It was coupled with the introduction of the 6 again wasnt it so the now incorrect logic was that the game was going to get too quick for the bigger forwards.

I Dont lay the blame on Smith at present

You can see the coaching ideas, but the players are just not delivering, it looked a clear plan to put last tackle plays high to Fusitua over Grace, but the execution of those kicks, mostly from Austin, was absolute garbage.

The structure in defence looks pretty good, but the contact on the hit is pathetic at times, Hurrells second was an embarrassment.

Imo this team arnt ready to beat a team like Saints, we havnt got enough strong minds in the group, Leeming isnt a captain in a million years for a start and our pack look like they're terrified of Walmsley every time we play them, id be amazed if he's ran for more meters against any other team than us over the last 2 years.

Im confident Smiths the right man, but its going to take some time to clear out the sh*te and change some mindsets, which he's apparently exceptional at doing.

Not sure how anyone can blame Smith. Its not his fault the squad is hopelessly imbalanced and that a number of our players just aren't that good. We've lost another year by going with Agar again. Improvement this year will be good, but its from next year, after a full off-season under Smith and with a few players he wants added that we can start to really see if he's the man to take us back to challenging again.

I'm sure if Smith feels Leeming isn't Captain material then he'll change it.The players obviously felt he was as they voted for him.None of us know whether he's material as we are not prevy to what goes on in training and the dressing room.

This group of players voting for somthing is hardly a seal of approval and we'r hardly overflowing with candidates, is he the best option from a bunch of poor options...Very possibly.

We dont need to be prevy to everything to form an opinion, if we did, we'd have nothing to discuss on here. Its not critical that our opinion is correct so we can put it out there regardless of how informed we are.

Maybe i should of put imo next to the statement, but i thought that was just taken for granted.

But from everything i see and hear from him, he isnt a captain in a million years, good player, not a captain...IMO

Yeh, we're desperately short of leaders.
Leeming is probably best we've got - doesn't necessarily make him a good one.
We had an embarrassment of leaders 10 years ago.

I know Merrin gets some stick on here - but he was a natural captain.
We need to bring in something in that mould.

We desperately need a pack leader and a team leader.

Unfortunately we don't have a lot of candidates which I'm not disputing but as I said if Smith doesn't feel he's up to the job I'm sure he'll change captains.

I hold my hand up, I clerly got that one wrong. The improvement under RS is there for everyone to see,

Admitting you're wrong makes you almost unique....I will hold my hands up to being underwhelmed by his appointment but so far so good. It really does make you wonder what on earth Agar was doing over the last couple of years though....

Agar was a negative coach who didn't encourage the players to play, too afraid to lose, with the end product being a losing mentality within the team. He was also as I understand dreadful with the players and the other coaching staff almost begged hetherington not to bring him back an another role.

Haven’t seen anything in Smith to dislike!

Think the main judgement on Smith will come next season after full preseason and a few players he has chosen too…..

I'm on the fence.
Am liking the attacking we're seeing.
That said, it'll take more to win a grand final. Smith hasn't the players right now to take it up that extra couple of gears; hopefully he'll get them and take us all the way. But at this stage it's still hope rather than belief for me.

So now we have the attack firing and Smith quite rightly taking all the plaudits for it no one has mentioned Long.
Is he a good attack coach or not?
Serious question as I have no idea

No , he is just taking cash that could be used elsewhere

Is he still there? I can't remember seeing him recently

Interesting question. Why wasn't he able to make an impact under Agar? All very strange. We either hired an attack coach and didn't use him right, or we hired him, he was poor and Smith is responsible for our improved attack, in which case we'll see how it pans out

I'd imagine its a combination of things. Agar seemed utterly confused about what he was trying to do. It seems quite likely that the players and coaching staff were in a similar mess.

One thing's for sure, we would never have produced attack like against Wigan with the halfbacks we played under Agar. Clearly Smith takes most of the credit, as he will also have to take most of the criticism when things don't go well. But it may be that Long is capable of a lot more than we saw under Agar, and Smith was quick to praise Long and JJB a few weeks ago.

I think the main thing about Smith that I like is that he is already making the tough decisions.

He's not keeping Dwyer, as he's not up to his standards or the way he wants to play.

He got rid of Walker (on loan), as he wasn't going to get in the team.

He's making his stamp on the playing roster already, including the signings we are making.

On the Long debate, I think good leadership involves delegation and the ability to play to someones strenghts. Perhaps Long was stiffled under Agar, and his ideas not used. It would make sense, because we played some dire stuff under Agar.

What a remarkable difference he's made. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 5462030336

What a remarkable difference he's made. https://twitter.com/leedsrhinos/status/ ... 5462030336

I am fully converted to the Cult of Rohan

A fully pledged member

You're a 'fully polished member'?

Sure

Yeah

This comment aged well...

I did say I was wrong, though and happy to admit it!