Club skipper and boxing champion of Leeds Met 2015, that would be a great achievement for the lad

Glad I didn't say that

Our defence certainly had some problems in that game but don't ignore the fact that Saints were kept scoreless in the 2nd half. Not all the credit goes to Leeds for that but you can only play what is put in front of you

Depends why we were short. Looked to me on at least 1 of the times that the tacklers didn't get up and back into the line. So that occasion isn't the full backs fault.
An element of credit has to go to Saints for attacking the right part of the field, getting a quick play the ball, and picking the right pass to cause and exploit those defensive issues.

I doubt we were taught anything different as kids. I'd pretty much agree and coach kids to deal with the threat in front of you.

But you can't stick to that mantra at higher levels. You have to rely on your inside defence following you, even more so when you find you're outnumbered, otherwise you consistently provide an overlap. When you've numbered up right then yes the greater threat is the lead runner. When you haven't the greater threat is outside runner.


Fair enough mate

Maybe but someone has to take responsibility for getting the numbers wrong don't they?

I heard a rumour he'd been challenging a few club bouncers recently.

If true, he needs sorting.

I nominate Ryan Bailey's or JJB's dad

In any defensive system, Ablett has to follow the outside runner and presume his inside defender will pick up the lead runner. On each occasion Saints had the numbers, and the inside man couldn't get there - if Ablet jams in, the ball goes wide and weMre even shorter numbers.
Credit to Walsh, he took the right option each time - the problems came from losing the floor and subsequently not a strong enough inside push. Just poor defensive play all round - a very worrying trend for the season so far!

this whole season will be a mixed bag due to the poor standard throughout the competition as a whole

this seasons mediocrity shown thus far by most of the sides in the competition bar wolves,widnes and salford, will pale into insignificance once the business end of the season arrives and probably at the same time that sides like widnes and salford are arranging their players' end of season trips abroad, whilst the top 4 play off's are getting under way with the self same sides

yet again it will be the side that peaks at the right time that wins the grand final irrespective of how 5hite they were during the regular weekly rounds

wolves' excellent early season form makes them look like the side to beat but we've heard all that before

don't write the rhinos off guys as i believe that we will make the grand final yet again

We're gona win it again.

Because your captain is such a saint



The reason people like him as captain is the passion he shows, even after a below par game on Friday he was still ecstatic after the whistle and was the first one to go clap the fans.
I personally would have Ward as captain after Mags but Hardaker would be my choice for VC

An improvement on last weeks pathetic 2nd half v the Pies but still with much more improvement still needed.
Galloway had his best game yet ,Falloon made a big difference imo and Handley was quality.
Re-Tries conceded imo for 2 Abblet over-reads the runners when the very basic defensive Coaches will say the threat is ALWAYS THE BALL of course that's not to say Abbos inside man couldn't have at least closed that gap somewhat but that's where we were exploited and no FB can compensate for that with "calling the numbers correctly".
However it was a first game back for him and a few others so it's not like there weren't going to be some errors with and without the ball in such a big game with the pressure mounting.
Hopefully we can build on it now get a more settled 9 ,6 & 7 with other players in their natural positions and move up the table.
In terms of individuals when everyone is fit for me Hall drops out if he isn't already missing through injury!

That kick for Handley's try. Been missing a bit of that cutting edge so far.

Its the full back who numbers up the defence, but on at least one of the occasions we were short because a tackler didn't get back in to line quick enough. Really there the credit, rather than blame, has to go to Saints for getting a quick play the ball, in a perfect area of the pitch, and exploiting it well.

Falloon was good with ball in hand but was at fault for Saints first two tries .

He's at fault for the Walsh one, because he got his angles wrong and allowed Walsh to get outside him.

The other one (LMS?) was an over-read from Ablett outside him that left a massive gap.

Did I read the stats right at 43 missed tackles by Leeds and 39 for Sts? That's utter garbage from both sides.

Whilst I completely agree on the face of it, does anyone know what constitutes a "missed tackle" in these stats?

For instance, if a half back gets the ball & then skips across the line of defense laterally (looking for a gap/runner), he often evades about 5 or 6 defenders (they may even get their fingertips to him) - would this count as 5 or 6 missed tackles?

I cannot believe that there were 82 genuine missed tackles as I would define them in that match.

It's unlikely anybody knows what constitutes an Opta missed tackle as no-one can be d relating the numbers to the actual instances in the game.

Did I hear that the Roosters missed 49 tackles last week. Trent Robinson's stock may have peeked.

That's SL for you

If it has I would still have him at Leeds - quality coach, you cannot get rid of all your best players and expect to perform at the same level - a tough year ahead for Trent

I would have thought OPTA work on criteria provided by SL or the RFL. In any case I would expect that for a tackle to become a missed tackle the defender has at least to get hands on the attacker and then drop off. This will occur more often with the hard working defenders that put in high tackle counts in field where sometimes your own teammates can know you off in a multi player tackle. Where it is less excusable in when a player makes the ratio of 6 tackles with 5 misses.

Where I am unsure of how a missed tackle is recorded in when a player hopefully dives and completely misses with no contact.

Missed tackles are, a lot of the time, no big deal in the grand scheme of things providing a team mate compensates. Despite Leeds (presumably) missing a bundle in the 2nd half saints failed to score.

True. You could say the same for Brian

I do not think retreating defenders was the problem. For all three tries our numbers were wrong which led to gaps in our line.

For the first try (Amor) I think it was 9 attackers against 5 defenders which caused Ablett to drift too wide and leave too bigger gap and be on the wrong foot. Falloon had to mark Walsh and Hardaker was late arriving at speed so was easily stepped. The second try(Walsh) again spotted a big gap inside Ablett who once again was aware of the numbers outside him and with Falloon delayed with a blocker made it easy for Walsh to go inside Ablett again with a little dummy and again Hardaker arriving far too late. For their third try (LMS) Ablett was very poor and made little effort to take LMS. Hardaker was even latter arriving so left himself no chance to stop the try.