Seriously wonder how motivated they will be next season if they don't have the "were not in super league" chip on their shoulder? It was a great effort by Leigh but just lacked in game awareness at times.

Yes but with full time training for the entire team their structures and organisation will be ten times better..

Agreed, Leeds did well to keep them scoreless in the second half. Which I don't think many if any other SL teams would have.

Totally agree. They were tremendous and came so very close to winning, but for an error or two near their own line. I think a couple of their players will be kicking themselves tonight! I just hope the loss doesn't knock them off their league stride as they have been doing very well. Shame they had to lose Armstrong to injury as he had been having a great game.

Well done Leigh. Deserved to win, pity they didn't. Played better than half the Superleague teams do and gave those of us in our cosy living rooms some terrific entertainment.

Are you on summat fella?

The Smoggies show just why, perhaps, London should have been discarded at Christmas time, a bit of squeaky-bum time for the Loiners!

You were saying?

Don't rattle the cage Starbug, a period of silence from our dear friend is most welcome and a nice bonus on top of everything else!

I thought it would be a big Leeds win. I thought that because I didn't think Leigh would play as well as they did, and I didn't think Leeds would play as badly as they did.

By saying Leeds played poorly I'm not disrespecting Leigh in any way as part of the reason Leeds were poor was due to Leigh, but it's still a fact that Leeds were poor for most of that game.

There's a few players to come out of that game with some credit, in my opinion:
Hardaker, Hall, Leuluai & Peacock (just), Delaney & both R & S Ward.
Oh and every single Leigh player.

The rest were average to poor in my opinion.

My biggest annoyance is with Kirke & Bailey. I know they're often the centre of fans ire on the Leeds board at the moment and it can be easy to fall into the trap of making them scapegoats, but tonight was a chance to step up and at least show some willing yet I reckon we only got 1 decent run from each of them and Bailey in particular is becoming a liability in defence, especially at marker.
They are 2 senior props now. They need to be stepping up and taking workload off Peacock & Leuluai, especially during periods of the game when it seems like the 2 proper props aren't being quite as effective or making quite the same impact as usual.

I'm not one who likes throwing the young lads in early, but if we're going to have a prop who makes few effective runs and gets stepped around in defence I'd rather it be a young lad learning the game than a senior player who should be doing more.

My most irritating annoyance (other than that rash I got off a very welcoming lady in Amsterdam) is how many kicks we have charged down. Good god Sinfield just stand a few yards further back!

I think we were a little unlucky in the game itself. Our errors came at vital moments just as we were starting to build pressure and I thought we were on the wrong side of some refereeing calls.


But that's not to take anything away from Leigh, they played better than a few SL sides have at Headingley this year, they were superb.

Wow!! I've never known any club having a chip on their shoulder for NOT being in Super League!

It does get mentioned a lot and seemed to be the big motivation last night.

Don't get me wrong - it's a one off. Obviously they couldn't repeat that week in week out in SL with that squad but there's a few experts licking their wounds on here today.

Yeah i hold my hands up i thought leeds would pull away a lot more in the 2nd half, but i was cheering for Leigh like most people. You was very close to winning it but for the Sinfield strip and the ball not bouncing up for the winger. well you will certainly have a bigger squad and maybe some more experience but i really like how they have signed players who fell just short of super league at a young age but looked to have developed them and see how they are when there matured, players like Tom Spencer, Sarsfield and Tom armstrong.

I think Leigh will be like Widnes (this season) in Super league, seem to be well coached and have a balanced team that is settled and can play some good rugby.

Johnkendal wrote:
Yep you don't go 16 unbeaten for no reason, if Whinos are not on the ball they could get turned over. Leigh have been playing really well




Apology accepted





Watched last night well done Leigh, have always rated Rowley.

Little rich is a fax fan but he knows it's only time.........

If they were even one or two times better they'd have won, never mind ten. Fantastic to be so close to the full time professional top level of SL whilst part time. Frightening. I would not have wanted that QF for Wigan last night! In fact I genuinely think Leigh would have beaten most of SL on last night's performance.

I don't think people appreciate the power if momentum in rugby league enough.

People keep going on about full time vs part time or the comparative wage packets of players meaning slaughtering a on the field. Whilst it is a big advantage to have "better" players, the momentum of the "team" itself has a huge influence. I think the 3x8 middle group may surprise a lot of people because of this. Higher paid team on a horrendous losing slump (London for example) vs a team winning most weeks (and in Leigh's case all weeks prior to yesterday) could very easily be a win for the Championship side.

we were appalling, really really bad. Basic skills were terrible. If we play like that against huddersfield next week they will put 40 points on us.

Crowd was appalling though

brilliant, so we could have 4 clubs lose most of their funding, season ticket sales, sponsorship and need to rebuild every year.

Yes. You could also have none. It's up to them to seal their fate. That's sport.

it isnt 'sport' any more than any other system is 'sport'. Thats a nonsense justification.

Your a Hull FC fan, tell me, would you be expecting Radford to get his team busting a gut to gain 3 points on Les Catalans to qualify for competition you will start 7-10 points and 4 places behind 4th (the last qualification place for a play off barely worthy of the name) with only 14 points on offer, or would he take the next 7/8 games and rest some of the bigger names, take his foot off the gap somewhat just to make sure they are ready for the 7 game comp at the end of the season?

If you were Salford? Wakefield?

Under franchising they would have nothing to lose in going for it. Sport is about winners. I want to see teams trying to win competitions, not just trying not to be one of the 4 worst in an end of season tournament.

And four clubs who can gain extra funding, extra season ticket sales, extra sponsorship and can build further. Let's not forget how many of the current Super League have played in the lower division(s) in the SL era.

Get watching the Lion King, Smokey.

And then the next season see that drop again and have to start all over again.

I think clubs would realise the importance of maintaining momentum, players would want to justify selection, and finishing higher up the table during the regular season often has financial rewards.

What you say could happen in the new system surely applies to the current system also? Nothing to play for at the bottom, clubs resting up for the 4 game end of season play off series at the end.

But it is sport. You play the system. You reap the benefits and suffer the consequences of actions. The contrasting emotions of this are what attract a lot of spectators.

you can't argue that sport is playing the system as a defence of a system, thats just silly.

The season decides the qualification route, i dont think clubs do rest players for the play-offs, Bar Wigan last year, it hasnt been that those who play in the GF have gone in to the play-offs in poor form.

Sport is about winners, this new system isnt about winners, the focus isnt on winning, its on not being the worst. There is a very real possibility a club who wins 5 of 29 games stays in SL at the expense of a club who wins 12 games of theirs. Its a stupid convoluted system which hugely damage the game.