Both could cause us a lot of damage this weekend if we dont sharpen up our marker/ruck defence which was again v.poor vs Hull. Buderus especially.

As long as we keep Monaghan fit and healthy we still have a chance.

Still have a chance??? God your optimistic!!

Even without Monaghan fit we have a very very good chance. I am confident we'll perform well and it will be enough to lift the cup again.

why is monners injured???

More than Buderus and McGuire you mean.

Was our marker defence poor against Hull. I don't remember Houghton doing anything apart from being Morley's door-mat on the way to the line for his try

I thought the marker defence was pretty good. Hull came with a game plan to take us on up front and had a reasonably good kicking game.
Our pace and power out wide sorted them out in the second half.

Buderus murdered us around the ruck a few weeks ago at the HJ.

When I saw this thread and as I clicked on it, I thought that these to were out

If you look at the likely Leeds team, it's very strong indeed. Admittedly, it is weaker following the loss of Burgess and Peacock in particular but we'll have to be at our very best to beat them, particularly in a final where their recent record is really rather good.

I agree with the OP - if we don't stop the 2 Dannys we'll be in for a long afternoon.

Leeds team could look something like this

Webb
Donald/Smith
Delaney
Senior
Hall
Sinfield
McGuire
Bailey
Buderus
Leuluai
Ablett
Jones-Buchanan
Clarkson

Burrow
Diskin
Eastwood
Lauitiiti

Thats more like it. With maybe Kirke on the bench as another interchange prop/sr.

Who for though? I must say that's some bench!

Thats currently in debate i think. I hope its not Clarkson - the lad has done no wrong what so ever.

I agree it is some bench, its a likely one too as i cant see Rob & Diskin being used as subs. Alright Rob will inject some pace into the team when you're tiring but if he went on anywhere it would be to 7. Sinfield to 13 and then Clarkson/JJB or a SR to the bench. Pointless imo when you can just put Sinfield to 13 to start with and swap the SRs and props as and when.

The main area we need to focus on is our defence around the play the ball. Saints away we were a bit fragile and cunningham seemed to be getting through. Same with
leeds, the runs from buderus from the play the ball were penetrating, he was the game breaker for leeds v saints in the semi for that last try. That said i think we have
a great chance of winning even though the bookies have leeds at 8/11 and us at evens. i think the game will be decided on a couple of key mistakes/genius play. I really
think we have a great chance of winning and can't wait for the titanic battle at a sell out wembley.

Leeds at Evens

Wire at 10/11

Stan James

if you go to oddschecker you can see all the odds from each bookie. It was last friday when i last looked but i'm suprised the odds have reversed although stan
james is one bookie.

just checked the odds again and some of the bookies have us level pegging but most (2/3) have leeds as slight favorites.