Not sure why Eseh is copping some stick.
Whilst his go forward wasn`t brilliant I thought his defence and intensity in the tackle was better than Lisone and Oledzki and he`s much younger and is learning the game.
Croft I`m sure will look much better when we have a decent pack.
Frawley slightly above average yesterday so let`s see if he can continue to improve.
The rest of our overseas players with possibly the exception of Martin were well below the standard we require.

I’m not particularly giving Esseh stick, i was just counter acting that he wasn’t better than all our other props combined.

His go forward is poor but he’s still a young kid

Christopher Esseh has aggression and the attitude to hurt the opposition forwards which gives them a big reason to be very wary of him and gives our team an advantage like the Wigan and Saints even Leigh pack.
None of our other forwards except Bentley have this, if they can’t impose like this young Lad can they should not be playing for the Rhinos.
If you don’t get this you don’t really understand Rugby League.
Being positive is good but deluded not so.

No need for the personal angle.

What do you think im being deluded about?

Esseh is a good young prospect, the way he’s being elevated by some on here is bizarre, and it seems it’s because he’s not actually one of our players so must be automatically better.

He’s got some great aggression in defence, he’s got errors in him (like most young players) but is pretty poor in attack and makes very little metres.

I would be more than happy if we kept him.

I personally agree with what Christopher is saying regarding Eseh, I think some on here just want to look take a negative dig at our own players whenever possible, now don't get me wrong the performances from 80% of the squad week in week out has been atrocious imo this season and has been for a few seasons now as we know.

But I think some fans want to dig certain players out for the sake of digging them out. Eseh is young and learning his trade in the game but he is no more deserving of a place in the team than the likes of Leon Ruan & Kieron Hudson who are both fit and available for selection and are actually our own players.



I'm not bashing Eseh because he shows effort and like I say is still learning his game but some fans seem to think he's gonna be the next JP for us or something I seems when reality probably is he'll go back to Wigan at the end of this season.

I think your getting very carried away about Eseh. He had a good little cameo against Leigh, he was truly diabolical against Wire, and he had a few good disruptive moments against KR, balanced against the fact that he made very little ground. At the moment he's a young, raw prop who may become a good player in time, but also might not. I'm glad he's here at present because we are so down on numbers, but I think we need 2 new first 17 props for next year and I don't think he should be one of them. That said, if he fancied be 6th prop in our rotation rather than 11th at Wigan, I'd happily have him on board.

I'd swap him for sangare tomorrow, granted that's not much of a statement.

Yep, which is why I said 6th prop.

Yup.

Holroyd seems injury prone,Oledski is struggling, lisone has poor impact vs big teams and Goudemand is just a backrower.
Sangare is too much like Chris Feather atm.
Hudson hasn't played yet.

I don't mind Eseh as a project 5/6th prop.

But we need a minimum of one big nasty prop, bonus if we get another in the pack leader mold.

We lack a quality leader in the pack, in fact you need more than one in that area. We’re soft as hell in the pack. Halves have nothing to play off and we have two poor centres. Newman looks a ghost of his former self

The halves and the backs look poor because they are trying to work off scraps. Until we fix the pack, we’re going nowhere. We need at least two big aggressive nasty rough d props, at least one hard hitting strong running back rower, probably a new fullback and a scrum half.

Sadly that sounds about right. If Miller can cut the rubbish he'd be a good player, but maybe he never will. Lack of punch up front cannot be fixed by effort alone though.

For all the bashing of the pack which is light and makes very little yardage.
The overpriced antipodeans lost the game, Fuzzi ball dropped over the line when scoring and then the bomb.
Miller dropped a high ball and then twice when we had good position failed in execution, and for me the worst is Momoro push of a tackle by a scrum half !
I would keep Miller for a year to see if he improves , the other two can go when we fail to meet the playoffs again !

One error (admittedly critical) from Momirovski and he's already being rounded on by the fans. I don't see any of the other backs doing better. I'd sooner relieve Newman of his marquee status than sack Momirovski, to be honest.

IMO Mom did okay in the rest of the game and was unlucky not to score (if only for Fusitua's leg getting in the way). He should be given the benefit of the doubt for his second year, especially as he didn't have a full pre-season and has had injury issues as well. I noted that he was bringing the ball out of our 20 a bit more against HKR and looked comfortable in this role.

Miller and Fusitua were obviously disappointing in their execution. Both are potentially match winners on their day. I think all the players 1-7 would benefit from a more dominant pack... Roll on 2025, 2026 then.

Frawley was singled out multiple times by the Sky commentary for his contributions, and Arthur also mentioned that he played and kicked well in his post-match comments. So he at least is benefiting from the new style, and I doubt he will be dropped for Sinfield any time soon.

Overall Leeds started well but withered (predictably) as the game wore on. The heat plus several forwards going down injured didn't help. I'm not sure the team we have is capable of playing either Smith's or Arthur's game plan to be honest. A better team would have held on to that lead with 7 minutes to go. Ultimately the score is pretty similar to when we played HKR earlier in the season.

And yes, WTF was Croft doing when he turned off at the play the ball towards the end of the game? Almost as bad as Momirovski's miss on Lewis, but no-one is calling for Croft to go.