Hopefully we can continue our winning ways at this game, a long way to go but we looked sharp in the second half v Wakefield. Hopefully Handley will be OK.

Myler; Fusitua Newman MacDonald Handley/Olpherts; Austin Sezer; Holroyd O’Connor Tetevano; Bentley Martin; Smith.

Johnson Lisone Sangare Gannon/McDonnell/Walters/Donaldson

Olpherts/Handley

Castleford copped a few injuries tonight with Sutcliffe going off with HIA and Westerman getting an injury which should mean they miss the game.

On the past two games of form we should really take it to them. Cas really were awful tonight. Looked completely disinterested. But I'm sure they'll turn up against us.

Cas look even worse than Wakey. They're horrendous. (Famous last words!)

Sounds like Handley will be out a few weeks

There are some big upsets in the Cas camp at the minute. Personnel are leaving like rats on a sinking ship.

I'm not sure how I'm taking tonights Leeds game. I'll review the footage and first, but I wasn't overly impressed. We failed to look dangerous in the first half, Wakey got plenty of opportunity to put points past us, but also failed to finish.

We only appeared to take control on the second half after Wakey seccumbed to fatigue.

Maybe I missed a few things whilst trying to keep my eyeballs from freezing though.

Nilling any SL team is massive.‘defence on song which is pleasing. Fatigue comes from pressure.

Whilst I would normally agree, we are talking about a team with the worse attack in the league by a long shot and one who haven't found the tryline for three weeks now. And they looked more dangerous than us for a long period of the game. If that was any other team we would have gone into half time a couple of scores down and nothing to show for it.

Admittedly, we defended the line well. We held up players a couple of times and prevented what should have been a couple of tries without losing composure.

We did look weak in attack though. Up until Trinity fell apart and we started to put some good plays together. I know it was far from ideal conditions to play flowing rugby, and the players were suffering from the sub-zero temperature. And that goes for both teams.

I just can't help feeling somewhat uninspired by the Leeds performance. I know we would have likely lost the game to any team that actually knows how to score.

The performance did remind me a little of the circa 2011 (?) team how for most of the season would look terrible for the first half, but then pull a win out of the bag with a flurry of scores in the last 20 purely on fitness. Maybe it just looked similar under the circumstances with Trinity, but I hope we are returning to be the fittest team in the League again.

It was a poor first half, but teams get fatigued for a reason. Think the game plan revolves around moving the ball wider and earlier than the most teams and although mistakes are inevitably made it does tire the opposing middles. When we are bit more direct in the second half we start to find the gaps. One things for sure, that is a game we might well of lost in the Agar era.

Yes, this definitely appears to be the game plan - keep the ball moving to keep the opposition running. Leeds have already shown moments of brilliance by doing this in the past few weeks, and I can't wait to see it in full flow when summer improves the conditions and players have honed their ball handling.

I get a nagging feeling that our light weight forwards have forced this style of play though. I like to see a couple of old school wrecking-ball forwards that need several defenders to stop. Leeds have always been a bit lightweight for me, but the current team of forwards just look small compared to other packs, even with a couple of heavy additions such as Sangare and Lisone.

absolute tosh
weird that youre going so far out of your way to be negative tbh

Light weight forwards?

Our pack this year is one of the biggest weve had in years. Not the biggest in thr League but I wouldn’t call it lightweight and we have oledski to come back in

Yeah, odd comment about the forwards

But they could be called lightweight against other packs then? They need to eat more pies.

Leeds have carried a lightweight pack for years, and I like BIG stout forwards. That's all I'm saying. We have had a tenancy to get bullied in the middle by bigger forwards, thus the need to play the current free-flowing passing game - it suits lighter and more mobile forwards and punishes the heavier ones.

Lisone, Sangare and Olefski not big?

Bar the opening game we haven’t been bullied at all.

We are by no means lightweight anymore. I'm sure you'll point to the Wire defeat but worthing bearing in mind: No Oledski, Holroyd playing his first competitive SL game for more than a year, Lisone clearly not match fit, and Walters not selected. Donaldson on the bench may quickly become a thing of the past. Smith clearly values big middle forwards, but doesn't make them his plan A. Personally I applaud that.

The 'heavy additions' i name dropped in my original post? I think Sangare is about a stone heavier than the next biggest, and I welcome their addition. They bring bulk and skill to our roster.

Saints tried to bully us in the middle, we were getting knocked back a lot against Hull FC. But we have recruited size, as I noted, as well as played a game plan which keeps the ball away from the middle of the park.

Take out Lisone, Sangare, Oledzki, and Walters, and you are left with 15 or 16 stone forwards in reserves.

We have some class players, and some strong guys, I just like to be the team that is bigger than the rest and intimidate the opposition through size. I'm also aware that Rohan gets paid to sit on the coaches bench, whilst I have to pay to stand on the terrace.

We were absolutely dire for 50 minutes and were lucky that Wakefield are awful. We would have been a few scores behind against any other side (not seen Cas play).

I personally thought we reverted back to the one up stuff yesterday rather than throw it around like at Saints (likely due to the weather). We never do well when we go one up.

I still hate this sitting back defence. It gifts the opposition 60m each set and pretty much always gives the opposition at least one attacking play at our line. Yes, the goal line defence was ok but I would prefer it if we didn't allow teams to get into that position to test our goal line defence out.

With a fit Newman and McDonald plus Fuzzy and Handley when he returns, we finally have a back line that once again that will threaten our opposition and make them worry.

Plus with Bentley and Newman our team have two very effervescent players that will wind up other teams and hopefully inspire ours.

I was at the game, saints didn’t in my opinion bully us, I would say that physically we matched them fairly easily. Taking out lisone, sangare, oledzki and Walters is like saying taking out walmsley, Lees, Paasi and LMS and wondering what happens.
Or take out Vaughan, Harrison, Kasiano and Bullock and see what happens. Of course the pack looks smaller if you do that? We can’t run a squad with 8 huge props, no squad can.
I would say the difference with Leeds and maybe saints would be the size of the back row but that comes down to how you want to play.

'Take out 4 of your 6 props' Well yeah, no sh it! Holroyds not a small thing though either with bags of improvement.

Myler
Fusitua
Newman
Macdonald
Olpherts

Austin
Sezer

Holroyd
O’Connor
Tetevano
Bentley
Martin
Smith

Walters
Lisone
Sangare
McDonnell

Pretty much picks itself

Laugh all you want, but the front row players average 16 stone, the second rowers average 15.5 stone, and the back rowers average 15.3 stone. That's including the big guys, and can be found on the bio pages.

I don't know what is wrong with liking bigger forwards. Don't forget there are players out there, such as Kasiano, who has a 3 or 4 stone advantage on the likes of Tetevano, Bentley, Martin, Donaldson and Smith.

I think youll find the average of the 6 props is over 17st (110kg). What's the relevance of kasiano being compared to Smith Martin Bentley and Donaldson?

Sure. Take Sangare out and it drops to 16.5 stone. But do notice I said front row and not prop.



Just making a point that our 15 and 16 stone forwards might struggle against those that are well over 19 stone. We have one player anywhere near that weight.

I'm not really sure why my opinion is being scrutinised so much. Stats show we have a lightweight pack compared to others, Smith has recruited two heavier props for a reason, and I have a fetish for heavy forwards. I'm not criticising Smith, or by extension the club, for going for a more mobile pack and I've even stated that I'm not under the pretense that I know more than Rohan. It's just my musings and my opinion. YMMV, and that's what makes life interesting.