Agree with just about everything you say but what makes you think Shaul can't defend? Have you not watched him make one on one tackles at FB? Why do you want a tackling based dummy half, isn't that what we pay our forwards to do when defending, to do the grunt work in defence? Just because Houghtin has been flogged to the point he's ineffective in attack (and diminishes his defence also) doesn't mean we should continue doing that.

Houghton has been flogged to death over the last few years, and it’s catching up with him now.

I don’t think it’s catching up with him I’d say it’s already caught up with him and in fairness to Andy Last he managed to get something out of Houghton & Johnstone when he started with JJ and spelled them both. Right now we get nothing from either of them.

And let’s not forget discipline. Too many of our players are picking up suspensions for stupid altercations.

We could have really done with Savelio tonight, but he is sat in the stands for three games for getting personal with Jones, that provides zero benefit to the club.

Then Josh Reynolds getting himself sin binned and potentially copping a ban for an stupid coming together after Leeds have scored. Why? Did he think his actions would get the try over-ruled?

With several key players out injured, these incidents really hurt the team. Injuries are accidental. I appreciate it’s a physical sport, but making yourself unavailable due to a self inflicted ban is as bad as being a poor organiser, rushing out of the line, missing a tackle, being flogged to death and having a poor kicking game.

What was the crowd last night?

Chris & Ligi = 333 metres
The rest of our pack including subs = 315 metres

Disgraceful

Bowden shouldn't play again this season. He just doesn't look interested. 4 carries says it all.

Not only is Fonua not making anywhere near enough impact for a Marquee player he is also a penalty machine.
Those 2 attempts to strip the ball cost us the equivalent of how many metres he made in the whole match. He does it too often and yet the coaches haven't stopped him. WHY?
I really really liked Mahe when he was here last but he's unfit and both him and the coaching staff are to blame.
There is no way he should be so unfit. It's almost beyond belief that it's allowed. BH should say he has 2 weeks to trim down and speed up and STOP the stupid penalties.
Re Jamie Shaul - well he was the FB for many years when we had the worst D in Club history. He's a great attacker and as you know I really like the kid. He's better on the wing I reckon where he doesn't have to make last-ditch tackles against big forwards etc
Watch some of the tries scored against us from 17-19 and you'll see what I mean.
GREAT player just not a FB for defensive reasons. I'd bulk him up more and get him on the wing or let him go to Wakefield.

Jake is the X factor and we are really MISSING him. Jake is the 6 we need and I wonder if Josh R can go home at the end of the season?

The guy is a absolute waste of space and has been for the past 2 seasons. I’m struggling to think of a worse prop in the league who constantly gets selected week in week out. There must be somebody in the Championship we could take a punt on, at least they would show some enthusiasm you’d like to think.

Hard to know where to start with that one, very painful to watch with so many errors across the park.

I see others got echoes of the ghost of Radders last night as well, five drives and a kick, very little on the edges. Good play for the first try but no concessions allowed for that given the sheer volume of possession we had in their red zone.

I'd like to see Fonua dropped after that performance, thought his errors, decision making and performance in general were that of a headless chicken (a completely unfit one), that being said, who could we bring in at centre? Scott is worse and I have seen little to suggest that he will ever be a Super League standard centre.

Confidence is severely lacking, this placid approach from Hodgson doesn't appear to be motivating the players and something will have to give. We badly miss Connor and Griffin on the edges and as for Monday I don't know what will be more depressing: the score or the attendance because that showing last night will certainly have scared a fair few off (and rightly so).

It was a high 9k, close to 10 I think.

It's a close run thing between Tony Clubb and Bowden.

Brown should come straight in for Bowden.

Taylor will be back soon too.

A few should be dropped luckily for them we don't have the cover, I'd drop

Fonua (Scott)
Bowden (Brown)
Johnstone (McNamara)

Hodgson has to take some of the blame for his bench selection and use.

Agreed I know Brown has a mistake and penalty inim, but its criminal that Bowden gets picked before him.

Brad Dwyer is decent, but not a world beater.

The fact he looked as good as he did tells you all you need to know about the standard of our performance (and probably the standard of super league generally).

To give Leeds credit though, they were far quicker in thought and in deed. We were so slow and ponderous it was simple to defend against. The times players had to reach behind for a pass (and in turn slowing the speed of the play) was ridiculous. Just basics.
I’d dread to think what would have happened without Sataes and Saos metres.

Interchange needs a rethink. You’re purposely playing with 16 players when you bring a player on for the first time with a minute left. Use Cator as interchange hooker and put Jack Brown on the bench.

Still think teams have a DNA in how they play. Our muscle memory reverted to the last few years in how we played last night.

Some good posts and most of us seem to agree.

I just hope Hodgson can see it, under Radford some players were untouchable, I was hoping this wouldn't happen with Hodgson.

Satae and Sao have got to be split up, we can’t carry on having this level of drop off when we have to start making changes.

Satae/Fash starting with Sao/Brown on the bench would be my preference.

Brown makes more metres and has an offload.

The comparison is night and day as to which one is the better player

You just know that on our tip sheet near the top will have been staying alert of Dwyer on our goal line and you have Fonua coming up with another of his brain explosions letting him go in untouched basically.

Fonua should get a try assist for that one.

To be fair to the left edge, Bureta was nearly our man of the match, and he only had limited involvement.

I’ll review this game a little differently, if you was actually at the match, the atmosphere in the East stand was excellent, and it was fabulous to witness it again, the small number, but well supporting Leeds fans also created a great occasion. I have missed the game like this so much.

Our former great prop Karl Harrison brought on the match ball to thunderous applause, he must of really enjoyed that.

It seemed we were powering over a near full strength Leeds side for the whole of the first half, Big Chris and Ligi were almost impossible to hold, their rampaging runs kept coming, but Leeds as we did at Headingley were superb in their defence, how they hung on, as their players dropped all around I don’t know, this is where the game was won.

The second half, we never had a plan B, a spark of pace and energy from the much underrated Dwyer, seemed to revitalise Leeds, and from then on they took control for a worthy win.

I’ve never been one to scapegoat my own team if possible, it’s pretty much obvious to all who have watched over the years, how much we’ve almost depended too much on Danny Houghton, he’s been absolutely incredible, and for 40 minutes yesterday he was still the same, but it’s become obvious now, we need a class nine, so Danny can be the bench hooker if needed.

We lacked a little punch in our pack behind Chris & Ligi, sometimes we need a running forward, especially when we dominated like last night, Joe & Laney and Mau, occasionally don’t work well together, plenty of toil, just no threat.

The invention all night was lacking, once again with such dominance our halves didn’t or couldn’t make it work.

But not forgetting we are missing some pretty big hitters last night as well, Savelio Griffin, Taylor, Connor, the loss of these four alone would add to the problems of any team, and especially on Taylor, he needs to be back asap, as Big Chris cannot keep carrying the team forward perpetually.

So put the knives away, we were pretty dumb last night against a good team who soaked up all our pressure and endeavour, and hit us with the old sucker punch, well played Leeds.

Saints on Monday, much easier. Any kind of weather.

I was dubious at best about Reynolds signing when we got him.
Somebody like Widdop would have made a massive difference alongside Sneyd.

Boosted by the £5 junior and key worker tickets.

Plenty of passholders missing in East Reserved who have been there since the stadium opened which is a big worry. Chance some are on holiday or are just being cautious about being crowds, but if we've lost very loyal fans like that then it is a big worry for the finances.

While Reynolds won't be cheap it's believed Widdop is the highest paid player in the league and we don't have the funds Warrington have.

Also why would any top level player consider Hull over the big 4 and Catalans (with the sunny South of France lifestyle) right now? Our last Grand Final was when some of the younger players were kids. We are a mid table attraction when it comes to contract offers sadly.

. Well said.