Definatley a mixed bag tonight. Not sure how to describe our performance other than strange. First 40 minutes we seemed as though we had not played together and we did not look at the races at all. Our defence on the fringes seemed very susceptable. Amos roberts didn't seem to be interested and I was extremely disappointed with him all game.

Impressive for me throughout the game where farrell and mossop. Mossop continually shown his size and ability through the game and I thought farrell possibly had his best game for us. He definately caused leeds all sorts of problems on the fringes.

I still am confused as to why lima got sin binned. Thought nothing was in it really but I may change my opinion when watching the replay.

One thing which annoyed me tonight was certain fans reactions to brett finch. The man has come back from a serious injury and doesn't seem to be upto speed with us in attack. Is this any need for things such as go home finch? The person in question was very quiet when finch threw that beauty of a pass for sam to make a break.

All in all there is significant room for improvement from us and it is quite frustrating to see but I'm trying to be patient and realising that we are the champions. After all I would back us to win it from anywhere within the 8 with the players we have to come back

First 15 mins we should of had 3 tries on the board. The last 15 mins we played well and scored 3 tries. Everything in between was shambolic and we couldnt put a simple set together. Fluency isnt there yet but it will come, the more people write us off the more fired up we will get. With character like we showed tonight theres hope however bad we play.

it's a catch 22 with finch at the moment, as i said on another topic he definately has unsettled the rhythm of our attack in his 2 games, some of his passes and kicking game where not very good at all, but as you say he has come back from a serious injury after a long spell out and into a new team, so he needs to play regular to get up to speed but we have to be prepared to be patient.

Thought on tonight...

Positives:

- Joel was excellent at centre, great running and defence, really showed he can step up to that position imo, look forward to seeing him there next game

- Sam's try - magical play and a shame we haven't seen him more with ball in hand attacking the oppositions line

- Chris Tuson. This guy is an unsung hero, his enthusiasm and energy off the bench is great to see and it's definitely needed

- We looked better with 12 men

Negatives:

- When the opposition get rough, we don't like it. Hull did it, we played badly, Leeds the same

- Too many stupid errors

- Opposition have found Sam out at FB, too shaky under the high bomb, defences are on him in a second


Overall disappointing, but nothing that can't be fixed. Leeds didn't scream at me like a team capable of doing much this season unlike Wire last week. When the f*ck is Richards back???!!??

Apart from the two times Senior made him look like a turnstyle.

First 15 mins and the end where we looked good and scored tried just happened to be the time when Micky Mc was on.

Yup, i noticed that too.

No he didnt, you had the overlap and Roberts didnt come in.

Correct. Twice Joel rushed out early and was made to look stupid which cost us points.
Leeds played tremendously well in the last 20 minutes of the first half and first 25 of the second. The game was going the same way as the Wire game a week ago, luckily we got something out of the game when we didn't deserve to really.

Joel made no more mistakes defensively than Carmont,who i thought looked shaky all night.

I think Joel showed enough last night to show that he could make a decent fist of centre. What he needs is a bit more game awareness of defending in that position, give him a few months in that position and I think we have a monster on our hands. He has decent pace for a big man, is aggressive and a good pair of hands - I certainly think he is a better bet than Marsh

Finch will come good, watch the match and it was down to Finchs' enthusiasm and calming effect. He supported Lockers when he got the offload and threw the pass to Tomkins on the LHS. Oncw when we conceded a penalty for a high shot (can't remember who by or to) it was on Leeds 20 yard line he was telling players to calm down and get back and defend.

Fair enough his kicking game is off at the minute and other aspects of his game is off at the minute. But look at it this way he has played two games against two of the teams that you would expect to be competiting in the semi finals of the play offs. Let him settle and hopefully against some "weaker" sides get his rhythm and get used to his team mates then hopefully things will improve for him.

I agree he's a better bet than Marsh, definitely something in him to keep trying him there.

The side again looked like they didn't know each other for long parts of the game and we aren't flying out of the blocks like we were last year. I think the major 2 factors in that are firstly the side hasn't been settled and seems to change week on week due to various factors and secondly the WCC hasn't taken alot out of us imo. I think the focus was on that game and we peaked for it but then we got beat and it's taken some time to get over.

A settled side and a kick up the backside from Maguire and Wane and we'll be more then fine. We showed in the last 10 minutes last night that we still have those attacking weapons that won us the Grand Final with Sam ripping them up from fullback, Joel running defences ragged, Leuluai spinning and darting about the place and Lockers firing those cut out passes to the wings.

It'll come.

From next week we should have Deacs & possibly Richards back, this coincides with a run of a few 'easier' matches (apart from Good Friday). We should be able to replace a few players who maybe aren't performing 100% with a keen youngster. Last season it worked so well for us....you werent playing well you were replaced. It's amazing how the players respond when they know someones after their spot.

Great character to come back like we did (thought Faz had got over at the end) but I just hope that fightback doesn't mask what was for 80% of the game an inept display.

Also - touchies. What's the point? One tells Silverwood he's dropped it but he goes to the screen anyway and the other one was the only guy in the ground who thought Goulding had knocked on. THANKFULLY he went to the screen. Why not just fire the useless barstewards off and go to the screen anyway??