Quote: mark_m "If they didn't have the play-offs we would not have lost that game tonight. Is that right?'"
I think if it was really important to win that game then Monas jr, Carvell, Briers, Atkins, Hodgeson and probably Grix and Westwood would all have played and yes, we would have won that game.
We lost because we 'rested' too many key players. We got thrashed because several good players had dreadful games, plus 3 players were returning from months out. It is a result that you get at the extreme end of playing a squad rotation system. More typical would be a 24-20 win or a narrow loss.
It was a depressing game to watch, in fact it was humiliating. But the fact remains that the play-offs do not reward teams that win most of their regular games, it penalises them because they have to use their best players week in week out. At the end of the season you arrive with a team that has lost its edge (or has injuries to key players). Rotation does not guarantee success but it weighs the odds in your favour. Wigan are using the same tactics.