Last week we were clinical, organised, focused and effective.

A week later and we're sloppy, unorganised, aimless and lacklustre.

They say seven days is a long time in politics, it's even longer in RL!

One of those nights. Warrington's defence was pretty good.

Don't read too much into it. I do think injuries caught up with us a bit though.

Momentum is a big thing. We have had an incredible leader over the years, who manages changes in the game very well. When it was key last night, that leader wasn't on the pitch, and there was nobody who stood up to take that role.

Good leaders deal with adversity aswell as when you are on top.

We could be heading for the inevitable mid season slump i guess...not helped by injuries to Briscoe AND Hall and the spectre once again of McDermott's bizarre usage of his selected bench. Just hope it is not a repeat of last season.

we have to get Watkins back in the centre while keeping Hardaker at FB...any good young wingers?? More importantly maybe find a better way than this match of keeping the forwards fresh. Delaney looks a shadow of his former self. Cuthbertson is going to be burned out at the rate he is being used and if we lose Stevie Ward it does not bear thinking about at the moment.

Sinfield has to start next match...maybe as hooker? Aiton on the bench for a spell. He probably needs a breather too.

Are you suggesting having Sinfield on the field from the start - I would have started him - would have changed the outcome of that game? Leeds were beat/dominated in every aspect of that game. He is a pale shadow of the player he once was.

Sometimes you have to take your hat off to the opposition and admit you were beat by a better side on the night

Changing the outcome of the game is a bit strong, but changing the momentum of the game and altering the way we were struggling, I am definitely suggesting would have been different. He should have started, and that isn't hindsight, but the moment we went 8-0 down, and were getting totally run over he should have been on then.

it's competitive sport

we dominated saints another top side dominated us

Can accept it more than when we disrespect teams fielding weakened sides and lose.

Thing is, Leeds didn't "dominate" Saints. 12 points in the first half came from their errors - an interception from Handley and a handling error that created the position for the cross-field kick.

First 20 minutes of the second half at Saints, they absolutely bossed the game. Leeds were taken apart by Walsh behind their forwards and up to Sutcliffe's try - which came from a scruffy piece of play and a ball on the floor - it looked like Saints were going to come right back into the game.

The performance last night carried on from the second half at Langtree Park. Tired looking forwards who had played too many minutes, nobody the coach trusts on the bench to spell them with. Just hope we've learned the lessons from last year, where key players were burned out at the business end of the season due to being flogged.

In a way, an early exit from the Cup might be a blessing in disguise given the length of the league season under the new format.

I agree he should have started but his days of bossing games are long gone - his decision making is now too slow and he makes too many errors when the pressure is really on - WC semi final the play off game against Catalans even the Warrington game away this season.

He has been the greatest Leeds player of the SL era but his downhill slide has been dramatic - perhaps its more noticeable because of the lofty heights he once played at.

I wasn't talking about him bossing the game. It is the level head that was required, somebody to do the right things to stop that momentum against us. He steps forward and does that. It was badly missing with him off the field last night. We needed a captain badly.

The main concern as usual is our pack.
Peacock although still giving 110% no longer makes the metres he used to do.
Our main strike forward Cuthbertson, apart from the one break in the second half, was well bottled up and could not do his usual offloads, which blunted our attack.
Again Delaney ,although probably not fully match fit, no longer seems to have the effect or presence he used to bring.
Singleton blows hot and cold and seemed non existent last night.
We play a forward (Ablett) in the centre when he's needed in the pack and stick our most potent attacking weapon in Watkins on the wing.
Crazy.

Delaney returned a while ago now. The match fitness excuse work for him to start with but he has played more than enough to get his fitness up

given how dominant their forwards were Sinfield wiuld have simply been a canute figure if he had come on earlier. In the recent past he has actually contributed to the demise rather than slow it down

That is in your very biased opinion, not in reality.

IMO starting Sinfield would not have made any difference last night other than for his place kicking. Sadly he has been a pale shadow of his former self since mid way through last season and his legs seem to have gone. He came on just after half time and his presence did not improve our performance indeed one of their tries was in part due to his missed tackle.

I think some are being harsh on Delaney who was our 4th best tackler with 36 and our 2nd best marker tackler with 10 (1 behind Ward) He was also easily our most effective carrier with an average of 10.10 metres per carry.

The Saints game obviously took more out of us than anticipated and our injuries are beginning to be felt in particular JJB, Briscoe and Kylie and perhaps not having Walters to call on during this time too has narrowed our options. Ablett is out of form and looks uncomfortable on the right side of defence, Aiton and Singleton had possibly their worst games so far this year and Watkins and Hardaker made too many errors

We never got into the game, we made too many errors and didn't complete our sets while Warrington closed down our play-makers and Higham and his forwards bossed the middle with fast line speed and PTBs and they were almost error free. We have to accept we were beaten by the better side on the night and we will need a return to form so that a much improved Huddersfield don't produce a similar scenario on Thursday

I thought when Sinfield came on we looked more dangerous, though it also co-incided with the predictable period of the game where the Work Experience Lad actually started penalising Wire.

I agree with Gotcha in that we lacked some "leadership/direction" from the halves and Sinfield brought that.

I don't think that was the decisive factor though.

I also agree with Juan that injuries are having an effect. I'm sure Leuluai, JJB, Walters and Robbie Ward would all have played a part over Easter and that would've helped. Obviously having Briscoe and Hall would've helped hugely too. Handley has done a cracking job but he's not up to Hall or Briscoe standard (yet) and obviously having to put Ablett at centre isn't ideal.

Great teams do lose!
I'm not too concerned. Learned over a long time following Leeds not to worry too much about 1 game. Already forgotten it. Not interested any more. The coaching staff will come good....they have a fairly decent record over last 12 years or so

No I gave you examples of important games where he has actually negatively contributed to the end result - the fact you have blanked them out of your memory doesn't mean they didn't happen - that is the true reality. Who is really being biased here?

I said I would have started him but it would not have made any difference to the result - you think he would you are perfectly entitled to your opinion as your are regarding James Child - doesn't mean it is right though.

i agree with sal. that game was far to quick for sinfield

Yet he looked the most creative, and dangerous player when he came on.

However, again, I am not talking about Sinfield the player, it is Sinfield the leader. There was no one putting their hands up. The body language after that second try was very defeatist.

We've offered most teams a chance to beat us this year, Warrington simply took us up on it.

It's probably a reality check. I'm not sure most people thought we were invincible. As I said last week, we've made hay while the sun shone. We have some development to do if we're going to try to win the competition. I wasn't over excited last week, I'm not too despondent this week.

I thought the root of all our problems was around the ruck, where we just never got going. Wire made copious metres either from Dh or by sending the first receiver back into that hole, largely because we got back into one of our problems from last season in failing to get the tacklers back into a marker position before the ptb. Wire were much more successful in slowing our ptb, and it seems we still struggle with that sometimes. We got rattled, started looking at the ref and generally didn't handle it well.

Sometimes the reasons games are won and lost can be quite subtle. On other times, like Friday, it just comes down to getting the upper hand in the collisions. We lost far too many collisions and that made our halfbacks largely redundant. We looked a bit flat in the forwards, but a lot of the credit has to go to Wire's forwards who got the better of our pack.

We move on.

Peacock is supposed by one of the leaders of the group? McGuire is a leader through example e.g.CC semi & final but he is not a Sinfield type leader. I personally don't think him being on from the start would have made a difference they were simply a better team. He looked OK because by the time he came on the game was over. This is the 2015 Sinfield not the 2012 version his powers have diminished significantly I cannot think of a single important game in the last two years when he has exhibited these powers

Take out one missed tackle in the last minute, and he was the best England player in a World Cup semi-final eighteen months ago.

Will that do?

No, it clearly won't. Even though your point is right. That may be seen as Sinfield's last great individual performance, which won't be a bad one to go out on.

I've said before though that these players hitting their mid 30s are always facing the possibility that their physical ability starts to deteriorate quite rapidly. It is possible that what had been a gentle decline in previous years becomes a steep drop-off. There's a reason we see very few players in their mid-30s in top level sport.