I used to be a fan of the cup, as the underdog team it was exciting mixing it with the big boys in the early rounds. The league is closer now and the final is the only game worth being in otherwise it's just a distraction for the league.
I'd of love to have won to progress to the final game but certainly not bothered about the result, failing at the first hurdle. It's the performance I'm ashamed of.

Wigan didnt have the gears lastnight v Hull KR.

today leeds seemed to be be faster and running harder in the opening quarter anf thats where they won the game, disappointing when we knew what to expect after the previous two meetings. Not learned.

robinson in for leeming was a bad decision.

Thought it was alarming how quickly the confidence of the lads evaporated today. Kick off after leeds 2nd try and ryan hall running the ball in, everyone looked like rabbits caught in headlights! Said (to myself in my head

) for a while we are massively dependant on confidence. As soon as a team start to get on top of us we panic and revert to just patting opposition on the chest as opposed to making an actual tackle, which in turn just makes it too easy for them to score.

Hudds need better pivots if they're going to get to the next level on a consistent basis. Apart from Brough every play maker in the Hudds team is average at best.

More traffic on here than there's been on the whole board for a few weeks..... Funny that.....

I thought you did rather well as a side to keep the score down

The games over after 20 minutes. First two tries from glaring individual errors. Then Hall scored a brilliantly executed try and the fourth was a freak try that Cudjoe kicked against the post. 22-0 no chance of recovery. We had no possession at all in that period.
I actually think we gave it a good go for the rest of the game. Scored three tries and could have had another three. We were making a lot of clean breaks in the second half.
Credit Leeds they were excellent and Sinfield was bound to have a great game on his return.
My issue is the daft penalties and the individual errors. A good team will punish you for these.
I am disappointed but not downhearted today because at least there was effort.
To the poster that said there was no effort I will give you three examples of effort in the second half
1 Mcgillivarys run from from his own goal line.
2 Hughes Chase back to tackle Maguire
3 Grix continuing with his nose smashed all over his face.

What the club need to consider though is bringing in a couple of new faces before the play offs as I do feel we are just not quite good enough at the moment.

no doubt about effort and players looked as gutted to be out as anyone. it was the panic that ran through the team, needed someone to calm everyone down and remember we've come back from an early leeds onslaught twice this season already! 4th try was the one you knew it wasn't are day though, lucky buggers leeds

You were beaten by the better team today, simple as that. Not many people saw it coming in that manner, the bookies were giving you only 8 start, and it is not often they get it wrong. Your lot only have one set of medals to play for this season, and there is no reason why they can't have a real go at being champions. This will probably be the tightest season of Superleague so far, and my money is still on you making the four, but belief and harmony within the club and the supporters may make the difference. No need to knee jerk just yet, there's a lot of Rugby to be played.

Good post.

The best team won, fine.

We we're pathetic. Missed tackle after tackle.

Disappointed to put it mildly.

You actually missed less tackles than Leeds.

I was just about to say I thought the Giants missed relatively few tackles.

Great day out!

At least you didn't need your umbrellas

very disappointed, this was a great opportunity to put a marker down for the rest of the season and we came up well short.

credit to leeds though, i've read countless posts on here and on facebook etc bemoaning our lack of aggression etc, but leeds played well and would have probably beaten anyone yesterday, yes the opposition wasn't upto much but they just had too much power, pace and guile for us.

i wasn't worried at 18-0 and thought we would come back again, but when they scored from that kick that hit the post i knew it was all over then, we looked shot, completely gone and yes we made a bit of a fist of it from there but in all truth we were never in that game from the moment grix had his brainfart!

we never looked like getting back in it and some of the defending, or lack of it for the tries were embarrassing, but we move on to castleford and i hope we see a massive improvement.

Another big game and another dire performance! For me this is a big reason our fan base won't grow much. The big games we just can't compete often enough. And when we do and come away with w big win we generally fall away the game after!
Our problems are simple really but numerous.
Fight to play the ball.....not evident...fair play two men pushing you down to slow you down but damn put in the effort, meters forward of a quick play the ball is a no brainer.
Wrapping up the man, offloads in collision needs to be stopped. Looks worse against Leeds as they have a brilliant passing and off load game but at one point the ball went left to right to to left again with two offloads happening with men tackling the player.
Running from dummy half. Quick scoots catches defences out and chews up the meters.
Direct running from the ball return. Jerry and Murphy spot on but grix.....head down and sprint. Especially with a kick chase like Leeds yesterday
Offloading in the tackle, eorl and huby have been renowned for this at times in there career, but lacking now, big men generally attracting three men a pass to a hooker or halve and we are again running at a defence that isn't set chewing up meters.
Over reliance on brough, he is an awesome player but pressure needs taking off. Last time Delaney this time abblet, one player given the task of charging brough as 8 times out of ten we well use him! Ellis Robbo wood need to do a bit more of the kicking game
Support play, more than one plan? How many times did grix chime in to be surrounded with no where to go. Worked well when he came back for Connor but it seems it has been Sussed and is well marshalled.
Interchange use. Mull short mins again! Maybe his engine but at 22/23 this shouldn't be an issue! Big runs from him when on! Defence looked better too

to be fair it was one bad performance out of 5 wasn't it really?

it was the first time any team had put the cleaners through us this year and that team are the cup holders and league leaders...every team has these days, it's now how we pick ourselves up for castleford.

You spouting this deluded rubbish.

It is not about performances it is about performances in games that matter.

We do not do it.

When it comes to BIG games we are , rubbish, useless, ridiculous, pointless irrelevant.

WE need to win big games, Cup games, play off games not little y ones that count for nothing.. Sometimes i can take losing in big games the rub of the green goes against you or whatever. BUT sometimes other than the team coach turning up the players do not. Yesterday was an example, last season Catalan and Wigan in the play offs. They were big games and we were absolutely ing rubbish.

Win against Cas and Win at the magic weekend and you will all be on saying we are back on track and things are getting better.

Until we maybe get to the play offs and lose before the first whistle go. Our players appear to be conditioned to lose big games before the game starts.

why is it deluded DG? every game counts for something, be it league points, next round of the cup, or just to keep confidence up.
i agree though that we seem to collapse in the big games, we've had plenty of experience of them over the years, maybe this year we might finally catch up and win a couple?

well if we dont won the y little ones that count for nothing then we wont be in the play offs or super league for that matter.

no need to tell us that we fail when it comes to the big play off and cup games, we know!

think some fans need to lower their expectations, we are punching above our weight and do well to get where we are

we missed our best opportunity in 2013 when we wont the LLS to win the comp. Also the 2009 cup final where we were slight faves going into the game.

Agree Brearley - those 2 or 3 good years we needed to win something to keep the momentum going, we didn't but some fans still expect us to ....i dont expect but i would like it to happen, i'm also realistic to understand we don't have the same quality, money, facilities etc as the clubs who do win things, the fact that year after year we are up there with the likes of Saints, Wigan, Leeds etc is an achievement in itself, with the size of our crowds, our facilities etc we should be with the likes of Wakefield, Salford, Hull KR etc ( no disrespect to those clubs ) as they are similar in set up, crowds etc...fans of those clubs would love it if they were told they were gonna finish in the top 4 including a league leaders shield in 3 of the last 4 years.

At the end of the day we are still a relatively small club with a small fan base who have won 1 trophy in the SL era yet some fans want a Grand Final win every year otherwise we have failed. Nothing wrong with optimistic either but setting your expectations too high will only result in constant disappointment !!.

Being a Giants fan is not easy and never in my 20+ years watching has it ever been. Been through the barren SL years where getting beaten by similar scores was the norm. There was a time when that scoreline at Leeds would have been seen as OK. That was because we were not good enough and not down to a lack of motivation or effort.
Not so on Saturday i'm afraid - we were lacking in desire and effort from the get go. Not sure why but we were never going to win that game given the attitude we approached it with. A lot has been said already about the errors, tackles etc... Biggest pointer for me was the poor kick chase, or put better the total lack of any chase at all. Given that Broughy is as good a kicker as he is we failed to support our main weapon and metres were lost as a result.
Out of the cup at the first hurdle again - very poor with no excuses. Yes Leeds were very good but we were awful.
Still will be at Cas to support the team again and let's hope we can put that game behind us and get back some pride in ourselves.
Frustrated as hell with the cup game but being a Fartowner is never easy so onwards I guess.

Is it that we are punching above our weight or is that there are things not right at the club that should be fixed.

Is our recruitment right i am not convinced. We end up with robbo, wood and ellis. They are all similar players relatively average as half backs now.Why have we got three players who all play interchanably . Would we not be bettrr off losing two of them inand getting one quality half back to play with Brough ?

Do we bring enough young players through ?

Is the coaching right ?

Is the culture at the club one of winning or mediocrity ?

Are the decisions on contracts right Mason on £100k !!!

All of the above are important things that could be different.

I will leave it up to those who know more about what happens at the club to give a view on.

But IMHO they are all issues i am concerned about none of which are related to punching above our weight.

Having Wood (who I rate very highly) Ellis and Robbo is very healthy for our squad. If PA rotates right then it's one big positive.
Who needs a second class half back. We have enough class around the field to win something.

Our youth system isn't bad either.

All we lack is an experienced coach which will come on time and a team who lack experience in big games. It's hard for any team who hasn't won a trophy to win one however good the team. Once we snatch one we'll be confident for another.