Reading between the lines it sounds as though Paul Rowley is accepting defeat in attempting promotion. I think it's too early to say that, unless he knows something about his squad that no one from the outside would know.

Maybe he realises now the toll that's been taken on his players in fighting a hard Championship campaign, Challeng Cup matches and then 7 weeks of Super 8s.

My mind goes back to 1998 and HKR, after we'd beaten them black and blue they were expected to go to Featherstone and win, setting up another game against us. However, they were done, physically and mentally they had nothing left and subsequently got flogged against Fev.

Is Paul Rowley seeing the signs of fatigue in his team, are they busted?

Rowley said: "[i=#4000FFwe came up against a Salford side who played to a high Super League standard. They were much too good for us and our kicking game was really poor.

"It's man in the mirror and keep our nerve time now. It wasn't do or die today but we have to keep our swagger and our heads held high and go again.

"The Super League club's finances have a bit to do with it but it's proving an impossible dream at the moment for championship clubs."[/i

Yeah but I bet his house is immaculate, he must have met a load of plasterers, painters and roofers the last few years!

From what I saw last week,and from reports of todays game at Salford,it would seem the discipline at Leigh has been acceptable.I don't think it will last.

A former NRL player,recently at Featherstone,came out with a lovely quote - “They play a very hard style of football, as I found out when I was in the Featherstone side at Blackpool.

“At times it was like prison rules,

It can be found at the very bottom of this [url=http://salfordonline.com/6078-salford-super-8-hansen-exit-shock-threatens-to-overshadow-watsons-leigh-build-up.htmlLINK[/url

I don't really like how this is going.
We played well against Salford and against Bradford too but it's a start of a road, not the downhill. We've only got one win.
We have to be as ruthless against Leigh as we are capable and we need to improve on the weak areas.
We can't just assume two losses mean they'll roll over for us.

Exactly Trinity have only 2 points so far and Leigh are the team that are still most likely to challenge Trinity for that Super League spot.

No time for thinking it's going to be easy when it isn't....Leigh knocked us out of the Challenge Cup and that should not be forgotten. It's time to repeat that first 30 minute start against Bradford but keep it going for 60-70 minutes...dominate in the pack and give Miller and Tim Smith room to play. I'd expect Johnstone to be in the 17 as his pace will worry Leigh if he gets any space.

Come on Trinity keep it up..get that pride and confidence back..

Agreed. Johnstone before Riley any day of the week. Looking forward to another trip to Leigh. Nice tidy ground and always prefer away games when crowd support is required.

If Locke is ready Lee Smith could go into the centres and put Tupou out on the wing

I don't see any posts where people are suggesting Leigh will be easy or that they'll roll over.

Salford and HKR have done to Leigh exactly what a proper SL side should do; dominate them in terms of energy and power, weather their headless chicken style of play and accept that they might score a few off it, but trust the processes and systems to get a win. They play exciting heads up rugby and they've got some pace and skill, but they fold when they're physically dominated in the middle - their forwards were bullied by Salford yesterday and that allowed Chase and, to a lesser extent Dobson, to run riot.

We need the same game plan that we used against Bradford, with additional note paid to how quickly they try to promote the ball to their edges - which are quick; a bit more attention paid to stopping offloads and discipline in the defensive line should take care of that.

Easier said than done like - they have a fair bit of fight in them and we're far from the finished article.

It could quite easily be points difference separating 4/5/6. Being ruthless in both attack & defence can make the difference. BSmith knows this.

We will play the way we have for the last two years, we don’t have it in us to play any other way, and for me regardless of the recent results its good to watch and long may it continue.

As per normal yesterday the best team won, and I expect the same will happen on Saturday.

Some interesting selection headaches coming up over the next few weeks.

If Kevin Locke is fit to play we really have to find a place for him and the only place is Full Back where Lee Smith has been superb.

If Brian Smith likes Scott Moore then decision 1 is does he become our first choice hooker over Michael Sio and decision 2 is where do we shoehorn Godinet into the side. My choice would be to exclude Moore in favour of a Sio/Godinet Hooking combination.

With Richard Owen injured who replaces him?
Tom Johnstone for me, he deserves a chance to play in a team that's defending relatively well, his reputation as a defender took a battering but few of the tries conceded were actually his fault.
Other options are Lee Smith to centre/Tupou to wing with Locke at Full Back or aStraight swap of Riley or Hall or Tansey in for Owen.

If Lauitiiti is 100% then how does he get a game?
For me, on current form it'd be in place of Walker who has had a couple of strong performance followed by a couple of below average ones.

Crowther/Annakin/Yates might get some game time versus Halifax and Sheffield though I'd be very guarded about taking to the field with a much below full strength team.

Interesting selection headache that is nice to have.