I'd rather have my Grandma kicking it than Smith.

The Sinfield knock on was a joke. I think the RL have changed the rules without telling anyone!
A spirited performance last night but again our attack misfired on too many occasions and Leeds overall undoubtedly deserved their win.
Leeds are now I think pretty much assured of top spot and with that should be a shoe in for the final.

How many times did passes end up on the deck behind players? The only bright lights in attack were George Williams, and the fact that Bowen had another decent game.

When it happens early doors as it did last night you just know that it will continue for the remainder of the match

All last night proved was that Leeds can win at home in front of a partisan crowd and a dodgy ref. We've beaten them on a neutral ground already and will do so again come October. I thought we competed well with everything stacked against us.

Your are right with that , also it was a pity about the weather , it's the same for both teams but impossible to have the full on battle I was expecting , hopefully October with a decent ref !!!!!

When is a knock on not a knock on when Sinfield does it.

Thank you for restoring the overly biased cherry and white view to one of one of common sense

As someone mentioned on another thread, Matty Smith really isn't Wigan Cup / League winning standard, far too slow and kicking average.

Mossop seems scared....scared to run in hard...scared of the contact..is that due to all his injuries???

Charley just isn't the same player....Why..???

Attack and structure are terrible..No one taking charge...

>>>>>>

Williams is superb... Wane deserves a lot of credit for backing him with the 6 jersey shame he forgot to implement support runners into his gameplan.

Bateman is hard as nails and should be signed up long term on a big deal.

Overall we are still in the top tier but poor recruitment and poor retention of top players (Burgess not being signed up long term) are massive failures from the management team.

Crowds are dwindling and will continue, fans don't want us to be a selling club like we are now..

I thought on Friday we fought well but were nowhere near clinical enough. Defensively we muscled up quite well considering how dangerous Leeds can be with ball in hand. I don't know how much the loss of Aiton affected them. He's one of the best hookers in the league but Leeds are also probably the team best equipped to deal with the loss of a hooker because they are so adept at creating opportunities through offloads. It's not really relevant anymore with Aiton out for the season.

In the first half the attack was pretty sloppy, especially when going from left to right. Initially I thought Bowen was looking off the pace and getting caught in possession too much but some of the passes he received from Smith were very sloppy. All things considered Smith had a poor game. With ball in hand he just doesn't seem to offer anything. Occasionally he'll create a try with a good pass or a well placed kick, or break the line, but it's only ever occasionally. He's our most experienced half, he's an England international. What we're getting from him is nowhere near enough. I can understand that he might be very important to the organisation of attacks, but our attack certainly didn't look very organised on Friday. It's been the case frequently throughout this year.

Our front row was okay. There's no point expecting any of them to be world beaters. Leeds' 'middles' in Cuthbertson, Peacock and Garbutt all made over 120m, while our front row was Flower 80m, Clubb 53m, Mossop 52m, Sutton 38m, Patrick 25m. Our props don't do much with ball in hand but I thought defensively they were very good and prevented Leeds from offloading as they would have liked.
Our back row, as you'd expect, was were we made more ground. Farrell and Tomkins made good ground and if it weren't for Farrell and Williams we'd barely have been able to cross the try line in the last few weeks. Both seem to be finding good form and creating an understanding.

While Bateman isn't much of an attacking threat in the centres he defends brilliantly (something Tomkins really didn't do at centre). He kept Moon quiet all night and I thought Gelling did a good job on Watkins.

Charnley and Manfredi were solid. I do think we don't get as much out of Manfredi when he plays on the left. I'd have stuck him on the right and played Charnley on the left side, although with Burgess back this coming week it probably won't matter.

Bowen looked dangerous but I hope he isn't overworked. We know he's not in the shape he used to be and the Cowboys didn't think his body was up to the high intensity of the NRL. We might not reach the same level but certainly our early games in the Super 8's have been high in intensity and with Wire up next it will be a real test of Bowen's fitness.

Leeds are definitely the best team in Super League so far. The others teams will have to hope they can reach that level by the end of the season. They are looking good for a clean sweep and with Sinfield and Peacock going at the end of the year they have extra emotional motivation that I feel will give them an edge when it matters. We are going to have to play smart and hope that a few players have been leaving a little bit in the tank on purpose so they can really turn it on over the next couple of months.

I came to visit here to see what your opinions were . Didn't even finish the first page .. Is the standard start to a post after a loss 'I don't usually bag the ref but ......' .. or something along those lines ?

It was a great game to watch . One thing I would suggest though is that the people that sing we hate the Leeds scum check the teamsheet and find out where some of their heroes were born and bred . It can't be much fun for a player when the supporters of the team you are playing for are shouting that they hate the residents of your home town.