We play Salford twice within the next 7 days. League game on Tuesday, Cup semi final on Saturday. Salford don't have the squad depth that we do but they have little chance of making the top 4 so will no doubt be focussing on the semi. Our top 4 spot is far from assured, and we have some big games coming up over the next 2 months, so we need to win both of these matches.

What team does Steve Price put out on Tuesday and what, assuming no injuries, should be the line up for the semi?

I think that he definitely has to rest Cooper on Tuesday, Currie is also due a breather. With Ratchford being rested last night I'm expecting him to play a part in both games. Maybe we'll see him and Ashton sharing FB duties whilst Ratchford can also move to the halves to spell Austin or Widdop?

Yeah I hope that's the Chris Hill we are going to get for the rest of his career with us. It's definitely the best version of him, can't fault him today.

I think more than 2 played well but overall we didn't turn the ball over on our terms often enough and made poor options too often when we did finish sets. We didn't get to grip with the conditions for the full 80, we were good in spells but awful in others. The tries they scored will haunt some of our lads.

Well if we've now decided that the Wire of 2020 are the Harlem Globetrotters (copyright Tony Barrow) and can't play in wet weather, I guess I'll either resign myself to never seeing a GF win or campaigning for the final to be in August.

Fact : two teams coped with the conditions better than their opponents and they are both contesting the final. One of them played remarkably error free football and it is perhaps not suprising that team has also previously enjoyed GF success in typically English autumnal weather.

Just hypothetical to prove a point...
If you put BBM back into the starting 13, switching him with (loose forward) Austin, for starting 13 balance....
You see that we technically had only one lightweight prop/backrower Philbin and a backrower Jace interchange of forwards on the bench, plus Walker, who carry’s no weight.

A terrible terrible team selection, breaks the first rule of RL, twice!!

I’d have had no issue with Price puzzling 13 with Ashton and Austin, if we’d have gone with an forward bench, regardless of favour. BMM Latu Jace Davis (Akouala)

Philbin who I rate really highly got absolutely mullered when he came on, There is 0 excuse now for price I would’ve loved to retain the cup but there is no get out from
him now,he has been out coached by Watson on 5 occasions and he is probably spending more than a million in cap more than him let’s see what the rest of the year brings.

Sensible analysis. We played the conditions for about 30 of the 80 minutes. In the other 50 we were impatient and over-optimistic. This is disappointing as both Wire and Salford had seen the way Leeds handled the weather and it seems that Salford payed closer attention. This is down to execution by the players and not to coaching. We will need to be much smarter from this lesson as October is the 2nd rainiest month in the UK (after January) so we may see more of these conditions in other vital matches.