Causation is an area open to interpretation and opinion TVOC.

Best sticking to cold hard prove-able facts like what side of the field tries are scored/conceded on.

BTW, it works both ways. Example? Hall's try (on the left) against HKR was set up thanks to a Donald break on the right. He was released by a beautiful ball from Watkins.

Eastwood is a steampig!

Quite so followed by a good kick on the last, a good catch and eventual offload by Senior in heavy traffic, composure from McShane and awareness from Hall to finish. A good team try.





You've just studied the tries conceded, on the fifth and last of those who was lining up at left centre (outside Burrow on this occasion) and went in on Burrow's man leaving Hicks free to cross unopposed?

Whether defending on the left or right we appear to have a 17 year old making poor defensive decisions.

That's one way of looking at it. Another is that the players on the right had not slid across properly. After the first drive from the penalty you can see we shift right and Briers recognises this. We were therefore short on the left, giving them an overlap. I have no idea what call was made but both Watkins and Hall crashed in to try and prevent the over-lap. The free winger was actually Hall's man, not Watkins. Perhaps Watkins did exactly as instructed to do in that circumstance and they simply couldn't prevent the easy score created by a poor defensive alignment as the team shifted right?

Also, mercurial Lee Smith arrived very lat on the scene. If both threequarters crash in like that one would expect the full back to sweep across much quicker.

Shades of grey TVOC, shades of grey.

Watkins flew out of the line towards the player Burrow had identified as his man. Watkins' terrible read/lack of confidence in his teammate, left Hall forced to follow inside onto Gleeson and hopelessly outnumbered leaving Hicks with the unopposed walk in.

For a moment there I thought Leeds had re-signed Chev Walker.

I don't blame Watkins, I expect it from an inexperienced 17 year old. I blame the club for crap off season recruitment.

This foolish thread is giving me a headache. I may have to kill all of you fools to you put you out of my misery (ironically of course).

I think the work has been done for me while I've been away.

I see you've tried backtracking though.

Did you watch the Leeds defence after the 1st drive from the penmalty tap? Which way did they all go?

If Watkins (and Hall) hadn't crashed would there not have been a spare man anyway?

Were you close enough to the field to hear who may have called the crash defence, Hall or Watkins or perhaps even Burrow who may have been worried he couldn't stop his runner so close to the line one on one?

I wouldn't lay that one solely on Watkins if at all. Good heads up play by Briers and poor defensive structure by the whole team.

The defence was sliding man on man, there was no problem if everyone stayed with their man and made their tackle.

Watkins left the line that was sliding right to left (and went against the drift) committing to a dummy runner that Burrow had identified as his anyway.

It was a poor read and one that had already occurred against Celtic and against Manly.

Reminded me not only of Chev Walker but also Paul Sykes in the World Cup.

Watkins never has or will be as bad him at defending in the centre!!

As someone so proficient in numbers you need a re-count.

If Ali picks up Briers, Burrow picks up #22 how do Watkins and Hall account for Riley, Gleeson and Hicks on a "man on man" basis?

If you're right there's an extra man that should've been picked up by an inside sliding defender or maybe Lee Smith should have gotten across much, much quicker. Watch the video again, even Burrow (who had been tackling #22) arrives on the scene before Smith.

Was Riley in the line or backing up behind?

The sliding defence and the touchline should have coped there and perhaps would have had Watkins not broke ranks. That action made a preventable try inevitable.

There were others but fortunately Warrington failed to execute with the line at their mercy.

You tell me if he was in the line. You've reached a decision about the culpable single party. You've also concluded how the defence would've theoretically coped with Riley.

Surely you wouldn't jump to such conclusions without viewing the evidence?

I don't need to view it, that's your job today just as mine is dredging up stats for you.

Either way the touchline was Leeds' extra defender. Hold your position in the line, take your man and make them go around you to score, if they don't run out of space. How close was Hicks to stepping in touch? Six inches was it?

And I have had such fun alayzing this with you I've broken my mantra of only posting on my employer's time. Anyway, Riley was definitely in the line.

Hicks would've had acres of space had Watkins taken Riley and Hall taken Gleeson. The touchline wasn't the issue, it was the space inside him. The covering Smith (who would've had to pick up Hicks) was miles away.