It's about time Offiah's "best ever Cup final try was put to bed"
Ryan's first try has to be the best wingers finish EVER.
shades of Mal Meninga, Eric Grothe as he powered over the defence as if they weren't there

No what your saying, it was a great try but over played. I thought halls second was better.

Hall's fend is as good as anyone's I can remember.

I think a strong defender doing everything right and giving their all might have still been beaten by Hall today. But sadly we didn't get that. We got a committed Ryan Hall up against a defence that was pretty dreadful.

The same with McGuire's try from Burrow's kick. I accept that the defender was up against it and at a disadvantage because McGuire was running and the defender had the sun in his eyes, but he ended up offering absolutely no resistance to McGuire at all.

I didn't think anyone deserved a lot of critocism today, but I thought Luke Dorn showed a lack of desire and desperation befitting a cup final on McGuire's try and both of Hall's. Probably would have got the same result, but at least you'd want to know you left nothing out there.

Not loads Dixon could have done differently on the first try once Hall got a hand under his chin.

I thought a few of Cas' key players looked a bit lethargic. They looked like our key players did in the 3 Cup finals in a row we lost. I wonder if the occasion got to them a bit?
Whilst our excellent tactics and play nullified some of their threats I was still expecting a bit more spark from people like Dorn, Sneyd, Carney etc.
Am I right in saying Powell took Sneyd off for a while? I can't imagine taking off your half and one of your best players all season was a planned move.

Offiah's try is still as magnificent to see re-run today as it was to witness it live in the mid nineties. That said the whole Ray French series of snippets could have been left on the cutting room floor for me.

Hall's first on Saturday reminded me of one a young Brendan Hill scored for the Leeds 'A' team except the guy he picked up one handed and used as a blocker/shield was carried over from around twenty yards out. Hall's deserved Lance Todd award was, I hope, as much for his clearing runs getting Leeds onto the front foot as it were for the two excellent finishes.

Dixon was stood still and letting Ryan run at him. He simply doesn't deserve his pathetic excuse for defending to be diminished. I don't want to take anything anyway from Ryan as he did everything right, but Dixon was utterly awful.

Briscoe's try was made far easier by the fact that Cas' left wing came in early and ended up not being in a position to either help stop the ball or tackle Briscoe.

Dorn's effort was probably the most understandable - it looked like he got the ball lost completely in the sun, making McGuire's take easy.

I disagree that mcguires catch was simple. Timing his run over 20m to arrive just at the right time and take a high ball over your shoulder is not an easy task, but he did make it look it

I'm not so sure. The commentators made the excuse for him but looking at the shadows on the pitch I don't think Dorn was looking directly into the sun. I thought it was just a poor attempt from Dorn. There were one or two things like that that made me think they might be feeling the pressure. Not least Sneyd's missed conversion. I was waxing lyrical to my nephew about his action and was just saying it was unorthodox but effective and how he wouldn't miss when he did! I thought "Aye,aye"

All of the back three were excellent in this respect. Hall's 2 try's set him apart.

You never saw Eric Grothe did you ?

I saw Eric grothe, and mal meninga and various others. Ryan hall is up there with the very best. He will be a hall of famer best british winger since Offiah better than Robinson.

Or Billy Boston. How much would he be worth in the modern game?

I did! He seemed to have great pace as well as strength if memory serves me right.

However, I would unequivocably state that Ryan Hall is right up there with Grothe and the great Alan Smith as my favourite wingers to watch and anticipate great things of when in possession. Their finishing abilities were - and are - second to none.
(John Atkinson is up there too...but for differing reasons)

To be fair to Carney, that problem started further inside along the line. Once Sneyd (who was himself reacting to a massive shortage of defence to Cas's left of the posts) went in, Carney was left out to dry and tried to snuff out the danger by rushing the ball carrier.

True, if Carney stays out to mark Briscoe then Watkins has a walk in try.
If you watch Sneyd he's gesticulating like mad to get more defenders on that side but they've all been dragged into the middle to make tackles & defend under the sticks.

McGuire has a habit of making difficult skills like that look simple and straighforward. When he plays like that he makes everything look easy.

For me Bailey made that try happen. The previous tackle he gets absolutely nailed in the intitial hit, and while the BBC commentary team are congratulating Cas defenders Bailey's second effort puts two tacklers on the deck (one of them being Huby) and generates a PTB which allows Burrow to wander, totally untouched up the pitch and take as much time as he wants to put a perfect kick up on Dorn.

The try probably started on the previous set when leeds grubbered into the corner and penned dorn in, metres from the line. It was all a knock on effect from there, Cas started their set from metres out so didn't make good position for the last tackle which meant an easier kick return for leeds so that when leeds reached the last tackle of the resultant posession they were in a position to do an attacking kick and not a clearing or territorial one.

Those were the boring defensive tactics that worked virtually all afternoon.

And it was a perfect kick. Just the right height to ensure Cas had no time to block McGuires progress.

Chances are he would have never left RU.

The negative tactics were when conceding possession via scrums when in attacking field position rather than trying to force an opposition mistake or create a panic situation near the Castleford line.

I'd term some of the Leeds last tackle options as 'nothing plays' and I know which I would rather face if I were defending them.

That would be just the sort of comment I would expect from an theoretical Analyst rather than a real Strategist..

Analysts are rather like Accountants who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.