway. Farrell blatantly stopped a certain try.

Leeds played quite well; how Wigan were still in it up to Burrow's try is a bit concerning. Wigan are truly dire. Apart from effort it would be hard to take any positives from that performance. Without O'Loughlin & Green they lack any class. I have always maintained Smith, Mossop, & McIlorum are extremely ordinary players who have nothing to add unless a team is dominating. Farrell is not big enough & his usual mental strength seems to have disappeared up his own anus, along with that of the talented J Jomkins. And just how L Tomkins get a SL gig? It shows what a remarkable job Maguire did with them.

As well as O'Loughlin Wigan were missing their first choice props so we were able to dominate up front, something we may struggle to do against most other teams.
The Dragons next week will be a major test in that regard.

I think there's still a hangover from Keith Senior very publically (and very correctly, it has to be said given the performance in the massive game in question) calling him out after that scandalous WCC performance.

Other referees make mistakes or are generally poor (Child) but Silverwood's record stands out a mile as the one who consistently short changes the team and who the Leeds players will admit they just can't work with.

Unfortunately, due to the apparent dearth of promising officials coming through the ranks, nobody is putting pressure (of the right sort) on the current ones to make them improve their performance.
Tim Roby being head hunted by the NRL has not helped.
I'd have hoped/expected that the advent of full-time professional referees would have increased the pool by now.
Upon watching last night's game again on TV I think that Silverwood's worst omission was blowing up too soon for the Farrell penalty that led to his correct sin-binning.
In other circumstances that could have led to us losing the game.

More chance of Sam returning to the NRL than LB coming to Leeds. I've been to Manly, and it does have some great beach views...<ahem>

The Farrell decision was ridiculous. He obviously made a mistake by blowing his whistle too soon - ok we all make mistakes - but not sure how much clearer a penalty try it could have been than a man with the ball walking two yards and putting the ball down had he not been tackled by an opponent who was literally 15 yards offside. No doubt the refs on twitter will say it wasn't certain Watkins would have held the ball, but short of a heart attack that's bull.

Farrell should also have been sinbinned a few minutes earlier for holding back Aiton on the line to stop him regathering his kick. Now *that* wasn't a penalty try, but was a real professional foul.

In Siverwood's defence, one thing that I was pleased to see he got right was when he penalised Manfredi(?) for moving off the mark in an attempt to win an undeserved penalty when we had them penned in on their line.
Also, he was correct in reviewing the try that was chalked off for McGuire being offside at the PTB.
We were bemused at the ground since we could not hear or see the reason for that.

I can't believe how many stupid penalties Wigan give away, long may it continue .

Yep, he got that absolutely right.

I get that they just got Mags "down town" but missed that grub Mcallorum (sp) cuffing burrow right in the face as the play started before Danny touched the ball. Only twice have I every seen this given in RL, both times when a try is scored. Both times it was Leeds. They totally missed the Atkins one when he scored in the GF against us.

An enjoyable game with a very good atmosphere, good to see Headingley 90% full.

The quality wasn't great but the score flattered Wigan who looked rudderless, Matty Smith just isn't controlling the attack at all.

On Leeds we looked sharper ball in hand and much more fluid. Maybe the extra speed is why our handling wasn't as good as it should have been?

The forwards did a good job and McDermott is getting the balance about right - rather see more of Singleton and less of Peacock especially if you want Peacock to contribute towards the end of the season. Much rather see Yates given a go than persist with Kylie - he did nothing wrong last night. Cuthbertson had a tremendous game. The penny seems to have finally dropped to Aiton that if he stays close to him he will get plenty of offloads. Ward and JJB had really big games too, Ablett looks a bit off the pace at the moment.

The half backs combined well and Sutcliffe looks like a confidence player that needs to play whether at the expensive of Sinfield or McGuire. He at least has a short kicking game which neither of the other two do. Watkins impresses me he has come on over the off season he looks every bit an international player. Handley didn't let anyone down, took his try well - out of position for the second Wigan try but that happens with young players.

After all the stuff this week it was interesting to observe how Hardaker went - my observations
1. His one on one defence was superb the two tackles to stop a seriously fast Burgess were top draw
2. Twice he exposed Handley to a high ball that he should have claimed - the second one he was 5 yards from where it landed
3. I don't see how he can make a half back - last night every time he got the ball he was tackled in possession and the played was curtailed

Leeds kept Wigan scoreless in the second half and that should be seen as a positive - if McDermott will continue to integrate the youngsters as he has done then the chances of Leeds running out steam towards the end of the season will be reduced significantly.