I thought Silverwood had a half decent game yesterday, not intimidated by the crowd.

Re the Cuthbertson try, my first impression was no try, so not too fussed when it wasn't given.

We've never been able to deal with short kick offs against the Dragons, particularly at their place.

I recall us losing there to 2 late tries, their winner coming right at the end after our failure to catch their short kick off with scarcely any time left on the clock. What made it worse was that's the only time I've ever made it there for a game & having been losing for most of the match we got into a winning position only to chuck it away at the death.

& we got caught in the most horrendous thunderstorm walking back into the town after the match.

Still perversely an enjoyable trip though.

Yes just before Stevie Ward. Watkins got the ball, looked to be about to beat the defender......then slipped and landed on his face.

All very fair points - often Watkins' deficiencies can be overlooked because he is such an exciting player to watch - lets not forget he is still young and still on an upward curve.



Perhaps if Hardaker hadn't going missing 3 times that cost 3 tries the score would not have been so close?

ATEOD we are top of the League without putting a complete 80 minute performance together which i'm sure everyone of us would have taken before the season kicked off.

As for this game i thought we had enough experience on the pitch to play a much calmer and controlled style but at times we looked like strangers and panicked far too often leading to far too many unforced errors imo.

I think most of the individual ratings have been covered although i'm surprised Hardaker has only been picked out by 2/3 for me it was his worse defensive performance since he joined and looked like he hadn't got off the plane.

We showed an outstanding resolve overall and despite their absentees lets not over look ours either and especially losing Jjb and Aiton during the game which imo highlighted again why Achurch is not a Prop.

Stevie Ward was named M.O.M by the Rhinos staff and i'd agree with that followed by Singleton/Moon.

Finally i'm still not convinced Mcguire is Captain material he is far too quiet & imo his "show and go" only to get hammered when the defensive line is set doesn't point to "leading the way" either.

Plenty to work on not least better Ball control and communication but top of the league going into Easter is something positive to build on.

P.s. Cuthbertson scored that Try fair and square another example of p!$$ poor officials.

Marginal, for me. I can certainly see why it wasn't given.



He was slightly behind the Catalans player and leant into him with the shoulder to his back, knocking him out of the way. Not quite as blatant as the Briscoe shove that Brough made the most of at home to Huddersfield last year, but still enough to be worth a penalty.



If it had been at the other end, I don't doubt a lot of Leeds fans would have been howling for the penalty.

The close up replay showed minimal contact & if anything Whitehead had over-run it but went down like he'd been shot but the key was both players were looking at the ball and imo it's play on unless it was a blatant heavy handed push.

We've seen much heavier contact when players are competing for kicks but not penalised and the explanation given is invariably "both players looking at and competing for the ball" which i think is clearly the case with the Cuthbo one.

Spot on

I agree with you rhimoms on all except McGuire. He has big shoes to fill in Sinfield's absence and he perhaps tried too hard to influence the game in the first half and nothing came off for him but he is a head up player and he showed in the second half why his experience and ability to read situations is invaluable.

Ability wise mate i have no argument at all but when we were clearly on the back foot i just thought he was far too quiet you can see Burrow for e.g talking to the team throughout his time on the pitch as we always do with Sinfield.

Also whoever ends up as Captain will always have huge boots to fill it wasn't a direct comparison per say.

Will also say having watched the post match interview with Mcdermott it was pleasing to hear him tell his runners that he wasn't sending on any message as the players had turned it around themselves and let them see the game out a very good sign of trust and good on the Coach.

Well...what a great trip that was!

I think McGuire comes across very well in interviews

Yes he's a credit to the club; as forthe Cuthbertson no try very harsh IMO.