I don't disagree, I just think we'd look so much more threatening with the ball if we had a back rower who could link up up with the centres (like Manu did today, and Ablett did with Moon earlier in the season.

Our defence atm is a big concern. Earlier in the season it looked excellent but in recent Weeks it looks fragile near our own line.
I thought tonight we looked good early on and our attack crisper than last week, but tonight was a great example of how momentum can change in a game. Saints got some possession in our half on the back of some penalties, weak defence led to a couple of tried and I didn't think we managed to get the momentum back for the rest of the game.
Still a long way to go in the season and these kind of defeats mean little come Sept Oct.

Watkins is as quick as 99% of anyone in the league and he struggled to keep up. Hall wouldn't have faired any better had it gone that way. To me, he was targeted but stood up to the challenge all night and looked good returning the ball. The reason he offered nothing in attack was the same reason Hall also offered nothing in attack.... It's because We didn't pass the ball to our 2 or 5 once all night! To me, that's an awful use of our players, especially when we are weaker down the middle at the moment.

Perfect Summary.In no way was he the sole reason we lost but the fact is he isnt good enough and part of the frustration from most of the fans is that he is prefered to a younger prospect who could surely at least match the levels that Vickery is showing in the Leeds colours.

Harrigan, this.....



He takes the ball in like Mark Calderwood!

He doesn't have the ability for Super League for me, his defence is sketchy to say the least! He gave up on one of the Saints try's tonight, he let his centre do his work for him

Vickery was probably in a better position than Watkins to get to Makinson but he didn't have the pace to keep up. I'll have to watch it again but that's what I thought at the time.

To me I think given time and a good training programme he could well be a decent back rower, I just don't see him ever making a first grad career on the wing at this level.

How much ball did Hall have tonight?!

Well, Watkins did get the man, just as he was going over in fact

Second: he took the ball in but running into the centre of the pitch is a risk for him IMO

I don't either, but this isn't about what his future may hold. To blame him for the Makinson try is a bit of a stretch if you ask me. Makinson's probably in the top 5 quickest players in the league. As soon as Manu offloaded, we were always going to struggle. Just think of the tries we have scored like that with slower players than Percival and Makinson backing up the offload.

Think one word to some up tonight........ Complacency.

25 minutes we were fine (not great but fine), put in some good hits in defence, Saints looked woeful and barely capable of getting out of their half, Wilkin and Soliola looked more interested in roughing up through frustrating.......and we just thought 'job done'.

Then a collection of some of the softest decisions from Thaler (maybe McDermott shouldn't have had a go at him after the Catalans game) followed to 2 JJB rushing out of the defence mistakes pegs us back.

We come out 2nd half and Hardaker is still in the dressing room and we finally realise we're in a contest by the 60 mins mark but the problem is.....we've let Saints get their tails up and they weren't going to let it slip.

We switch off for a good 30 mins mid-game, and no its not as simple as saying "fatigue" like some buzzword as arguably the worst offender was Hardaker and he's not played enough to use that excuse.

We simply showed disrespect by not keeping the foot on the gas and killing them off completely......but the players wouldn't have been the only ones after 25 mins thinking "contest over".

We created space for our centres twice all game, and it led to both scoring - unfortunately, we don't appear to know how to do this frequently.

For me, we need to be a little more 'old school' with our attack. We need to work on dragging the defence in with a couple of good hard drives, with some dummy runners, and then spread it wide. For me it all starts by having a deeper attacking line and running onto the ball more - the problem with playing such a flat attack is that if it breaks down, or the defences are particularly good or on top, it's difficult to create time or space.

In reality, with the general poor standards of centres in super league, simply having a deep line and letting Watkins/Moon run onto the ball at their opposing centre 1 on 1 would probably be enough.

I don't know if anyone mentioned it earlier in the thread but for me, the changing moment was when McGuire looked up and knocked on when we were mid move at 16-0. Had he have concentrated and managed to get the ball to Moon, we were looking at 22-0. As it was, he put it down and Saints scored a couple in the next 5 mins.

Momentum swing and possible game changer.

Awful. Both teams were poor with ridiculous elementary mistakes and would get duly hammered by .......erm Salford probably

If Leeds can't manage to get the ball to the wings (or even centres) with three playmakers, then there's clearly something wrong with the attack. Hall's now scored what one try in six games? Given that he's a class winger, and we've played some poor teams in that period, that's dreadful.