Given that considerably more than half the England RLWC team and squad will be comprised of Rhinos players, it's crucial for the game in this country that they defeat St Helens on Friday and continue playing well beyond next weekend. Retaining their match fitness is far better preparation than the alternative of sitting on the sidelines for 5 weeks waiting for the RLWC to kick off.

I personally think we should recall McShane and Achurch.
But that would mean leaving out McGuire and Kirke and that is not going to happen.
Neither did anything to keep their place on Saturday.
I fear if we go into next season with the lack of pace from both Sinfield and McGuire we are going to struggle.
Hopefully this Friday I will be proved wrong.

We have played most of our season without James Roby and so have adapted to playing a more expansive game than previously. We now have a lot of pace and some guile in the backline and Hohaia appears to be stepping up in the halves. Our biggest weakness IMO is actually our pack, even though we don't have recognised halfbacks. If our pack goes soft again then we could be in for a long night. However, if our pack steps up, especially if LMS has one of his red mist nights, then we are in for a really good match.

Although HKR didn't provide much opposition Saints looked fast and their passing was crisp. The biggest concern for me is Roby and his ability around the ruck, if we have JP and Kylie on the field at the same time he will have a field day.

Leeds need a performance like Wigan not Warrington. Saints forwards will not dominate Leeds like Warrington did but Monaghan showed what a quality hooker can do to an ageing pack.

Should be a cracking game next week.

Us Saints fans shouldn't get carried away with hammering a really poor Hull KR side, different proposition entirely on Friday.

I take home advantage and a Leeds win by 6-10 points unfortunately, the intensity will be light years ahead of what we were up against on Saturday and I think our limitations up front and in the halves will see Leeds through.

At least if we lose to Leeds this years we don't have to travel back from Manchester afterwards!

I go along with this. Sometime soon, someone's going to have to sit McGuire down and tell him some home truths. What the effect will be on this "special group of players" is anybody's guess.

We've had the same problem with Wellens for a few years

Not to take anything away from Saints but I thought that was one of the worst play off performances I've ever seen by HKR on saturday.

As for friday, I don't think it been at headingley will make much difference to be honest, too close to call for mine, should be a very good game.

Our best chance of victory against the Saints will be for our forwards to dominate. That means in defence as well as go forward. Hopefully the extra game time and work out will have improved our returning injured's match fitness. Delaney put in the effort but he was much less effective without his usual legdrives which we will need on Friday.

I would be tempted to revert to the side which beat Wigan and would certainly start Singleton at LF and have Achurch back on the bench. There is also an argument to start Sutcliffe and drop McGuire to the bench or even alltogether. However we must not forget his match winning abilities.

The other choice would be at prop. Kylie was lacking energy and did not have his usual impact. Bailey put in a decent but largely passive tackle count without any dominance, and the least said about his lack of go forward with 6 carries for 19 metres with an average of 3m per carry!!! This even made Kirke's 11 carries for 50 metres look good

We have plenty of tacklers and should therefore pick the forwards that will best put us on the front foot. We have to starve Roby of good possession by dominating the ruck.

Cheers for that, when was the last time we beat them in a non knock out play off?

Was it the Lauitiiti try in 2005?

This is spot on and exactly why I am worried.

Leeds under Mcdermott are impossible to predict. Excellent one week, sub par the next, terrible the next, average the next etc etc etc

spot on. this is why i find our esteemed coach such an enigma.
two supurb grand final wins, some magnificent displays in big games yet his use, or non use of replacements, baffling team selections and some dreadful displays sum up his tenure up to press

Leeds' Play-Off record V St Helens:

18-Oct-98 ….. FE ….. Home ….. Won 44 - 16

17-Sep-99 ….. QPO ….. Away ….. Lost 38 - 14

22-Sep-01 ….. EPO ….. Away ….. Lost 38 - 30

30-Sep-05 ….. QSF ….. Away ….. Won 16 - 19

28-Sep-07 ….. QSF ….. Away ….. Lost 10 - 8
13-Oct-07 ….. GF ….. Neutral ….. Won 6 - 33

19-Sep-08 ….. QSF ….. Away ….. Lost 38 - 10
04-Oct-08 ….. GF ….. Neutral ….. Won 16 - 24

10-Oct-09 ….. GF ….. Neutral ….. Won 18 - 10

08-Oct-11 ….. GF ….. Neutral ….. Won 16 - 32

FE - Final Eliminator (Loser Out)

QPO - Qualifying Play-Off (Both Survive)

QSF - Qualifying Semi-Final (Both Survive)

EPO - Elimination Play-Off (Loser Out)

GF - Grand Final

__________

The two coaches going head to head in the Play-Offs - McDermott 1 - 0 Brown

Tough one to call. 1 win each & 42 all on the scoreboard.

Leeds looked a bit tired after the Wire game, but they had done it tough at Wigan the week before & a few are still short of game time.

Saints came up with a big show against HKR & probably won't be as fluent or given as much time by Leeds.

I have a gut feeling Saints may nick it unless Leeds are running hot.

Can't believe someone has suggested Brian McDermott should be sacked.

1250 tickets sold by Saints already. So the pre-match chanting should be good and providing we don't give you another 16 point leg up, I'm expecting the lead to go back and forth a bit on Friday night.

I would not have given us great odds of getting past this round of the playoff's, but it will be refreshing not to meet Leeds in a final for a change.

Assuming we play to our recent form, then I'll take Saints by 8. But if we drop off, then it's Leeds all the way.