In our past two meetings with Leeds we have been blown out of sight within the first 20 minutes. We've got a few lads back now in Greenwood & Vea. Masoe, Roby and Walmsley are playing dominantly and we actually have a fullback...Walsh & Burns looked good together against KR.

I really believe we can do a job on them on Friday. The lads on the flanks are gonna have to play out of their skin mind.

Apart from Makinson, Wilkin and about 23 career ending injuries to fullbacks, do we have any other injuries?

Interesting isn't it. It's definitely for me the barometer of us as a team currently. Another hammering and it's not looking good for us, a win and the double suddenly becomes a real possibility.

I'd just want us to score first. Please. For the love of god.

Big defence is needed in the first quarter, we need to stop the offloads from Leeds , they have almost twice the amount of offloads than any other club in super league. Our pack is good enough, Walsh and Burns should be kicking them to death so they have to do a lot of work running the ball out.
Saints like playing at the Halliwell Stadium, Leeds are not as comfortable there. Its a knock out game, league form goes out of the window, every player knows 80 mins commitment gets you to a wembley cup final, my gut instinct tells me Mose will have a big impact on this game.

I think that your pack will be far too strong for Leeds on the night.
You can't ignore the fact that Leeds have a decent set of backs but I can't see them getting enough quality ball to enable them to use their pace out wide.

To be fair we hoped that would be the case in the previous 2 games against them but they've got a belting pack themselves and they offload at will. Like Judderman says, we need to wrap them up good and proper in the tackle.

Don't know we're the myth that Leeds have got a weak pack as come from.

Close game this al previous results out the window, could go either way. Leeds to edge it.

Leeds are rightly favourites, we have been unable to contain them so far this season. They could make a real mess out of our edge defence with the constant offloading but I'd like to think we will improve on our SL performances against them. Looking forward to it, something not right about it being on Friday night though.

I fancy Leeds, but a lot will depend on the ref. With your bigger support the ref needs to be strong when Kyle Amor and LMS fall down under the invisible man at the play the ball. He also needs to get a grip of that dirty get Greenwood, he cheats far too much for someone so young, Cunningham should be ashamed. It's gonna be a cracker, let's just hope it's not decided by the officials, or Saints 14th man as everyone has started calling them.

Hasn't the Leeds coach got enough to do without coming on here having a rant about refs? Get back to work Mc

And let the sledging begin.

Ironic from the team who has been penalised least and awarded the most penalties so far this season don't you think?

Nice one

We play the game the right way, that's why. Kyle Amor wasn't throwing himself on the floor at the play the ball when he was at Leeds and Wakey, why does he go to Saints and suddenly become the weakest man in Superleague ?

We have a special skill 7 fullbacks in one year takes huge amounts of preparation

Leeds have have had a few players return from injury since the last game and we have added Mitch Garbutt.
Think it will be a close one .

Friday game is bizarre tho, will seriously effect the crowd and atmosphere which is a shame.

Another tonking would be a disaster for me. Not only would it leave us out of the cup, but there's a very real chance we're going to end up with a Saints - Leeds GF again this year and another runners up medal to them would be a bitter pill to swallow.

I can't see a tonking from either team to be honest, the two regular season games will count for nothing on friday, it's a 50/50 for mine just hope it's a good game.

Saints' 17 will come from:

3. Jordan Turner, 4. Josh Jones, 5. Adam Swift, 6. Travis Burns, 7. Luke Walsh, 8. Mose Masoe, 9. James Roby, 10. Kyle Amor, 11. Atelea Vea, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 14. Alex Walmsley, 15. Mark Flanagan, 17. Mark Percival, 18. Luke Thompson, 19. Greg Richards, 21. Joe Greenwood, 22. Matty Dawson, 25. Andre Savelio, 37. Adam Quinlan.

Brian McDermott will choose his Leeds side from:

1. Zak Hardaker, 2. Tom Briscoe, 3. Kallum Watkins, 4. Joel Moon, 5. Ryan Hall, 6. Danny McGuire, 7. Rob Burrow, 8. Kylie Leuluai, 9. Paul Aiton, 10. Jamie Peacock, 11. Jamie Jones-Buchanan, 12. Carl Ablett, 13. Kevin Sinfield, 15. Brett Delaney, 17. Adam Cuthbertson, 19. Brad Singleton, 20. Jimmy Keinhorst, 27. Ash Handley, 30. Mitch Garbutt.

1 Quinlan
2 Dawson
3 Percival
4 Turner
5 Swift
6 Burns
7 Walsh
8 Walmsley
9 Roby
10 Amor
11 Greenwood
12 Vea
13 LMS

14 Masoe
15 Savelio
16 Jones
17 Flanagan

Richards hasn't performed particularly well against the top teams so far this year, and I think we only need 4 props. Keeping Richards out means the likes of Masoe, Walmsley and Amor will be on the field for more of the game. As much as I rate Thompson, I think he hasn't progressed as much as hoped this season. It's understandable, he is only 20 after all, but Flash is the right option for this match IMO. Thompson has played once in the last 7 weeks, and it showed against Hull KR. Flash is a bit more mobile which will help with Leeds offloading game, and he also misses dramatically less tackles - one every 16 tackles compared to one every 9 tackles with Thompson.

I'd say Leeds are slight favourites, but I can't see it being as easy for them as the previous 2 fixtures.

You should start one of Jones or Flash, that way you've got someone fitter to do the running around in defence from the off.

Fair point, possibly start Jones and have LMS on the bench. However, given how badly we've started the last two games against Leeds, I think it might be worth having our strongest possible team starting. After the first 20 minutes it's been 18-0 in both matches. If we have our strongest team to ride out that opening 20, we can keep with them for the rest of the game.

I would start Jones, he's one of our form players at the moment playing with a new lease of life now he's settled his future. Walsh and Burns need to tighten up there defence in the first quarter to stop Leeds passing out wide early doors. Its a cup game, which tells me this could be a tight, tactical game in the first half, we need to keep our errors and penalty concedes to a minimum.

Far too strong is disrespectful. I don't know how you get to that opinion tbh, we have 5 quality props with a couple of handy back rowers.

It going to be a ding dong battle and Saints' pack may well get the edge this time around, but I really cannot see it as badly as you've put it.

This year we have a front row that can compete with any other team's in the superleague.

Some people reinterpret that to - We have a front row that will dominate the opposition of any other team.

"Compete with" and "dominate" are not the same thing.

All I ask is that we are not 18 points down after quarter of an hour!!

Leeds will no doubt go hard and fast in the first 20 mins, if we can stick with them early on, I will be pretty confident that we will go on to win.

Early good start for saints and it will be an arm wrestle of a game. I predict lots of 2 point penalties been scored