I have never been one for blaming officials and I have a totally unbiased view on every match but the officiating last night was a pure joke. I won't get into the decisions because we all saw them but how can they get away with it?

On another note, I was very impressed with how we performed and have no problem taking them on again on a neutral field with a fair ref, we will bounce them. Thought Bowen was superb all night, as he has been for the past few weeks. Powell for the second game in a row made a real impact when he was called upon. Bateman was as dogid as ever, in fact most of the team were excellent.

I am afraid though, Mossop, Smith and Patrick are just passengers. Smith in particular, what exactly does he bring? As far as I can see he does a lot of barking behind the ruck then does nothing. He can't kick, goal kicks are embarrassing, in play kicking is always down the throat of the opposition full back, drop outs are too weak and just about get to the 30. I don't know of any No.7 in the league other than ours who won't attck the opposition line. Always looking to kick it or pass it. Sorry but he is holding Williams back, for gods sake Waney, put George at 7 and give rocky a go at 6. Imagine that next season with Sam T running off them, Charnley and Manfredi on each side and having Tierney covering the lot of them. Frighteningly pacey and exciting but it won't happen will it because of favouritism.

Though Bowen was disappointing personally - at times n the first half he came into the line and instead of passing went glory hunting and was tackled every time, because of that our structures broke down and the backs never got a look in, Williams tried hard and Bateman was everywhere, Farrell tried hard as well but Smith was disappointing - he really needs to impose himself a lot more in big games.

As for the ref - enough said (esp 1st half) - even Stevo (the biggest one eyed yorkist ever) said several times that Leeds "got the rub of the green" - which says a lot!

I hate it when fans criticise referees and I have never done so in the past. I always feel as though refs do their best and make the tough decisions as well as they can, at the end of the day they are just doing a job and literally everyone in the world is prone to the odd mistake in any job they do. Last night however I have never felt so disheartened by a refereeing performance in my life. How can you compete with that? The second knock on try was just unbelievable. Fair enough if Silverwood missed it in play but the video referee looked at it countless times and still awarded the try. It was a knock on every day of the week no question about it. How can the ref award a penalty for a trip but not a sin bin? He has obviously seen the trip hence the penalty? A trip is a sin bin every day of the week. Extremely disappointed and Silverwood should be dropped next week. Good effort from our boys, if we had a decent goal kicker we might have even snatched it despite the horrendous efforts of the referees.

I was at the game and thought Leeds lived up to their billing as the best team in the competition. We however gave them a good game and hung in there until the end with goal kicks being the difference.
I don't feel that most of the criticism on other threads is totally justified however our kicking game was off last night and Smith did have one of his poorer games. Our forwards worked really hard and whilst we do need more quality in the pack I do feel the players we have deserve more credit than they have been getting.
We do need to be smarter in attack if we have ambitions to win at Old Trafford but I do feel we have it in us.
More positivity needed from the fans is one of the things missing at the moment, all I hear on the terraces is fans shouting at players telling them they are rubbish, is that really going to make them play better. Get behind the lads.

Haha I'm sure the players can hear every word the fans say when their either concentrating get hit or hitting someone, I bet their just stood there listening for their name and what abuse follows lol

We were not far off last night from winning that game. A few questionable decisions in the 1st half and missed goal kicks and it could have been different, although Leeds deserved the win. I have more of a problem with Silverwood missing the Sinfield knock on when he was tackled before the Moon (?) try, how did he miss that!

Our attack was way off last night but still managed to score 4 tries, there is huge potential to improve this year and get to OT. I was heartened by last night's 2nd half performance.

Not only a penalty for a trip, but a trip on a player that could have gone on and scored. Straight red for me that one. It was a shocking performance by the officials. Still think Leeds were the better team though, but it just shows, had we kicked our goals and either one of those two 'tries' were disallowed, we'd have done them. Must back up against a disheartened and wounded Wire side next week!

Smith looked to be carrying a knock as he didn't kick as much out of hand and have the goal kicking to Bowen after a couple of shots. He had a poor game overall but has been improved recently. I'd still love to see a Williams/Hampshire combo get a shot but that ships sailed.

As for the performance of Silverwood and the video ref I'm not surprised in the slightest because Headingley is the biggest 'homer' ground in Rugby League along with Catalans. The first try annoyed me the most! How can the ref on field give 'no try' and then somebody have 87 looks at it on a replay and yet say he's convinced there's enough evidence to turn the decision around?!! I watched it back on Sky last night after I got back and the commentators just kept mentioning McGuires feet being up and totally ignored the fact that his thigh/hip area were on the line as he out the ball down. It was just about simultaneously but when it's no try on the field surely that shouldn't be turned round?!!

Typical Headingley.

There were reasons to disallow all four of the first half tries. Thought the McGuire one was the only one that should have stood, and that not by much.

Silverwood was poor for both sides (letting them stand 3-4 yards offside all match but blowing his whistle a couple of times at vital points) but the balance of decisions in favour of Leeds were certainly no more than those in favour of Wigan at the DW match. If you're honest you'll know that both Leeds and Wigan tend to get a lot of "homer" decisions, but if you wanted to play us at home in Super 8s then you should have done better in the league...

I think we knew Wigan wouldn't get any decisions and yes there were a few poor performances and yes another match were the attack lacked fluidity. However the spirit was there in abundance. I'd sooner have that refereeing shocker now than in the final, and by that point I will think Leeds' bubble will have burst. Gelling on the wing for me, Josh is lacking in every department and I actually pity him at the moment because he is better than these last dozen performances.
I think that game has shown us which direction to take against Leeds, angled kicks to the corner - which cuts out Hardaker and the contains Ryan Hall. Good tactics but the loss of MMs kicking game ( I can't believe I'm saying that!) just lost us the edge, because without turning Leeds round early in our tackle counts means we have to rely on the props and at the moment they are struggling

Funnily enough I actually thought Silverwood sided on Wigan last night.
You were holding down in every tackle, forearms in the face, milking penalties . Yet we got penalised for holding down.
From where I was stood it did look like Sinfield knocked on but watching it again it looks to have gone backwards.
Probably one of your try's came from a push on Briscoe?
Was it really a trip? And would he have scored? Sin binning at worse for me.
Can SOL tackle below the shoulder? Maybe not.
Bowen as always played well against us. We missed Aiton big style last night.
Other than that I think the scoreline just about reflected the game.
As for Silverwood I really hope he does not get any more big games that Leeds are involved in.

The Sinfield knock on *might* not have gone forwards (it was hard to see a definitive view), but the fact is, fumbles like that, including ones where the ball goes much more obviously backwards than that, are ruled knock-ons nine times out of ten.

You've just repeated everything I was saying myself last night. Another cracker was Sinfield's knock on before the Moon try. He has to reach out and grasp the ball with his right hand as he had lost control with his left and the ref still doesn't give a knock on.

Many things in a game can be debatable... This was not one of them. Should have been a yellow.

I think Budgie/Manfredi should be our Wingers moving forward for the rest of the season. Josh looks a little bit lost at the moment, and his performances are nowhere near the potential we all know he has.

MM has a cracking kicking game, and I've mentioned before this is very underutilised. It seems this is being used more and more as the season goes on, and we're seeing the benefit of that.

We lost two of our props late into the week, so we started with a weakened pack. That being said, I thought Sutton defended well and Flower was good going forward, made some good metres. The Pearl was great again, but needs to cut out the kicks, his kicking game is poor, at best.

I find it amusing that all supporters think that the opposition are always holding down, lying offside etc but yet they don't see that their own team are doing it as well! Leeds were way offside most of the time, got away with lying on, forward passes (as usual) etc. I am not complaining as it is part of the game and up to the refs to manage.

For the Sinfield knock on the video ref had plenty of time to decide if it went backwards or not and so we have to accept the decision. What I did find amusing though was Stevo's commentary saying that it clearly went backwards! There was nothing clear about it at all other than it first appeared to be a blatant knock on. It took detailed analysis to decide that actually it didn't (as far as the video ref is concerned). The guy is just a biased Yorkshire idiot.

Yes it did look like a push on Briscoe but not deemed enough to disallow the try.

Definitely a trip. Whether it justified more than just a penalty I am not sure.

I think you are being harsh of SOL. He occasionally tackles below the shoulder demonstrating that he CAN do.



Aiton was a big loss for Leeds and I thought they coped better without him that I thought they would.

Few strange calls either way but that's life. Was the sinfield knock on any worse than the smith knock on at your place the other week.

Question marks over both Farrell tries and the hall and McGuire tries.

Leeds deserved the win. Our pack was tragically bad once again. What happened to the good old days when prop forwards would just run the ball in?

As for Silverwood, nine times out of ten that Sinfield knock on would be given on the field, it wasn't. That's life, you win some you lose some.

Also, if it wasn't for Silverwood being inept, we wouldn't have beat Leeds at home last month. Swings and roundabouts.

The Smith knock-on was different in that it was definitely a knock-on but was missed by the officials.

We all like to moan about 50:50 calls which go against our team, especially when we lose. Your balanced view does you and your team credit, I salute your sporting attitude



I think if we (all teams) assume at the start of a season, that some times we will win a tight match off the back or "errors" by the officials and some times we will lose the same way and also accept that over the season(s) it will even itself out. We won't be far wrong.

Still a good moan can help in the short term as well

Sometimes a hard-done-to moan can help to anaesthetise the pain of a disappointing defeat. Lol



I was more disappointed last night that the game didn't quite live up to the potential of it being a top two clash with all to play for. Perhaps they are saving a more intense and exciting game for the play-offs? Maybe the GF?

Spot on. I think it shows a lack of intelligence to see both sides. For a classic example look at the thread on the Whinos board about Wigan. I doubt the combined IQ of most Leeds fans on that thread would beat their score last night.

I thought the weather spoiled the game , so I would not read anything into last nights result. I do think Wigan along with us are the best two teams in the competition, now that saints seem to be imploding.
Maybe Huddersfield might surprise a few people.
What puzzles me is a top four team without a decent goal kicker is strange. Bearing in mind the past masters you have had. Richards, Botica etc. If smith had kicked his goals last night the outcome may have been different . Whilst Smith is a reasonable player i am not convinced he is up to Wigan standards.
Just think about us and you at old trafford, two minutes to go ,you have to kick a goal from the touch line to win the match. Would you rather have smith or sinfield.

I'd rather have my Grandma kicking it than Smith.

The Sinfield knock on was a joke. I think the RL have changed the rules without telling anyone!
A spirited performance last night but again our attack misfired on too many occasions and Leeds overall undoubtedly deserved their win.
Leeds are now I think pretty much assured of top spot and with that should be a shoe in for the final.