Sinfield's D has always been the achilles heel. I thought he was a little more solid last night than he has been at first grade, but I've not watched it through again.

He's decent ball in hand and good kicking game too, but whether he'll make it or not it hard to say. There are a couple more halves coming through who might give him some competition in a couple of years.

We can have some confidence in the future, in that we have two young back rowers at least that I'm confident will make first grade, probably a couple of props also. The pack looks decent, rolled forward another year or two (I think we need 2 bridging signings of real quality here to plug the gap, as I've said before).

Halves, well I guess we just need one of Sinfield, Brown, Smith, F McCormack, White to come through to partner Croft.

Outside backs, we probably have less obvious talent in the juniors although a couple of prospects, but I do rate both Simpson and Smith, and we've already seen the potential Lumb has. I've not been happy with Newman and Momirovski this year overall.

A really good prop, a really good second row, and possibly a new 7 or centre and I think we're back at the races ish, with good prospects coming through in most positions for next year and beyond.

Arthur mentioned earning the right to play in his intervie as well as holding each other to account. Words that never crossed Smiths lips and gives him the upper hand within his first five minutes of being here.

Slightly surprised at no Frawley as he seems to be getting ever-so-slightly better week on week but Sinfield did well enough. Cam Smith is not playing well, taken a knock physically or mentally maybe or doing to much in defense ?. Like to see Frawley given a go at loose forward.
All very well wingers coming in to help out, but one set we only saw one forward Carry, and that was Cam smith. Our forwards are losing the energy battle and we loose the go forward, the backs come in too much and have no energy in attack. Tired people make mistakes, are Leeds simply not fit enough?

I don't know if Cam Smith just needs to bulk up a little and move more into the middle like his older brother. He can pass the ball but his pass selection is often poor - the amount of "hospital passes" he throws... some of our bigger boys get criticised on here for lack of metres but when you're given the ball with three opposition defenders straight on you what do you expect?

If ever there was a damning enditement of RS recruitment policy it's Matt Frawley. Chev said he dropped him last night so he could reset himself ahead of the new coach coming in.... goodness me. He's taking a quota spot too... can see him gone at season end.

Thought Eseh Jr was poor last night, Sangare would have been given the round of the kitchen for a similar performance

22 metres of 4 carries.

True, although what an utterly terrible decision to start him. Unbelievably unfair on such a young loan player, who was clearly trying way too hard and came up with a lot of errors.

Almost as strange as having McCormarck and Sinfield defending together against Rodrick Tai.

Agree on Eseh, he will be disappointed with that. He's very young and needs to learn when to play a bit and when just to knuckle down. He did make a couple of important tackles though, one of which saved a try.

Did you manage to get to the game live in the end Chris?

Yes last minute decision to go - to be fair I actually enjoyed the game even though it was frustrating

I was shaking my head and looking to the heavens all the time, but I thought at half time we would either get completely pasted, or come back into it strongly... was good to see some fight and some decent shape on the edges at times.

These tries we're conceding just on half time are doing my bonce in. Our go-forward down the middle was poor, Vaughan bossed us for one. Errors again. Sloppy execution in passing, tackling, kick pressure. McDonnell was good again. I'm not sure what Goudemand adds - would have selected TNW or Littlewood above him. Fus looks knackered. Mom was poor other than his well-taken try. On the plus side plenty of spirit shown, some nice attacking play at times, and we didn't take the opportunity to fall down the well.

Couldn't watch the game last night, is it worth bothering with the replay? I've seen the Arthur interviews.

Id say so yes, was a real up and down performance but after fearing the worst from the first 10 minutes they actually dug in

I did enjoy Lisone putting Vaughn on his backside though

Dunno mate, it was a performance that pretty much represented how Leeds have been this year. Frustrating. We coughed it up on the second drive out of yardage of the game. We coughed it up again first drive out of yardage in the second half. I just don't see other sides making the mistakes we do. There were a couple of highlights though.

If BA changes one thing quickly, for me I want to see our big lads given the job of trucking the ball out of yardage especially when the opposition is fresh. Let Handley or Fus take the odd carry, but it should be Mik, Lisone, Smith, quick PTB and get into them. I'm so sick of seeing our backs get smashed for four or five carries and then a rubbish kick from deep while we're under pressure.

Was clearly knocked out of Martins hand by the Warrington player, in his defence. Same with the clear strip on Fusitua later on in the game by Powell,when he was making a yardage carry
Yes we make far too many mistakes, but both of those incidents should have been relieving penalties

I'm generally not in favour of using the video ref more than we already do, but the ball steal knock on calls really are a lottery most of the time.

So you want the forwards to be constantly taking the ball in, no matter where they are on the pitch? Then having to rush back as quick as possible to take the ball in out of yardage? While the wingers and centres, just wait for the attacking plays in good ball.

Theres a reason why every team in super league, and probably in the lower leagues too, use the backs to take the ball out of yardage.

They wont be any quick play of the balls from the forwards if they are knackerd.

Agree with Jim about props driving off our line.
I think the 2 other changes he could work on fast are stopping teams marching 70 metres per set and weak defence at marker

That's a very over-simplified version of what I meant isn't it? Do you think our current method has been working all season? What would be your suggestion to improve our yardage?

The backs need to run with aggression and not from a standing start. Theres only really Handley and potentialy Miller, that do that at the moment from the backs. Handleys also good at finding his front and getting up quickly. Fus can make the yards but takes an age to get off the floor.

Isn't that what the forwards are for - the clue is in the name. Otherwise what are they there for - just tackling? Their job is to get the teams moving forwards the wingers and centres are there to defend out wide but more importantly contribute to the attacking structure of the team. Against London you had props with < 6 carries in a game.

They have been trying all year mate and largely getting smashed. Either we need different players who can do that kind of job, or we need to change approach - that is my point. Just "running harder" isn't going to change anything is it?

Business as per normal, forwards don’t want to do the hard graft so we lose field position all night. We then have a purple patch in which we look like a decent team. Tompkins and Wilkins after match comments pointed out quite correctly that Arthur may well improve the defence for the rest of the season. However long term as it’s a weak pack they will soon revert back to the normal passive mode. Croft seemed animated last night ,may be a smart move to make him captain. Think we are missing Bentley. Unfortunately I don’t think this is a quick fix situation. Depressingly this has the potential for a two or three season turnaround. That’s assuming we can acquire the right players and jettison the dead wood. Unless things change dramatically ,Wigan look to be a country mile ahead of everybody, not good for the game in general.