Well lets not forget the 24 conceded by Warrington! And you really can't base your top 8 miss on a single try. I'm not questioning our defence or attack. Are you questioning yours?

I can't speak for Bradford,but we do have to put things in perspective..Widnes along with Hull KR,Wakey and Salford,are in the middle 8's for a reason. Leigh,Bradford,Halifax and Sheffield are in the middle 8's for opposite reasons.

Every game you play, you'll be fighting for survival back to SL. Every game we play, will be for promotion to SL. As of now you are no longer a SL team as we are no longer Championship.. We are the middle 8's. Bring it on.

Atomic your last sentence says it all

the bottom 4 are NO longer SL teams as Leigh,Fax, Bradford , and Sheffield ,are no longer Championship teams ,we are ALL now equal ,competing for the same goal a place in SL ,again as you so rightly say,BRING IT ON .

Well said!

Leigh are 7/4 to finish in top 3 with Skybet (only measly 11/10 with Bet 365) Is this a good bet?

Spot on. It's called The Qualifiers for a reason, we get an opportunity to qualify for Super League, the bottom 4 SL teams now have to re-qualify.

I would guess he means :-
Getting rid of Webster
Getting Brian Smith
Releasing poor performing players
Signing players suitable for Smith's tactics.
Trying out as many on field permutations as possible during the last few games.

I got the family silver on at 6/1 a couple of weeks ago it's palace or pauper come October

New coach
Clear out of some players not performing
Hungry players coming in

Coach assessing whole squad playing everyone over several weeks, we have settled and by the first game almost a fully fit squad with some big guns ready to play like Ali, Locke if the rumours are true, Godinet etc. A number of players have come right out of their shell under Smith as coach and he is no mug. I accept winning breeds winning and losing the opposite but we will see if all the stuff done behind the scenes come to fruition. I thought the change of coach came too late but I don't think it was reflecting on the performances from then to now.

Seen them get smashed against Castleford recently and to be honest they still dont look that good in my opinion. Their forwards are not the best and Scott Moore is a loose cannon, and McShane is better than him. Not a great swap deal to be honest.

Wow...

Excited, nervous, apprehensive, even terrified *maybe a little*.
Never has the end of the season meant so much, well not since 2004/5 anyway.

My prediction FWIW.

Hull KR
Widnes
Salford (all automatically retain SL status)

Leigh or Bradford v Wakefield ( £ Million match)
Let's not be too surprised if either -
A) All SL teams retain SL status or
B) Bradford take 4th spot.

Both Halifax & Sheffield to take a SL scalp each.

Of course I hope & pray that this Leigh team & the fans & directors are rewarded for a spectacular 2 seasons.


Come On Leigh.

I expect Salford, Hull KR and Widnes to all finish in the top 3 with Leigh battling it out with Wakefield for the final spot.

At first glance, Leigh' fixtures might seem a little tough but I think you're playing Hull KR and Widnes at the perfect times which is a huge advantage.

I'd say there isn't much between Widnes and Hull KR, so let's put them at 1 and 2 in the final standings.

Then I'd suggest there isn't much between Leigh and Salford. The only real difference could be attitude and mentality. The game at Salford will be massive and I am actualy looking forward to that one more than Leigh vs Hull KR.

Wakefield will have to find something special quickly; and I am not so sure they can do that.

Bradford are a funny one. Might turn up, might not. They didn't do as well in the Championship as many thought they would.

Sheffield and Halifax could well spring a surprise or two. And if they do it early enough then it'll really make for an interesting Qualifiers.

Interesting that you don't think there is much between Widnes and Hull KR, yet Salford have played both teams recently and beaten one and lost to the other by 1 point (despite leading by 10 points with 10 minutes to go!).

It was more of a brief summary for argument's sake. And to prompt a possible response.



I actually don't think there is a massive difference between Hull KR, Widnes, Salford and Leigh.

I would agree with that, which is why I expect those teams to be in Super League next season. I am looking forward to seeing how Leigh react to playing consecutive Super League teams in a league format, rather than the getting themselves pumped up for an 80 minute knock out game.

I hope Paul Rowley sticks by his word and continues to adopt the same attacking approach, as it will make for some great games.

They are the teams i predict to go into Superleague.

I think that says it all,as shown you can all compete against each other in the bottom of SL. Climbing to next level of SL as been the problem. The question? still remains what level you are actually at and are the Championship sides in the mid 8's at the same level.

The other big imponderable is the quality & style of the refereeing. SL speed ptb &offside? Championship speed?
Discipline is massively important. A 2 match ban picked up in the first game will mean that player misses 1/3 of the remaining games. No coach will be impressed by that!

Widnes
Hull KR
Salford
Leigh V Wakey in the million game
Bulls
Sheffield
Halifax

Hull KR pulled off some excellent results earlier in the season - think they beat Wigan and Saints at home - but are on a poor run at the moment. Campese is a big loss for them because he looked different class IMO. They have the most quality in their squad of all the Middle 8 teams I reckon.

Unfortunately for Leigh, they play Widnes away, which is a disadvantage, as Widnes are much stronger at home. At the LSV I think you'd have a decent chance but I think it'll be hard in Widnes' back yard.

I wouldn't rule out Wakefield either. They were beating Leigh comfortably in that cup game and threw the game away - a more confident side might've held on for the victory and they've improved a bit since Brian Smith came in.

As for Bradford - the bookies don't fancy us, probably given our recent run of results, but we've been missing key players for a while now that are all back in full training. I've seen enough this season to suggest we can hurt teams, but for us it's about doing it consistently over 7 games and putting in 80 minute performances, of which we haven't put in too many this season.

Hopefully Widnes will already be safe and they won't give stuff. Actually i hope we will be safe at that point

If Leigh play to the full potential for 80 minutes I think we'll surprise a few.
No such thing as a given as I also think Sheffield will shock a few given how they play when it comes to Play off RL.
Too difficult to call which is exactly what sport should be all about.

Agreed, I keep switching from feeling confident of us turning over Hull KR and Salford and making top 3 to being convinced we are going to blow it, lose to Fax/Sheffield and miss out on the million pound game.

Think the optimism of the last 2 years as a Leigh fan is battling against the many disappointments of the previous 22 years

1. Widnes
2. Hull KR
(I think Hull KR are probably the best team in it but Widnes have big home advantage, had Widnes only had 3 home games instead of 4 I'd swap those two around)
3. Leigh
(Play to our full potential for full 80 min every game & defend as well as we can instead of taking the "We'll just score more than you" attitude we seem to have had at times and I'm fairly confident of automatic promotion. Think it's a big advantage playing Bradford & Wakefield at LSV especially considering we haven't lost at home for 2 seasons now.)
4. Salford
5. Bradford
(Two odd ones, both been a bit inconsistent, Bradford play some very good attacking rugby though & will definitely be challenging. Depends on how Salford go with their off field issues, if Salford decide "Right this is it now, last chance shape up!" they should do well, if they struggle 1st few games though heads could just as easily go and they could collapse.)
6. Wakefield
(Been poor all season, not sure a brand new temporary team just for the Super 8s will really help. Yes they pushed us close in the Challenge cup but once we stopped handing them the ball at half way on the 3rd tackle every set we ran away with it in the 2nd half)
7. Sheffield
8. Halifax
(Both will play some good rugby and both will cause a few scares might even be the odd upset but think this is where full time V part time will show. Not sure being full time has given us a particularly big advantage up to now but it's definitely going to be essential to getting enough recovery when playing against full time teams every week)

Leigh don't know how to play any other way.

Even the likes of metre-monster props Moimoi and Emmit have learnt how to offload and pass too.