It's not the right time to be swapping players about. McDermott got it all wrong last night for me.he should of either put faith in duckworth at centre or put Ablett in there. Watkins and bish know each other inside out and Ablett has played centre to hall before. When shipping it out last night you could see the line all over the place. We were just playing off the cuff rugby. No structure at all.hopefully we will have a few body's back next game and revert back to normal positions.

Agreed. I still prefer BJB on the wing to FB though. Everytime he ran the ball up he was driven backwards. Think he made more yards backwards than forwards. But he was given hospital passes most of the game. The attack last night stood out for me as sluggish disjointed. Poor passing and predictable.

BJB has looked a liability in defence for a while now. last night was awful though. his attempted 'tackle' on lovegrove was pathetic

Yes BJB should have stopped the score but you cannot be sure Hardaker would have stopped the try as although much more physical he lacks positional sense and might not have been near enough. Whoever played at FB for Leeds last night was onto a hiding to nothing. The first mistake for the same try was by Sinfield I think who opened up a big hole.

My first suggestion you will recall was to play Sutcliffe at centre thereby leaving Hardaker at FB and BJB on the wing. I rate Sutcliffe and he has some class however I am not convinced yet that he has ability to run a game and last night never showed enough in a pivotal role. His tackle bust and offload were centre skills which he has in abundance.

IMO only JP showed up well enough in the pack and the sooner we can get JJB & Delaney fit again the better. Sinfield had something of a nightmare and until he woke up in the final quarter he failed to provide the direction and creation Leeds need to succeed. McShane offered little and meant Burrow had to revert to acting half back and despite the usual comments from the Anti-Burrow Faction (ABF) he did what he always does. To compare him with Dobson is an ABF cheap shot as after all these years it shows a failure to understand how our players play. In the Leeds side the Dobson role is taken by Sinfield. When Burrow wasn't running and trying to create an opening or space we had the alternative offerings from his team mates that was poor passing and 2nd rowers getting in the way of ball that should have gone to the centres. Ablett for all his efforts all too aften died with the ball.

The team made far too many errors and our finishing was very poor and the players seemed to think a win was a certainty. All credit to a much weakend HKR outfit that were really up for it. Their defence was outstanding with very quick line speed hugely aided by the ref's idea of the offside laws. While our defence was ok, our line speed and aggressive tackling were poor.

As time ran out Sinfield, stopped day dreaming about his Salford offer, and started to pass out wide and over the heads of our blinkered 2nd rowers. This created enough chances to win the game.

On the positive side this was a good work out in what was play-off style pressure. It could well give us the kick up the backside we needed and get some urgency and sharpeness in our game. Despite being not at the races the team still had that never say die attitude and it was not for the want of effort we lost. The players need to improve their handling, lines of running and offloading skills and have some answers to the rushed defence as the opposition coaches will have made plenty of notes last night.

As I have remarked before and will continue doing so the hooking Position is a major problem. This is causing players to be played out of position thus affecting the teams performance .
I think everbody is in agreement that in future whatever the circumstances Hardaker should always remain at full back.
Likewise BJB should remain on the wing.
I just hope last nights performance was a blip and things will improve, if not we will win nowt this season.

I've seen quite a bit of Rovers this season. I think the "weakened side" is a red herring. Since they started fielding all these youngsters they've had more belief and more enthusiasm. They look a better team. They are heavily reliant on Dobson, but they haven't missed many of the first-teamers who have been out.

Back tracking now are we?



I stated elsewhere before the match that positions FB and RW/RC should be maintained; the changes should have only come on the left. Hardaker is a fantastic FB especially on one on one efforts: BJB was more like Webb at his worst with his feeble attempt....he's much much better on the wing.
However, the huge problem as you state was the awful pack effort, apart from Singleton in the main. McShane looks more shattered and lacking in confidence than ever before - good coaching you think?


Kirke the shirk should have been dropped at the begining of the season; Burrow is a fantastic combatant and is mr dynamo, but will never ever be the answer as main hooker. Terrible performance all round and I am so damn well glad I am not one of the poor to be pitied season ticket holders.

Duckworth looked strong and generally promising (Vickery anybody?) but outright pace is certainly not an apparent part of his armoury. His chase back on HKR's second try was not up to much. Ryan Hall mark 2 maybe?

No back tracking at all. I said this [i"I would go with Sutcliffe at centre, although I like BJB at FB"[/i



BJB made a mistake in not going for the legs of a very strong runner with great upper body strength. It wasn't a missed tackle as he tried his best to prevent the try. It was as it turned out to be an ineffectual tackle - rather like other ineffectual tackles made by several of his teammates. But BJB is not the reason for the defeat any more than Sinfield was for fumbling a bad pass from Hall, or kicking out on the full any more than Hall for poor finishing or as I said for who allowed him the space in the first place.

BJB was very good the last time out at FB and scored a class try. Whoever played at FB last night would have been up against it and it was a pity some of the pack didn't show BJB's enthusiasm for keeping carting the ball back.



I notice you single out Singleton for praise in the pack and classify Peacock as awful. You blame the coach rather than McShane for his poor performance. Cannot agree with either.

Despite being way below our best and blowing so many chances we still could and should have won it with our big last minute efforts. So we still have the stamina, the mental toughness to never accept defeat. We just need Sinfield to get some form and control back and a return of a few of the injured key stalwarts and we are in with a shout. My worry is that the injured players will be back just too late with no time to run into form and that the youngsters could well have had the edge taken off them with their earlier big efforts. But can't wait to see how it pans out.

There's no excuse When Lovegrove ran down the touchline to score

IMO he should have been hit so hard that he would have had to pay to get back into the ground

I agree TBB it was a weak effort from Bish imo.
I also think Watkins was at fault for shooting out of the line which gave Dobson stacks of space and a 3 on 1 to get past Duckworth.

BJB can offer no excuse for that try

In that situation any decent fullback would have gone for the legs and tackled him into touch.

While I am not the biggest fan of McDermott I cannot blame him for mcshane. He is clearly not good enough to play hooker in a top side. Not mcdermotts fault

I'd agree as far as defence goes Rovers would not have been better whatever team we put out.

But on attack we definitely miss Cory Patterson, Greg Eden & Kris Welham an awful lot. They are our main strike players. And Mickey Paea gives us good go forward he is a big loss too. We'd probably miss Ryan O'Hara too except we can't remember what he looks like.

Also we had some guys out there who are 'cover for the cover' but they did well. We tend to assume rightly or wrongly that the likes of yourselves have strength in depth and can cope whatever. Whereas those of us who slum it lower down the table have squads as thin as Kate Moss after a bout of gastroenteritis.

But we still had our first choice half backs, a pile of enthusiasm and rarely for us a touch of good fortune. With you being below your best it was just enough on the night.

You'll win the GF yet again and you won't give a fig.

Ten out of ten for the Kate Moss line.

The clue was in the remark " in the main " ..... Peacock didn't play bad, but was hardly at his best.

McShane maybe looks ever more shattered and lacking in confidence owing to the lack of faith placed in him by his coach? He certainly seems to have gone backwards in his playing abilities.

Hmmmm the alternative is to concede that McDermott was right all along....and you can hardly expect me to admit that now can you?

I agree. I actually laughed out loud

What is your agenda with Hall? You slated him after the London game when he was immense. I pointed out before the stats were published that you would shown wrong and you were. Hall was unusually poor under the high ball Friday but in every other respect he was a tower. When the stats are published I suspect they will show, again, he was one of our best metre makers. He was a real threat.

For you to say that Hall is the most under threat from Duckworth based upon that game convinces me that we watch a different game. BJB was dreadful at the back (and I don't just mean his inexcusable attempt on Lovegrove). On the Briscoe rumours thread Leeds fans have massively overrated Bish and as much as I like him I've no doubt Briscoe will be a big upgrade if it happens. But Briscoe will still the inferior to Hall.

Whilst I am predicting stats, I'll predict 6 carries this week for the BFG.

Mcshane has had plenty of game time this season and hasn't been able to establish himself. He rarely looks comfortable, far too many errors.
Sometimes you have to look at the player and ask whether they are good enough.

I have no agenda with Hall, I think he's an excellent winger, I even stated in the post he is a supremely powerful athlete, I just don't have an unhealthy biase like you, and can see difficiencies aswell as good, as with any player.

You did not show anything wrong from my statement about the London game, in fact you highlighted a lack of knowledge of the game if you felt it was immense, and indeed referred to stats that you normally put down if it doesn't show your argument with the parts of games stats don't show. What you highlighted was the number of metres he made in that game, and indeed you are pointing it out again about Friday, I wouldn't argue with that. Of course, when you are put away in space metres are more easily made from a winger, especially a good one like Hall. You never mentioned how many metres the other backs made at London which were not far off, despite our attack always going left to Hall. You also never mentioned the poor defence and errors from Hall in the London game, just like I suspect you will ignore this week. Hardaker made more metres at Salford than Hall did at London, I missed your immense tagging for that one.

Look at London and look at hull KR, he bombed tries, simple as that. My issue was, as I put after the London game is that he doesn't read a game, not quick enough mentally on the pitch. Loads do not that are out there, and he has other big qualities, but it has bombed quite a number of tries this season because of it. He earned his tag previously of WBW, but now he isn't Super Leagues best this year. I am sure he will get it back though, if that helps, and also sure due to the distinct lack of options he may even get a dream team spot. But for every stat that shows metres, there is also the undenying stat that for the past four years before now he has been in the top two error makes for the club, two of those the top one. I don't know where he is this year, but wouldn't be surprised if he is up there again. To you, because of this unhealthy biase, you would blame those errors on someone else. For the avoidance of doubt, I think Hall is an extremely good winger/player, I don't however think he is matching his previous seasons performances, and don't think that is do with his centre.

You are probably right that I was harsh to say he is the winger under threat, silly even. I was more trying to point out that Duckworth looked the better of the outside backs on Friday.

On the BJB, I can live with that mis-tackle on Lovergrove, thats easily fixed. Him him harder next time and put him in row 7!

What more annoyed we was the ball he got in mid-field, which got me thinking "if only Zak had picked up the ball there".

Ryan Hall 7 tackle busts (lead the team), 215 metres (led the team......again) highest average gain per carry (led the team) clean breaks (led the team)

We watch a different game mate, I'm not sure I can add much more than that.

No we watch the same game. You just have an unhealthy biase, like I said above.

Two Ryan Hall errors resulting in 8 points for Hull KR.

Another Two Ryan Hall errors resulting in two bombed tries for Leeds.

That's a 20 point swing mate, and it doesn't include the two poor passes to team mates who would also have had walk ins.

What were his missed tackles by the way?

Those are the actual things that happened. I don't dispute metres, althought I would point out, he doesn't make them from dummy half, he is put clear by team mates, which as a winger he should be. Compare that to Duckworths on Friday, which were all of his own doing. I also don't dispute tackle busts, which is why I have commented many times, he is a supremely powerful athlete. But why do you ignore what is right in front of your face?

This isn't and never was a bag Ryan Hall, I have made that clear. But ignoring actual events just to continue an unhealthy obsession seems strange.

It ain't necessarily so.
It is commonplace for wingers to come in to DH when the PTB is in their own half.
Making the gain-line is important in one's own half and a scooting winger a) can get there faster, thereby improving metres-made and b) relieves some of the whole-game effort off others.
Hall is a persistently willing undertaker of that duty and, not only that, attracts multiple defenders doing it and often gains a couple of further metres via strength and leg drive.

As a winger, his bigger metres come off passes to him but we should not say he doesn't make any from DH.