I wasn't at the game....but before anybody starts it still entitles me to contribute to a talking shop forum ( educated opinion or not

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With regards to our Ryan being on the wing I suppose it depends on whether he continues to fulfill most of the criteria for being a "winger"... Not sure the qualities he possesses of mainly being a strong extra forward bringing the ball out is enough. Maybe it is for Leeds with their relatively feeble pack options to the degree of leaving somebody on the bench for 80 minutes.....but for a top flight club ??

There can be no argument that Ablett is a better centre than Moon for 'giving' the ball ( he reminds me of David Stephenson who used to play inside Carl Gibson - relatively slow, but good winger's centre ) ... But Moon has other qualities which command his selection there of course.

Ryan Hall is a great player who deserves his selection, but the bulking up is maybe a longer term plan to shift him into the forwards ( as long as the senior players agree of course ).

Watkins deserves the odd bad game too, but being persistently below expectations ( whoever he is ) surely commands some squad rotation? At least it should do.

Yes, we should drop this nations best winger (IMO) because he hasn't scored a couple more walk in tries than others.The squad is crying out for rotation, i mean 4 games into the season and we look lost and exhausted! a return of 7 out of 8 points is a totally unaceptable start.stick Sinfield in the Second Row and let Stevie Ward be the on field general because we look lost and things are clearly not working.

Perhaps Ryan's lack of form could be down to his attention being focused elsewhere......

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But I take it you have seen a recording

or otherwise no your contribution is indeed just shop talk.





What Criteria ?? I suspect a review his record over the past few seasons would show a strong across the board top quality skill set that has earned him; selection to the England squad; several GF winners medals, and at one point the accolade of "worlds best winger" did he not make the dream team I cant recall.

Can he retain that position ? well it is early doors still lets look again after Easter shall we.



The so called "feeble pack options" stood up to and matched the Giants pack, one of the strongest in the competition IMO for the full 80.

We are indeed a top flight club and the current coaches record stands comparison with any of his predecesors. Who would you have to replace him thats is currenlty available ??



Watkins had a poor game by his own standards on Friday but thats one game and we are only 4 games into the season, with 3 of them "banana skin" type away games.

Havent seen ANYONE who has been "persistently below expectations" at this early stage.

Should BM rotate his wingers ??? thats his call but I dont see we are under any undue pressure to panic at this time. Given last Fridays performance I would stick with the same starting line up, injuries permitting of course.

The only changes I would make are to leave Burrow on the bench a bit longer say until 55mins. Then spell him again early in the second half for him to come on in the last 20. IMHO of course.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6fQnTyEniMLip Up Hally![/url

These running chances that Briscoe didn't get on Friday because nobody inside him was creating space, don't include the try he did get and the two occasions in which Watkins made space for him then threw out an awful pass presumably?

Briscoe try?

??? Ward and Watkins

Could I just state when I started my Hall to centre thread, it was not to slag him down, but merely a question to more learned posters based on my observation that after the Catalan game I felt he reminded me a lot of Keith Senior.

It is a shame he is getting stick on here as he is a top finisher, but I agree with the feeling he is for some reason not as confident under the high ball as he used to be - just an observation, not slagging him off.

Happy Wednesday folks

Apols, my fault. Got last Friday confused with the week before.

Such incomprehensible confusion is probably indicative of how seriously we should take all of your - no doubt - equally confused contributions that are made here.

Indeed. But as some of the posts over the last couple of days show, he is not the only one lost in a fog of nostaliga and bewilderment....

Any word on the chunky lad turning out tomorrow night?

BJB is named in the 19 man squad



Could be a start on the bench for the lad

Yep. Might as well have another ass warming the bench for 80 mins.

Hall as been pretty shoddy under the bomb in defence.

My take on things is that the team would be stronger if Hall and Briscoe swapped wings, as I think Briscoe's strengths suit a centre with Moon skill set, plus the fact that very few teams attack more than 50% of the time down their right flank like we are doing(due to having the best centre around), so therefore most teams defences will surely have better defensive players on their left D.

I am intrigued.. What are these complementary skills that make Briscoe and Moon a better match?

I am intrigued by that as well. I would also like to know where Hall has been shoddy under the bomb ??

He missed judged one against Warrington to concede a try. Apart from that the 2 against Huddersfield where clear knock-ons by them

Hall didn't take two bombs under extreme pressure from the Giants that they knocked on & as has been said he failed to get to a very well judged kick against the Wolves.
Ergo he's been shoddy under the bomb in defence.
You coudn't make it up.

to add to that, the Warrington player taking that kick was Joel Monaghan,Possibly the best in SL at taking cross field kicks.

Counter argument - against such top drawer opposition Hall should have been even more focused in getting his position absolutely nailed on.

He was in postion though. His game decision was that the kick was clearing the attacker and he therefore positioned himself behind the attacker so has to receive the ball, which would then have given him a clear counter attacking run down the touchline.

The jump by the Warrington wing was phenomenal, even so he could only just tip the ball forward, and the diving catch was unbelievable.

On such decisions are games won and lost.



But it was a call of fractions of an inch.

I'm a fan of Hall and in squad terms he'd be very low down on my 'question mark' list.

But in this incident specifically he was caught out. He'd lost his winger and was in no mans land. Dog lover was free to leap and down the ball without being challenged.

That's how I saw it too. He probably would have been correct against anyone else apart from Tom Lineham.

Interestingly following swapping the wings on Friday, Brisco had a very quite game, similar to the ones Ryan Hall has been having. At present the vast majority of Leeds attacking options are going via Watkins so which every winger is outside of him will score plenty

Actually after Moon departed Briscoe had half chances in the opposition 30, it was either a case of bad pass, poor positioning, or not strong enough finishing.

One chance that left Briscoe crashing into the advertising boards seemed like one Hall would've scored. But he dropped a bomb so he needed to be dropped!!!