Matt Diskin ?

Buderus throws the most accurate pass in the league, but sadly we don't get a roll on enough for it to matter.

If he stays, you will have to get used to his totally non sensical comments.

cannot understand team selection at the moment, just look at the bench not one so called strike player. Ali and hauraki starting who both like to run at tiring opposition and are not the best of tacklers, with the work horses on the bench.
Cross did he play?, Kirke completely dominated Hauraki very poor.
Positives Sinfield had another good game but needs to get back to LF, McShane showed up well and Hardaker had a good debut dispite terrible service and dispite posts to the negative I thought little Robby did well behind a terrible pack.

Agree digger re-Hauraki and Ali at least 1 should be benched with Clarkson starting at 13.

sinfield looked like he had the world on his shoulders carrying that lot last night. we are in desperate need of an organising scrum half who can take some of that weight off his shoulders. i love burrow but he has never evolved as a player and teams have got used to him. it doesn't help playing behind a beaten pack to be fair to him though.
the pack is way short on toughness. it's alright having good skills but you have to earn the right to play first. oh for a farrell or a fleary to toughen things up.
whilst i agree watkins is a young lad he needs to stop passing blind and throwing stupid offloads. whilst the coach and his team mates may tell him the onus is on him. kid or not he needs to wise up quickly. that apart i think the lad is a class act and had he had the chances senior did he would have buried them.
senior is stealing a wage and BM needs to grow some balls and drop him.
i honestly don't think we are a million miles off being a really good side. two or three quality players and a top coach and we would be flying. however i don't think BM is anywhere near good enough for a club like leeds and i worry he will set us back years

I thought Saints defended well especially their own line, As I have said on other threads a platform has to be built by the forwards BEFORE fancy dan passing and although a good player Watkins does not have to do "FLICK" passess all the time.

Agree with alot of what you say Tad
Although JJB as played well at prop he should have started at sr with burgess or cross at prop with young Clarkson at Lf giving Burgess/Cross, Buderus, Kirke, JJB, Ablett, Clarkson. At the moment only JJB, Buderus and Burgess anywhere near decent performance, makes me laugh we have agood young lad at Harlequins who did not let us down last year and Amor ripping Hull to bits for Wakey many of my friends who were at the game tell me he was near to man o match. No bite in the forwards
having said that was a good game

My biggest concern re BMD is that we have a "new generation" of kids coming through now, and without specialist coaching they will not develop in the way that we need them to both from a club and country perspective.

BMD brought a lot of kids through at Quins, but other than LMS have any of them gone on to show their true ability?

We was robbed!!

Actually, it could be argued that BMcD slowed down the development of LMS, Clubb etc.

The problem for Leeds is the forwards don't make any metres - so you could go through your set of 6 and make 30 metres and then what? we don't have a kicking game? - so they have to take risks to go around teams they don't have an option

Play him in his correct position and he wont need the flick pass!!

i disagree david. being on the 'wrong' side might mean he struggles on some things but it doesn't stop him taking the tackle. it's a stupid trait he has which he needs to stop

You are right. To blame it all on the coach is to overlook the root problems. Our big problem is defence and this is not a new problem. It was apparent last year - cast your minds back to Wembley and many other matches last year when we let in far too many tries.

With so many players out with injury the new coach has not been able to pick his best side yet. OK so he has given the players some freedom to offload and it hasn't always come off. It takes time for a side that is constantly changing through injuries to become fully familiar with each other. But we have enjoyed some quality attacking rugby as a result and could well have lost more games without this attacking style.

These are professional players and you cannot blame the coach or his tactics for their basic errors and poor execution eg:Webbs constant forward passes. I believe we do have the players with the handling skills to play this way but give them time. What the coach has to address is our defensive problems which he has inherited.

As you say our pack is not providing the platform for the backs and this always makes the half backs look bad which you have to take into account before we right them off. Our big defensive weakness is at centre. With young players like Watkins you have to expect and accept some mistakes but with experienced players like Senior we should expect better.

Shocking non performance that is becoming the norm.

Although it's very early to talk about getting rid of him, you have to compare what has happened at Harlequins this year with last year, and say that the biggest change has been BMD [ileaving[/i.

The problem with guys like Senior is once you get past a certain point in your career rising experience becomes inversely proportional to athletic ability.

I believe that Saints will look back on tonight and say that their season started at Headingley on Saturday 19th March 2011. Eastmond is now history and they know where they stand and are moving on without him. Their reaction after the final whistle was akin to ours winning the Grand Final.

Throughout this thread it is said that we lack forward power, that is so very true. Cross needs to have a good look at himself and decide to stay and play or go!! IMO Sinfield should go back to loose forward, Webb to stand off and Smith in at full back. Our experienced left side was woeful - and not for the first time this season - last night. Hall had four Saints to contend with - and I dont mean Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - when Wellens went over for his try. Where was Senior?

I also thought all three officials were dire. The technology was there and they didnt use it. With a quick "Hang on, lets have a look at that" Saints would not have scored the first try. Also when we kicked off and there was that knock on - how did the chuckle brother miss that? Halls reaction would have made me have a look. Yes, I agree the pass to Hardacre was almost and acre forward - where was the touch judge then?? JJB was unfortuneat when impeaded at the play of the ball but hey - that Super League for you.

Overall, we were clueless. Too much is on Sinfield shoulders and yes, it may be time to rest Burrow, play McShane and see if that produces the response that Burrow gave when Noble didnt play him in Australia when Long took his ball home.

COME ON LEEDS - WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!!

Just to add, why is Ali the starting 2nd row ?

He's hardly been starting 2nd all his career and has been at his most devastating when brought on around 20 - 25mins in, as the opposition pack is starting to tire.

I know we're short of forwards, but there are enough 2nd rowers still around to keep him in the bench.

Just watched the 2nd half again, and we are not as bad as I first thought. The forwards deserve better praise than they've been getting, especially Cross. Makes the hard metres and lands on his chest, plus some good hits. Hauraki again passed muster as did Burgess, who I reckon is orft anyways at seasons end. JJB, no matter how willing lacks the physique to be the answer to our prop problem.Kirke as always was Kirke.

I doubt that we'll see Webb throw so many crap passes in one game again, although the potentially suicidal long pass out to the winger is an easy and predictable one to intercept for an opposing player.

In defence our line is all over the place and a quick look at any Wigan dvd will easily rectify that. It's past time to bite the bullet on Keef, who has enjoyed a season too long at centre, and looked to be carrying a thigh injury for much of the match. Little Burrows, who I love to watch in action, is another who should be departing soon.

We're not that far away. There is undoubted class in the team, but its time for GH to lay down the law to the Chuckle Bros, and give the young ones an extended run. What have we to lose? Experience gained early doors in the season could pay off in October.

Maybe I'm a little hard on Cross...but it still irritates me (ok not Cross's fault) that he would appear to be no better than the young talented forwards we have - not least the 'shipped out' Ambler. The match against Salford showed us that. Amor too seems to be performing well at Wakey.

You're right about everything else. Start building the team for the future now

I think there is a massive amount of over-reaction on this thread. Obviously Senior is going to be the scapegoat for this season. People are blaming Senior for virtually every try that is scored down Leeds' left hand side, I've even seen him blamed for Hall not catching a high kick.

Whilst Saints had some players missing I think people are forgetting the amount we still have missing. Put Delaney, McGuire, Leuluai & Peacock back into that team it's a different game which we probably go on to win.

As usual Sal Paradise picks on Sinfield for some bizarre reason. I thought he was as good as could be expected behind pack missing Leuluai & Peacock. Yes he dropped the ball from the scrum, he also regained possession for us with a clever drop-out.

We've got to decide what we want from a Leeds team. Fans complained we were too boring over the last couple of years. It seems to me Brian McDermott is trying to address that. We've played more exciting rugby in the last 6 games than the whole of last season. Do we want an Australian, 5 drives & a kick approach or do we want the ball thrown around? If we want the ball thrown around we've got to accept that sometimes it won't come off and, crucially, that it will take time to adapt to that style. We are 6 games in to the season. We've won 3 & lost 3. The 3 we've lost are away at Warrington, at home to Saints and at home to Quins. Is it great? No. Is it appalling? No. Can it be fixed? Yes. Will it take time for a squad with more changes than in recent years to adapt to a new style of play and an entirely new coaching team? Yes. Do Leeds fans need to stop b[ii[/itching and moaning? Yes.

And right on time, the loony tunes express, full of happy clappy people arrives at its destination.

Keef was bagged for showing absolutely no interest in either competing for the high ball, covering an opponent, or simply getting in the way of onrushing players. A trick he has built his reputation on when it comes to high ball try line defence. He has also received criticism for his speed of thought and positional mistakes. A great RL career doesn't make any of these points any less salient.

The hypothetical inclusion of Delaney, McGuire etc is pointless. You can only field the team you have got and play what is put in front of you.

As for complaints about 2 years of boring rugby. What a load of bollox. We won the GF for the 3rd time in 2009 FFS!
We went downhill last year, and this season if we are going to play the stats game it's one win in the last 4 outings. I'll make a note of the "exciting rugby" and add it to the flamboyant, sensational and inventive accolades that have been voiced already this season



You're correct it's fixable, perhaps not under this coaching setup, and I reckon any of the rhinos onfield performances from 2007/8/9 would be more acceptable to most Southstanders than the current headless chicken approach.

True, as it would be if you put Eastmond, Pryce, LMS, Soliola and Wilkin in . . . . .