Not a great day at the office for us last night, here are some of my thoughts on the game.

The only player to come out of the game with any credit for us IMO was Bailey. He hit hard and carried us forward well.

The rest of the side had their worst games of the 2nd half of the season so far. Ryan Hall had his first bad game in about 2 years so we'll let him off for that. McGuire and Sinfield looked like 2 strangers who'd just wandered onto the field.

There was a worrying lack of structure in everything we did, I suppose we can blame some of that on the injuries with new people stepping in, but we rarely got any dummy runners, it was more a case of give it to someone and hope for a miracle. A Greg Eastwood or a Lauitiiti running some angles abit wider would certainly have helped.

Very worried by McShane's defence at the moment, you take for granted a Diskin or Buderus who not only put the tackles in but prevent the offload. This is the 2nd week in a row we've looked vulnerable up the middle when McShane's been on. Hopefully it's just a case of him adapting to the physicallity of SL, because going forward he certainly has alot of potential. The forward passes I can put down to the team struggling to adapt to a new style of dummy half play.

We came up against a very fired up Hull KR side who kicked superbly and really put us under pressure. I think they're lacking some 'X-factor' that will prevent them advancing far in the playoffs, but we certainly don't want to end up going to Craven Park come September.

Agree with most of that, I think Bailey and Ambler (a couple of lose carrrys aside) were very good.

My main gripe and its been a gripe of mine all season is our defense. We're averaging 24 points against us each game, and when you come up aginst a team who played a pretty perfect game your never going to win conceding that many points. Our line speed (or lack of), lack of aggresion and poor tackling technique was almost disgraceful last night. Rovers didn't have to do any thing but run up the middle each tackle to gain decent field position, we seemed to be playing with concrete boots on at times. If only every player defended with Bailey's intensity.

I thought Ambler was the best player on the pitch. I was really impressed with the lad, he just kept going and going. If his team mates had showed the same enthuisiasm and attitude the result would have been different.

I thought Burrow looked good too, but I suppose anything was an improvement on McShane.

As for the rest absolute ezer, the whole lot of them.

Stick my kneck out with a couple of predictions. By end of 2012 Ambler will be the best british prop in Superleague. Other than the WCC next year Leeds will win nothing and will finish outside the top 6,

I'll have a wager with you on the last sentence!

Is Ambler lacking in the 'mongrel' stakes slightly? He certainly did alright last night and has been fairly impressive so far. He put in a couple of bell ringers against saints as well, but I have to say he reminds me abit of Chris Feather and Wayne McDonald (IMO 2 decent props for us by the way)

He probably is a bit, but he seems to be getting more go forward each game, and his defense is tough, just becuase he doesn't have steam coming from his ears all the time doesn't mean his lacking mongrel. James Graham is good example of his IMO.

Yea ok I'd agree with that. Unless Graham is playing against us and then there is almost visible steam coming out of his head.

Its more a spoilt child reaction than an intimidating one.

No way, he's nothing like Feather and McDonald, not that I thought either was a bad player.

Ambler is playing like a young James Graham right now, as mentioned. He is adding a passing game into a superb defensive game, and is continually making yards now. At the start of the season he looked nothing like he does now, which shows what first team matches does for you. His enthusiasm for me is a joy to watch, it is something sadly lacking in most of the senior players this year.

This was something I picked up on. Maybe it is just my perception but our players who have lots of GF rings just don't seem to be showing the urgency or enthusiasm like they used to. Maybe all the success is finally catching up and some of our senior players are needing a new challenge? I certainly hope not but something doesn't seem quite right to me.

It wasn't lacking last week or the week before.
It's just another night where it didn't happen for us if the players were'nt up for it we'd be getting hammered every week.
Rovers got a roll on we couldn't cope but look at the tackling stats we still tried but were'nt at it.
It's also worth noting how hard the last 2 weeks have been especially with the quality we've had missing so rotations not an option either so it's bound to have some effect.

Plenty of knee jerking I see

Leeds have to get there first.

At least you're keeping the faith in 2010.

Of course. I have always maintained we would do it this year. But am totally convinced some of these senior players are approaching their end, certainly at this club, and next year will be too far.

rhinoms, what game were you watching last night if you don't think enthuisiasm and hunger was lacking?

Wrong thread again.

It was a flat performance no doubts but how many repeat sets did we defend in our own 20??
i think the way the team defended in terms of effort can't be questioned because without hunger or effort we'd of shipped in 70+ last night.
We were very poor ball in hand i won't deny that either but that doesn't equate to a lack of hunger or enthusiasm imo.
i'd say composure was one of the biggest things we lacked especially ball in hand and the team were that fatigued it back-fired in the 2nd half.

I Agree I think we missed Kylie though too

The missus was chatting to him the other day and he's looking to be back for Friday.

says that he is back potentially for hudds game on one of his videos on the rhinos site

Do you know, I don't think you are too far off. I have a sneaky feeling we will make it 4 in a row this year, and next year we may be rebuilding a little.

Then again.......?

Matt, whilst i agree with the sentiment of the post which was pretty much seconded with Sinfield's Interview post match, i have to disagree with the two points made above.

I think Bailey has played pretty well this season but to me the love in is going a bit far. Bailey was nowhere near the only player with any credit from Friday's game. If you ask me he was non-existent and appeared to be off the pitch for long periods. Completely disagree. Nothing against Bailey in general just Friday was not that good.

As for Hall, re-watch the game. I thought he was outstanding. The obvious thing that people are basing their judgements on were the two bombed tries. There is no explantion for that but i strongly doubt it would have made any difference. if you look at his all round play prior to those two mistakes i thought he was excellent.

Friday was just one of those games, players missing and totally outplayed by a side that had the game of their season. The problem with KR is they will lose next week (not sure who they are playing), as they are inconsistent.

Leeds will still make the top 4 easily, as Hull are the same.

That is not bourne out by the recruitment for next year?

It's the Hull derby at the KC next Thursday night.

Hull KR were pretty impressive on Friday night, Hull were shambolic last night.

Only one possible outcome on Thursday ........ a team from Hull will win.

Does that mean I can put Hull by x amount on the predictions thread?