Meh.

It would have been nice to get back to wembley and have another bash at winning it, but we'd have had a nightmare schedule.

At least we get 2 free weeks to play the games in hand and then another week off shortly before the playoffs, that's ideal, we haven't had a week off since 2009.

In terms of the game itself, nothing to really worry about, just poor execution on the day let us down. Take away the silly intercept tries, sinfield wears his kicking boots, and the game is neck and neck. Huddersfields defence was very good, their attack was crisp and they deserved the win. I feel like they targeted this game strongly, and possibly the CC as a whole.

It's important we remain consistent in the league, get our outstanding games played (and hopefully won) and get into that top 2. If today is anything to go by I don't fancy trying to get to the grand final from lower down this season, home advantage will be important.

The interchange policy continues to baffle me.

How many passes did we have intercepted today?

Not watched the game back yet but I reckon 4.

I thought the poor execution stemmed from an inability to get on top of their pack. I thought they ran smarter and harder than we did all game.

Neither Burrow nor Sinfield were brilliant today, but they weren't the weakest link in the midfield triangle.

McGuire looks like a player who is narked by the fact he can no longer run away from people with pace and footwork. Watching him get overhauled by Brough when he had a clear run to the line in first half was embarrassing.

His frustration is leading to him losing his temper and looking to start fights. The nonsense with Cudjoe being the prime example. He's in a four man tackle over the line trying to get the ball down, there are going to be arms and legs flying and he may well cop a knock to the face. That he then came up swinging was the sign of a frustrated man.

I have said it for a couple of years now we need to make changes, Burrow needs to come off the bench, we need to sign a quality scrum half who can move us around the field and dictate play and more important get the ball out wide to our Watkins and moon who are the best in the league. These two players are criminally under used. I would try sinfield at hooker and move McGuire to stand off. I would love to see a MIchael DObson type scrum half a Leeds but we all know it won't happen. If our coach has no confidence in mcshane then we should look to move him to cas in exchange for someone like Darrel Clark. I can,t believe why he wa not kept on longer today. Our tactics today were awful and we had no idea in attack and made it easy for Huddersfield to defend. Our attack as been poor all season with the odd exception. Only our defene has kept us in the hunt. McGuire looks like he has a wooden leg and burrow justs runs around looking like a headless chicken. If we had won that game after wardle was sent off it would have been an injustice, Huddersfield deserved their win no doubt. Our coach has proven week in and week out he wants to flog these players until they bleed, no rotation at all and by the end of season players like peacock and luleuai wil be shagged .
We have no structure in attack at all compared to teams like Wigan,

Beaten by a better team on the day. Hudds celebrated like they'd won the cup! We're not far off the mark, most of the above comments are an insult to how well Hudds played. Good on them, at least they've an excuse for the expected end of season capitulation



PS First time I've heard Anderson interviewed. Quality.

Lots of knee-jerkery going on.

We were second best today. Hudds executed their game plan very well, we fluffed our lines too many times.

Better team won. We've lost before. We'll be back.

Indeed.....but Leeds's deficiences [iwere[/i cruelly exposed: namely the tightening of the defence with Sinfield is costing the team in attack against the better determined team; McGuire [i[uhas[/u[/i lost the edge to his pace which is causing him frustration and his displays show a reluctance to accept it .....AND Burrow is most definitely not a starting hooker (his attribute of running against tired forwards from dummy half - as back up to a [uproper[/u hooker, who can defend in the middle - needs to be implemented asap..... McShane [ishould[/i start).

Watkins DOES NEED to be better used.

I'm surprised McGuire's loss of pace is being discussed, he lost his pace about 7 years ago.

Tackles in league matches

- Sinfield = 313 - Avg 26 (only 9 less than main prop Peacock)
- Brough = 174 - Avg 13.4 (109 less than main prop Crabtree)

- Burrow = 100 - Avg 8.5
- Lunt = 392 - Avg 28

Time for some new batteries in t'old calculator?

Nah, one eye on the tv, a touch screen phone and thumbs like sausages.

No complaints about the result, better side won, but we created enough chances to have won, but for poor last plays or bad passes. What I could not understand why we tried to go down the middle the whole time. We have the worlds best winger and also Moon and Watkins who I would say at present the best centres in the game at present. But alias Watkins is played out of position. Brough look good in the first half because of the wind, why did we not follow suite in the second. McGuire lack of pace is worrying and the fact he will not pass another problem. I have said this for two years we need to freshen up the half backs. Lunt had a good game as well. Dont understand when losing why was Mcshane not put on, love Ryan B but he is not ever going to win a game when you need 10 points in ten minutes.

Positives are that the players will but able to get some rest, no mid week matches now, also could not stand another long journey back after losing the Cup final, 94,95,00,03,05,10,11,12. But what a turn out by Leeds supporters and what a disgraceful turn out by Huddersfield supporters. 70% of the ground were Rhinos followers.

Whats all this massive negativity all of a sudden, we lose a game on another day we may have won comfortably. look how many goal line oppurtunitys we had.

for alot of the game Hudders couldn't get past the half way line, and our forwards were making very good ground.

What I was a liitle annoyed at is every time we had at the Hudders goal line or under 10m every single of they're players had two feet in front of the try line at all times....and at points were getting to the pass receiver before the bloody ball. whats the point of having the both feet behind the line if it is not enforced

Fed up with Watkins being played on the wing. Best centre in SL and wasted out there. Surely we've got a good young winger who can gain valuable experience until BJB returns.

Shame about the soft Lunt try, think things could have been different if they had not had this lapse. Credit to Huddersfield - they really have become our bogey team.

Outplayed ,outfought and out-enthused imo.
They didn't give up but for me we never loked likely to win it our passing looked very slow and wayward and like oyhers have said i thought the Giants wanted it more.

One mention of the BBC coverage - the commentary by the video judge - an excellent contribution to the matchday presentation and another innovation by the RFL, I just don't understand why a business so willing to introduce such viewer and crowd friendly innovations such as this still cannot promote themselves properly, the RFL are the Aldi of sports, everyone thinks that they are rubbish until they shop there, but then they decide to keep it a secret.

There is.

Even if we continue to ignore Chisholm there are another [utwo[/u young lads who at least deserve a chance based on apparent decent promise shown in acadamey matches.

In the last 20 minutes our right hand side was criminally underused. It frustrated me no end up. I'd back Watkins 1 on 1 against anyone in SL yet he got the ball only once in that time (scoring a try too). It just made no sence to go left the amount of times we did because they matched up against us that way.

There's no knee jerk from me because I'm not an idiot and can see that we lost due to one of the best defensive efforts in a long time. It just annoys me how as a team, we seem unable to pass quick and accurately to the right when we have the most explosive ball runner in the League, who needs to have his hands on the ball more than 3 times in a game, over there.

Pains me to say it but it was the holy trinity what let us down. The forwards played well enough and the backs did what they could. It was the link between the two that failed spectacularly.

Wouldn't diminish Huddersfield's role in this - in particular, Brough cut us to ribbons.

In some ways I'm glad we're out of it - there's a hex on this team in the CC.

Agree with JerryChicken, though, the BBC coverage was excellent.

[uUsing the present three-quarters [/uI like a back three of Hardaker, Watkins and Hall for the potential damage they can do on kick returns. Once Leeds are in possession I'd switch Ablett and Watkins as a solution to the problem being highlighted here. If you stood Ablett and Hall side by side I doubt physically there'd be much to choose between them. Could be Leeds' very own Vaikona and Vainakolo and they were awesome threats.

Watkins perhaps would then get the ball in his hands more often and Ablett could go and mix it with wingers such as Keiran Dixon and Chris Riley, he might even come out on top for once if it gets a bit tasty.

some pretty knee jerk posts bearing in mind we have won the last 8 beating some bloody good sides on the way.
giants took there chances,we didn't. they played better than us.it happens.
the only thing i would say is at the moment burrow at hooker isn't working.
perhaps mcshane starting may help.
i would like to see a real top class hooker signed for next season but not sure that will happen.
oh, and the sooner BJB returns the better

Don`t think we were watching the same game, didn`t Leeds do the same, plus the fact that Leeds were way offside at play-the-balls, they were up before the ball had gone to the foot. Totally ignored by Bentham.

I think both teams were as bad as each other tbf.