Assuming we lose Prior after this season I’d say we need 2 really high quality forwards to complete the pack.

How good is it to see a depleted Leeds side really compete down the middle with such a young lineup? Bodes really well for the future.

Liked the look of Gannon immediately.

Glad Agar was thinking on the same lines. The one who was at times caught between being neither one thing nor the other was Smith, not his fault. The naming of gale in the 21 was all a bit silly though.

Even though Tetevano may have been daft with his late shot it’s great to see a bit of ‘mongrel’ back in the forwards isn’t it.

Prior is just a machine, I hope he stays for another year or two

Agree completely. Makes the game look so tin pot

Cracking performance today I thought - shame about the sending off think we'd have had half a chance otherwise. Gannon looks a serious player (he's a big 17 year old!). Beyond that, Paasi leads with his forearm/elbow every time - as someone else says if you tackled like that you'd be off so not sure why it's allowed. And finally the BBC coverage was tough to listen to with the drooling over saints even praising their defence when they'd just shipped a load of points to 12 men which was quite bizarre but there we go back to sky now anyway I suppose.

What I like about Rhinos vintage 2021 is the mongrel. Stick 15,,000 at Headingley behind them and no other team would fancy it. As others have said Prior is an inspirational player. His cumulative excellence puts in the top range of Aussie imports.

Agree on Gannon, does anybody know how big he is? He looked big and good on the frame. I like Walters but feel like he needs to fill his frame a bit still. You can see why Gannon has been put straight with the first team

Not sure if its already been mentioned but the work we did on Walmsley in the first half shouldnt be underestimated.

We bullied him in defence, 3 players on him as soon as he touched the ball, and then constantly ran at him in attack. Saints are by no means a one-man team but we nullified any impact he had for them in a massive way.

We physically outmatched them today but unfortunately their class showed on the edges.

We should take great heart from that today.

Just tried watching the game after recording it. Struth I struggle to get any enjoyment without crowds...
Enfed up tolerating about 15 mins then lost interest.think I'll pick up watching again end of may when we might have stone sort of atmosphere and excitement......

I don't no how big Gannon is but he looks a unit for 17.Walters is only 20 and 6ft 5 so he's probably only grown one way and that's up. He'll put some serious on in the next 2 years.

I enjoyed the game but would also struggle to watch with no crowd or crowd if I knew the result

Though their introduction of paasi? Changed the momentum back to them. Maybe without the red card we could have won but then again maybe they don't get complacent and clock off. Seriously think this is a huge year for oledski. Could be outside bet for wc

Very very exciting/tense game. Couldn't believe we were still in it at half time given the team sheet, and I was actually disappointed we weren't ahead! Then thought it was game over with the red and yet we were still with a shout 4 mins to go! Love to see it. It was quite some effort, despite some shocking last tackle plays. Saints did us lots of favours to be honest, but the ref didn't do us many so it about evens out.

Extremely looking forward to seeing us play when we have some halves, centres, and Handley back!! Fingers crossed for us beating Saints in the Grand Final!!

Would like us to begin using King Walters and Gannon instead of Mellor, alternate games at the least.

What did you think of the use of leeming and dwyer this match? Thought the game was crying out for Dwyer at a much earlier stage... he only got introduced after the match was lost, and we only miraculously pulled it back to touching distance because he scored twice in v. few minutes.

He looked like our only player in danger of scoring or causing a something to happen near their tryline, so I would've liked to have seen a lot more of him!

Yes, without Paasi they lose the game!! He was very very handy, although a little too elbowy and shouldery for my liking!

The BBC challenge cup draw was so village. Reminded me of a post match meat raffle. Disgrace

Wonder if we picked up any injuries during this game too, it was full-on. Looks like Gannon and the other young lads will be getting a few more opportunities.

Agree. Absolutely embarrassing

I think the one thing we can take from this game is how far we have come, its less than 2 years ago since we got dumped out of the CC by Brafford

Absolutely. I am still fairly confident about the future.

I just think the club needs to make the right calls and not the easy calls on some players this year. Players like Gale and Prior are towards the back end of their careers now. I do think 2022 is a window of opportunity to really get up there again but we still need a couple more players.

We still need another proper prop; we have replaced Ava with a different type of player in Tetevano. Maybe two if Prior goes this year.

Question marks remain over full back and stand off. We're over-stocked with centres and under-stocked with wingers. There are a couple more lads in the Academy system but maybe +1 high quality outside back wouldn't hurt - you have to think about Johnstone, he's hurt us every time we've played Wakey and has exactly what we lack. We never looked like making a long-range break in the back line against Saints, and I'm not sure our first line players provide that either (although they can break a tackle).

Anyway still very proud of the way the lads showed up yesterday - over the course of this season the spotlight will fall on some other areas of the side which need fixing up now we're almost there with the pack.

Didn't actually know the result. Just couldn't get into it at all. I'll wait into I can go on a Friday night and have a beer now. A lad I know frim the village is up for some live games soon too......
Not for me at minute

I really enjoyed the match particularly the 1st half. Walmsley looked rattled. Loved Oledzki, Leeming, Prior and Tetevano flying in and smashing them and don't think they enjoyed it leading to all their errors. It reminded me of the 2015 season with Aiton and Leuleui flying in. Tetevano plays it tough but there is a fine line sometimes but I would not change that in him.

I thought Leeming was great both defensively and in attack and got our big boys moving. I think until the Tetevano red, he was the man to stay on, however, the game changed when he was sent off and it was right for Dwyer to come on who also did very well. It is very useful to have two hookers who can offer something different. I did say that for the final 10 minutes they should have had both on as Leeming brings that intensity and physicality in defence similar to Prior and Tetevano.

I would be finding a spot in the team for Broadbent when all players return. Didn't do much yesterday but was sound defensively. There was an instance towards the end of the match where Grace broke through similar to Johnstone the other week. Broadbent and Dwyer successfully defended the matter whereas Myler and Briscoe failed it. Broadbent for me is better defensively, a better runner and his hands are ok. I think he deserves a continued run in the team.

Alex Sutcliffe again was impressive and sets a good intensity defensively and Gannon from the little I saw of him looks like he could have a big future.

My concern is when Oledzki, Prior and Tetevano have to take a breather admittedly not all at the same time. We do not currently have anyone to come on to match their intensity. We could have done with a Paasi to sub on for them and bring the impact. I would like to have seen how Paasi would have gone had he started the match and been up against the intensity of Oledzki, Leeming, Prior and Tetevano. Hopefully Holyroyd and King can provide that fire power.

Sam Walters needs to play as often as possible. I think he got some poor balls yesterday. I could see him starring when surrounded by better half backs, centres and wingers. Give Gale several options to pass to with Walters running strong lines and he will slice through a lot.

We now have a very good pack and I would like them to play to that intensity with a near full strength back line. I think we will then look a very good side.

All in all it was a very enjoyable watch and very impressive.

Yes we had extra forwards on the field but we had a mongrel there that's long been missing.

You have to hand it to Agar, the team which lost to Bradford was much stronger on paper than this one so it shows what impact attitude, self-belief, clarity of roles and game plan can have on a team.

Agree with just about all of that. If you are to have Leeming and Dwyer on at the same time then there is no need for Donaldson to be in the team as Leeming will do that tempo and hitting hard stuff. I agree Walters needs better ball and as you Gale will put him through those gaps and will be a real handfull. If Hurrell does sign a new contract he could be the man to bring on to add that impact to the pack. Broadbent was again very good at full back especially defensively. He's a real talent and him and Newman I'm sure will form a very good centre partnership. Both different styles Newman adds zip and athleticism and Broadbent is more your classic centre nice step and great hands.

I thought the lads had a real dig & imo if we'd had a HB & Tetevano for the full 80 we win that game.
Our Pack battered theirs ,im 50/50 with the Red card seen them given & seen them just sin binning as well. Paasi made a huge impact but twice he lead with the forearm which was blatant & easy to see but Thaler ignored it.
Going forward once again the younger lads stepped up & deserve their chances when we have our 1st choice players available.
Anyone any idea what Esstmond is up to? Ive seen him in full trainibg live & in the background when we see interviews on Rhinos tv so WTF is Agar wsiting for?

Great effort and you really rattled Saints. Thought Oledski was immense and pack generally excellent. Surprised only comment re Donaldson was negative - if you watch again you will see his tackling was tremendous. He goes at the lower legs and stops players and when others come in on top it really hurts them - Walmsley was largely played out of the game as a result. With proper half backs and no T Briscoe gifts to Grace you would have won.