Dismissed some Top 8 whipping boys



Hope the Messiah Smith is working on his CV.

Thing is... I didnt even think we were that good tonight. First half was a bit lethargic.

Happy days.

Here's the bad news.... Aiton has a suspected broken arm - out for 6 - 8 week.

Well, what a joy that was to watch


Some outstanding individual performances from Hardaker, Watkins, Cuthbertson, Garbutt, and Aiton. I also thought Sinfield was terrific also.

I thought we were good. The two tries we conceded were only tries because Wire have the fastest player in the league on their wing. Any other player our cover would have stopped them short.

Hardaker obviously MoM (though he should have passed for his disallowed try). Peacock, Cuthbertson excellent and Garbutt too. Sinfield was very good, which we needed because McGuire was off his game.

Nice to see McDermott going back into the old Bulls playbook for the old Lowes/Fielden/Paul inside-outside breaking up the middle at the play-the-ball. Good to be on the right side of that after all these years.

Wire were terrible except for Ratchford who saved them from shipping 80 and also did really well for their second try.

Garbutt was very strong I thought.seemed to make a lot of tackles (some of them bruisers) and some strong runs

Ratchford looked good because he was involved a lot defensively. He was pretty awful for Hardaker's first both in angle and contact, and didn't cover himself in glory for his second either.

Ratchford? He was very poor for a few of our tries that Hardaker on the other hand would've stopped easily. I like Ratchford but a FB he ain't. In fact what is his best position as The Messiah has bumped around one of his best players for a few years now.....FB? Centre? HB? Loose? Will probably play all 4 positions in the next four weeks going on previous evidence.

And yet Ratchford is getting a proper coating on the wire board ,

He's another victim of Tony Smith's tinkering IMO, much like Chris Bridge. Ratchford is a half-back, who fell foul of the fad for moving halves to play at full-back and has found every other Tom, Dick and Harry getting a shot at 6 ahead of him. I'd pair him with Sandow in the halves next year, tell him the shirt is his and let him play.

I agree Hardaker did him a couple of times. He also stopped I think 5? Including a couple of very good one-on-ones vs Watkins where you'd have backed Kallum. And he didn't hide. You'd probably take 5 out of 7 as a ratio for full-backs stopping clean breaks, but you'd look at the defence in front of him for allowing so many chances in the first place.

He's a good player, Ratchford. I'm not saying he's up to Hardaker's standard but he was Wire's best on the night imo despite getting done a couple of times.

Yet McGuire still managed to get the MOM (not from Sky obviously, the in house one)

Really? That's bizarre.

Can only recall Ratchford stopping one really when Warkins eventually scored after his initial break was stopped. That was frustrating that Watkins didn't really put his foot down and back himself (and he did similar in the second half when he could've gone for it). He also did the same vs Saints away when he didn't put his foot down for the corner when he could've made it.....it did go unnoticed though because Sutcliffe then kicked to the corner for Handley to score.

Kallum, you get a chance, pin your ears back.

Aiton was superb until his injury, set the tone

Well the announcement over the tannoy just as Leeds were preparing to drop out gave it to Hardaker.

The announcement over the tannoy said Number 6 Danny McGuire

It said Hardaker as MOM

Heard it on sky Hardaker announced just before he dropped out

did McGuire get taken off then? (I don't recall him being taken off, there was definitely a 6 Danny McGuire close to the end.

That was as good as we have been for a long long time. We need to do the same to wigan next week although aiton will be hard to repalce as hes been at the heart of our front foot play

Yeah subbed him off with several minutes to go....for Ablett such was our ease.

Have to agree....no doubt he is a class act, but the way he stops is bizarre !!!!

Wires crossed then, apologies, I was starting to worry myself then.

Most pleasing for me this evening was watching Garbutt run the ball in, left nothing to the imagination and looked like he put his all into every run, brilliant.

Also I hope the kids okay from half time, sad to see.

What happened at half time ? Injury to to one of the kids playing ?