You may wish to check my comments about McGuire in his last three games. I've done nothing but sing his praises.

You're making stuff up again here, I have never said Diskin is a better player than Buderus.

I don't think anyone at all has said Diskin is a better player than Buderus. However, in the future when people look back at videos of the GF wins and read about the great Leeds team of the early 21st century, they'll see the name Diskin a lot more than that of Buderus, and Diskin will be far more worthy of "Hall of Fame" status than Buderus.

I still don't think McShane has been dropped either.

Is it just me or does anyone he lay some of the praise/criticism at the dorr of the coach? Clearly burrows 'apcking down' at 13 was a tactical ploy from the coaching team, much like the instructions for him to run with the ball more.

For what its worth I thought he had a good game in terms of his willingness to run and try and create something. The problem was that Wire were ready for him.

The issue then was, what do we do now? And if we had had McShane on the bench I think you would have seen him come on and break up the play more. As it was we had Hood who we are bedding in slowly (which is correct I might say) so Burrow stayed on and did what he had been told to, and Wire kept sitting on him.

Greasy night, lots of dropped ball, slippery conditions underfoot, quality opposition. I don't blame Burrow for carrying more frequently than normal.

A break from Burrow earned the penalty that put us in the driving seat.

A break from Burrow set up the clinching try.

He got man of the match, Granted there were other contenders but it shows he had a good game nonetheless.

Don't get sucked in to the agendas of Sal and Gotcha.

It speaks volumes that Burrow biggest genuine critic, Harrigan, has been very quiet about Burrow recently. Unless he's been too busy cheering on the Bulls.

His time yanking off over Watkins seems to eat up his time.

Bet his balls are like peas now.

I guess that depends if Harrigan was being genuinely critical of Burrow when he was being used almost exclusively out of dummy half as he appears to have been this season to date.

McGuire is clearly being favoured in the scrum-half role now and the creative side of his game is developing well. His short kicking game seems to be causing problems for the opposition on a weekly basis as he takes on more of the responsibility.

Not sure I accept the OP's assertion that we are increasingly moving away from being a passing team. I thought we actually played a very expansive game on Friday, and our use of set moves and runners from deep in the attacking line was probably greater than I've seen in the previous few years.

If Burrow scoots a bit from dummy half, I have no problem with that. It becomes one of the many threats an opponent needs to be alive to. Any side facing Leeds knows they need only switch off at marker once and there are going to be points on the board. As a team we hardly played one-out rugby did we?

On the hooker position, I thought Friday both showed Hood's potential, and also the reasons he's being introduced gradually. He looks so far (big caveat, he hasn't exactly had loads of game time) like he has good instincts and awareness, and looks sharp. However, he also got a bit over-excited a couple of times and his execution suffered. That will almost certainly improve with experience, which I'm happy for him to get slowly this season. I suspect the same might be true of McShane, so we may not see both of them in the same match day 17 too often, unless injuries force the coach's hand.

It's this that gives me such optimism .... I can now see the sense of blooming both young hookers gradually at this end of the season while the injuries are few and the team with Burrow at hooker is playing well enough to still win matches.
Come the business end of the season both hookers ( plus the likes of Watkins and Hardaker ) will have that much more experience and confidence to win the club another GF

....

Can't wait to see a future interchange hooker combo of McShane and Hood ...

Is this the new Nantwich again?

True this, and we did it much more effectively than Wire who seemed intent on playing their exciting brand of fast and wide rugby at too great a pace. Many of their errors were forced by good defence but I think we were much more aware of the conditions. Warrington on their day are very, very good but I reckon they came unstuck by believing they could be that good with a ball that seemed like a piece of soap at times.

This thread has restored my faith in the quality of young British Internet trolls

To be honest, watching us against Wire I thought at times we looked quite predictable, and yes we could have moved the ball a bit more, with a bit more pace.

However, its a dangerous game comparing us to Wire as in my opinion they are one of the best attacking sides in the competition. They offload well and they can suddenly hit you at pace when they looked to be a bit pedestrian. For me they are probably the closest side we have to the Aussies in the way they attack.

So against that we will look a little off the pace. But its swings and roundabouts. I like to see us play expansive attacking football, but I also like to see us win. I think from what Ive seen this year Brian has got the balance better than he did last year.

Wire's ability to move the ball wide at speed impressed me at times on Friday, especially when going left. It reminded me of how the Aussies played over the Autumn. However the final pass execution didn't seem to come off too often

Burrow was easily our biggest metre maker against Warrington and he made the 2nd highest carries with 15 out of 25 as a run from dummy half. He also was our highest for tackle busts with 5 in the game. He has even made more metres than James Roby so far this year. He would certainly take some replacing if he were to get injured.

Quote ="Juan Cornetto" He has even made more metres than James Roby so far this year. '" Quality timing : www.engagesuperleague.co.uk/stat ... eason=2012

Quote ="Juan Cornetto" He has even made more metres than James Roby so far this year. '" Quality timing : www.engagesuperleague.co.uk/stat ... eason=2012

Seriously? You seriously believe those are the stats key to an hooker.

I gave you more credit than that.

Edit. I was quoting JC not tvoc.

Psst You weren't quoting anyone.

no doubt some good individual stats but I do worry that Burrow seems to ignore some good planned moves

Yes I seriously do! Because I believe the hooker role does not have to be sterotyped in the past. Burrow brings his own successful style to the 9 shirt and has been one of the major reasons for our good start this year and our success last year. He is posing one of the biggest threats to opposition coaches and teams and has been terrorising them so far.

Like I said. I gave you more credit than that.

I remember the critisism Roby got initially from oppossitions fans, about how he had changed Saints into a scoot and run from dummy half team. He did it half as many times as Burrow is doing, and was hundreds of times more successfull.

Running from dummy half from an hooker has always been an art. You time it right you catch your oppossition by surprise. Burrows turning it into one man rugby for hookers.

Annoying thing is that if he did it about 20% of what he is doing now, then he would be far more successfull with it. I guess he just does not possess the other skills that a true hooker does, hence why he plays this way only.

Possibly although I am not privy to the training field moves these days. But the flexibility with Burrow starting at 9 has made Leeds tick so far and his unpredictable style is a real headache for the opposition. I am happy with what I have seen so far.

True hookers like, for example, Liam Hood? Who turned making a mess out of dummy half into an art form in his short spell on the field.

I want my main ball carrying threats taking on the line as often as possible, providing they aren't ignoring obvious opportunities for team mates in doing so.

Burrow's distribution out of dummy half is adequate, no worse than a whole lot of other "specialist" dummy halves in SL. He's got a nice left footed kicking game which I wish he'd use more often out of there to take some of the pressure off Sinfield and McGuire. He also just happens to be one of the quickest and most elusive players over a short distance in the entire competition, so having him at dummy half to take advantage when you win the collision is a no-brainer IMO.

The likes of Diskin, Higham etc may be more selective in when they scoot and when they don't, but I don't recall either of them creating many tries from dummy half runs deep in their own territory in big games.

Well Roby is a fine player and amazing athlete and plays in his own style which can be quite predictable and good markers have a chance of making him less effective. Burrow is playing hooker as a half back and it works very effectively because of his speed and unpredictable style. I am not sure that he could be far more successful than he has been so far. But in this Leeds side we have Sinfield, Webb and McGuire able to slot in at acting half back from time to time so we have the great ability to confuse opposition game plans and that give us a great advantage.

This is the point where I have the major dissagreement with what you are saying. Warrington showed on Friday beyond doubt that the bit highlighted is not the case. He was as predictable as wet weather on the coast in November.

Like I said, by reducing the amount of times he ran substantially, IMO he would be more successfull because of it.