FearTheVee wrote:
No point overreacting to last night. We weren't at the races and Leeds pulled away through a series of poor (from our pov)/oppprtunistic tries. It happens sometimes and last night was one of those nights.
We'll be fine and I still fancy us to defend our title constant reshuffles and playing players out of position will catch up with you eventually and we're taking our medicine.
On the plus side we may see a Saints side with Walsh and percy starting next week which goes a long way to addressing many of the woes stated on this forum since the game finished last night.
Indeed, typical mid season madness reaction to a resounding defeat. Leeds look a better side than us at the moment, I don't have any problem saying that. Their backs are utterly superb, potentially one of the best that have ever played in Super League as a unit as bar McGuire they've got years left in them, certainly up there in contention:
1 - Hardaker, best fullback in SL, even when Sammy Boy returns as he can defend and Sammy cannot
2 - Hall with Handley as backup
3 - Watkins, best strike player in SL
4 - Moon, up there with the best overseas centres to play in SL. Not Jamie Lyon class, but a step up on most who've played SL
5 - Briscoe with Watkins moving there and Ablett to centre as cover, which loses Leeds very little
6 - Sutcliffe, looks a certain future international. They've replaced Sinfield and more with this kid
7 - McGuire, looked astonishingly good against us. Virtually unstoppable all night when he ran at the ruck and passed behind himself to one of the many runners.
To have that backline in this competition, a competition where standards have fallen each and every year since it began is remarkable. Their pack is relatively poor but they play to their strengths and will be very difficult to stop this year. Are we at that level? No, not currently. Under KC we look a bit lost, not really having a style or a noticeable consistency to our approach. We're more aggressive than last season and are getting numbers into the tackle, but the line speed is awful, we're missing tackles at a record-breaking rate and we're making so many unforced individual errors with the ball that it's hard to see what we're attempting to do as it's very rare we complete a set at the moment. Could we beat Leeds? Yes, we could, the pack is capable of laying a platform for the likes of Walsh to exploit, but KC has plenty to work on to get us up to the required level.
It's another transitional season as well, people forget that because of the GF win last season. We weren't the best side in SL last season, we just did a remarkable job of pulling it off against the odds.
