Agree that they were the 2 stand out wrong decisions,but unfortunately they cost us 12pts, a huge difference.

I'd swap Dixon and sio over, Blair at centre. Weyman and Bailey into the 17 welham and Donaldson dropping out

My team for Wakie would be:
1. Cockayne
2. Sio
3. Goulding
4. Blair / Salter
5. Mantellato
6. Campese
7. Kelly
8. Walker
9. Carlisle
10. Allgood
11. McCarthy
12. Horne
13. Burke
14. Wayman
15. Bailey
16. Green
17. Boudebza

I see everyone is preparing Dixon's Rovers obituary after 80 minutes. Is it any wonder players don't stick around too long?

Not at all stan,played in the right position he shows tons of potential and could be a real star.The trouble is full back is not that position,Imo he is an out and out winger.

Dixon needs a decent run at full-back. That's the position he's best suited to & that's where we'll get the most out of him. Too small for the wing.

His one on one defence is as bad as edens .... Maybe full back in attack wing in defence

Exciting fast running player, but not a full back. This year is not a year to test/ bed in players while we have a more suitable player for that position. He'll get game time on the wing when our usual injuries hit, so no, he's not thrown in the dustbin.
We've seen he can kick goals, and if Mantellato has a lack of form, then at least there's competition for places there.

I did a full face palm when Dixon waved the Leeds player through before he and Welham ran into each other to allow a try. I just couldn't believe how it happened, Dixon just had to slow him down to allow Welham to help, but neither of them shone for me. welham was lucky with his interception, his jumping out of the line made one try, but gave away at least 2

So Dixon can't tackle and Welham can't stop jumping out of the line, so in a shorter season where "Every Minute Matters" just how many games do you give these 2 to improve these core weaknesses in their respective games, which proved costly to the team last Sunday.

Welham has honed his weakness to perfection over the last 5 seasons and as a born sceptic if he hasn't shaken it off by now, I don't think he ever will. I suspect Chester will give Dixon one or 2 more outings at FB. In those 2 outings if you pardon the pun, he needs to grow a pair and get lower in the tackle.

Surprised no one has mentioned the blatant knock on from sio which led to your first try and the offside from kelly when he scored his 2nd. Swings and roundabouts and all that

Full back as a position is not like the days of Fairburn.

Briscoe is probably the last of those we'll ever see, although that's being unfair to him because he also had many of the attributes currently required.

A full back is no longer there as a last line of defence, if they can do that then great, and ideally they should. Their defensive role is to call the plays and direct the defence, almost like a general. If an opposition player breaks through and gets one on one with the full back then that means the rest of the team has failed.

Left edge was again a problem, and after banging on about all last season I'm going to continue and say that this is as much a problem with the way our second rower is set up as much as our half and centre.

Horne call's the defensive play there by his actions, Campese then get's it badly wrong and Welham compounds that by going, well, who knows where.

My theory is that there are massive magnets under the pitch and that the players have the opposite polarity magnets stitched into their shirts and David Doyle Davison is sat somewhere pulling the players (off, via magnets) up and down the pitch like some diabolical conductor.

Dixon effected at least two attempted tackles that halted Leeds's momentum, he wasn't great at other times but he should never have been in that position in some of the other scenarios.

I'm guessing that people are critising him for Briscoe's try where he fends him off, wingers are now almost universally six foot plus fifteen stone plus monsters, try tackling that one on one and see where you get.

Offensively is where it's at and I thought he did pretty well, came into the line on both sides and passed the ball (have any of you tried to run and accurately pass the ball both left and right?) He gave us options and looked dangerous in broken field.

Needs time.

Somehow that last post got cut and pasted all over the place, read the paragraphs in the way that causes you most or least displeasure.

I'm off back to Quiz Crack.

Where was Boudebza? Baffling that he plays and trains all pre-season and then misses out for Cockayne, who has had no pre-season whatsoever and really isn't a hooker. He can't have been too impressed by that. Really enjoyed game but no Weyman, Bailey and/or Cox made the difference with a lightweight bench......and 64 missed tackles of course!!

Your team running out of petrol after 60 minutes could be something as simple as your rookie coach being too keen to train the boys down to the last minute and not giving them a decent rest period before the game.
He wouldn't be the first coach to do that. Brian Smith used to do that every year and lost first round most years because of it.
If so, the team should get into a more normal routine this week and be full of energy for your next game.

Press the pause button as the ball leaves Campese's boot and you'll notice Kelly about a meter behind him.

Similarly you can tell that at worst Sio palmed the ball sideways and probably a little behind. Had there been a video ref both of those tries would definitely still have been awarded.

My only real complaint about Thaler was not giving the obstruction. I know the rules on obstruction have been relaxed but given Thaler's decision you'd have thought they had been done away with altogether. A video ref would have chalked that one off surely.

We could and should have won anyway.

TBF - IMO, We've been a 60 minute side for the past x-seasons. It overlaps too many coaches/players to be just coincidence that it must stem from our fitness dept, which has been consistent throughout this time (+our new coach). I'm sure there's many variables involved - Maybe other teams have evolved far more off the field and are fitter and stronger through all that sports science stuff and we've been left behind somewhat. We've also recruited some work shy larkers too, to compliment our possible weakness.

In high intensity games, we just haven't kept in the game long enough or weather the storm when it comes. Like a house of cards. We start to fatigue, what game plan we had falls away, our kick chase disintegrates, off loads everywhere and there's too much space to be had. This exposes our weak tacklers who we maybe carry somewhat and get away with to a degree in parts. But once, our line is cracked, we haemorrhage points.

There was a time when we could defend a narrow lead and see games out. Now, there doesn't seem to be a lead(s), that we can't throw away.

Having reviewed the tv footage I know the answer to your questions. Nobody mentions them as they are figments of your imagination.

Really? Get your head out of the sand stan, you're better than that

Right, having still got the footage on my Sky planner I can confirm that you are still talking out your Iestyn.

Strange! that's so unlike him too.

I've just seen a picture of the McGuire obstruction or no obstruction according to thaler, and our defensive line has Horne scampering across then campese and mantallento in a line and welham 10 yards in front of them 3 leaving a big enough gap for a double decker bus to pass throw

I've just seen a picture of the McGuire obstruction or no obstruction according to thaler, and our defensive line has Horne scampering across then campese and mantallento in a line and welham 10 yards in front of them 3 leaving a big enough gap for a double decker bus to pass throw

Tbf roopy, it could also be something as simple as Leeds being one of the great teams of the SL era, with a fantastic back division.
Plus we do miss a lot of tackles - though I do wonder exactly how that stat is compiled. Is somebody counting in real time or playback? It'd certainly be one of the more subjective measures, if it is down to one person. It's a real problem for us, no doubt but 8th worst in SL history and 'only' conceded 40 - not sure about that.

He's got the ghosts of Shaun Briscoe and Greg Eden haunting him from different directions and he was picked to start ahead of Ben Cockayne - with that in mind, 80 minutes is quite impressive longevity.