Glorified friendly, but its Leeds name on the trophy and bragging rights in the north of England.

Warrington weren't the best side in the comp last year - it is easy to flat track bully sides when it doesn't really matter - the test of a top side is whether they can perform when it really matters - Warrington have consistently shown they are not capable of mixing it with the best when a loss means bye-bye.

St George weren't a better side than Manly - Manly have 12 internationals or SOO players in their line up last night. Manly were underdone but gave it 100% - St George only needed to play in third gear to beat Wigan last year.

Wigan have shown they are capable of beating the best in SL twice since its start - how many times have Leeds done it? That is the test of the quality of a side can they perform when it really matters?

rlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17082173rl

Congratulations to Leeds, defended well and took their chances when they presented themselves

Surely the opposite applies aswell? how is a short like Burrow supposed to tackle a monster like Williams? If Burrow is expected to Tackle Williams legally, surely we can expect Williams to tackle Burrow legally?

Because there is a chance, a decent chance, probably not a more than 50% chance but a decent chance, that the SL team would win and there would be no excuses left.

Unless of course they took the Sticky Stuart tack and just blamed the ref. Thats always an option.

Why do we have to play them at their peak in their own back yard? If the difference was that big then they should play us at our peak (which lets face it, Leeds arent at their peak now, they may be closer but they clearly arent at their peak, we will play better this year) in our back yard. When they do they lose fairly often.
If Manly want to be the best club side in the world rather than the 2nd then they need to prepare properly. If they cant/dont it is because they arent good enough.

Totally agree.

Your comparison doesn't stack up.

It's easy for Burrow to reach the legs of Williams.

Much harder the other way around.

But its harder for Burrow to tackle a player of William size because of his size. If Williams wants the advantages of being so big then he has to take the disadvantages aswell.

If Williams tackle technique was good enough he wouldnt hit Burrow high.

Taking your argument to it's extreme, why don't we get a 3ft dwarf to pay scrum half?

Virtually no-one would be able to tackle them as anything above 2ft would be considered a high shot.

Not true, if he tackles the legs.

and if you did he would just be ran at and ran over all day long. Its part of the tactics of the game.

There speaks someone who has never tackled someone of Tony Williams size.