Although it may be too soon to talk about this, IF the current SL teams continue to dominate the Championship contenders, the final positions in the middle 8 will very likely come down to points difference.

There could be 2 SL clubs on maximum points and 2 on 10 points followed by the 4 Championship clubs.

Of course, this is pure conjecture at this point but, points difference (or points scored) could prove to be critical.

Nearly posted exactly the same before the Bradford game, but didn't want to tempt fate.
In such a short run competition points difference could easily be the difference between third and fifth.
If we win we need to win well for confidence, but also for the points difference.
If we lose we need to stay in contention.
Massive game now next week, and the Widnes home game.

It was always going to be this way. I could see 3, 4 and 5 all on same points.

We could have scored two or three more tries yesterday, then again so could Bradford! We just need to concentrate on winning next week and take it from there, do that and we will be in the top three...

How can there be two clubs on maximum points. One has to lose.
Surely one can have 14.
The second can have 12 as they lost to the top team.
The third and fourth teams both lose to 1 & 2 but one loses to the other 3/4 team so will not get any points from rival SL teams. So many permutations.
I think one team could win all 7 and the other could get 12 - possibly KR and Widnes.

I think it is likely 8 points will get 4th place and I expect that to be Wakefield - sorry, nothing personal, just an opinion.
Leigh Vs Bulls game will determine who gets 5th.

Then, Bulls thrash Wakey in £1m game and all ends happily ever after. There, simple. Yesterday was just a glitch for us!
Good luck against Leigh by the way.

We could see all the SL clubs beating the championship clubs and getting four wins each. IF the SL clubs all get one win each off each other, we could be left with 4 SL clubs on 10 points each. Then our win against the Bulls and our last game at Sheffield might be useful!!

Also, IF we are in decent position after the first 5 games, we have Halifax and Sheffield to finish the "qualifiers".
It's all about the next 2 fixtures, Leigh next week and then KR away, straight after their Challenge Cup final against Leeds,
which is as good as we're going to get, especially having had a week off.

Leigh is a MASSIVE game for us.
Wonder if any of their team will be suspended for that one , after their game against Salford this afternoon.

TBF we should have rattled up 60 could be crucial at finish

Salford 16-0 Leigh HT

Widnes 30 Sheffield 6 HT also..

Early days but does this result o us any favours???

All the more disappointing to concede that soft try at the end of yesterday's game

It shows Leigh have loads of places you can go at to beat them! If we play for 80 like we did for the first 30 yesterday we should get 80... ha ha

I have a concern that if the SL teams continue to beat the Championship teams by big margins then the RFL might see the whole exercise as a failure. They'll then cancel the concept and decide that the bottom or bottom two SL clubs will be relegated in future seasons.

This needs to be a competition not a white wash of one league against another. Okay there are 5 rounds to go and all this can change, but at the moment where will that shock result come from? (I'm not taking Leigh lightly by any means but I'm more confident than I was on Friday night.)

You say that there "needs to be competition" but, the 2 leagues are a fair distance apart in terms on club income and salary cap etc.
Therefore, it shouldn't be that competitive but, it does allow (in principle at least), the opportunity for some promotion and relegation.

Of course, our result yesterday, plus the whitewash for SL today, has put the skids under the RFL's plans and despite the Sky commentators salivating at the thought of Bradford beating us yesterday, we may start next season as we started this one.

Never mind though, we will get to do it all over again next season (unless there is a sudden change to the format, to give the Championship clubs a better chance)

I do think that there should be a change to the transfer deadline so that clubs cant effectively have a new squad for the "super 8's".