Why does Calum Watkins defend 4th man in. He seems to get caught out of position and doesn't read the game at all well.i think he'd be better inside BJB to avoid less missed tackles on the bigger forwards and also give us the extra pace on the outside for any clean breaks.Our right side defence does seem to get opened up much easier than the other side

Watkins had a topsy turvy game, some threat in attack, but highlighted some weakness in defence alongside some careless tackles the main one the high tackle leading to position for the first try. A off day for him, lets hope all te team bring the A game for the couple games

From what I can remember you really cannot blame Watkins for Saints' 1st try! They had a massive overlap and Watkins just had to come out the line and try and save something, given it was Willie Manu he had to quickly shut down proves it near on impossible...

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Watkins defends inside because Leeds's second-rows defend inside because Leeds play a half-back, who defends next to the winger, at hooker. It's a unique defensive formation.

As this forum *loves* a bit of Opta, in the last three games Watkins has made 32, 30 and 31 tackles - 2nd, 4th and 2nd most in the team respectively. In the St.Helens game, where he made 6 carries, he topped the count in marker tackles with 9.

Whether this is the best use of energies for our most destructive runner, and whether more is gained by playing an extra half-back and making centres play as forwards to compensate, or whether it negatively affects our point-scoring capabilities, others can decide.

As long as we're knocking over late drop-goals and the other team are missing them I don't suppose we're allowed to question it.

RhinoNeil - It doesn't sound like Maximillion was blaming Watkins for the score but he was blaming Watkins for conceding the penalty for the high shot that gave the field position for the score.

That said the Watkins penalty gave the field position for the second Manu try rather than the 1st - which came after the Peacock knock on which was followed then by the Ablett interference at the play the ball.

Both of St Helens tries followed the recurring theme of an error leading to a penalty which was highlighted as an issue in the build-up last week.

Yeah it's all to do with having Burrow at hooker and Sinfield no longer defending more in middle like he did when at Loose. Teams like to limit the defensive workload of their 2 halves by putting them out wide and away from the bigger guys. We however kind of have 3 halves to protect thus make others have to step up and move in and cover for not having a hooker in the middle of the pitch.

Good defensive hookers will usually make around 30 tackles at least for you in a game, Burrow doesn't usually make even 10 (but still a great tackler for his size btw).

Plus right side is usually busier defensively than left.

Thanks Tvoc....You knew what i meant

Centres usually make 20+ tackles, Senior for example, always had a high tackle count. The number I object to is the number of carries, we simply don't get the ball to him often enough (although as a centre he porbably passes the ball a lot more than say a prop so maybe not an accurate count of the times he gets his hands on the ball). We still don't use his attacking skills adequately. Moon still doesn't leave enough space for his winger and still has a habit of running till he's wrapped up then flinging the ball into a supporting players face.

Comments about our half back/hooker are also relevent. Burrow as a hooker would normally be expected to be near the top of the tackle count and defend more centrally. I guess what we do is play with what we've got in the best way we can. We don't have an outstanding hooker so we shoehorn the players we have into roles that combine the best and make up for that deficiency.

I remember when Matt Diskin got injured in his GB debut, we played for much of 2005 without a hooker at all. Smith got us playing some of the most exciting rugby I've ever seen from a Leeds team. I know we fell short (just) in all competitions, but they were a joy to watch. It can be done.

One more thing, you rarely (if ever) see both centres combining these days. I have always thought that if you can plant both centres on the same side of the field early in the tackle count (particularly deep in your own 22) then it's a superb option to attack wide, early and from deep.

Having Burrow out wide is not completely unique. Chris Sandow generally defends in the centres because he's basically a hopeless defender. Centres generally have a field day against him, but the idea seems to be to hope that cover gets across if he can at least make a nuisance of himself.

Was watkins caught slightly out of position for saints 2nd try?

The dummy runner (Wellens) attracted Sinfield in and in turn Watkins followed leaving Manu to cruise through the gap.
I'd say both ST's trys were well worked and knew to target Sinfield/Watkins on the right edge and both mis-read the plays.

Struggling with my memory, but did both Manu tries come from the gap between Sinfield and McGuire?

Wouldn't be the first time if it was, some of the communication and reads between those two this season has been very ordinary leaving some sizeable gaps on that right edge.