While dissappointed of course that we allowed Wigan back into a match in which we had totally dominated and outplayed them we should give credit to the Leeds players and coaches who have continued the improvement in what is still an injury ravaged squad. ("one third of the salary cap sitting in the stand"icon_wink.gif

Those that had written Leeds off before the match should be really pleased with the performance for the majority of the match.

Unlike many I have been happy with much of what Leeds have done on attack this season but I have recognised that we needed to improve our marker defence, control of PTB speed and attacking kicking and above all cut down the basic errors. In the match last night I believe we addressed most of these weaknesses to great effect - but crucially not for the full 80 minutes.

Sinfield and Buderus (his try was pure class) were outstanding and IMO joint MOM. Burrow and Ablett also had fine games and JJB put in a huge effort.

Webb is looking faster and sharper than for some time and was involved in two or three scores, but he is guilty of making too many errors. He made 4 bad errors -two forward passes both of which cost us tries. Another error was after the Senior break when he should have passed to his right for Burrow (I think) to score, but he chose to go left into traffic and got bogged down. (His natural reaction is to move to his left so maybe I am being a little harsh) Then he cost us another try by moving within 10 metres when in an offside position. Ok we should always forgive some errors by creative players but he does have a regular problem with forward passes. It could be that Hall is running too flat because there were other forward passes to him?

Our rush defence totally upset the Wigan game plan and didn't alllow them to be on the front foot until the last quarter when some players looked very tired. For 65/70 minutes our marker defence was good but then it dissappeared and that is where Wigan hurt us.

Bailey put in some good tackles around the ruck in the first half hour but his silly facial penalty cost us field position, gave away momentum and led to their first score aided my his missed tackle. He was fairly annonomous after his first spell and made little forward progress when up against Coley & Co. Typical Bailey.

I would be interested to see the interchange timings as I get the feeling some players are were not on the pitch for long enough. We needed some fresh legs in that final 10 minutes.

However we should have had the game won in the first half and had further opportunities for more tries in the second half. I believe a turning point was when they had a man binned. We seemed to stop playing attacking rugby perhaps thinking the game was won. Also going for the 2 penalty kicks when we had them on the ropes could have been a mistake.

We should be happy that our team without key players has the ability to compete and last night was not because Wigan were bad. Like Warrington before Leeds took control and didn't allow Wigan to play. When this happens Wigan will have other bad days.

Given that we drew the game, you could argue that without going for both those penalty kicks we'd have lost the game.
I wonder how much we were affected by having 2 days less to prepare after the gruelling 1st half last week against Wakey?

Fair points

Its just that in previous seasons we would have run the ball and not taken 2 points. Given that we were opening the Wigan defence at random there was a good chance we would have scored from one of these two chances on their line.

The game changed for me when McShane stuck his hand up in the air and actually stepped aside letting the Wigan player run 60 metres for rat boy Tomkins to score. At the time we were 22-4 up 20 metres in their half and they were virtually dean and buried. McShane probably thought that there were potential tacklers behind him buy IMO offside or not he should have made the tackle and conceded the penalty and the game would have been ours.
That said with the injuries we're carrying in key positions I didnt really expected anything from a strong Wigan team but the point felt like a loss. I thought overall with the chances we made and the tries ruled out two of which would probably have been given with the cameras being there we deserved the win

Mcshane should have tackled him and conceded the penalty

Who?

Bloody ipod

See how kind I am, I didn't even quote you so everyone could see what you had done.

I thought we were going to get our s handed to us last night so I'm more than happy with the result.

No worries, consider it payback for your avatars.

I noticed similar [i'more than'[/i expressions of [i'happiness'[/i from Leeds fans at the end of the game last night.

I'm glad you did and thank you for sharing that with us.

My pleasure, as always