Team that day;

Webb
Smith
Toopi
Senior
Donald

Mcguire
Burrow

Leuluai
Diskin
Peacock
JJB
Ellis
Sinfield

Reps:
Kirke
Lauititi
Bailey
Ablett


What a side!

That team wins the current competition for the next 5 years.

But for the rugby gods it almost did back then

Can anyone list the Saints team? just to show the quality of that game........

I watched al the " threepeat " finals last week and then the grand finale 2015 and 2017 marvelous.

Saints team that day:

Wellens
Gardener
Gidley
Talau
Meli

Price
Long

Fozzard
Cunningham
Cayless

Gilmour
Flannery

Wilkin


Reps:
Roby(Man of Steel that year)
Graham
Bennett
Faa'savalu

Another great side

mid 2005 played our best rugby then cuthbo in 2015

In the '80s I thought it was in the '70s.
In the '90s I thought it was in the '80s.
In the '00s I thought it was in the '90s.
In the '10s I thought it was in the '00s.
Now I think it was in the '10s.

Ten years from now we'll be all good about the current era, especially with games like this afternoons.

Very well put. Personally in terms of Leeds 2003 to 2009, but in terms of the sport as a whole 90 to 94, when GB were standing toe to toe with the Aussies, was very special.

eastwood half an hour to kick an misses - wembley with powell dixon an gibson was special

2 great great sides. Would walk the current SL either team.

Yep. 2nd test at Old Trafford in 90 was astonishing game. I remember walking out of the game stunned. Meninga would never got away with the obstruction on Gibson with a video ref (or would he?). Melbourne 92 must stand as the single greatest GB performance of my lifetime.

That game in Melbourne really illustrated what a quality player (one of the best ever) Schoey was. At least on a par with Hanley, sadly just didn’t have the professionalism. Thousands of GB fans in the stadium too.

My idol growing up was Schoey. What a player

I think from the late 90's when all teams went fully pro and had gotten to grips with the 10 metre rule (watching old videos of the first couple of years when it went from 5 to 10 is hilarious) to around 2015. Late 90's had the magnificent Saints, Bradford and Wigan sides who played tough and skillful rugby. Leeds briefly joined that group in 1998/9 then came back in 2003, culminating in 2004 being our year. The rugby played back then was brutal, fast and the English game had real superstars, plus we could still recruit top quality overseas players. I've seen the game since the very early 80's and back then Ioved it and there were some great matches but there were lots of mistakes, lots and lots of mistakes. That could result in entertaining matches as teams threw the ball everywhere, but constantly dropping the thing often gave dire and unwatchable garbage. Some of the worst games I ever saw were mixed in with some of the best during the 80's.
When the game went to 10 metres it was dreadful for 2-3 seasons. Wigan destroyed everyone in that period as nobody else could defend and their "money no object" squad of attacking players ripped the league to shreds.
So, if I was going to pick I would say 1997-2015 would be the era I would chose.

I don't know if it was just because I was young but the early 2000s felt so exciting and more importantly it felt like every match mattered and the crowds were up for it. I remember the excitement of the build up to a Bradford derby and genuinely being excited and how much it mattered (which was the Bulls game where we absolutely threw it away with a ball into touch then they got the ball from two kick offs in a row I think? From Deacon IIRC).

For me personally the quality on the pitch doesn't have to be the best but what I find important is that stadiums aren't half empty, crowds are loud and actually care and it actually feels like an event worth winning. Maybe it's just nostalgia as a young kid, but it just felt big.

The bulls derby games were fabulous in the late 90s early 00s i miss them a great deal, the 00s were a great time to be a Rhinos fan and I do think it was the best era personally, however there is probably some nostalgia rose tinting going on as there was some equally drab fixtures and low crowds in that era aswell.

I think the game isn’t as healthy as it was then but personally don’t think its as bad now as done of the doom merchants are saying, I think we meed to just get this season over which has been massively impacted by Covid and reassess when things are more normal next season.

I am really excited for the next few years as a Rhinos fan we seem to be getting alot of homegrown players coming through with real quality

As a sport I think the early 90s was the era when we seemed to get the most national coverage. Having a regular international programme helped as did having a resurgent GB side. The game on the field was attractive to watch too. It could be intense but it was also quick and open with different sides playing more off the cuff. Since then the game became more structured and predictable as players got fitter and better organised. So if you compare the game in 1992 with now they look very different and there's no doubt today's professionals are fitter and better organised but the spectacle isn't as good IMO.

I'd agree with this in part, but then the early '90s were when I was growing up watching the sport and that's what almost everyone defaults to as the mythical golden era in the end.

However the "regular international programme" bit - we've never had an international programme like we have the past couple of decades. At the end of almost every season we've had games and most of the time televised live on the BBC.

It's always rose-tinted glasses this kind of thing isn't it? Like we remember the Golden Generation as almost mythical now, but the reality was there were plenty of poor performances and poor losses in there amongst the good bits - and they never really dominated the league like I felt they should have/the club should have.

We remember the tries and the highlights reels rather than the poor decisions and dropped balls don't we?

However... even though we weren't winning then, I'd give a shout out to the time where Wigan had Offiah, Edwards, Tuigamala, Farrell and the likes. Some great players. It was a time where RL could sign some of the best talent from RU, and some good talent from Australia/NZ. Both those worms have turned.

Some of the epic Leeds/Saints battles of our golden time were brilliant too. Actually two of my favourite games were semis against Saints.

Maybe our peak is ahead of us. The sport has been through/is going through an existential crisis - weakened before COVID struck and then hammer blows since. The sport is driven by us, spectators and fans. Our numbers dictate TV deals and sponsorship. Too many happy to talk our way into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Be positive about the game and support where you can.

If Wigan are going to beat anyone in this dodgy patch you can bet it'll be us

I have very fond memories of 13 in a row in 2000, that was when I started going to home and away matches. But the mid 2000s was my favourite, when Danny McGuire was scoring for fun, the roar of the crowd whenever he was in clear air. I think he got injured and that pace he initially had was never back (he was still great though).
There was also that genuine belief that GB could actually beat the Aussies, I mean we never did when it mattered, but the last Ashes tour and the tri nations finals when we had beaten them in the group stage, it just felt so close.
When I look at the game today, we seem farther away from an important international win than I have seen in my time watching the game, and the quality of the Leeds squad when compared to the late 2000s is just absolutely pathetic. I just can't justify paying to see such a poor quality product, when it was so recent that we had a world class team.

This sounds up my feelings too.

Somewhere in the mid 2000s between when the games defences were like a dogs hind leg in the 90s and before(and Konrad Hurrell would have been considered structured and organised in his approach) and the overly sanitised WWE of the modern game.

Can we rename this thread "cognitive bias and rosy retrospection"?