Re: Leeds away first up. : Sat Feb 15, 2025 9:07 pm  

Russell was my man of the match followed closely by captain M&M.

Trueman is genuine quality and I think that will help Lino as he just has to do the simple stuff and leave the game breaking plays to JT.

Some very workman like performances too in the trenches Storton was very good as was Croft in less eye catching but tough defensive efforts.

The scramble defence and 1% effort areas were the defining difference for me today.

A great day to follow Trinity. Cracking atmosphere plenty of overindulgence but nobody misbehaving.

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sat Feb 15, 2025 9:12 pm  

Storton’s performance particularly going forward reminded me of prime Danny Kirmond. Also always nice to see Connor being made to look like a mug.

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sat Feb 15, 2025 9:19 pm  

Jack Croft for me. Seriously changed my mind. Tackled brilliantly and made meters in contact

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sat Feb 15, 2025 11:05 pm  

Pat Bateman wrote:

I genuinely hope he makes it his position to lose, it’s very easy to praise quality like McMeeken, Storton and Truman et al…. but Croft is starting a new position and he was solid as a rock, bloody good on him. I had my doubts about Pratt…… I’ll happily eat humble pie with that lad, some talent that. The atmosphere was bouncing, definitely bringing the good vibes back to Wakey.

Glad you’re coming round to Pratt. The young lad oozes confidence and is quality. He outplayed an England centre today. He will be taking his England shirt in no time at all too imho. Though that’s for the future. I’m convinced Pratt is of future international quality. Can’t argue with the rest.

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sat Feb 15, 2025 11:55 pm  

Big Mike was my MOTM after the game, just.
Looking at the stats reinforces how much work the back row got through as a unit, Pitts, and Storton were very impressive as always and Croft showed what he's about, which is great to see moving forward, he really could have found a place into the top 21 players with a move to back row. Without their work, we'd have struggled imo.

Our bench props played just 18 and 10 minutes, which suggests if we hadn't lost Rodwell and Atoni, they wouldn't have been chosen and would still be a week or so away from being fully ready. With Vagana having hardly any pre-season and Caius just arriving in the country last week, but we managed. With the sin-binning and other factors, it made it quite tricky for DP to organise the sub-rotation at the times he'd have preferred, but we overcame that challenge.

Matty Russell carried really well, he's a great addition, as did TJ. Both Lino and Trueman did boss things off the back of the forwards and were very quick to get the ball to each flank, which was great to watch. Lino's looked sharp all pre-season and Trueman has shown up well but it was really pleasing to see them carry that on into an SL game with the extra pressure and Trueman really showing what a class player he is when fit. You'd have thought they'd have been playing together for years watching that.
Doyle and Russell came on and did their thing, both made good tackles and Doyle made some meters as well. Last but not least both centres Hall and Pratt had good games, a little more came down Hall's side than Pratts's but for his age Pratt juist continues to grow and grow and any thoughts about his size or lack of experience at this level have proved silly.

The defence as a whole seems to have moved up another level this year, our back row and hookers are excellent defensively and the left and right shut down any attack that seems to come their way, although we'll face better attacking teams as the season goes on but we look well drilled and very fit.

It's gonna be interesting when we have our full set of top 21 to pick from or at least most of them.

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sun Feb 16, 2025 12:58 am  

I agree with Trojan. Ollie Pratt oozes confidence and backs himself against whoever he plays against, and looks to have a very exciting career ahead of him, a probable England cap for the future ( along With Doyle )
Watching his disallowed try on the big screen looked harsh. Ollie and Matt Russell caused trouble down there left side all throughout the match. Mason Lino played well and only seemed to get sin binned by the southstand. Caleb Uele put in some big hits, but on the whole a very good team performance. Daryl Powell inspired another great result against one of his old clubs.

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sun Feb 16, 2025 3:35 am  

westgaterunner wrote:

I agree with Trojan. Ollie Pratt oozes confidence and backs himself against whoever he plays against, and looks to have a very exciting career ahead of him, a probable England cap for the future ( along With Doyle )
Watching his disallowed try on the big screen looked harsh. Ollie and Matt Russell caused trouble down there left side all throughout the match. Mason Lino played well and only seemed to get sin binned by the southstand. Caleb Uele put in some big hits, but on the whole a very good team performance. Daryl Powell inspired another great result against one of his old clubs.

I agree, that the gap Pratt ran down was huge. It was a 50/50 call at best that it was an obstruction, the Leeds player just seemed to run into him when he saw Pratt break for the line IMO, it wouldn't have made any difference if the Trinity player hadn't been there. That Leeds' defensive line was all over the place, and the Red Sea opened up for Pratt to run straight down to the line—nothing to do with an obstruction.
I also don't think Leeds scored their first try, nor did Powell. It went up as a no try and I don't think he got any downward pressure on the ball, Newman's hands seemed to be on either side of it when he dived, and then the ball bounced up and hit his shoulder. The TV picture was crap as well in slow-mo to rule an on-field no-try. The TV ref was very quick to change the on-field call as if he watched a video that showed undeniable proof and it was far from it from what i could see.

[PopTart]

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sun Feb 16, 2025 4:27 am  

I've no problem with Leeds try.
The fact the ball bounced shows he had applied pressure to it.

Oli's try on the other hand was a clear try to me.

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sun Feb 16, 2025 5:50 am  

Anyone see the Liam Hood incident at beginning of the second half. I am sure that the Leeds lad who runs it back uses a forearm to fend Hood off and sparks him. Showed one quick replay but never got reviewed unlike Lino's.

Re: Leeds away first up. : Sun Feb 16, 2025 6:20 am  

Trojan Horse wrote:

Glad you’re coming round to Pratt. The young lad oozes confidence and is quality. He outplayed an England centre today. He will be taking his England shirt in no time at all too imho. Though that’s for the future. I’m convinced Pratt is of future international quality. Can’t argue with the rest.

I always thought he was good, he carved up the championship and won young player of the year. It was his size that concerned me at SL level, especially against top teams/players but I couldn’t have been more wrong, he looks a top prospect. When I saw him carve through for the disallowed try i just thought what the hell.