Thought you might know that... everyone seems to know them by there real names...

A State of Trance..
Ari Gold...

So... if Burrow, Buderus, Lauitiiti, Smith, and Bailey don't make it what team would you go with?

1.Donald
2.Watkins
3.Gibson
4.Senior
5.Hall
6.Sinfield
7.McGuire
8.Leuluai
9.Diskin
10.Peacock
11.Jones-Buchanan
12.Kirke
13.Ablett

14.McShane
15.Allan
16.Burgess
17.Manning

Looks a bit light on the ground ay

Hopefully the crutches were precaution though for Smith and Bailey will pass his cog test. Also lets hope the other 3 were just nursing knocks.

Then I would go with this team:

Smith
Donald
Watkins
Senior
Hall
McGuire
Burrow
Leuluai
Diskin
Peacock
Lauitiiti
Jones-Buchanan
Sinfield

Burgess
Kirke
Buderus
Allan

If we play with this squad, then i can see it being a rampage by Manly.

If we play with this squad then i can actually seeing us win by 7

Keep the faith with the fans roaring them on and bluey doing his churchill type team talk the lads will retain the title

Was at the Harlequins vs Manly game today and when the put their full side out (for the second half) they were more than a bit good!

If we have too many knocks and put anything much less than a full side out (okay no Webb is a given) and given our obvious rustiness in attack I fear we are in for a bit of a tonking

My fears exactly.

Also at the game today and don't agree totally with Highbury Rhino's assessment. Thought Manly were very light weight in the forwards and the Quins forwards were on top today. The difference was the speed of the backs, especially the full back who will need to be watched carefully. Our defence outwide is generally quite poor anyway so I expect Leeds to be able to deal with it.

After seeing that today, I fully expect a comfortable Leeds victory on Sunday.

Well the fact that I have found out that Quins 2nd half team was like a reserve team has made me feel better. Why did they do this though? Would it not have been better served to each play the reserve-ish team in the 1st and then have the strongest for the 2nd? Would have made a better game.

You are right about Brett Stewart though. Easily the best attacking FB in the World IMO.

He ripped us apart tbh.

It was a reasonable game actually, the Manly second string was very poor indeed, key Quins players were rested towards the end. I'm not sure why Manly did it the way they did really.

I don't expect us to win this year. Manly seem to be up for this a lot more than any other sides recently. We have a few injuries. Having said that defensively we look strong, and I think we will see a few injured players back for this game.

I'm gradually learning not to write us off in big games. This, contrary to the knockers' views, will be a big game. Big crowd, good teams, silverware on the line. It may be the least important of the 3 main trophies on offer, but it's still a trophy.

Manly are a good side, but may be rusty, Leeds just haven't really hit form yet this year. Regardless of what you thought of the refs performance on Friday, discipline will have to be tighter against Manly. If we give them the kind of field position we gave KR we will get hammered. I hope we can get Burrow fit for the game, as well as Smith. I feel that we need all the attcking options we can get our hands on for this one.

Hard to call, in the absence of any real form. I'll go for Manly by 8, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to be wrong!

Does anyone know how Ali is getting on.

Having Ali, Burrow and Buderus adds a huge amount of creativity to the 17 who played against KR

still think we will win but close

your long lost cousins missed the boat