He is a pie, so he will not receive a suspension.

I'd add Griffin to that list aswell, he really impressed me with his go forward.

Only?

Would you run at Leuluai given the choice.

Maybe the HKR forwards just didn't run so close to him as other players who made the tackles. Maybe he was sent out with a brief to cause damage in attack more than in defence. (Given the drop to 10 interchanges this is quite conceivable)
Until you analyse his position relative to all the defensive plays Leeds made, and unless you are privy to the coach's pre-match instructions, the number of tackles by an individual in any one game aren't necessarily an indication of form.
A more reliable indicator might be missed tackles. The fact is he only missed one...on a par with last season. (average missed tackles 1.3 per game)

He'd run to the rlrightrl rlwingrl to avoid him

Watkins seemed to defend more in field compared to most centres. Half the time he was almost in the middle of the field and none of the tries were down to him. Smith and Sinfield had stinkers with their D.


Adam, how come you'd drop Hauraki? He was awesome last week.

Just about to question that myself. I'll repeat what I said to you, he'll have a good year.

a ticket in the wigan half by the dug out again i think

For me Hauraki and Delaney were the most improved players last season. Nice to see them both carry that forward into the first game this season.

Leuluai and Hauraki both made a big impact coming off the bench against HKR. Same again for next week IMO.

Why does McGuire keep getting missed out here. Admittedly I haven't seen any replays, but he was defending between Sinfield and Smith and seemed to be the problem for both of them.

Quote: Gotcha "Why does McGuire keep getting missed out here. Admittedly I haven't seen any replays, but he was defending between Sinfield and Smith and seemed to be the problem for both of them.'" Not for the 1st 3 tries he wasn't. www.therhinos.co.uk/news/18546.php

Quote: Gotcha "Why does McGuire keep getting missed out here. Admittedly I haven't seen any replays, but he was defending between Sinfield and Smith and seemed to be the problem for both of them.'" Not for the 1st 3 tries he wasn't. www.therhinos.co.uk/news/18546.php

Berring injuries I can't see the starting 13 changing for Wigan. I would be worried if it did because that would question whether Mcdermott really knows and is confident in his strongest posssible team and it's structures. If he doesn't think Mcshane is good enough to start I'm not gonna question his decision, he certainly sees more of Mcshane than I do. I don't think the rotation of players will start till after the W.C.C, Widnes away would be a good game to try a few different players and formations.

IMO its a really poor tactic to have your halfback (or similar) defending where the centre should be. You're just asking the opposition to run at that position. Souths tried it a couple of times last season with Chris Sandow and got murdered. Its an attempt to 'protect' a weak defender, but usually ends up worse than if you just put them in their proper position, at most one in from the centre where at least cover can get across.

McGuire is annoying to me defensively because when he wants to (last year's GF for instance) he has shown he can tackle pretty well, which combined with his ability to read the game should make him a very reasonable defender. Sadly at other times he doesn't look interested in making the tackle and combines this with dreadful technique.

Just watched the highlights and the line defence on the right side was woeful. Watkins looked confused about where he was supposed to be, and the other players didn't even move off the line for both of KR's first half tries. The right side generally looked poor, moving backwards when the ball went that way - that's a recipe for disaster in itself (lesson for England as well).

The solution - perhaps bizarrely - could be to make Watkins responsible for the right side defence. He's a big unit for sure (he looked a monster with the ball) and ought to be intimidating his opponents and forcing them to go elsewhere. The difference between him and Hardaker defensively is significant - Hardaker looks as though he enjoys defence and gets himself into the play.