Now he's won a game with 15, how long before he tries it with 14?

Christ alive we could end up with fewer than 10 on the field

The Burrow one maybe but in the first half JJB went off for about 10 mins. Like people have said, too many games he's blowing out his and would be more effective with a decent rest. Jimmy should have come on then and could have done the period before and after half time.

I can't recall them getting into their groove, more that penalties and poor Saints handling helped us. It just happens too often. How many games is that this season not utilising his bench?

Saints players were struggling hence why they were coming up with errors and penalties and struggling to get anywhere near our line in the final 30 mins and took one bit of individual play for them to actually score any points second half. Yes players looked tired, it's a tough game RL you know, Peacock use to look knackered about 5 mins into a match in the last several years of his career.

In which case presumably Delaney or someone else wouldn't have been used?


I don't think it was poor Saints handling or certainly not exclusively. Giving penalties away and dropping the ball is usually a sign of a team being put on the back foot and starting to lose the play the ball. We upped it in the second half, just as Saints had done to us in the first. And you could see from how we passed the ball around in the second half that we were more confident and assured with the ball. We were passing it and offloading and they were sticking. If I was coach I'd have been loathe to disrupt that if I felt I didn't have to.

Wasn't it two late errors by an understandably weary Ward that almost proved costly. St Helens knick that game at the death and the post mortem probably has a less sympathetic outcome.

said that to rhinoms last night. he was out on his feet. but he obviously didn't warrant having a 10 minute breather.
saints were tired, according to some, as we stepped it up. but don't mention the leeds players out on there feet making errors.
the 17 should, and could, have been handled far more responsibly to get the maximum out of them.
i'm sure some will still make excuses though

Yes, but the one that led to their second try was caused by an unnecessary pass when all we had to do was "stick it up the jumper". That's what irked me the most at the time.
I know that Watkins missed a relatively easy penalty kick - at the game I said we shouldn't have gone for it - but fotunately for us Percival's miss was even worse.
Thank goodness also for LMS' concrete hands, couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

Percival was as bad as anyone else on the field last night, and seems to have gone way off the boil, which isn't great from an England POV, although I don't think he's ready yet anyway.
Watkins though, must have to do more tackling than any other centre in the comp. Another 30 tackles from him yesterday, it would really benefit his game if we could find a way to reduce his defensive workload, but it doesn't help that most teams favour their left side attack.

Oh I think no one beat LMS last night for poor performance.

Having a halfback on the same side of the field who had some semblance of tackling technique would help. Watkins is almost doing the defensive work of two players. That and our inability to provide him with early ball with a 1-on-1 with his opposite number costs us greatly.

True, McGuire has never been a great defender, but I can't see it improving with Myler coming in, he's a worse defender than McGuire.

The way to reduce a centre's defensive workload is to increase a half-backs defensive workload and freshen up the second row (who will really be tasked with double defensive shifts) through using bench rotation. Leeds are about as far removed from doing any of that as can be imagined.

The easy answer current time, is swap Moon and McGuire round in the defensive line. Not a long term answer, but current, and should certainly be the option against Cas.

It shouldn't be either/or. He should be able to managehis subs so Jimmy gets game time to spell someone and so does Delaney. Then the replaced players get a good rest and replace them.

TBH, I'm completely fed up with the bloke. I just pray he isn't there next year.

I'm in neither the pro or anti loby as far as McD is concerned. But I can not square the circle with reference to the failure to use all 17 players. It means our players that do play get through more work than players in teams that use their full rotation. Over the course of a full season this could mean tired players come the business end of the season and a risk of increased injury rates. We may only be talking about marginal differences, but working on marginal gains has been a key focus across most sports. for years now. RL is a 17 man game, to not manage your resources to spread the effort seems plain dumb.

If any coach deserves criticism for his subs then it's Holbrook.....didn't bring on Richardson until 8 mins left and when he did he scored a solo try. Maybe brought on earlier he'd have won the game.

But energy/fatigue is not the only factor to consider. With Parcell tearing it up as he was, even at the end, regardless of energy it might be better to leave him on and not bring Burrow on.

Who scored dummying past a blatantly fatigued Stevie Ward who'd earlier dropped the ball for their Scrum.

but at least he did get on......

I don't disagree H. But what I was saying was that it's a 17 man game, I wouldn't presume to make the call on the who's and when's should have been in the interchanges. I will also conceed that some times there will be good tactical reasons not to use the the full 17. But IMO it happens too often with Leeds.

Two dumbs don't make a smart.

Yes and if brought in earlier could've done more damage. Maybe Ward only knocked on because of fatigue....who knows? LMS knocked on with pretty much his first touch off the bench.

Not rotating forwards is just really, really dumb player management. No NRL side does it, no matter how many tyros are on the bench. If you can't trust a forward to make some tackles and a few runs whilst giving someone a breather for 10 minutes then he shouldn't be in the 17 at all.

Ward was blowing & id say it's more likely than not that he doesn't buy that dummy had he been fresher.

That's how I see it.