Positives - Riley was assured under pressure and had the confience to join the attacking line.

- Briers kicking game in the first half was good (he has no support whatsoever in this department)

- Westwood, non-stop work and a handful for the Saints defence all night.

- Rau made a fantastic impact when introduced.

- new signings went well.

Negatives - Monas - I want to believe he's going to come good but not I can't remember a scrum half having such a quiet game.

- King - get him on the wing with Bridge as his centre, it can't be any worse than the King-Penny partnership we've got at present.

- Johnson isn't a centre anymore - but a lack of gas isn't his fault, he's just getting on a bit and has had too many injuries. He'll do a great job for us in the back row.


We just couldn't maintain our intensity after going 14-0 up and Saints turned on the style big time - doesn't look like the ultra-quick play-the-balls are going to be phased out.

Now's not the time to be writing anyone off for the season. Hopefully we'll get a big response from the players next week.]

I am not too dissapointed about last night. I expected a defeat and for most of the game we dominated. Its a shame we could not do it for the whole game but they really turned it on once they got sniff.

Postives for me were.

Riley - been said all over this board but he looked good all game.

Higham - posed a real threat but tired later

Carvell - great go forward

Blythe - got through loads of work

Negatives

Monas - did he play?
King - what does he offer?

All in all was not a bad performance.

You also forgot to mention that we were playing against a team that are notorious slow starters and have been beaten quite a few times on the opening day of SL against average opposition, saints will only get better but how much better will we get as that backline apart from Riley looked toothless last night and our half backs were virtually non existent.

I dont know, Before Rah's try early in the second, the set of six Saints had that we kept them right down at their goal line was pretty impressive. Seeing as I havent seen a Wire team do that for some years (from memory) and the fact that it pretty much lead to a score was great.

To be honest I didnt think we would kick on in the second half. In a way I felt the half time hooter came at the wrong time for us and the ideal time for Saints. They got 15 mins or so to regroup and rethink their gameplan. We probably used that time to have a group orgasm about how well we had played. I just wanted us to come out that 2nd half as if the game was 0-0 and for the first 20mins or so, i thought that we did that superbly. Then we just seemed to make one mistake, then another and unlike we had done to Saints throughout the first period, got punished for them.

Its a shame because I had high hopes for that game, but its only the first game of the season and the more games we play the fitter the players will get and the longer they will last. I know they should have been able to last a full 80 from 2 weeks ago but at least they lasted as long as they did.

I think we should look at it as being a game where we gave Saints a hell of a fright for 60 odd minutes. When was the last time we made a team look like they weren't goign to score?

Still pretty gutted about the result but thought I would throw in my positives from the game:

Effort - Don't think there was really a lack of it last night. Defence slowed in the last 20, as people have said we need to keep up the intensity for 80 minutes!

Riley - You could tell from his Guardian interview that he was going into this game confident and hungry for a result, and he showed us exactly that in the game. Proud to wear the shirt and improves season upon season. Think he's got a bright future, hope its in the Primrose and Blue!

Higham - Didn't get to see him in the friendlies but was impressed with him in the WC and impressed again last night. Looking forward to seeing him used off the bench when Clarkey is back.

The forwards - massive effort and were constantly stepping up to make the hard yards. Impressed by Carvell - like Higham I didn't see him in the friendlies. Mozza played well. Need I say anything about Westwood - gives 100% week in week out and did it once again last night.

and finally....

The Crowd! Proud and loud, didn't hear a single comment from our fans against our lads last night. Even when the hooter went, everyone was gutted and yes a contingent walked out in silence but the majority applauded the team. I can only hope this carries over to our home games this season.

Give over - there's no way Clarke should start over Higham. If he does, then we truly are doomed

Exactly right, we played Saints away in the first game of the season, it doesn't mean much really. How many times have Leeds lost away to Saints over the last cople of years???

We were methodical and settled for the majority of the game. rather than trying to blow them off the pitch with every play. i'm hoping that this kind of game will mean that we do not suffer for the next few weeks as we have previously.

Next week will tell us much more about our season than last night will.

Yeah, despite me being really neagtive about Lowes so far, I don't think he is a stupid man, and hopefully he will have seen the shortcomings last night, and it shouldn't take too much to get a better balance with ball in hand.

It was possibly better to lose in that way last night, than a last second drop goal again.

I can see what you're saying but can I just stop you right there - this guy has a worse injury record than Paul Sculthorpe over the past few seasons, we've barely seen anything of him - as far as I'm concerned calling him one of our best young players, and that his absence is significant, is stretching the truth somewhat. He can only be talked of in those terms when he's put in a good string of consistently excellent performances. Until that time though, his absence is hardly noteworthy IMO.



I've not seen anything overly knee-jerk like in response to be honest. All I've seen is criticism of the performance (in some instances warranted, in others not).



I saw enough signs in tonight's game that we ought to at least be mid-table.. and that I'm going to be very, very bored.

When buy a lottery ticket I hope that this is it, this is the day when I will finally win. I know deep down that I am not going to win, and when the balls drop I have not won I am no longer disappointed at losing. I just wait 'til next time and buy another ticket and hope that maybe, just maybe, this is the day. For me, playing Saints works pretty much the same way.

Positives (in no particular order)

[iDominated Saints for the first half and start of the second.

For most of the game the defensive structure looked solid and effective.

Chris Riley looks like he is capable of making the FB spot his own (I hope so).

Our pack was immense.

Better kicking game than 2008.

Had Saints rattled to the point when Wellens was throwing tantrums and IMO Wilkin should have talked himself into a 10 minute rest.

Penny looked far more solid than at any point last season.[/i

Negatives (again in no particular order)
[i
Fitness? We have heard so much about how tough pre-season was and how fit we were yet, despite forcing Saints to work far harder than us it was us that appeared to run out of steam first.

Matt King carries on from where he left off last season.

Penny being made the scapegoat. PJ was left equally exposed by his centre after Penny came off. Luckily for him, Gardner cut inside instead of going for the corner. The left side problem isn't completely down to Penny (as Lowes will find out when Gleeson comes back and, I assume, Johnson finds himself outside King).[/i

All in all I am not too disappointed. The positives outweigh the negatives and we will not play teams as devastating as Saints every week. There are signs there that we could be a force this season (though I will add that I still believe that we will be 4th-6th and do very little in the playoffs).

I am not gonna hide my dissapointment at the result and the final 30 mins or so as i was as gutted as everyone but there were many positives. And seeing Jimmy's interview after he was very honest in his thoughts of the game. As i and some have said on previous threads the time to make judgements is after 5-8 games or so and i for one am very positive about the season ahead.

Positives have been listed in other posts so i wont go on about Riley, Higham, Forwards and pressure put on saints in first 50 mins. Just another praise for the fans - great crowd there though i for one noticed that the Stains fans finally found their voices around 60min into the game.

Lets look forward to the Catalan game, get behind the team and sing our hearts out for the lads!!

Come on the Wire!!!

One positive for me was the timing of the pathetic 'shoes off if you love Wires' nonsense. If Gilmour had to waltz through our 'defence', I'm glad he did it whilst that cringeworthy pile of crap was going on to refinforce how stupid they all looked.

I've not had chance to re watch the game yet, but I think I am going to for a change.

We were tremendous for the first 50 minutes, never took a backwards step and kept holding Saints back in their own half (despite the numerous times that Smith piggybacked them up the field).

However, at half time, I still had this feeling deep down that we won't have enough to do it, and bizarre as it may sound, I was further concerned when we went 14-0 up.

My bizarre thoughts seemed to turn to reality once Gilmour waltzed in after 51 minutes, and then that was that.

Bitterly disappointed with the remaining 29 minutes, but it's only the first game of the season, and I'm praying that there will be more to come from us during this season.

Thought that we played well for 60 minutes, with the forwards looking good, looks like Higham and Carvell will be cracking signings, however we need tp look at left centre and wing as we seem very weak against a quality centre.

Gutted about that result because clearly we should have had enough to see that game through and win.

Not worried about their ability to compete and we will get into the play-offs. I also think we will play some pretty negative percentage play game-plans to get there as well which will be far from entertaining.

However is this going to be enough?

PS I was hoping not to pick on certain players but King and Monaghan must be on borrowed time. They are really a massive disappointment and I can't see them improving.