Having spent 6hrs driving over 200 quid on tickets and petrol my first reaction is dissopointment. For me we were very poor in the second half.

I do think the Delaney incident was 50/50. And if it had gone in our favour would have been a different game. The tackle was right in front of me and was a cracking hit.

JP seemed to play well to me, but regardless of ref decisions the right team won. By far better than us. We did seem devoid of ideas in attack and shakey in defence. But you can't win everything, and all you can say is well done Warrington deserved to win

no gameplan, inbalanced side, and an aging pack. we were outplayed for large parts of the game. silverwood should be embarressed by his display but it wouldn't have affected the result.
the decision to give kylie another deal looks stranger all the time. been a great player but its time to move on. JP had a big game but they are become rarer and rarer. griffin is average at best as is big. we don't have a top class prop at the club. wolves props were awesome today and set the game up for briers to run.
our 2nd rowers are all footballers, theres no real aggression in there. i felt sorry for the backs coming off there line time and again.

My booty was twitching through the first half, at half time I had a nasty feeling we were going to lose, I didn't want it to be a close game.

I take the points Leeds fans are making about the video ref decision as a turning point but it didn't have to be...in days of old (and in Grand Finals) that wouldn't have been a turning point, it was only a turning point because Leeds folded afterwards and once Warrington got on the front foot Leeds discipline started to go (especially Bailey) and we got a load of free penalties. Warrington are a team that scores tries in runs, and the three back to back decided the game. If Leeds had had a bit more composure and toughness today and stopped the rot to take stock after Riley's try.

Peacock was good, Sinfield tried his best but I didn't think Leeds really had anybody that really shone. I agree with the comments on here that Leeds are light up front, it reminds me of the era in the early 2000s when Leeds had a lot of talent in the backs but were short of artillery when it came to facing a big forward pack (also the downfall in 2006).

It will be a shame if all these Leeds greats end their careers without a Challenge Cup winners medal.

As in 2010 I found the Leeds fans that I spoke to on the way back on the train to be gracious in defeat and realistic in their assessment, but people only post about other clubs fans on here if they have bad stories to report.

Good luck for the rest of the season to Leeds.

Thanks for the kind words. Good luck to you too, enjoy your deservd in

Delaney try was correctly ruled out as Leuluai knocks on, bit unlucky on the guy after such a great hit as i don't think he tried going for the ball and more accidental but he does knock it forward.
The Briers one, well usually a player's reaction tells the story and as he layed on the ground watching the ball roll away i think he believed he knocked on.

Whether you think these decisions are right or wrong, especially the latter, Silverwood isn't to blame for the Leeds players letting their heads drop for the next 20 mins afterwards. It's a shame for RL really because at half-time it looked like we could be in for a nail biting close finish, i still unfortunately think Wire would of won regardless as their attack in the final 20m was so much better than ours but it had the potential for a classic second half and we missed out on that.

I have heard some already saying it was a comfortable victory for Warrington and that Leeds were really poor which i think is harsh and wrong. Up until Delaney's try was ruled out i think we gave them a good scare and it was a very close fight although if you were marking it on points like a boxing match i would say Wire won the first half but it definately didn't look like a 17 point difference game at the time that it ended up being.

Credit to the guys for showing a bit of fight at the end because the scoreline could of got out of control and embarrassing at the end, just keep thinking back to when we took an 8-6 lead and we had momentum and the Leeds fans were making the noise and Wire started commiting a few errors as the rain came, Hall tackled Hodgson a yard from his own goalline and we let them off with a cheap offside penalty followed by Griffin's high tackle followed by Waterhouse's try and from 8-6 up and with the momentum and field position we very very cheaply let them go 12-8 ahead. That possibly just as crucial as the 2 incidents at the start of the 2nd half as we could've penned them back then and maybe got a try with following good field position a 14-6 halftime lead was a possiblity.

As for individuals, i'm expecting some fans of other teams to say Sinfield was rubbish but it did really seem like all the responsibility was on his shoulders as far as playmaking duties were concerned and lacked help and McGuire was badly missed and can only guess that Burrow's calf is why we didn't see him share a bit more of the kicking duties that he's done so well at in some of our GF successes. It's a shame that again we fail to get Watkins involved enough in attack, his 2 tries all too late and i thought Ward and especially Keinhorst unfortunately looked nervous. The big difference between the 2 teams were the dummy runners on the fringes, in attack we had none, whilst in defense we couldn't cope with it.

We had an awful second half.. Simple as... No excuses. The 50/50 "try" was not a try... We DID knock it on, so did wire, if in any other game the oposition recovers a knock on it is play on.. Unless THEY knock on.. Then it is a scrum to the oposition.

The ref wasnt great... For both sides. the only real bad call was the briers clear knock on... We still wouldnt have scored.

Well done Warrington. Deserved Win. I just hope this Leeds team can get a winners ring for thr CC... we have some great players and it would be a shame for the sport if one of Leeds' greatest teams misses out.

After seeing the weather forecast, I wanted to bet Leeds on the outright, but seeing a lack of pre-match rain and more importantly, Sinfield at hb, I did'nt bother. Sinfield sees the game an awful lot better at loose forward, than he does at hb. Feel Leeds lost the game in his 1st choice 13. Ward ( really like the look of him), Burrow, Lunt and Sinfield at 6,7,9 and 13, would have been my choice. And as for Bailey................. dear god.

No matter what the Ref decides IF we stay composed and strong on our line ala GF's his calls become irrellevant.
I agree with Tad the pack needs an over-haul and not just Achurch to arrive either.
The best side won but with our outside backs so young we have something to build on as long as the old guard are moved on and we finally get a defensive structure we are capable of sticking to for more than 5 games a year.

I thought the Briers knock on was a terrible decision. I said to my sister after 20 minutes we'd had the rub of green and would probably suffer for it later on which I think we did. I'd love to see the difference between the offside penalty on the first tackle when we tackled Hodgson on the goal line in the first half and the one where Hardaker was trapped in goal in the second.

Having said all that, the way Warrington controlled possession and were clinical after the Briers "knock on" was fantastic. It was like the Grand Final from last year but they just had a little bit more quality to finish us off. A well deserved win.

Forget refereeing decisions, forget 50/50 chances - we were beaten by the better team. Warrington were better on the day (without really having to get out of second gear), and have shown over the course of the season, they are are a better team than us.
When you look at the players, man vs man, I think we can more than match them for talent - however... For me, what today showed is that it's very dificult to coast through the season and then try turn it on for a single big game. Yes we did it last year in the run up to the GF, and that was great, but you can't do that year after year.
At the end of the day, Warrington were worthy winners, and we would have to catch them on an off day to win. We're simply not the best team anymore, and I can live with that - and even playing to our best, I don't think we could live with Wire or Wigan at their best.... Just one of those things - although I do feel that with better coaching, a few personnel changes and a change in attitude to the regular rounds, we can return to being the best team all round - and I still wouldn't write the team off for the GF.
I do have a feeling that this season could just fizzle out though - and long term, that might not be a bad thing. As a team and a club, we need to show more respect to the weekly competition.

I'm not even sure it's disrespecting the rounds. I think we clearly the 4th or 5th best side which our League position reflects. Having said that on our day we can still match the best sides if they aren't firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately these days are becoming more infrequent.

Disrespecting the rounds probably isn't the right term - but the focus and effort clearly isn't there for every game - certainly not in the first half of the season. And I can seriously see this having an affect on attendances and season ticket sales moving forward!
I do tend to agree with the rest of your post though - we can beat anyone on our day - but for the better teams, we also need them to have an off day.
We can't be the best team always - there is no shame in being second (or third) best to the current wire squad and coaches.... They are currently better in all aspects, and by quite a clear margin.

I agree. Wigan and Warrington are way in front and one of the main reasons are structures put in place by SMith & Maguire. Despite being proved wrong on more than one occasion, I'd still like to see us appoint a new coach next year.

I wouldn't say we had no game plan. In fact it worked quite well in the first half when we still well in the game. I think our game plan was to hold them early doors and then go onto the attack. The selection of Keinhorst over a forward rather backs that theory up. But the rain came down and meant different substitutions.

I do agree with you regarding our average/below average props with the exception of JP who was head and shoulders above our other 4 props and as a unit were not good enough. When Lunt came on and Burrow went to 7 we lost our shape IMO.

Had Bailey and Co. kept their discipline in a crucial period of the game the score would have been closer but without McGuire and with Sinfield a bit below par (and his effectiveness well closed down) it was always going to be an uphill task.

We have to accept that there are other sides with better players now and despite needing some new props with better go forward we are still knocking on the door for honours.

Relevance to 25th August 2012 ??