the race, not necessarily the final 8. The way we react to either victory or defeat in the CCup will be... interesting.

Both possible results are likely to affect our league form IMO

Apart from Saints, Cas play opponents currently below them. Including Leeds/Hull/Us - their destiny is very much in their own hands and I'd back them to finish 6th

Leeds run in isn't too bad and should have more than enough to finish 7th

Leaving us and Hull (maybe Bratford) to battle it out for 8th. Assuming there's no more draws for either side we're going to have to win two more games than Hull. Hull's run in is very tricky (on paper at least) but I'd still fancy them to win at least 2/6. In that case we'd need to win 4/6 games - tall order esp looking at the away games.

Thought Bulls might get Cas today. Fair play to em, good effort backing up after Wigan...only Cas' 3rd win in 13 though, not really top 8 form.

Bulls are gone now along with Salford.

Leeds vs Hull next week. If we beat Salford we either jump Leeds into 8th or close the gap on Hull to 1 point...& Hulls 3 remaining home games are Wigan, Catalans & Warrington, the 3 best away sides in the comp.

Been a poor season so far but we're not done yet.

Would be nice - but we're 3pts behind both, so 9th for now

Getting a bit ahead of myself there

Rovers are rapidly running out of games and I expect them to miss out on the 8 due to earlier season failures (Wakefield away was the biggest disaster). 3 points doesn't sound a lot to make up, but it's easier with 15 rounds to play than when you only have 6 games left. The only way I can see us making it is if we pull off a major "shock" result along the way. That means winning 1 of Hudds away or Catalans away. I can't see us winning either game.

I think its to much to do with too few games. We would have to win our 'in our own heads should' win games against Salford, Bradford and Castleford and beat probably beat 2 of Cats, Hudds and Saints.

Leeds run in looks easier than ours and FC's is difficult but they have the advantage of playing wire the week after the cup final, if they get there and win it they will be there for the taking as we saw the other year.

To be honest we don;t deserve to be top 8, we messed it up in our early season '4 easy games' by losing 3 of them, add wakey away and its blindingly obvious why we are were we are.

I guess you mean the rounds 3-6? Dragons, Tigers, Crusaders and Salford?
Judging them (and us) on 2010 form, Catalans, Cas and Salford looked very beatable - but with hindsight, those 3 (especially Catalans) are much better this year and we played 2 away from home.

However, until this little run of wins against the bottom 3, I'd have agreed with you. The defeat at Wakefield was a killer, as well.

But having now played this year's bottom 3 home and away now, we won 5 from 6 of those fixtures. Which means we've had 4 wins from the other 15 rounds - Hull (x2), Leeds and Bradford, all of whom have been mediocre in 2011!

I think we're where we are due to not getting any results (so far ) against the top teams. After the last 3 weeks I'd say we've had no more disappointing results than you'd expect - it's the failure to pick up even a couple of results in 7 games against the top 5, that sees us off the pace.
Hull's 3 point adavantage could be counted as their win against Wire and draw with Saints.
We've still got to play Saints, Hudds, Catalans - we need to start beating the good teams (just occasionally) again, to deserve to get into the 8.

In summary:
vs bottom 3, 5/6.
vs top 5, 0/7.
vs other 5, 4/8.

Yep. By this time of year, the table doesn't lie.

It's going to take something major like Cas getting beat by Crusaders this weekend and/or Rovers beating Huddersfield away in a few weeks time.

I just hope by the time it's round 27, we've a chance to get in the play-offs with a game against Cas and the victors making 8th spot. This granted, I'd rather Saints finished 5th than Catalans aswell!!

And if it happens iand the ground doesnt sell out we'll never average 10,000.

The top 8 table at this time of year is a woman, you sense it's all lost but she'll still look into your eyes a fraction longer than is necessary. Your pulse races ....... briefly, foolishly.....then sinks as she flirts with him and him and...oh my god not HIM Not that black & white clown.

Tart. Never fancied her in the first place.

Cas looking very ordinary without Chase

we need waky to beat cas now or its 9th for us !