Leigh haven't lost at home to Sheffield since 2000, so a VERY poor result tonight. Leigh have really imploded in the 2nd half of the season. I cannot accept this theory that teams have simply sussed us out. That is a very weak argument. There has to be more to it than that. Who knows what has gone on but the stats for the second half of the season are exceptionally poor. I do not believe that a team that has had regular access to four Super League players and containing such a strong pack, a very good hooker in Duffy and one of the soundest fullbacks in the division, should have lost anywhere near as many games as we have in the second half of the season. The manner in which we have lost to Batley and Sheffield home and away and Dewsbury at home has been extremely disappointing. I am not saying that I expected great things this year, because I did not but we have underperformed massively in the second half of the year. The second half of this year has been arguably worse than the first half of last and I would not say the squad last year was better. Very good first half the season. Exceptionally poor second half. Very disappointing, but we'll keep supporting and hoping for more consistency from coach and players next year. Some might say we over performed in the first ten games and maybe we did but to have had the record we have in the last ten games is still very very poor. Let's hope for less extremes and more consistency next time round.

Without wishing to be pedantic, didn't we lose 23-22 or summat like that at home to Sheffield in 2002ish?

Possibly so, but you get my drift. We have generally had a very good record against the Eagles over the last decade.

Aye I know what you mean, but I think records are always there to be broken, personally.

Of couse they are, but the main point of my post is that the second half of this season has arguably been worse than the first half of last, which is extremely disappointing, considering I think most people would agree, we do not have a worse squad this year than last.

It was 28-26 if I remember rightly, we got a penalty under the sticks and instead of getting the draw tried to run it. I remember this because I put a fiver on Leigh to win by 50+. Idiot.

Just been enjoying reading Dave Parkinson's excellent blogs and came across a report he had penned on Leigh v Sheffield in 2002 and apparently we won 32 0. Happy days. If only we had done that tonight. I remember Leigh suffering a shock home defeat to Sheff when Terzis took over in about 2000. Maybe this was when you lost your bet. I think I almost did the same Paulio.

i think it was the same score as tonight

We have one move, the drop off pass. Anyone who has seen a video of any of our games, would have that sussed. Otherwise it is one man rugby.
We have the worst backs in the division. No pace, can't tackle, and can't cope with a high ball. How many tries have we let in on the wings. I would guess about 80% of the tries scored against us have been on the wings. As much as I like Donlan, he's past it now and has never been fit since he came back. He's usually safe at the last man tackle, but he hasn't got passed anyone in the last 2 seasons when running the ball out. We are generally clueless when it comes to breaking a tight defence. Sheffield defended well last night, but we have no one who can break it. We spend agaes in their 20m area without looking like scoring. This has been the story all season. When someone gets in ouor 20m area by comparison, they always look like scoring and usually do?
Just look at the formations of the players last night. Sheffield were spread evenly across the pitch and moving the ball around. It was only poor handling that prevented them getting 5 or 6 more tries !
We by comparison, were bunched in the middle of the pitch, playing one man rugby. The one time we did move the ball about in a move instigated by Ridyard we scored.
We have been playing this season with a number of players who just aren't up to this standard of rugby, and all the coaching in the world isn't going to improve that enough.

We play flat with no dummy runners, watch the game on TV and see how many Sheffield had stopping us spreading. We had a strength and that was our pack but we didnt play to it when it mattered it was ball to RP who then did his level best to keep ward 6 busy.

I totally agree with you all about how clueless we have looked the second half of this season with the exception of the performance at Widnes. That is obvious. I do not really need to watch the match on TV to see that. However, if it was as simple as just sussing out the one supposed simple play we have, do you not think teams would have worked us out a bit sooner than they did? There are a lot of very astute coaches in this league. Were all the teams in this league just really charitable in the entire first half of the season? I could understand the simple argument that they worked us out, if our success had only lasted a couple of games or so but it lasted for a very sustained period and we were not just beating teams, we were absolutely hammering a lot of them. What has happened in the second half of the season? Who knows. As I said, I did not expect great things, but the second half stats have been surprisingly abysmal.

To be honest we have only played well at Halifax / Toulouse and both Widnes games - just 4 games all season. We have won more but they haven't been outstanding performances.

I would have settled for another nine unconvincing wins in the second half of the season myself.

Its the defence thats gone to pot for some reason ,that is what was winning us the games early on imo and yes i also think that clubs would have sussed us out far sooner than 9 or 10 games in

I totally agree. Earlier in the season our defence and intensity were awesome. We seemed absolutely desperate to win and our pack was battering teams into submission. It was a joy to watch for me. I do not think the other teams were just being nice to us. Unfortunately a lot of that intensity and desire evaporated and I have no idea where it went.

Maybe you would, but that's part of the problem, the board know that the same 1000 or so die-hards will put up with rubbish. But they will never get new supporters in playing like we have this last 2 seasons. Maybe you're young, but I am lucky enough to see win the CC at Wembley and the League at Whitehaven, I have seen some great players at Leigh. What we have now just isn't good enough.

You are now moving onto a different point. I am agreeing that we were clueless for the second half of the year, not saying how we could get more fans in. However, surely if we had won 9 of our last ten games, we would have had more fans through the gate than 1000, as we would have had a similar record to Fev who won the league. Surely we would not exactly have been serving up rubbish, if we had only lost 1 out of our final 10 games and finished top. I do not think we can kid ourselves that we have ever been that good as a team, that we can demand not just winning 18 out of 20 matches, but completely dominating in each and every one of them and playing an absolutely fab brand of rugby. How many tries did we score again, in our run to Wembley in 1971? Was it 1 or maybe 2? Not many more.

If I was the head coach of Leigh and in my first season in the post I would have given the team that I had inherited some time to see where they were at. At the mid pooint of the season I would have identified the people that I was thinking of shipping out and would have put scouts out to find better replacements. Maybe some of the players found out that the club were looking for replacements for them and decided to just go through the motions and that contributed to the lapse in form or as other people suggested that the other teams sussed us out. Who cares now the seasons over. New season. New team.
Come On You Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeigh.

Your first theory seems much more credible than the old they sussed us out theory. However, who knows. It remains a mystery.