Bingo, I said before the game Murphy was between a rock and a hard place making his second appearance in this game, and I've said all year that we lack depth at 1, 6, 7 and 9 because Wane was unwilling to play Murphy, Powell and Logan even though there were plenty games where we hammered the opposition when we could have given these lads a run

Actually he is to blame for spilling the bomb. The point is that despite it resulting (in a roundabut way) in two points for the opposition which won the game, the player shouldn't be lambasted....as he is being. Its the fruits of the preceding seventy odd minutes that left Wigan in a vulnerable position and some players in the team haven't done what they claim they can do (play rugby to a good standard) for long periods of that game.

Hopefully the player will recover from the ensuing week's critique and fulfil his (clearly visible) potential.

I worded that poorly, I meant he wasn't to blame for the loss jüst because he dropped that bomb"

Still can't find any news as to why Sam was out...

Murphy dropped the bomb, yes.
But last night so did Hodgson, and today so did Slater and Barba. In all cases it was more down to the kick quality rather than poor catching ability.

If anyone want to put any blame anywhere it should be Finch who gets it for not putting the ball out of play on the 6th tackle up the other end of the field in the set before the kick to slow the play down and make Leeds start from the 10 metre line. Instead he did that ridiculous inside kick when we were the ones leading. Very poor decision making from such an experienced player.

Partial tear ( Grade 2) of knee ligament.

Collateral Ligament Tears/Sprains

These ligaments supply stability to your knee for side to side movement and even during normal walking. Injury to these areas usually occurs after a strike from the side such as a football tackle. The pain is usually located over the sides of your knee and is worse during any activity and is better with rest. Swelling can be anywhere from very mild to quite significant.

Tears of the collateral ligaments are graded on a scale of 1-3:

■Grade 1: A minor stretch ("sprain"icon_wink.gif of the ligament.
■Grade 2: A partial tear of the ligament.
■Grade 3: A complete tear of the ligament.

There are two collateral ligaments in the knee. The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is located on the inside of the knee. It is the most frequently injured collateral ligament. Usually, the mechanism of injury is a blow to the outside of the knee, while the foot is planted firmly on the ground. Sometimes, stepping into a hole can also cause the twisting necessary to tear this ligament. The good news, however, is that it often can heal on it's own, if properly protected with a hinged knee brace. Sometimes, an MCL tear is associated with a tear of the ACL and a meniscus tear. This is known as the "unhappy triad".

The lateral collateral ligament (LCL) is located on the outside of the knee. It is much more rarely injured. Milder injuries can be treated with a brace as well.

I said more or less the same thing on the well done Leeds thread.

I blame Mathers

spot on!!

Agree totally. I think he's been well short of his best for a few weeks now. For every moment of brilliance he's produced he's then cancelled it out with a daft short ball that was never on or a silly intercept. He gifted Leeds their only try on Friday night with a pass to no one, should have found touch when we were a point ahead as WLA as mentioned and, if I'm being completey criticial, should have nailed the drop goal to take us in to golden point. Think we've dodged a bullet with him not wanting to stay, his head has been back in Oz for sometime IMO.

I see cherry pie has kept well away from this thread after bigging murphys defence up earlier last week and his fantastic positioning, thats sounds like im having a dig at jack too but im not because the lad played awesome in parts of the game in attack, but i did try to tell Cherry pie that Murphy wasnt ready yet, big shame for that to happen to a young lad like that thrown into a situation at the last minute, i think russell even through he also showed some defensive weakness when playing in super league should have been selected purely on the fact he has more super league experience, whats done is done now!

I did post on page 3 but never mind. I'm also pretty sure we were discussing why Murphy deserved to be playing at fullback for the under 20's ahead of Russell rather than who should replace Tomkins on Friday night.

Although I presume that means Brett Hodgson wasn't ready yet because he dropped the ball? And presumably Billy Slater and Ben Barba also aren't ready yet because they dropped the ball in the NRL Grand Final?

Hodgson isn't suddenly a poor defensive player or a weak link because he dropped the ball so I don't see why that should be the case with Murphy either. He was preferred at fullback for the under 20's all year because he was in good form and was proving to be incredibly reliable defensively, particularly under the high ball.

If a good kicker is allowed the time to put a good kick exactly where he wants it to go then it's going to trouble the fullback and that's why it's so important for the defence to put pressure on the kicker.

Some highly rated and very experienced fullbacks have made the same sort of error and that suggests quite strongly that a player's inexperience is not necessarily the reason that they don't deal with a kick and that it might just be the quality of the kick itself.

While Russell is undoubtedly the player with the most potential I fail to see how he would have been significantly better than Murphy. You're suggesting experience is more important than ability but that's not true. The tactics would have been the same for Russell as they would have been for Murphy and the key factor in deciding which of those two would be the safer option would be which is more confident defensively and that would be Murphy.

You have really latched onto this excuse you dreamt up haven't you?

Look at the kick again. Murphy was not being pressurised by any chasers. An experienced player would have been far more aware of where the chasers were and may well have let it bounce as a result not having to risk a catch.

As to the idea Wigan didn't pressurise the kicker enough anyway it is unrealistic to expect the team to be able to protect the full back in this way all game. He was bound to face kicks at some point and as he is a rookie bound to face more kicks than a more experienced player would as he was a target. As soon as it became apparent to Leeds that Wigan were moving up fast to close the kicker down every time they would have tried to exploit it. You don't get a free ride by pressuring the kicker all the time and having to do so because we had a rookie full back is just another reason not to have picked one at FB.

And what would have happened had he let the ball bounce? The answer to that is no one knows. That's why fullbacks are told not to let the ball bounce because they have absolutely no control over what would happen. You can't rely on the ball just sitting up nicely bouncing into the fullbacks hands or happily landing right on the floor for him to pick up. You have to go for the ball and attempt to make it safe which is what he did.

The team were poor at closing down Sinfield and that increases the chances of him being able to put up some very good kicks.

The fact that Murphy made a mistake does not automatically mean he made a mistake because he's inexperienced.