better leeds sides might have lost at rovers before but never in such gutless fashion.
nothing was learned by the insipid non aggressive game at cas, who were truly awful, or the cats game where we won it due to the age old way of aggressive forwards getting on top.
smith, as I said before, seems to want to prove how clever he is by doing things differently.
Well it doesn't work. it won't work.
and if he doesn't change then he won't be here long

No it doesn’t.

What an utter shambles, at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious the match was lost with the rovers try just after half time. Without doubt a pathetic and easily preventable try. It gave us a mountain to climb ,at the moment we aren’t capable of achieving that. Not certain what to make of this current team and coach and I have followed Leeds for a long time. Don’t believe we should get rid of smith but unless things change we may not win many away games. Felt sorry for the young full back chucked in at the deep end (no pun intended) Myler without doubt would have dealt with the high kicks.
As previously stated we have lost at rovers before but it’s the manner of defeat that’s hard to take. This team seems mentally fragile ,last night’s game was similar to the cas game conducted in front of a hostile crowd. We just seem unable to cope with the pressure. I honestly thought we would win last night and start a decent run of games. Sadly it seems we are taking one step forward and two back. Full credit to rovers they deserved to win fo for me it’s not sour grapes. But once again the referee was woeful, all night he allowed rovers defenders to grapple at the play the ball.
Next game up ,the giants are a well coached and competent side, so it’s a big challenge . I really haven’t a clue as to how we will perform in this match. Never a dull moment following Leeds is it?

The Giants are the dullest team to watch in the league, I’m glad we don’t play that style of rugby.

You may be right, unfortunately most of the season so far so far we haven’t had much of any style of rugby.

We live or die on whether we can play quickly under Smith. I think there was a plan b for last night's conditions but woefully executed by O'Connor and his middles. In their defence I don't get the impression much coaching time will have gone into it. Which is fine in a way: we don't see too many monsoons. What we do see however is plenty of teams slowing play by other means. If we can create high a tempo, we're laughing. If not, it's wheldon road groundhog Day.

You’re saying Rohan is the Liz Truss of coaching?

Good summary.
We seem to start every game like a friendly.
Not one Ptb anywhere near their line in first half. And that abysmal try from kick off second half. Game lost. Total waste of time. Did not throw a punch. Any weak team can start playing when the game is lost.
Conditions were horrific but we did not kick high in second half.
Smith must carry some blame for the back three being not good enough because he signed them all. Anyone could have dropped the ball but those 3 did not look like they wanted to be there.
In last 10-15 minutes we had a few scrums and just walked there, no urgency to pack down and stop the clock. This team needs a leader who can rattle a few cages.

Frankly, not sure I’ll buy another away ticket this season. Last night cost me about £80 and just made me angry.

Yeah because Liz Truss did the equivalent of getting us to a GF didn’t she



It was a torrid game, a rubbish performance in horrendous weather - I bet it will be forgotten in a couple of months time.

It might even be forgotten in a weeks time.

McDonnell is that JJB/Delaney role player where he just quietly gets where it hurts and fills gaps in. Bentley is a good player but overrated IMO.

I prefer Tet in the back row, especially now Mik is back. We have Mik, Holroyd, Sangare, Lisone and Walters on rotation. Martin to centre and Tet to back row works better for me.

Tindall played well in pre-season, he’s quicker than Olpherts and although he has mistakes in him too he looks more like a rugby league player.

Maybe with Fus out it’s time to bring in Lumb or Edgell from the academy, and Tindall recalled?

Letting Edwards go and bringing in Olpherts on I guess more money doesn’t seem sensible.

At least Sangare, McDonnell and McDonnell look decent additions.

On another note I am sick of the prima donna behaviour of Newman, Austin, Bentley. Leeds have had better players than any of them who also had discipline. Arguing with refs constantly is just a sign of an idiot.

I don’t actually think it was that bad a performance: our pack went pretty well. Sezer defended well; Austin was rubbish after a diamond performance last week.

Literally lost that bc Olpherts, Hooley and at times Roberts not up to this standard or rugby. It’s soul destroying for middles when you’re working your nuts off and then the backs are making errors like that.

Exactly, ive seen comments like its the worst performance in years and years, people have very short memories. Cas away was worse.

Olpherts needs a long spell at Bulls, preferably till the end of his deal.

Abysmal showing.

I think we were all trying to forget Cas away after last week’s great win.
The gap between second half v Catalan and first half last night is a chasm. At our worst we are woeful and that gap needs closing fast. As someone else said , fast PTB we can look really good. Slow PTB we look awful.
We can’t keep games even with our defence because we only put 2 in the tackle and most teams put in 3 and slow the game down , which we don’t do. So if a ref allows messing about at PTB and markers not square we are stuffed.

What’s up with Fusi and McDonald ?

Which is precisely what happened last night. And we were.

Mcdonald had a bit of a calf strain, should be ok for next week.

Fusi has knackered his ankle, I bet we don’t see him for a few months.

I’ll try and cheer up, agree thought Sezer defended really well v Linnett.

Yeh, a linesmans decision lost us that game...

We beat Hudds next week and this games forgotten…..

apologies mate, i didnt realise you cant read

Is was horrendous conditions last night.

Was a baptism of fire for Hooley.

At least Olpherat trys. He runs it in and gets involved. Sure he made some clangers, but we need to get behind him and the team.

It's not changing overnight.

We played awful and lost by 8 points to KR getting the bounce of the ball for all 3 of their tries.

Not the end of the world.

I am concerned about Sezers application though. He's absolutely rocks and diamonds.


Expect Fusitua is gone for the season. May as well pay him out and get replacements in with his and Leemings money.

If we’re going to spend any money it needs to be on someone who can direct us round the field. We made Abdull look like the best half back games ever seen last night and all he did was the obvious. Whilst our 2 insisted on running on the last or just aimlessly flinging the ball about until they’d no choice but to kick under pressure. Brainless play in those conditions and if I was a middle I’d have been raging with 1-7

Some pretty poor excuses being made - referee, linesman, weather, good Hull KR side.
All complete nonsense.
We should be winning that game. That was a very average HKR side last night.
Our big pack should have dominated theirs last night, but the reverse happened.
This passive, slow, laboured defence is giving the opposition momentum and territory and that meant that Abdul was in a position to put up an attacking kick every time and put us under pressure.
How many times were we in that position for Austin to do the same?
The game was played in our half.
The opposition make 70 metres a set, we make 30.
And our kicker is under pressure every time, the oppositions isn’t.
Recipe for defeat most of the time.

I think we’re getting a sense of where we are.
We’ll win odd games and then lose 2 or 3.
We’ll probably finish 7th or 8th.
We’ve pretty much played one, maybe two decent halves of rugby in 7 games, which is a reality check.

I’m not one in the ‘Smith Out’ corner, but the knives are out and the pressure will build.
On the face of it, I can take a 20-12 defeat to HKR, but the performance and ’tactics’ were dreadful.
That’s down to the coach.
He’s supposedly got a reputation of developing younger players, but doesn’t seem to fancy some of our highly rated ones like Johnson and Tindall (coupled with letting Edwards go).
Surely, they can’t be any worse than some of what we’re seeing.

On paper, no way should that team be losing to Cas, Hull and HKR.
If only we played on paper...

You can’t pay a player out because he’s injured to get him off the cap.