Cardiff 2005

Hull were missing Richard Horne, Sean Long, Craig Fitzgibbon, Danny Tickle, Mark Calderwood and they also lost Shaun Berrigan early in the game.

Leeds were missing Scott Donald (not an automatic selection), Jamie Peacock and Greg Eastwood by comparison.

I expect it'll be a different Hull side Leeds will be facing next week in the one that counts.

No not at all.
What I am saying is realistically we would find it hard to win the GF from outside the top 3 which I personally do not think we will make and reach the CC Final.
It is certainly not beyond us but would be a very hard ask.
Me personally? I would rather win the GF again even if it means missing out on the CC.

Leeds only need to finish in the top 4 to stand a good chance of retaining the title.

That is still more than acheivable.

Initially i thought it'd be best if hull knocked us out, then we could get the free weekends and put all our focus into the title....but then we continued to drop points in the league. Now I think we need to stay in contention for both as long as possible to give ourselves the best chance of silverware. You never know we could hit serious form at the crucial time and scoop both trophies up in a smash and grab.

Now that I like.
You would have to change your user name though Back to Back to Back

And yet they were still good enough to put 30 points on Leeds despite having makeshift half-backs.

If Horne and Long are both back for Saturday Leeds are going to have to learn to defend significantly better than they have for the last three games.

But only for 20 minutes of the game. At least that is what I was told.

Absolutely agree.
I thought at the start of the game we were making a much greater effort to get 3 men into the tackle but as fatigue & complacency set in we dropped off from that hence the couple of penalties that Sinfield conceded for holding on too long.

I'd say he meant overall in the last 3 games which is fair but not exactly EVERY minute of every game and stand by my thoughts posted yesterday.

Which reminds me, where are Mr Cooke and Mr Brough these days ? I didn't see them playing at Headingley yesterday ... Are they part of Hull's perennial injury problem ?

In addtional, we don't have a crazy Papuan on the wing to gift you four in a tight game by doing something terminally stuipd on the wrong side of the line this time ....

Add home advantage it's going to be a very tough to game to win.

It will be tough and a different hull team, but feel confident should win it