Is the bus to Manchester still no: 26??

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and that includes me.
I did NOT say Gareth is not committed. I did NOT say he is carrying too much weight.
I did say, "Gareth Hock is clearly not fit and has struggled in both of his appearances to date."
As is the case for most people who post on here - this opinion is based on observation not fact.
It remains my opinion. Gareth looks to me like a guy carrying an injury.
If he is injured then my opinion would be to get him fit rather than risk making things worse - so he can make the contribution we all know he is capable of - come the business end of another great season, in the Middle 8's.

A good hard test match for the Leythers, just what was needed before Salford next weekend.

I have a sneaking admiration for the Seagulls. Always hard to beat, possibly even more so this year and a real prospect for the Top 4. Apparently a dozen full timers as well.

How do they do it on sub 1k crowds? They must have some top sponsorships or really shrewd money men in charge - could other clubs learn anything from them?

Hock has done alright but clearly isn't yet up to full fitness (of course not, he's had 6 weeks off) he's played long miniutes both yesterday & last week which will hopefuly have done him good. However if Fui is back & fully fit next week I'd play him rather than Hock, if Fui isn't fully fit well then only Rowley really knows who's in what state when the teams have to be named.

I expect Higson will come into the team sat against his home town club Wilkes n Penky both back not sure about Fui if he's 100% defo play if not bring Tom Spencer into the team with Barlow & Hopkins we have three really big forwards Gaz is class big and hard can't wait to see him and Fui in the same starting line up with Barlow and Hopkins

Leigh positives from yesterdayup our game[/i against Salford we'll be beaten. Sheffield played well, but we let them for the most part by not doing the basics well enough. We did play "dumb", as Rowey put it, for long periods. But if we learn from it then we'll be miles better for that match. In fact, it was probably just the kind of match we needed.

A couple of times yesterday he was targeted with friendly pats on the back and didn't react at all. I think the 2 penalties he gave away yesterday were both for the same offense "Of having a bad reputation". I am happy with his discipline for us so far.

Well I really hope he proves me wrong, but he strikes me as having some kind of "issues" and is set to boil over.

However, I don't want to be posting about negative stuff too often on here, so it's the last I will say on the matter for the time being.

There's been mention of "dumb rugby" after a few games, but seems to keep happening. I think it might be a side effect of difference in quality between top and bottom of this league, where bottom teams, can't recover if you make a break and we score from deep quite often. Seems to give a mindset that we have to score in every play, yet when we keep our composure we look very dangerous.

But if we can win away to Sheffield when not playing our best, then we're certainly doing something right, because if you'd offered me a 1 point win at kick off, I would've snatched your hands off!

Totally agree, esp' that last bit.

As funny as it sounds, I don't think we're currently on-form, despite being top of the league and with 20 wins on the bounce.

An on-form Leigh, say, against London at home a few weeks ago in the cup, would have had no problems with Sheffield yesterday.

The good thing, though, is that Rowley is very good at what he does - and he'll know where we're up to and what to do about it.

I didn’t go so can’t really say anything specific about yesterdays game but ……

I’ve said this before (so I’ll say it again )

The difference in Northern hemisphere and Southern is their attitude, to off loads etc, here we say “Why did he try to pass it when no-one was there? That’s Dumb play!”

The Aussies etc say “Why wasn’t there someone there to catch it?”

Throw the thing backwards you’ve got 12 team mates with the chance of catching it, and have the confidence that they’re there to support you, or at least prevent the others from scoring.

Currently undefeated and our points for and against says we’re not doing to much wrong keep throwing it around for me, I can live with the odd lost ball. As dumb as it is.

Says imo....

With regards the 'dumb rugby' issue, we've done it quite a lot this season. It's as if we expect to score off every set, which is great to watch on one of those days where everything goes to hand and you end up putting 50-odd on London, 60 on Whitehaven. The thing that frustrates me at times is our lack of game management. It was probably most evident against Bradford this year. We always have at least four players on the pitch at one time, who is able to kick very well. Riddy, Brierley, McNally and pink/Beswick. Against the better opposition, should we make a good start, why don't we then proceed to use the kicking game for spells to frustrate and wear down the opponents? May not be as exciting to watch, but if this side can master this particular aspect of the game, there wouldn't be many situations it couldn't adapt to IMO.

Agree.

We can get away with that in this league, but we won't so much if we manage to take the step up to SL.

Of course there are times when we should be looking to secure field position or kill the game but in the main we should be looking to score off almost every set.

The alternative is what 5 drives and a kick, Salford or any SL teams would love that just 5 tackles to make each set, we need to be asking them to work a lot harder than that in defence.

For me seeing a team that's always off loading and supporting, actually makes defences hold off which in turn then creates the space, and makes you more likely to win the second phase ball anyway, I for one hope we throw caution to the wind on Saturday, play with a hot potato and run around like two year olds.