Don't think he had a good game, but certainly wasn't a poor one either. He allowed the teams too close together, which made it very scrappy, and he took too long before losing his patience with the holding down. And of course the one major incident, the Watkins none knock on, he got it wrong. But in his defence he tried to make the game flow, and I certainly didn't see any scenes of the norm, with people jumping off their seats to shout abuse, which tells you something.

Cuthbertson was great, but at the game I couldn't see how Briscoe didn't get MOM, and yes Printer he was excellent. Hardaker too was very very good. I thought Aiton went really well. Sinfield came to life when he switched to hooker, then carried it on when further switched, was awful in first half. Thought Singleton had a good spell. Still think there is an issue with the left side, just not clicking, and Ablett nowhere near the standards he's set previous seasons, in the first two games.

I think that if you drop the ball but mansmanage to connect your foot with it is technically a knock on. You sometimes get away with it, but the correct call imo.

I thought achurch went really well. We look well balanced with 3 second rowers who can move the ball as well as cart it up.
Was nice to see Yates on. He did 10 minutes and didn't look knackered. Kylie may find it hard to get back in

Some of those tries were good to see and we dispatched Widnes pretty effectively, a fairly high error count not withstanding. Attacking-wise, it'd be nice to think that we'd be prepared to play with the levels of confidence and quickness we showed in the last 20 mins against more lofty opponents - having done the hard yards first of course. Best I've seen Briscoe play for a while, mentions also for Watkins, Cuthbertson and Achurch. And good to see Yates debut too.

As others have pointed out, I thought Hicks had a decent game. My feeling at the time was that he'd blown quickly for a knock on and indicated the feed before belatedly realising the ball had been kicked. Either way, the simple answer is to not drop passes then the ref doesn't come into the equation. If I was going to be hyper-critical, his 10 metres weren't policed tremendously well but I can live with that as long as it applies to both sides.

The Eagle is right, the Watkins knock on was, unfortunately the correct call. He knocks the ball forward then sticks his boot on the end of it.

The incident was not without ambiguity and could have quite easily gone the other way but IMO Hicks got it right on this occasion.

"Highlights" are on the rhinos website now, tho they appear to have allowed a 5 year old child to film them... www.therhinos.co.uk/matchdaytv/? ... a&id=20242 In particular Briscoes running throughout the game seems to have been so elusive that the camera entirely missed him

"Highlights" are on the rhinos website now, tho they appear to have allowed a 5 year old child to film them... www.therhinos.co.uk/matchdaytv/? ... a&id=20242 In particular Briscoes running throughout the game seems to have been so elusive that the camera entirely missed him

Hats off to the Coach who after numerous discussions with him he finally takes my advice and drops Burrow.
He then puts Sutcliffe on the bench and moves Sinfield to hooker.
Now can you have a word with the captain and tell him he needs to make his passing from dummy half much more crisper.
I will let you know when Mulhern needs to replace Kylie Mr McDermott

Having had time to mull over the game since last night & in addition to my earlier comments I agree that Hicks had a decent game albeit somewhat slow to deal with their tactics at the PTB.
Our discipline overall was excellent as was our defence &, as has been said, that stifled their attack, ground them down & allowed us to score freely at the end.
Hardaker continues to look as safe as houses under the high bomb but he was put under very little pressure.
Good to get a comfortable win at HQ after so many losses in front of a decent crowd.

The big thing Hicks got wrong was the massively forward pass for Sinfield's try, but we won't talk about that

Good to see JP being used more sparingly, and as others have said Briscoe, Hardaker and Aiton all very good.

I think Hicks did quite well in terms of "the calls". The problem was his interpretation of holding down. It made (or at least contributed to) the game very slow and sloppy to start with. He also did that thing which just infuriates everyone. Where he allows a lot of holding down/interference at the ptb, then penalises a couple of very soft incidences of it and then goes back to not penalising again.

Hicks getting back for 10 then taking two steps forward was confusing. Was that the 10 mark or what?

The refereeing I've seen this season seems better than last (James Child in the Widnes-Wigan game aside).

On the abuse side, the officials get much more when Leeds are losing, one of the reasons we have left the South Stand for the paddock.

From going to the game my main observations were Aiton is playing well. Briscoe is having a very good start to the season, indeed that whole side looks to be going well. Achurch had a good stint. Thought sinny went well. And Cuthbertson looks to be a very good signing

Widnes were dire.

Leeds went through the motions in the first half and rapidly went through the gears as the game went on. Widnes couldn't. From last week the defence was better organized but we were against some poor attacking opposition. Widnes has nothing in their locker, was all one out, only time they moved the ball was on the last when they looked for some space outwide only for one of their three quarters to kick poorly infield. It was a terrible tactic, but one they stubbornly stuck to time and time again when it wasn't working. Why they wanted to keep the ball in field and go toe-to-toe with Leeds on fitness is beyond me. They'd have been better served disrupting Leeds' flow and mastering some decent field position and time sapping scrums. Maybe the loss of Brown left them a bit leaderless.

As for Leeds, I was pleased to see Sinfield at hooker and some of the kicks he got away from that position were quite brilliant. It was nice to see McGuire and ebb and flow, constantly opting for the switch of play. And whilst Cuthbertson was mentioned for his offloads, his workrate in tackle was just as impressive.

Agree with all that. I think Widnes' woes were, in large part, down to the absence of Kev Brown.