The man and the legend.

I'll have a cheeky punt on Leeds laying on in the tackle please.

just getting psyched up for the game mate

Whose initial thoughts on this thread most closely resembled the real world?

still not seen anything that will compete with wigan this year , although i await this to come n bite my buttocks in october

IT's not like they couldnt beat our defence last week is it?



not even the champions could beat em! Oh hold on

I remember saints been the best rugby team ever in 08! Until we handed them their ar$es!!!!! Again

Correct!

Full house!




Isn't it amazing how we aren't as good as "insert team name" after we've just beat that posters own team?

Yes. That year, it was the rain's fault.

Nearly right, just the one that I spotted to Buderus for his deciding try!!



Actually I thought you just about deserved it as you made slightly less mistakes than we did, but not by much!

I do reckon that had conditions been the same as the start of the game, a dry, fast track that we would really have been up against it yet again against Wakefield who really do want to get one over on us every time we play them.

Wakefield were poor though. Just played basic rugby and aimed to keep things tight.

I think you are right in your first sentence though. This Leeds team are still not yet hitting their strides, when will it come?

We were poor in victory at Bradford, and poor with ball in hand against Wigan in victory. Victories should not mask substandard performances, although defensively against Wigan we were at our best.

I said on the Buderus thread, rain or not, had he not come back on that pitch on Friday, or even waited longer to bring him on, we would have lost that match. We were poor again.

We certainly were not at our best but how do you know the win was all down to Buderus?, he played very well and did his part but who's to say we would not have won by more if he had not come back on, The player who stood out for me was Peacock who's form is increasing by the game.

A simple answer to that would have been just to keep eyes open.

We were on the back foot and poor. It was crying out for him to come on. Most fans around the Carnegie stand were shouting out for it. Most knew it was what we needed. We needed a player who could take us forward and speed it up, not slow it down further which is the position we were in, a point even picked up by McClennan just in the wrong context.

But forget the Buderus issue. We were poor anyway as a team. That was a poor Wakefield outfit, and we struggled to beat it. That's about the only thing I took out of Friday. And that following too many poor performances.

And yes by the way, Peacock did have an extremely good game himself.

Give it a rest




It was a poor game with lots of errors, I think the rains had a big part to play in it myself.

Yes, because we have an history of struggling in rain don't we.

Thats not the point. In the rain we have the players to adapt and grind out a win, as we did in 2008 GF, and as we did in the Wakey match.

there will always be errors, we just made fewer, and in the right areas of the pitch

Are you denying that heavy rain can cause lots of mistakes thus producing a poor game? I said earlier that I didn't think we played particularly well and I'm not blaming the weather but poor weather can add to a poor game.

What's wrong with you this morning, did you get out of the wrong side of the bed, chill out, It's Monday morning, I don't want an argument love.

I am not denying heavy rain can cause mistakes, you are perfectly correct on that. But it wasn't raining the whole game, there were plenty of times in that game with no rain. And our worst period came at a time when the rain had not even started.

I was speaking out of frustration, fully accepted, which is on the back of a series of poor displays, not just the one.

In an ideal world we would play to our potential every game but if one thing gives me hope it's what's happened the past 3 years.

During all of those GF winning years we have had some terrible performances and results but have come back and peaked at the right time.

I don't think we have been as poor as we have this year but we are slowly improving and have only lost once in eleven games now, despite our poor form I would guess that without the injuries we would have won a few more games and possibly be 3rd in the league.

If we manage to make the GF this year it will be all that sweeter, but even if we don't as disappointed as I would be it would be harsh to take anything away from a squad that has made 5 out the 6 last finals and won 4.

I don't dissagree with any of that.

But for me it highlights even more about the future, and what will happen next season without any changes, and even more so the season after that.

I know for us fans it is about the here and now and whether we have success to show at seasons end, but the club need to plan strategically for the future, at least I sincerely hope they are. A GF win this season like you say will be all the more sweeter, but it shouldn't mask what could potentially be a huge problem next year.

I would rather plan for more success than wait until the inevitable hits us and get desperate.

I hope I don't go Dizzy here but I agree with all of that, I just wonder why you are so concerned? what makes you worry about the next generation?

I'm not saying everything is perfect but GH has done quite well in retention and recruitment over the past 10 years, and in Pitt's, Ambler, Watkins, McShane, BJB, Bush etc I can see that he's not given up just yet.

I would guess that whilst those players look good the boots of McGuire, Burrow, Sinfield, Peacock, Senior will take some filling.

My honest opinion, and I will get shot down, and to be honest I can sort of understand the club, is that sentimality plays a big part in the decisions, as we see from the fans.

We have to remember that we went a long long long time without success, never mind sustained dominant success. For that most of this squad of players will go down in history, and rightly so.

But I do feel there is a desire not to lose that, out of sentimality to those, sort of a reward. I feel that rather than plan for succession, as I said earlier the inevitable will hit us, and then we will be forced to do it. But by that time we could be behind the game again, and paying a catch up.

I am very much in the camp of strengthening from a position of strength, rather than weakness. And that does not necessarily mean recruiting from outside. Although I have my fears as expressed many times previously about the back up coaching at this club with regards academy lads.

I am very much old school in that I feel if a player is good enough he is old enough. But in order to keep on to our current successful crop I have the opinion that too many potential stars have been lost or held back in order for the current crop to see through a longer career.