...see the thread "Golding liabilty" .....there are plenty of us defending the lad. He's no Hardaker (But then who is?)....but thought he stood up pretty well.
Congrats to your team. You look a different side with Wilkin in there....and Walsh deserved his MOM performance. You could yet peak at the right time and win the GF...Leeds are maybe one injury away from their season falling off to a whimper (no complaints though). It's that tight come season's end.
One thing for sure...I'd rather Saints win the GF than the Wigan with their spoiling tactics. Saints have far more players commanding mutual respect epitomised by Roby - a true model professional in the Sinfield/Peacock mould.

Ablett is the only ever present for us this season and usually plays all or nearly all the 80 so I don't think it's anything a decent break wouldn't fix.

As for the talk about lineup with regards to hooker/HB and Sinfield at hooker....tonight isn't the night to judge it properly. That was a very tired performance from the off really. A good 8 day turnaround now and hopefully Hardaker, Watkins and Burrow back and we'll be more like the team for the last several weeks. Not particularly worried by the Saints performance. A lot of scores tonight gifted to them from us and as mentioned, they were playing a very tired opposition and couldn't blow us away and had to resort to wasting time in the final 10 mins.

I didn't think Saints were all that either. Their kicking game was good but of the tries: the first one was a gift, the second wasn't a try, the third would have been stopped by a stronger fullback, and only the fourth was quality.

It's not a question of knowing when, he holds on all the time. He has world class players outside him, it is is criminal how little Moon gets of the ball, consistently. The difference with the others you mention, is that Ablett actually has the opportunity to release but doesn't, the space is there, but he plays like he can beat all himself. He seems to stand and watch a lot, and regret afterwards.

It isn't an ability thing, we know that with how he has previously been, it seems to be an attitude thing, and a sense of complacency from him. And I am writing this has a general theme, rather than specifically last night, as I have a feeling due to the amount of times they ran at him that his stats would probably show a high tackle count.

As for the game, as far as I saw, the missed tackles and errors was probably pretty much the same for both sides, and I guess the territory if anything was probably in our favour. The major difference was, the first class kicking game of Saints, and their ability to bring their backs into play and us not, which for me is where players like Ablett are not doing it.

the major difference was saints were fresher and we had a referee, and I use the term loosely, that let them be offside at most play the balls and lay on all night. I don't think we had a quick play the ball all night

Ablett did put in a good tackling stint, but I agree with Gotcha regarding his failure to offload when he has the chances. IMO last night JP and Ward were the pick of the pack. Cuthbertson, Garbutt and Delaney spoilt their good work with missed tackles, errors and penalties and Singleton was disappointing and once again missed the chance to step up when he is needed. Mags too was lacking spark yet had their kicking game not have been as good we could still have won it.

With Sutcliffe and Burrow out injured and Sinfield playing at 9 we have a problem at half back. It is too much to expect Lilley to be ready to step up yet and it highlights Burrows importance to the squad and the up coming problems when Sinny moves on. If McGuire were to get injured next year we would have a big problem unless we recruit. However Golding could be a good option at scrum half.

I thought there were similarities with our injury-disrupted performance away to wigan in July. Our response needs to be as good this time starting with a win in France. No reason to panic just yet but the treble just became that little bit more difficult.

For me it is all about how we respond to this loss. The loss itself isn't a massive shock, Saints got us at the best possible time. We looked jaded and apathetic at times, we were slow and could not make space, but post Wembley and with several key bodies missing that isn't really a surprise. What shouldn't be forgotten is how key this game was for Saints. If they had lost this game against a weakened Leeds side, it would have been hard for them to recover confidence and self belief enough to have a decent say in the end of the season. In short this game was more important to them than to Leeds and that showed on the night.

Our season hinges on how we respond next week. Another poor performance will both shake our self belief and encourage the rest of the comp to believe that they can beat us. RL is as much about mental strength and confidence, the memories of last years post Wembley collapse must not be allowed to take hold.

What was wrong with Jones's try?

Can't remember the scoring sequence but I suspect that it was the one that involved a knock on by Walmsley? Ball went forward and rebounded off a tackler's boot into the hands of the scorer. At least that was my take on it.

I think that was the Wilkin one wasn't it?

Where did he put it down? He didn't even think he had scored himself.

Stats from the game: www.superleague.co.uk/report/11950

Stats from the game: www.superleague.co.uk/report/11950

Regarding the VR. This thing about the ref making a decision and then sending upstairs is ridiculous. All it means is, both sets of officials can distance themselves from any responsibility. The ref sends it upstairs as a try despite doubting it is a try, video ref can't prove or disprove it wasn't a try. Try is awarded, the video refs say it was the referees decision, the referee on the field thinks he's been vindicated because the VR couldn't prove he was wrong.
The current system pretty much renders the VR pointless.

He didn't get it down. You could tell by his face when he got up. Also, the fact that James Child said it was would suggest it wasn't

So you don't know, therefore it's not a try.

Interesting, so technically if you never watched any games you could dispute all tries. (Using the 'if a tree falls in the woods' philosophy)

Benefit of the doubt has always been to the attacker. You could argue if it's a 50/50 there should be no benefit of the doubt, but then by that very logic you give benefit of the doubt to the defender.

The laws of the game say that a referee "shall not disallow a try just because he did not see the ball being grounded". So he's quite within his rights - bizzarely - to refer the Jones decision as a try if he believes he got the ball down.

For me if they keep this on-field decision with regards to the VR then they at least need to come up with a 3rd option. At the moment it's the very black and white 'Try' or 'No Try'. Their should be a signal were the ref can send it up to say he doesn't know and leave it completely in the control of the VR instead of guessing. As is it they have to make one of the two signs, either the 'T' for try or arms crossed for no try, they can't send it upstairs without doing one of those even if they genuinely don't know what's happened.

Slightly off thread, Wigan have beaten Catalan quite comprensivley. I was half hoping for a Catalan victory. With a bit of luck Catalan have chucked in the towel this season..
Thus making our visit easier.

We have a good record there. Fully rested no reason we can't win there regardless of their situation.

Saints had two weeks to prepare for one of their biggest games of the season. With Leeds likely (still) to finish top of the pile the last thing Saints want is to have to travel back to Leeds to play a team that's beaten them 4 times already in the season for a place in the GF. I remember in 2003 when Leeds went to Bradford in a similar situation having lost multiple times to the Bulls (4 I think) that year already - it's very, very tough to turn that around mentally - and we didn't. Also, Saints have been really struggling and just needed a win full stop.
BMD's reaction post match on Sky was a bit of a give away - he actually smiled. The only thing tougher to get over other than losing a CC final is winning one, very difficult to come down and then get back right up again in a few days then play (without three key players) a team like Saints desperate for a win. The mood in the Leeds team looks totally different than last year when a generation of players finally lanced a particularly painful boil and then put their feet up. The loss will get them focussed and Cats will feel the backlash.

The other silver lining is that Saints may have some confidence back and Wigan have to play them.

This

Oh and I thought we competed really well. I seem to remember Saints coming to us one season after winning the CC and we put 70 past them

We had a dig albeit a tired error ridden one and came up short ST's deservedly won Child was what we all know he is Garbage we move onto next week.

Homophobe