Should Leeds be worried about having to face the 5th placed team next week?

Wait, wait.....But you said todays game was meaningless and that leeds are better playing week in week out.

Now they have lost and they have the opportunity to do that.

and no, they shouldn't be worried. If they don't have the mental fortitude or the ability to dust themselves off and bounce back they aint good enough to be champions this year.

all this 5th is best is absolute bollox.
simple fact is leeds were too good for the rest. they would have won it from 4th those two years

Leeds are better off playing each week rather than having a week off... IMO of course.

However... is a team better off finishing 5th, then a play-off game at home against whipping boy SL rabble like Hull, Wakefield or Hull KR, followed by an away trip to a Top 4 team who got beaten up by a Top 2 team the week before?

In other words, would Leeds have been better off finishing 5th again?

Hope you're right.

Even Huddersfield can win play-off's after finishing 5th.

It's the only time they have.


Hmmmm...

Take it you've a few quid on saints then? Put yer money where yer mouth is n'all that

No.

The 5th place team get's a good win 'on paper' against 'rabble' but that doesn't mean they'll have the required intensity to beat the team who will have had a high intesnity dusting down against a much much better team than 8th place.

It comes down to whether they are good enough and have the gears, not the finishing position.

Saints are good enough, so it promises to be a doozy next week.

I might be interested in what their odds are for the game next week.

What do you reckon to leeds prospects after today?

One things for sure, they have almost never done it the easy way.

Less than what they have been in the past couple of seasons when they finished 5th.


Finishing 5th the last two seasons provided Leeds with two games against whipping boy SL rabble before the play-off's begin for real.

Finishing 3rd means that Leeds have been beaten up in Week 1 by a Top 2 team and now face a tricky game next week at home to Saints, and that's before the play-off's even begin for real.

Not like you to make up the rules as you go along. Will Saints win the gf this year? It's a simple yes/no answer!

You can say whipping boy rabble..... or you could say

Wakefield went into the playoffs winning 8 games on the run, with nothing to lose having already beaten leeds that season, whereas leeds went in on the back of a shellacking by hudds in the final game.

They then had to go to catalans, a team with a formidable home record. Going to france to face them in the heat of playoff rugby is no mean feat.

It all depends what perspective you want to put on it to serve your opinion.

Think BMD has some tough decisions for next week. If Delaney isn't fit, he shouldn't play. We would have been better with Sinny at LF and Sutty at SO for a good part of that game.

For saints:

Hardaker
BJB
Watkins
Moon
Hall
McGuire
Burrow
Leuluai
Sinfield
Peacock
JJB
Ablett
Sutcliffe

Bailey
Singleton
Kirke
Achurch

What perspective would you like to put on tonights events WE?

Saints, seemingley a juggernaught, in awesome form, taking hull kr apart, will now go to leeds full of momentum and form against a leeds team battered, wounded, bruised, short of confidence. Saints will surely be unstoppable?

Or

Little more than a glorified training run against a mediocre mid table team, playing soft, that will serve as nothing more than a feel good factor in the week. Will do little to prepare them for a blund and thunder high intensity playoff game at the home of the champions, who have been battled hardened with consecutive games against teams now in the top half of the playoff draw.

He'll probably let you know next Saturday & claim he knew all along. We are all mere ts after all

Whipping boy SL rabble! Unless you're intent on polishing turds?


Leeds have ended up facing a tougher proposition in Week 2 of the play-offs as a result of finishing 3rd than they ever did when finishing 5th. It is to be hoped the consequences of finishing 3rd doesn't end up biting Leeds on the @rse.

If they had finished 5th this year, they'd have beaten a p*ss poor hull kr then they'd be (probably) be playing saints away. Are you saying that's better? To play saints away intead of home?

It has been the case for Leeds during the Regular Season in 2013.

Come to think of it when was the last time Leeds beat St Helens in any game at Headingley? Hasn't happened yet under this coach.

in 2010 was the last time. It's a non starter, a home game will always be preferable to away from home. Just because we've lost this fixture the last 3 times.

Skybet

4-11 Leeds
2-1Saints
20-1 Draw

To win GF (best prices)

Warrington 13-8
Wigan 5-2
Leeds 11-2
Hudds 8-1
Saints 12-1

Think its time for me to step in and take a piece of that 11/2 and take the bookies to the cleaners for a third season in a row.will they ever learn?

Considering Leeds have recently won it twice from 5th, surely it's a doddle winning it from 3rd?

If only that was the case. If we win it this year I may even start attending church again on Sundays .

I'm a Wire fan, but even I admit that 11/2 for your lot looks extremely tempting..... Saying that, 8/1 for a team who topped the regular season looks generous too.

I don't honestly see a team from outside the top 4 winning it this time, mainly because neither Saints or Hull have anywhere near the quality that the Rhinos have had in their squad over the last few years.