Had plenty of time driving home to think about what went wrong. Conclusion is Warrington we're outstanding. Tip my hat to them, they deserved it.

A couple of players we're more than guilt of some lazy defending. Too many players infact. Most notably Captain Kev.

We lost the collision big time. Which is a big worry going into the playoffs without JP. 85% of the time Warrington we're landing on their chests in the tackle, 85% of the time Leeds we're been put on there backs.

Big mistake from Bluey leaving Ali out. But that's easy to say now isn't it!

Eastwood my man of match, without a doubt. Put some real hits in and was the only forward to take Warrington on up the middle and come running out the other side.

I agree, Warrington were very good and had much better last tackle options than us, we were also on the end of a couple of poor desisions but I do not think they would have affected the result but maybe the momentum at the time. Too many of our top player were found wanting and because we left ali out we were light on the fringes. We shoul have been hitting the channels not hitting the inside man and heading back into the ruck. Our defence was as bad as it has been for over a month and needs to tighten up in the next two weeks or we will be good, I am beggining to think our season may be over and can only hope the team and management can lift themselves up off the floor, I have to, so should they.

Too many of our forwards just didn't compete today, Wire's forwards were making easy yards yet a lot of the hard work coming out of our own 25 was being done by our backs, the forwards were nowhere to be seen. We badly missed Peacock which is a bit worrying, the likes of Bailey, Kirke, Abblett just weren't good enough on the day.

Warrington were pretty outstanding defending there own line those first 15 mins. Leeds kicking game was poor in the 1st half, a bit erratic with the elected kicker after the last tackle. Sinfield didn,t look prominenent for long spells in the game.
Not a great fan of Ryan Bailey watched him for 10 mins in the game, lazy sod wouldn,t go in first tackle on quite a few tackles, left it to mates then came in on the 3rd tackle.
Warrington fairly dominent in the pack, which meant your centres had to do a lot of defensive work to help out. Would think in 2012 Leeds will need quite a lot of new players as the current squad is weighted towards 30+ years by then.

Wire had the perfect day imo they battered us in the forwards and enough speed and skill out wide to finish us off.
Can't agree Rhino-neil about M.O.M for us for me it was Mags but each to their own because we were'nt good enough and it's a long time since i've seen a Leeds pack so pi$$ poor.
I agree re-Ali and Abblett looked way off the pace which is a shame because i think he's been good this year.
Well done Wire well deserved as for us i don't know what to expect now maybe we can bounce back but i'm not so sure.

game was lost in the first 5/10 minutes when we had 4/5 sets on their line and came up empty, first time they got the ball after that they made 50+ meters in the set and a great kick to put us back in our 20, where we struggled to get out

Extract from McLennan
"I hope everyone will acknowledge the Leeds Rhinos boys put in a tremendous effort and worked very hard"

unfortunatetly not as much effort as Warrington who were tremendous today. Pity we couldn't match their tackling. Apart from the opening 10/15 minutes we were 2nd best in all departments. Well done Warrington.

Obviously for me as a Wire fan it was an enjoyable day out. We controlled the game and Leeds were never in it. Without Peacock and Burgess was always going to make it a challenge for Leeds however there was enough quality on the field to have won the game if other forwards had stood up, however other than Eastwood it was hard to see any of the Leeds players who had a good day, whereas pretty much all of the Warrington players were on their game. I can see why Leeds fans will be disappointed because they didn't compete, and the most marked difference for me was not in the forwards, it was out wide where Leeds have traditionally been strong in big games. Warrington's strike players did damage every time they had the ball, how many breaks did Riley, Atkins, King and Hicks make where at least the first man was beaten and Leeds were hanging on to bring them down.

Other than that the general atmosphere was enjoyable and I travelled with several Leeds fans to and from the game and all of them were realistic in their assessment of the game and gracious in defeat without bitterness so I thought it was a nice friendly day out and a credit to rugby league and the occasion. Hope the Leeds fans are not too disappointed with today, there will be other big games ahead...

You know I'm just re-watching the game on Sky+ and we we're pretty dawn good in the first ten mins. Real outstanding efforts in defence. Shame it didn't continue. Bailey made the mistake in trying to run over the top of Mathers in the first few mins. All he had to do dive low and it was a try. Ah well.

Some good points well made SC. We just were outplayed in every department.Well done and very well deserved. Did anyone see what happened at the Warrington end in the corner? Some pretty meaty punches thrown and plenty of biff. Not sure who was fighting who.

Was a right tear up wasn't it. I was no where near the incident but from distance saw some scuffling early on and it soon turned into a royal rumble. One can only suggest that some Rhinos fans got wound up in the Warrington end and it kicked off. No doubt the RFL will investigate.

I don't think that was the complete performance from Wire, I think they have a couple more levels to go up. We looked lost. No structure, and many of the big game players didn't turn up.

Its going to take a big turn around in confidence and form to get to the grand final from here

today was similar to the whole season, poor defence and a lack of a kicking game a key
we lacked go forward without our best prop, Bailey gets put over the line and not scoring was a big moment (3 years and counting)
a few bad calls went against us at crucial points and meant we were out of striking distance, to often we go behind and make a big comeback, the first try took too long to come

given where the fighting broke out (and it was a massive ruck) could it have been the associates of the leeds schoolboy team? ther other team fans were in that position in the leeds end - they had a bad day, some bad calls went against their boys and then leeds rhinos didnt help

A few observations:

Defensively we were awful, as bad as I remember. It was summed up for me by the Hall and Kirke "effort" on Atkins where he made them look silly to score his 2nd try.

We lacked structure in attack and seemed to have no game plan. McGuire for me offered the only real threat and he had no real platform to work from.

We seemed to lack enthusiasm from an early stage. There was no urgency even right at the beginning of the 2nd half. The crowd never really got into the game and think the main reason was the players gave them very little to respond to. For a team that have talked this game up for 2/3 years there was something missing today.

Big game experienced players had poor games - Buderus, Sinfield, Webb and Burrow were about as poor as I can remember them ball in hand.

2 many of our forwards made little or no contribution - Ablett, Kirke, Clarkson were all fairly anonymous for me.

We didn't have the rub of the green. It might have made no difference but the Webb to Hall forward pass looked harsh and the Mathers to Riley offside was a bad miss. If we score to make it 8-6 it's a different game.

Bluey was comprehensively outcoached by TS on this showing - if Ali was fit to leave him out is a staggering decision.

Few Leeds players emerge with credit for me - I thought Bailey did OK and Leuluai had a decent 1st spell. Eastwood made an impact in places and Delaney was strong all day. McGuire should walk our player of the season though - always a threat.

On another note, I thought Mathers was outstanding for them. He seems to find a new level for big games

The only explananation which makes sense, from the performance today, is that the whole team, excited at being in the capital, were out clubbing 'til 4 a.m.

We weren't even second best.

As a Hull FC fan that wanted Leeds to win, I have to say I thought McLennan was a bit arrogant in the pre match interview on BBC. Fair enough, 3 back to back titles, he's earned the right to be confident, but his words and style of delivery suggested he thought the game was a formality and bordering on disrespectful to a team that's joint 2nd and arguably the form team of the competition.

As a neutral, it seemed that Warrington were more patient and Leeds tactics of ploughing down the middle without Peacock or Burgess were strange, plus the number of basic handling errors was telling on a hot day against opposition that were pretty clinical. Personally not looking forward to the backlash at the KC, though. Could be a long night at the office for us if you respond in champions' fashion.

Thought the Buderus dropped ball in the 1st minute set the tone for the rest of the game, sloppy errors all round. We weren't clinical enough in attack too many of our big players who needed to step in for the loss of Peacock had poor games such as Sinfield, Buderus and Webb. A couple of things didn't go our way but we can't complain, the better team won on the day and Warrington were magnificent, looked dangerous everytime they got near our line and we always looked clueless. Poor decision leaving out Ali IMO, he's a game breaker and it would have made Senior and Hall alot more of a threat as well. On reflection, I would have played Donald as we needed a bit of pace but tbf to Bluey, Smith does bring the goods in a lot of big games. Didn't make enough yards forward, too many errors, not clinical enough and the bounce of the ball didn't go our way basically summed up the day. You can't win 'em all, let's prove we can bounce back from this and get a win at Hull heading in to the play offs, we have a week break, I don't think fatigue will be too much of a factor next week.

Shocking and embarrassing, end of !!!!!!

From a wire fans point of view.

Peacock takes 20+ drives in for you, no on stood up & took his place.

McGuire & Burrow didn't click. even had words & for long periods had space but no runners. Wire crash balls in comparison were awesome.

The 40/20 turned the game.

Budherus bottled it completely.

Still at 20 up I though it was a matter of time before you came back & did us. It's the first time i've seen Leeds play poorly. I'm sure it's a one off.

The stats saiod it all, warrington making over 400m more metres forward than we diod. And what the hell was Mcclennan doing dropping Ali and playing an un match fit Ablett.

Choking on a big day, who do we think we are, St Helens?

I was sat on the half way line with my dad but my friend sat in the Warrington end corner you mention. When we were travelling home later in his car he said that once Anderson scored near the end to confirm victory for Warrington some Leeds "fans" who were sitting in that end just could not accept the fact that they had lost,and started throwing punches at anyone in a Warrington shirt near enough to be on the recieving end of them. Quite frankly shameful as was Ryan Bailey who spent all afternoon hiding from Carvell and Morley but put the elbow in on Chris Riley in the last minute just for the hell of it. Bailey is just a cheap shot merchant. Before the game I had a nice chat with some Leeds fans who told me the result was a formality and the cup was going back to yorkshire. They were unbelievably arrogant,oh how I wish I had bumped into them again after the match!!!!!!!!!

Is yesterday the result of having a "get stuck in, up and at em" type coach, who can motivate players for some games but doesn't know how to produce a game plan, coming up against a technical coach who does all the detail and makes specific plans for specific players?

We were comprehensively outplayed, but even more comprehensively outcoached. All the same issues we have had for the last 3 years were evident, we gave away penalties, dropped far too much ball, and didn't have enough go forward or depth to our attack when we had the ball.

Very disappointing performance from a poorly coached team IMHO.

Well done Warrington, by far the better team, and thoroughly deserved to win.

We did not get the rub of the green when Leeds threw the ball 5 miles forwards for Smith to score in the corner but you don't mention that one!!!!!

when youve achieved all the success weve achieved in super league then you can call yourself st,helens....
you may have beaten us in 3 grand finals..(which im sure will come up again as per-usual)..but compare our challenge cup success to yours how many times have you won it compared to saints?..and why does st,helens always seem to come up in a game which had nothing to with us?
and just for the record.its a good job silverwood felt a bit sorry for you and let that mile forward pass go to let you score..otherwise you'd have been nilled..