I'm not sure what exactly is being dealt with in training ,but its very apparent come match day none of it is being followed.
Very hard to distinguish who was the part time team in that one.

It isn't exactly champagne rugby like previous years, but I wouldn't worry too much. And even though the boys are playing a bit disjointed and poorly at times, they are top of the league! When the grounds finally dry up, it will inevitably improve. Apparently we're in for a scorcher this year.

A few things to consider:

- How many players have left the club that played well collectively over the past few years, plus add the ones injured or not in the team at present. 10 plus?

- McNally and Barlow stand out as 2 integral to many try assits and tries in previous years. Plus the other one now messing about at fullback.

- 2 coaches legged it at stupid times of the season to chase the $$$. So much for Rowley's parting statement. And a 2nd in command has had to step up and deal with all that being a number 1 entails. The media alone must eat a lot of energy - and with 2 coaches less.

- The wage bill must be a lot lighter giving room for an imminent director of rugby appointment, taking some weight off #1.

- The forwards have accumulated most of the points which demonstrates their dominance, so when the backs fire on drier grounds, the team will surely become more cohesive and play more expansively.

- One of the best half backs the club has signed hasn't exactly played yet. He must be like a coiled spring ready to EXPLODE! ...you know what I mean.

- And at the end of the season, surely Dayne Weston will be one of the best singings Leigh have made in a long time? How many try asists has this guy made already, absolutely superb and great attitude.

- If it doesn't work out for Jukes, 3 lads linked to Leigh in one way or another that could do a good job (if available at the time obviously) Naylor, Watson and Duffy. All doing superb jobs at present.

Feel free to add anything else.

Well credit to Batley, they played really well & I think were possibly the better team over the full 80, they'll be disappointed not to come away with the points. Again we looked as if we wanted to do just enough, we never seemed to get going yesterday. Our try line defence was practically non existent so if really hurt us keep letting them piggy back up the pitch with silly technical penalties & knock ons. Yes it's good that we're top of the league & still winning games even when not playing at our best but we really need to step it up, if we keep trying to do just enough to win one week it won't be enough & it certainly won't be enough against SL opposition. It'll be very difficult to suddenly step up our game enough when the Qualifiers start so now we're half way through the league we need to start improving now.

Don't think it's fair to blame Jukes, he's doing a good job in my opinion after being throw in at the deep end. I think he's handled the injury crisis very well, far better than I think Rowley would have done he'd have probably played half the players out injured instead of giving them time to recover. A few times in interviews he's mentioned how frustrated he is at players not closing out games & letting teams back into it, hopefully stealing a victory yesterday will be the wake up call he needs to get the players to realise they can't keep doing it.

Ah well, another win & top of the league at the half way point. You'd have taken it with the chaos at the start of the season but still feel there's a lot more to come, hopefully we'll see it sooner rather than later.

The thing is, it is not about being top now. That fact in itself is being used to hide the real issues by some. We are not ready for the 8's and won't be unless we can become 'a team'.

I have read all the opinions on our performance however, nobody has mentioned we lost our scrum half early in the game reducing us to one Pivot! I wonder how Batley would have performed had Brambani gone off at the same time as Chase?
We looked jaded at times and Batley, looked more like a fulltime team than us! All credit to them and their coach John Kear!
This time last year we were the Media's darlings, playing a brand of scintillating Rugby riding high at the top of League and beating all comers. John Kear said; we wouldn't need the Million Pound game as we would gain automatic promotion! Then the wheels fell off and we finished bottom of the 8s
We are again riding high at the top of the League however, we don't seem to be anyone's darlings!!
Its notable though when we need to 'do it. we invariably come up with the points which, is always the mark of a champion side!
We had a better side sat in the stand than Batley have and there's, the frustration! Even our former hero Mr Brierley was sat with them!!
I'd love to see the following team play with all players fully fit and at the top of their game, take some beating i'll bet? but these are the players on our books!
1/McNally
2/Armstrong
3/Smith
4/Tonga
5/Kay
6/Ridyard
7/Chase
8/Moi Moi
9/Higham
10/Weston
11/Hansen
12/Hock
13/Paterson

14/Beswick
15/Acton
16/Hopkins
17/Emmitt

Yep, a good point. Higham looked in real need of a rest when he went off after half an hour. 2 minutes later Chase limped off and Higham had to come straight back on and play the rest of the match at 7.

All of a sudden the dual threat of Ridyard and Chase, which had been working well, was reduced to everything going through Ridyard. Our kicking game was being shared between Riddy and Chase which was keeping Batley guessing. After Chase went off everyone knew who was going to be kicking and Ridyard was under much more pressure and understandably less effective.

Any news on Rangi's injury by the way?

Las season the team was better than the sum of it's parts. This season it is worse. It's just the fact that we have players with individual skills better than the oppositions that is allowing us to scrape wins. As has been said before we are full-time, most of our opposition is part time. We should be battering them. What are we doing in training? We should be fitter than all the part time teams like we were last season. How many times last season was it close at half time, then we ran away with it in the second half? This season it's the part time teams that are coming back in the second half looking fitter and better motivated. As it stands at the moment, I have a better chance of becoming the next King of England than we do of getting to SL. In agreement with the title of this thread, with the money we have spent this season - this is no where near good enough.

I know we (Bulls) are a damn sight worse that last year and some on here are not too chuffed with the way you are playing. Do you think the gap between Championship and SL has widened and that there is even less chance this year than last of somebody getting promoted?
I suppose that ultimately a Championship side will appear in the MPG and that it comes down to one game.

The gap is wider and last year Wakefield were by far the weakest team which gave championship teams some hope.

Whatever happens in the middle 8s a Championship team will be in the MPG,hopefully it will be Leigh, the question is Can they compete?At the moment the answer is NO.However they can improve between now and the middle 8s so there is hope.

Get to the MPG and anything can happen in a one off game, too many times the underdogs have won in finals and this is basically a Final game with a massive prize.
The key is getting the everyone to peak at the right time and early May is not the right time, re our defence I think every team I have seen this year has forgotten how to defend properly, have you watched SL this season, games with 20 plus points scored against you and still winning is the norm.

The Watcher believes that Finnigan was the mole leaking info out of the club & when he was identified he was dispatched.

I think the mole left a few weeks prior to Finny....

If true that is shocking after what the club/Derek did for him.

Just watched the game again on Centurion TV.

I was right for once. We should be better than that.