...and 28 times more intelligent.

And just think, no Hall or Briscoe in those backs either

I think that is called a lack of professionalism.

It has nothing to do with defence. We turned over the ball on 3 of our first 4 sets of possession with the ball. So basically we were giving the ball, possession and territory to Leeds.

It was clear we came out with an aim to out play their forwards and play it in their half. But that was undermined straight away by Wilkin, Flanagan and Swift. They gave them easy ball which because they are no jokers they made the most of. After that it was just exhibition stuff from Leeds whilst we ran around not knowing what to do being 18 - 0 down.

In terms of coaching Mcdermott has taken Kerion to school so far. He knows we drop our wingers back early, so they are spreading the ball to absolutely exploit those gaps.

We've not helped ourselves at all.

We've made ground with the ball, and we've created some try-scoring opportunities. We've been unlucky that in two of those opportunities our final pass has led to a Leeds try. If those two passes stick that's an 18-22 point swing.

The defence has been extremely worrying, though. We're wilting on the edges every time we're challenged. Dreadful, and puts the WCC match in a different context.

Could be in for a smashing here. Only hope is that Leeds decide not to bother in the second half.

Not going to claim it's down to certain individuals, but I'll bet Wilkin, Flanagan and Jones won't enjoy looking at the stats. But apart from Roby and Amor, nobody is going to want to watch this again afterwards.

I disagree. Yes, our poor handling has put us under pressure. But that doesn't mean that you have to fold immediately. In that second Handley try there were three separate poor defensive reads in one play.

Just been said at half time Thompson should have taken the penalty. Exactly what I mean by lack of professionalism. He left a 20 gap and 6 points go rather than cover his own mistake and just give away some yards.

Yes there are defensive frailties. But they get exposed more with the more ball and good ball that the other side has. We can help limit poor defensive reads by keep hold of the ball more and controlling the game more.

I wouldn't disagree with that.

And thats why Walsh should have been on after 20 mins

So remind me why Walsh stayed on the bench for the first half?

This is much better. Burns is making some panicky plays, though. We've got plenty of time to get the kick away and build pressure.

No need to panic but we look so much better with Walsh on

Walsh is creating loads of space. But it's been so long since we had an attacking backs game that we just don't have any runners coming into the gaps. It could take a few games to relearn how to play an attacking game.

Glad they've found some fight and some pride.

Notice the sly lot havent mentioned Sinfield's pass being about a yard forward. No replays from that angle either

Not just me who thought that, then.

I was going to ask that. Is he considered not fully fit?


Looked like a forward pass in that build-up to me too.

Ah well.

Didn't fit the agenda of ing off over the 'new' Sinfield

Almost certainly not 100% match fit but he still should have been on after 20 mins. Wilkin has looked better in the back row too , some good strong runs

Well at least it did not finish as an embarrassment, like the pink hair match was for Leeds. (I did fear that at one point)

We have had to chance our arm this second half more than we needed to, but in the end it was always going to be a tough game against the top side in the league.

the aggression and willingness to put some effort in the second half has been good to see.

At least we have a fair set of games after this to settle down the side. We need a run of wins as Easter has been awful. But I'm not panicking. But today has been the worst of the losses as so much of it was down to us, where as the previous losses where close and hard fought.

Ok now it's embarrassing again.

Why did Flanagan cut back in, was it not obvious to keep moving the ball to the wing, surely that's the natural way to go, not run into tacklers.

Positives for me: Savelio had his best game of the season, and Fleming did well. The forwards made ground all game, even when we were leaking points like mad. Walsh is looking good, and Wilkin was excellent in the back row when he got moved there.

Negatives: That spell of poor ball control in 1st half. Our edge defence was horrendous - when Leeds made mistakes they defended doggedly. When we made mistakes we folded.

I suppose our edge defence is makeshift with Percy, Vea and Greenwood all missing and a newbie on the wing, so perhaps there are mitigating circumstances. All the same though, Flanagan and Jones were disappointing, as was Wilkin in the first half.

I'll agree with most of that, certainly in second place we have a good run of games so no time to hit the panic button yet. Really we should have coped better when it was against us, a bit like the second half, but that to me shows a lack of captaincy. There was no one pulling the team together everytime Leeds went over. Sure Wellens flaps his arms but everyone gets the message that he expects better.

With Walsh on we did look as though there was someone out there telling the team what to do.

Apart from the howler from the restart the young lad did ok on the wing. If he had got that right it would have been a penalty to Saints and who knows what would happen.

Positives

Amor had his best game for a while - defensively and offensively
Roby did some of his now all-too-infrequent scoots in the first half which won a lot of yards
Walsh was creating space everywhere
On a couple of occasions it looked like we could put on a passing move to our left
Some of our forwards started to find an offloading game

Negatives

Defensively, our threequarters on both sides were extremely weak. Every time Leeds moved the ball out they looked like breaking.
While the forwards did better in the second half, the inability to prevent Leeds forwards offloading is a failure of tackling technique.
Flanagan and Jones showed why they're not always favoured by Cunningham
Even though Walsh was creating space, we couldn't use it.
When the forwards were looking to offload, there was almost never any second phase.


I thought what tonight showed was that we're a Saints team who have forgotten how to play attacking, passing rugby. Our injuries to key backs have meant that for 12 months now we've had to rely on grinding up the field, and getting over the line from within the opposition twenty after repeat sets. We simply didn't know what to do today with attacking chances. There were no drop-off runners for the props' offloads, so they ended up throwing it to the grounds ten yards back rather than in the hands, and if it did go to hand, everyone stood around staring because they weren't expecting a second phase. Likewise it was painful to watch Walsh creating gaps and uncertainty in the Leeds line, but us having nobody running the correct lines to hit the holes he was making, because we just haven't done that for so long.

We've some easier games now. We need Walsh on the field for 80 minutes, and we need to retrain our backs in how to play passing, attacking rugby off a very skilful halfback. We also need to do something to spell Roby. The man's knackered. He almost never runs from dummy-half any more because he's so busted, but we need someone with quick feet and lots of energy buzzing around our big forwards in the middle, looking to recycle the ball to a second phase, or take a well-timed offload themselves and hit the gap. It's about training - we have the capacity to play rugby again, so we should start re-learning how to use it.

Oh, and we really, really need Percy back, plus one other proper athletic, fast winger or fullback. Our lack of speed in the backs is cringeworthy.