Don't get me wrong - it's a one off. Obviously they couldn't repeat that week in week out in SL with that squad but there's a few experts licking their wounds on here today.

Yeah i hold my hands up i thought leeds would pull away a lot more in the 2nd half, but i was cheering for Leigh like most people. You was very close to winning it but for the Sinfield strip and the ball not bouncing up for the winger. well you will certainly have a bigger squad and maybe some more experience but i really like how they have signed players who fell just short of super league at a young age but looked to have developed them and see how they are when there matured, players like Tom Spencer, Sarsfield and Tom armstrong.

I think Leigh will be like Widnes (this season) in Super league, seem to be well coached and have a balanced team that is settled and can play some good rugby.

Johnkendal wrote


Apology accepted

Watched last night well done Leigh, have always rated Rowley.

Little rich is a fax fan but he knows it's only time.........

If they were even one or two times better they'd have won, never mind ten. Fantastic to be so close to the full time professional top level of SL whilst part time. Frightening. I would not have wanted that QF for Wigan last night! In fact I genuinely think Leigh would have beaten most of SL on last night's performance.

I don't think people appreciate the power if momentum in rugby league enough.

People keep going on about full time vs part time or the comparative wage packets of players meaning slaughtering a on the field. Whilst it is a big advantage to have "better" players, the momentum of the "team" itself has a huge influence. I think the 3x8 middle group may surprise a lot of people because of this. Higher paid team on a horrendous losing slump (London for example) vs a team winning most weeks (and in Leigh's case all weeks prior to yesterday) could very easily be a win for the Championship side.

we were appalling, really really bad. Basic skills were terrible. If we play like that against huddersfield next week they will put 40 points on us.

Crowd was appalling though

brilliant, so we could have 4 clubs lose most of their funding, season ticket sales, sponsorship and need to rebuild every year.

Yes. You could also have none. It's up to them to seal their fate. That's sport.

it isnt 'sport' any more than any other system is 'sport'. Thats a nonsense justification.

Your a Hull FC fan, tell me, would you be expecting Radford to get his team busting a gut to gain 3 points on Les Catalans to qualify for competition you will start 7-10 points and 4 places behind 4th (the last qualification place for a play off barely worthy of the name) with only 14 points on offer, or would he take the next 7/8 games and rest some of the bigger names, take his foot off the gap somewhat just to make sure they are ready for the 7 game comp at the end of the season?

If you were Salford? Wakefield?

Under franchising they would have nothing to lose in going for it. Sport is about winners. I want to see teams trying to win competitions, not just trying not to be one of the 4 worst in an end of season tournament.

And four clubs who can gain extra funding, extra season ticket sales, extra sponsorship and can build further. Let's not forget how many of the current Super League have played in the lower division(s) in the SL era.

Get watching the Lion King, Smokey.

And then the next season see that drop again and have to start all over again.

I think clubs would realise the importance of maintaining momentum, players would want to justify selection, and finishing higher up the table during the regular season often has financial rewards.

What you say could happen in the new system surely applies to the current system also? Nothing to play for at the bottom, clubs resting up for the 4 game end of season play off series at the end.

But it is sport. You play the system. You reap the benefits and suffer the consequences of actions. The contrasting emotions of this are what attract a lot of spectators.

you can't argue that sport is playing the system as a defence of a system, thats just silly.

The season decides the qualification route, i dont think clubs do rest players for the play-offs, Bar Wigan last year, it hasnt been that those who play in the GF have gone in to the play-offs in poor form.

Sport is about winners, this new system isnt about winners, the focus isnt on winning, its on not being the worst. There is a very real possibility a club who wins 5 of 29 games stays in SL at the expense of a club who wins 12 games of theirs. Its a stupid convoluted system which hugely damage the game.