Glad I’m not around to see that one.

On the passive defence, for my money Smith brought it in to
A) cut down on giving away 6 agains and penalties for high shots and offside
B) stop line breaks so you keep them in front of you.

He has had a pre-season to change it and hasn’t so reckon it must be the plan for 2023.
It works if the other team is not very good, makes errors, gives away 6 agains etc. if the other team plays really well I think you have big issues.

As someone else said Bentley is a huge miss in that side for all the graft. He was top draw at end of 2022. Add Mik as well.

There is along way to go but the club needs to be working on a quality pack leader to replace Tetevano next year and plan what to do at 1, 6 and 7. 6 and 7 are out of contract so need to up their game to get a gig at Leeds or anywhere else.

Well played Warrington, Powell is a good coach he has assembled a good powerful squad , should imagine if they keep injury free they should be in the hunt for some silverware this season. Funny old world ,just recalling last season the majority of Warrington fans wanted Powell out.
Credit to the club for resisting that clamour. As for us ,obviously we were blown away mentally and physically, didn’t expect us to win over at Warrington . But certainly never imagined that fiasco, letting hardaker go was a big mistake. Thought Smiths after match interview was extremely poor especially in view of the amount of fans who had traveled to Warrington. At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious ,failure to win next Friday will start alarm bells ringing. Or maybe they started ringing in the pre season games and smith choose to ignore them.

Remember you only need 5th place???

BTW, this is LeBron James the saints troll. He's no fan of Warrington and is a pain in the . Please ignore.

You guys were much better second half and the scores were level in that period. You had quite a few missing as far as I can see so I reckon you'll be fine.

Thanks mate. Good luck for rest of season

What concerns me the most about last night was we looked so undercooked and lacking in intensity. They are not good signs. Let’s hope it was just one of those nights.

There’s plenty of time left, as in, the whole season for both Warrington and Leeds to switch places from last night.

Losing to Hull next week won’t start alarm bells ringing but ill be disappointed if we play as bad as last night.

It won’t be the first or last time a team looks off the pace in round one, it really isn’t season defining.

We should know that more than most, it’s disappointing to see a lot of the twitter/facebook fans turning on Smith already.

It's so frustrating.

The writing was on the wall when Handley and Fusitua were named centres.

Handley is a legend in his own lunchtime, his positioning sense is zero. He always flies out of his line and cannot tackle. I think rather than trying to be a poster boy, he needs to knuckle down. His stupid one-handed carry that he knocked on just after we had scored which completely lost the momentum was standard Handley fare.

It's clear Fusitua is here for the payday.

Roberts may be a project, but right now he's Vickery/Botham-esque. Ditto Tindall.

Myler had a shocker.

We were monstered down the middle and granted we have a fair few out - it is baffling why Corey Hall and Levi Edwards were allowed to leave meaning we have no centre cover.

I would rather have Donaldson and O'Donnell (was he injured too) in the centres.

I didn't even realise Sezer was playing. The list goes on.

BUT, a bad day at the office and we need to keep faith. 

Wire played well, but their back 5 was also poor on paper.

You would like to think Tetevano, Fusitua, Austin and Sezer would be geeing them all up and putting in shifts given it's the last year of their contracts. 

That's a lot of money for Smith to play with in key positions for 2024. Here's hoping it is spent wisely

You too pal. It was good for RL to see Leeds back up there last season. You've got a top coach imo and you'll be sorted one way or another.

Wishing you all the best for this year.

Agree Chris. But i'd hope we'd not start so poorly this season and buck the recent trend.. i think that's whats most annoying about this. Lose to Hull next week and we'll more than likely be 0-3 as it is then Saints away.. we'll be behind the 8 ball already.

Not surprising we had such an abismal night considering we treat preseason like a joke and got rid of good players and replaced them with championship players (who may come good granted). I don't buy the not having enough for hardaker story. We had enough money to offer him 1 year and have players off contract at the end of this. He could've gone to fb next year and helped out in this.

No line speed or effort. Players going through motions. Kind of reminds me of under 10s. Especially not having a captain.

I can honestly say that i reckon Amy Hardcastle would be a better centre even in the men's game; over Handley or Fusitua.

Can we dual-reg her?

Hardaker wouldn't have made any difference to that game. He wouldn't start fullback if Myler plays there, so those mistakes would still have happened. The tries from near the line were mostly due to awful one on one technique and effort by other players, mainly forwards. Letting Wire get that close to the line set after set was due to to our passive defence not even slowing them down, let alone stopping them making big yards.

I do think the centre selection was wrong. Handley's played there before and just looks like a winger playing centre. Fusitu'a is a winger, and is the best we have at returning kicks so moving him there doesn't make much sense either. If he didn't trust Olpherts/Roberts e should have put Martin in one spot, as he may not be that quick but he's solid.

Its strange to have a got at our signings as below par. Lisone was very poor to start with, but he's an NRL player, not a Championship one and will hopefully come good. Olpherts was one of our best along with Sangare, and holding Roberts in any way responsible for that shower of a performance is nonsense. No, the players who let us down were in the main the same ones we had last year.

The whole display lacked intensity, as with the preseason. Pick that up, especially line speed in defence and working hard and we'll look a lot better.

I have to say, having watched that performance, I was expecting a much closer contest. I got the impression that you looked undercooked and possibly, there maybe some squad unrest? Most of the game, there was no real cohesion and, even with the players you are missing, that squad is better than the score line suggests. Maybe last season was a bit of a false dawn and Smith achieved a minor miracle , with the team winning so many to make the GF. You won't be in any relegation dogfight I am sure, but there needs to be a hell of a turnaround if you want to replicate last years heroics.

I don't think squad unrest is an issue, we were just undercooked and beaten by a much better side on the night - it happens, I think we can tend to overthink the reasons for a loss sometimes

It might actually be the reality check/kick up the backside we needed, Leeds rhinos have a history of starting slow, nothing is won in February. This is not me saying Im OK with the performance because it was dire but it is only round one.

Anyone know who the 18th man was?

Walters I think

Misconception.

04, 07, 08, 09, 11, 12, 15 all won the first game. The only time we won the grand final after losing first game was 17. Of course there were plenty of dips mid-season but in general we always had some kind of platform at the start of the season. We had some of our “sh*t” together. Very rarely will a team lose their first few games and WIN the grand final. 05 bulls is the only example that comes to mind.

A kick up the backside is when you’ve been cruising for weeks winning, standards slip, and you get pumped by 50. That’s a kick up the backside. You shouldn’t be getting one in Round bloody one. It doesn’t exist in round one. Players have been slogging their guts out for months to hit the ground running and show they mean business.

They’re just crap.

This season will be a carbon copy of last season except without the low percentage run to the gf.

Great.

Tindall according to sky

I said last season that RS likes to have a fairly passive defense when it comes to line speed, which I think was the tactic last night. The problem is that this approach didn't work against saints last year who had a better pack, and the halves to capitalise on it.

That's exactly what Wire were able to do last night. Forwards who dominated, bent the line, and then the halves and nines took full advantage.

As useless as Sezer, Austin, Myler and the three-quaters were, you simply can't play well behind a beaten and dominated pack.

Tetevano offers nothing, he's not a back row, but also seems to get dominated by bigger props in the middle. Needs to be dropped.Holroyd struggled, but will get better, and Walters has earned an opportunity to be in the 17. Donaldson should be 18th man most weeks.

On the positives, I thought Gannons tackling was superb. Olpherts (aside from dropping the ball on the line) looked really good going forward, and scored his try well. I also thought Sangare did the job that he's been brought in for.

Lots to fix, but also lots of rounds to go.

I said starting slow, not just the first game.

Anyway it’s clear you’ve written them off even before the first game.

He is a Saints fan in one of his many disguises

Dufty is one of the best players in the league, genuine X factor quality.

Ashton and Thewlis are fantastic young talents with pace to burn.

Ma’tautia and Ratchford offer lots of experience and leadership.