It's almost gone, but as long as there's still a chance we should be going all out to get it. Plus this game is a chance to get some much needed confidence ahead of the semi.

Don't mean to tempt fate but I'd hate Lockers, Williams or Bateman to get injured in a dead rubber ahead of a cup semi. Agreed with regards to confidence of course and generally going for it whilst it's mathematically possible.

We need to get our team to click before Salford. They will not do that on the touchline.

We have to play a full team as things stand. It really is a case of having to win every game now but whilst there is still a sniff they've got to be seen to be going for it. Lose tomorrow or in any league game from now on though and then it should be time to try things and rest players who've been battered about ready for next season.

I'd like to see us try Sam Powell in the halves, Leuluai at hooker, McIlorum at loose forward and Burgess or Davies at full back before the end of the year if we reach that stage (where there's nothing to play for). I'd like to see Wells, Field and Ganson get plenty of minutes to help ready then for next season and maybe give one or two more debuts out if any of the youngsters are ready.

We need to go into every game with a cup mentality if there is any chance of reaching the top 4. Therefore we field the strongest possible 17 every week until the possibility of top 4 has mathematically gone. I know I'm in a minority but I'm still slightly optimistic about our season. Recent rugby has been poor but if we can get some of the early season form back there's enough there to challenge anybody. Stop giving the ball up with errors and penalties and we'll be fine.

Cant see the top 4 happening this season,too far gone in my opinion i understand about the need to rest players but i suspect one eye will be on season tickets sales and if they keep on playing young ones people simply wont renew,even if there's nothing to play for the "big guns" have to play

Spot on.
Some of the senior players have hardly played so why rest them? If your playing shoite what is there to be gained by sitting on your arris in the stands?
What about simply repaying the supporters by trying to win every game irrespective if it's the "business" end of the season or not.
We appear to be a team that plays 8 games a year but wants the spectator to pay for +30 games a year. Economic madness that can't or won't be sustained.

I didn't mean rest them because they are tired, I just don't want us to pick up more injuries and potentially lose that semi. We can't take Salfod lightly given the form of both sides

At the moment we do not have a hope in hell of beating Salford. We just do not have the desire. It would be nice to bubble wrap some players but would it do them any good if they are not performing. Several are still not match fit. As long as there is a chance of top four we should play our best team but as soon as we we cannot, probably after one more loss, then we should be shaking things up. There are several young players who would benefit from being brought into a strong team rather than being thrown into a weak one.

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17's for tonight. No Moon or Parcell for Leeds. No excuses if we don't pump them!

Better performance so far tonight. Defence looks solid (Tommy having a wow!). Attack asking a few questions.
At 14-0 at half time I would be disappointed if we don't get the result and comfortably so.

Stats so far:

Pens against:

1 high tackle Williams
1 offside at scrum Gelling
1 obstruction - no try
1 holding down Isa
1 holding down Gelling


Knock ons

Gelling drop
Gildart drop
FPN drop
FPN drop
Gelling drop

I think we've been good until we get in Leeds 10,we've blown some good chances and constant grubbers are annoying as we have shown we can muscle threw them,we should have scored at least 5 tries that half and should get at least 5 this half,if hudds and Leigh win we are right back in the mix and it could come down to points difference and now is a chance to claw it back a little.

We were forcing things a bit too much and with the wet conditions it lead to a lot of errors. Scored some lovely tries though; Sam's was a brilliant piece of creativity I don't care who the opposition were very few players in this league can pull skill like that out of the bag.

Still nowhere near our best but a good night for us given the Salford result. Top 4 all of a sudden isn't so far away..

2 of the top 4 have dropped 2 points leaving us 3 points away from 4th. It sticks in the throats but we need Saints to beat Wakefield and the cat is well and truly amongst the pigeons. I thought FPN worked his spuds off tonight and deserves a mention. TL was very good as was MM. Gildart showed a lot of class and Gelling chewed up the hard yards. Good signs.

I know we struggled when we had the kids out this season but we offered so much more than the Leeds kids tonight,their goal line defence was good but I think that was partly due to our poor finishing,other than that it was men against boys.

A pleasing effort given the conditions. Fantastic zero points given out tonight, which is always great regardless of the opposition. Yes no doubt a few Rhinos fans will come on here to pour water on the score-line but hey-ho they didn't mind them pasting our injury ridden team earlier in the season.

Thought Tommy was my MOM tonight, but also great performances from Micky Mac, Gildart, Williams, Lockers & Tautai.

Our discipline was better tonight (but not perfect), I counted 8 penalties against (5 first half, 3 second half). Incomplete sets I counted 9.


Pens against:

1st half

1 high tackle Williams
1 offside at scrum Gelling
1 obstruction - no try
1 holding down Isa
1 holding down Gelling


2nd half

1 offside Isa
1 holding down Sutton
1 tackle in air.


Incomplete sets

1st half

Gelling drop
Gildart drop
FPN drop
FPN drop
Gelling drop

2nd half

Lockers forward
Powell forward
Bateman drop
Bateman drop

The effort was there tonight and the crowd responded to it. Yes Leeds were poor tonight but who cares. Cracking result for Leigh over Salford too!

With Wakey playing Saints who do we want to win? I think Saints, if only to keep that fourth spot close (3pts).

Looking forward to next week it sure is a confidence booster, whilst Salford are on a bit of a slide!

A must win game, then let's take it from there!

One two separate occasions over the last week I've been 'told' that in the Super 8's all teams start back at zero!! Cas win the LLS this weekend (in fact they'd already won it) and they now have 7 weeks rest until the playoff semi final. One bloke swore blind, wouldn't accept he was talking complete nonsense.

I $hit you not......the rumours that go round this town!

We need to get our points difference going as well, 4th could easily come down to that but ours is worse than everyone above us at the minute.

The middle 8s go back to zero but the top 8 carry points across.

I thought Gildart looked good tonight.
He gets better each game.
For a young guy he always looks very composed.
A proper centre in the making

Looked a lot more enthusiastic tonight, nice to see.
Sam T needs to play against Leeds every week, by a country mile his best performance since his return.
Clubb outstanding effort again.

I wish I was convinced but Im not. Better attitude certainly but the attack is stuttering and predictable.

Powell is not working as an impact hooker. I would drop him and Wells next week for Joel and Faz, assuming they are fit.

Mcilorum, Gildart and Clubb were very good.

A win yes so well done but I found myself wondering tonight when we last beat a 'good' team. March maybe, February even? I hope we bring it all together at the right time like we have done previously but there's a danger the Super 8s will not be pleasant for us.

With reference to the super 8s starting on zero,even sky made reference to last night being a dead rubber on their website!Bit embarrassing really,it's not the first year of this format.
The way the league table could look at the end of the weekend really throws us amongst it but I think we will probably need to win 6 or maybe even 7 of our remaining games and it's not going to happen,even the ever optimist Phil Clark doesn't see us making top 4.
Next week looks a whole lot better than a few weeks ago,Salford on a slide (3 defeats in a row) and apparently shocking yesterday, got to fancy our chances now.

On another note why did Williams hand over the kicking duties?he missed 3 fairly tough kicks by whiskers (one hit the post). He really only missed one easy conversion.
It seems his confidence goes after a missed kick or two but I see the makings of a good kicker in him and thought he was set to run with the duties from now on.

I thought that was strange too, especially when the one Powell took was a sitter.