Anyone know what's going on with Kerian Hudson? He doesn't seem to be mentioned much?

Think his win ratio in SL against Wigan is 3 from 4 isn't it?
Catalans and Warrington pretty similar

It's Saints where we seems to struggle, although last year all our games against Saints were very competitive and close.

Can't seem to buy a win against Hull KR though! think that's 1 from 4 or 5?

He was working his fitness up but then got a knock on his sternum I think followed by a hamstring injury, which has been keeping him out.

He's quite a big lad he might be another one of these whose bodies just isn't up to RL, we'll see. I actually quite like him from what I've seen, he has good whack in D, decent pace, decent hands. Earliest I think you'll see him in first grade might be towards the end of the year IMO.

His head to head with the other top coaches/teams (I'll throw Wire into that too) was pretty impressive and one of the main reasons why I thought he was worth another go this year. The worrying thing is - that now seems to be going down the tubes too. Some of those early wins were achieved with notable absentees in the spine, which made them even more impressive, but we can't really say that this season, can we? To me it does look like we are being left behind. I'd love to see him turn it round. It would be a great story, but my eyes tell me that even looking beyond the current rash of injuries, we lack the organisation and cohesion to be competitive for 80 mins with the top teams.

Fwiw I could see us beating saints (who haven’t really been that impressive bar walloping the bottom teams) in the next game, it would be a very Leeds thing to do that then lose to Hull

Interesting if you read Redvee forum it’s like a carbon copy of this site with the nsmes Wellens and Smith swapped.

Funnily enough I fancy us for Saints too. Holroyd should be raring to go - I don't know if he's been fully fit all year, and this enforced absence with concussion might have done him the world of good actually. A fit Holroyd makes our pack much stronger (if he can keep his discipline).

If Croft is back, he makes a huge difference to us too - said before but I think he's worth 1-2 tries every game just through his assists.

If Newman is back, again we have that extra strike in the back line and some physicality.

RS needs to get the selection right but we're a definite chance. We also have 2 weeks to prepare for this game with the CC being a distraction, and we have revenge in mind after them turning us over twice at HQ. I reckon we should go well.

I'm praying for Papali'i at the moment, I think he'd be a real good addition if we can land him.

I hope you're right. I think it's unlikely we'll come away with anything from Saints though. We've generally lifted ourselves against them, but their 80 minute high intensity approach is like kryptonite to our mistake ridden, play in spurts style. I just want to see us go there and not play soft, which in my book means not giving it to them on a plate with knock ons in every other set, suicidal kicking, and letting the opposition camp out in our half for long stretches of the game. That would be significant progress and proof that the coach and players alike had used the break to address fundamental failings. And Jim, Saints are not in the CC Cup.

Oh yes! Well... I still think we have an advantage there because of injury recoveries, and I think Makinson is banned for them too?

The week off is needed for us.

Mistakes seem to have been a systemic problem for years, over various coaches. I don't know if the pressure of playing for Leeds gets to players, or whether it's just as simple as the players we've signed aren't good enough.

Obviously we need to manage our expectations at the moment but I fancy us for Saints. I'm really positive about the quality of the young players coming through at the moment too, next year one or two will be surprised at the new names starting to show up around first grade. I think we have a tactical gap at prop for a couple more years, but other than that we have players coming through in most positions. I'm going to make a bold statement but in terms of potential, ages 16-19 is very reminiscent of the goldens coming through.

Makinson will be ‘playing’ in the reserves this weekend to serve his ban.

Terrible loophole that.

Well, fair enough in the context of the original offence, I don't think it warranted a ban or a sending off personally. The Wigan prop did deserve his.

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Croft and Newman returning would definitely strengthen us, but they have played in the majority of our games and we are amongst the lowest try scorers in the competition.
We have struggled to rack up decent scores all season and i dont see that changing against Saints whether Croft is back or not.

True, but so have Saints theyve only scored a lot against the bottom teams, unfortunately they don’t let many in either.

It’s a winable game though

For us to beat Saints at Saints, we need to score more points than they do. I don't really see that happening because they attack better than we do, and they defend better than we do. We would need at least one of those last statements to change for us to be successful there.

I'm not saying we can't win the game, just that it's very unlikely.

Saints don't appear to be in the best of form but our toothless aimless attack will need to improve a lot to beat them. There is only the bottom 3 who have scored less points than us this season.

Don’t get me wrong we’ll need to improve on recent showings that’s for sure.

It would be nice to get through a game without losing one or two through injury aswell