It's the footwork in that Leeds side that stands out for me. Even the big guys like Peacock, Cuthbertson, Garbutt and Singleton can all make it difficult for defenders to get a clean hit, meaning they win the contact and play the ball quickly. Immediately the likes of Aiton and Burrow are on the front foot and they attack defenders around the ruck who aren't quite set and communicating. It's like a boulder rolling downhill, quick play leads to quick play leads to the backs getting good early ball in space. There are very few players in that side who run head down, backside up straight into collision.

It's 2-1 so far this season. Hardly stuffing us every time.

Two words,Adam Cuthbertson.The missing piece of the jigsaw that seems to have sparked a style of play that the whole team has bought into and has allowed our three quarter line, which has been by far the best in the league the last few years, to run riot on the back of it.

If it is true Paul Aiton has broken his arm tonight though, having to go back to Burrow as our 9 for the rest of the year will probably bring us back to the pack as he too has been awesome.

The rest of the title contenders should breathe a big sigh of relief that Aiton has possibly broken his arm. Makes a significant difference to us.

We all love Leeds (Deep down).

As a Saints fan I should really despise Leeds, they've caused so much heartache over recent seasons. However I can't help but love them. Superb players, playing the game the right way, aiming to play the game on the front foot and let their talent come to the fore. Everytime I watch Saints lose to other sides I'm annoyed, blaming the ref, the dirty opposition or our own players for their ineptitude. But with Leeds I'm always pretty calm, admiring their performance and very comfortable with their superiority.

Other clubs have tried to do it different, having the vision to change. But they did it by aiming to mame opposition players with cannonball tackles, a tactic they are still employing to this day. That combined with unnecessary recklessness does nothing for the sport. I'll take Leeds' way of speed, footwork and exploiting the ruck and the width in equal measures any day. It'll set Saints back a few years until we learn to adapt but the sport is in good hands if this is the direction it's headed in.

They had a great game today but its not always like that. It was only a few week back we beat them pretty easy at headingley.

When we had the Sunday-Thursday short 4 day turnaround and the scores were level with 10 minutes to go until our young winger Handley, whose best mate had died a few days before dropped a high ball?

Yeah easy.

From the very beginning when taking over as head coach in 2010 Brian McDermott wanted to implement this style of play but didn’t have the key personal back then to what the team has now. It was frustrating as a Leeds fan to watch the emergence of this style even in our cup winning seasons because winning matches seemed to rely on one out football and individual brilliance. Not anymore.

Starbug here

You know so little it's embarrassing

As it stands you can't bet against Leeds being Champions this season.

True but can they keep that level of intensity up for another 7/8 weeks? Will be interesting to see. And they will face bigger challenges than Warrington.

That's why I put as it stands

Does throwing it about work on a cold wet night at OT when the pressure is on?

A structured, error free opposition with an intense defence will/could beat Leeds in a 1 off game. Wigan etc

The GF isn't won on a hot night in leeds in Aug

Yep. Leeds have historically been terrible on rainy Old Trafford evenings.

It will be very interesting to see if leeds stick with the same principles in the challenge cup final and a potential grand final. Will the usual cautious nature of cup finals be thrown out of the window?

Hard to believe that many, many Leeds fans were calling for McDermotts head a short while ago and now he has improved the squad and got his team playing the most attractive brand of RL in this country.(cough, choke)

Their 3/4 line is just too good for most of the other teams in the comp, plus Hardaker at FB.

Most clubs would swap 1-5 with Leeds, which shows just how good their back line is.

Very true, far too many sports fans want to be damming of coaches and players at the first hint of trouble rather than accepting hights and lows happen it's the nature of life let alone sport.

It wasn't last season. Leeds played a very disciplined, field position based game against Cas last year. Made yards up the middle, kicked well and challenged the opposition to come out of their own end. They played Old Trafford football at Wembley, despite having been more expansive in the weeks leading up to the final.

The thing is, McDermott has always wanted to play this brand of RL. He said it openly in the press when he first became coach and, Leeds started 2011 throwing the ball around like a it was a grenade, scoring some great trys but, conceding as many soft ones through coughing up possession. I think we lost 5 of our first 10 games that year and, McDermott realised that Leeds needed to adopt a more pragmatic approach, which wasn't always as easy on the eye but, it was the most effective method given the players he had available.
He's had the unique job of having to replace the back line in a relatively short space of time and, I don't think it's overstating it when I say the current back line Leeds have is as good as anything we've seen in the SL era. Now his next job is to oversee the transition in the engine room, the signings of Cuthbertson and, Garbutt seem to be extremely shrewd and, the signing of Galloway to replace Peacock is about as good as Leeds could have hoped for in the current climate and, we probably have the strongest group of props we've had in quite some time.
Replacing Sinfield is almost impossible but, he's certainly proving himself to have a good eye for talent.

I know you bit to a straight forward bit of trolling.

True Leeds' style won't be suitable for a rainy night.....but its not like we've forgotten how to play wet weather rugby. When we played Hull in the cup QF it rained and we played a very smart wet weather game and won comfortably and smartly, led by Sinfield who still knows what we'll need to do in what conditions to win.

I think it's difficult to get the blend of players right to make this a successful style, and probably even harder to sustain.

For historical precedent, the Widnes side from about 1988 to the World Club Challenge in 1989 is a good example. The ace in the pack if you'll pardon the pun was Derek Pyke at prop. He'd be introduced after about half an hour during which Joe Grima had played as a battering ram. Pyke was one of the best offloaders around at the time and defences just couldn't contain their style of play.

After Pyke left, they brought in Les Holliday as a replacament, but the good times had gone by then.

Translation from troll to English: I acted like a nob to get a rise out of someone because it's the only way I can feel big.

Awww another tetchy Leigh fan.