I went to the game expecting a cracker. Both sides under delivered IMO, lots of knock ons in ideal rugby conditions and incompleted sets. We took our chances when they came and that was the difference between the 2 sides, other than that it was 40 minutes each. I agree that we wouldnt of won that game a few weeks back. As RS said in his presser, sometimes you have to find a different way to win and that is what happened yesterday.

Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493

Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493

Quote ="The Ghost of '99"Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493'" Yes, he scored the game breaking try

Quote ="The Ghost of '99"Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493'" Yes, he scored the game breaking try

You need to take that out of it though - Handley created an open space for them to run in a try for a high risk play that came off.
Most of the time those don't come off.

Quote ="The Ghost of '99"Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493'" Should he have made the play that ultimately won us the game? Seriously? Smith is coaching them to play what they see, he saw an opportunity, took it, scored.

Quote ="The Ghost of '99"Now was going for the intercept really the thing Handley should have done here? A very high risk play. Salford didn't have an overlap which would have justified it - staying on his man would have been the decision he was coached to take. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 0919743493'" Should he have made the play that ultimately won us the game? Seriously? Smith is coaching them to play what they see, he saw an opportunity, took it, scored.

Some of your comments give me a good laugh at least!

Yeah, we had a long spell in the middle of the match where we rarely completed a set, and I reckon we only had the ball once in first 8 Minutes of the second half. Given that we do really well to get a win in the end as they looked to be coming home well until the Handley interception try. If he misses it, Salford very likely win the game.
Bentley, Smith, Mik and Zane all lost the ball in contact although I thought Bentley’s was a rip. Smith/ Bentley obstruction and kick off out on the full from Sutcliffe all have a good Salford side a big leg up to put us under pressure.
They made a number of line breaks but we’re thwarted by excellent positioning and reading of the game by Hardaker.

Our relatively passive line speed is all about trying to stop line breaks and not give away 6 again and penalties for off side. We just won yesterday but we could cop a big defeat later this year against a bigger pack.

Having let Walker, Mellor and Broadbent leave and not brought anyone in we have a thin looking squad.

We’ve had 2 tiring trips to France and now have a very short turnaround to HKR, 3 days less than them, I worry we may run out of gas a bit, particularly with the crazy 4 games in 2 weeks inc another trip to Catalan.

Overall though, great spirit being shown and it’s much better to watch.

Interesting to see other comings and going for next season.

Sigh. It's not hard to hold two thoughts at the same time - great he scored the try but nope it was not what he is told to do.

The ledger of tries conceded by Ash doing exactly that sort of thing over and over again vs this one where an intercept came off is not in his favour.

How do you know it’s not what he’s told to do, they may have spotted that play by Salford on video analysis and calculated what pass was going to be thrown.

I'm in agreement with you and Handley found himself in that position because of his usual coming of of position defensively and got fortunate the ball landed with him.

I'd rather our defenders focused on stopping tries rather than scoring them when they other team have the ball. Handley is a prime culprit, it came off this time, but most of the time it doesn't, he's caught in no mans land and their winger scores a walk in.

He did stop them scoring

Yes, fortunately you’re right this time.

Ha, we are pioneering a new defensive move

People seem to be bit stuck on the Handley positioning, as coming up regularly now. Rohan clearly doesn’t and probably more pleased about Ash’s many qualities, as I am.

Given how many points are being conceded by it I think it's spectacularly unlikely Smith "clearly doesn't" see this aspect of Handley's play as an issue. But he's also not likely to talk about it in press conferences, not least because our clueless media never bring this sort of thing up.

Have you got the stats on points scored down that side?

I suspect he hasn’t been told it’s a problem, as he defends in the same way every week, and gets his share of intercepts which completely change games……

It’s not as black and white as people are making out.

Do we want to continue to see Ash pull off these intercepts and take that gamble when it’s on…yes. Do we also want to see Ash have more faith in his inside man, bite in less and as such concede less, but also be in less positions where the intercept is his only chance of stopping a try…also yes.

The good with Ash far outweighs the bad but I would be absolutely amazed if it’s something Rohan is not trying to tighten up.

The problem is, if you start making an issue out of something that’s not really a major problem, then the player can stop trying things, play more cautiously, and you can actually detract from the positives in their game. Handley is full of confidence at the minute, and backs his ability. I’d just be reinforcing that really…..
But who knows what coach is saying…..

But you can flip that as well Shabino, as soon as you stop working on flaws as a coach then you get complacent players.

That’s true. Would be interesting to know if Smith is speaking to Handley or not. Guess we’ll never know unless he mentions something……

Not his style given how protective he was of young Walters. In fact his whole interview style is wholeheartedly refreshing imo. But I also don’t think it’d be his style to look for marginal gains across the board, including defence on either edge, in fact I think he’s mentioned it a couple of times and moved Sutty the other week when it wasn’t up to scratch, so can’t see him just saying well it’s ok because we score the odd interception. What he does mention a lot is being connected which is ultimately what fixes edge defence.

can someone who knows the rules better than me explain why, on our first try, Lafai wasnt given a yellow card for a professional foul with the pull back on Newman during a clean break?

and actually watching it, the tackle on fusitua after he passes the ball isnt all that different from the tackle Fusitua has picked up a grade C for

You’d need insight from the person analysing games and submitting cases for review. Starting to think it might be James Graham.