Friday night at Headingley, another HUGE game.

2 weeks ago, this looked like a probable 2 points for us but after they demolished Catalan (who were mickey poor in defence), this one has take on a different look.
Leeds with players coming back and with Hetherington's letter still in their minds will be wanting to beat us but, with Trinity's new, never say die attitude, this promises to be another close game.
We will have to be better with ball in hand and look after Cuthebertson's offload game but, we have a decent chance.

22 - 18 in either direction



Come on Trin !

I know it was only a friendly on Boxing Day but Reece Lyne definitely made an impact so we will miss him and I think this will be very close but think we can do it.

18-32 to the Trin!

12-22 Trinity

As we now play our games tight with a good 1st half and loads of penalty kicks. then a terrible 3rd quarter followed by a resurrection phase akin to Christ. I would say anything could happen, but it'll be tight and i will swear a lot.

22-20 Trinity (10-0 halftime)

Game spoiled by a "me me me" performance by the ref

Anything is possible with this game, I'd think that we're going into this game mentally stronger on the back of two close wins where as Leeds are going into this following a thrashing at Cas and an easy win over a poor Catalans. It's going to be tough, but i think we need to win this to take the good form and winning run into the Leigh home game. Hopefully they can figure out this issue they seem to be having defensively from 50 - 70 mins as that could make or break the game

I'm going to say that Wakey will be first to score, have the half time lead, and win 18 - 26, with two of the Leeds trys happening in close succession at around 60min

Don't think the ref will spoil the game,its Jack Smith the former Royal Marine, he's one of the best in my opinion.

He was last year, we had him for Leigh away and thought he was disappointing though, hope it's not another case of a ref slipping after making an initial good impression.

He's not impressed many this season, all we can ask for is balance and fair treatment. If he wants to be whistle-happy, as long as it's equal i don't mind

Singleton missing. Very cheap shot on Bird got him 6 matches.

If your pack fronts up I see no reason why you guys shouldn't win.

Packs been good so far this season. It's the backs getting the ball over the line that's been the problem mostly.

Great game for us neutrals and really looking forward to it. If it was at Belle Vue I'd have gone for a narrow Wakey win but at Headingley I think Rhino's will win comfortably

Personally, I thought this referee was the best referee by far last year, and forgive me if Im wrong but dont think he has refereed us before.

Too close to call for me this one but think we might just nick this

I'm optimistic about this season but I think we are getting carried away here - that said I'd love to be proved wrong.

If our pack turns up and shows the same grit as it did against Saints and especially Hull we could pinch it - if they don't Leeds are still capable of walloping us and I suspect would love to do so after their Cas fiasco.

It's very clear to me that Chester has gone for a big dominant pack (which it could be as the season goes on) and that is where the bulk of our money has gone. So far they have competed in two games, lost the plot in the Hudds game but for me most frighteningly failed to dominate a Salford team that was down to twelve men for twenty minutes, though our forwards got slightly bossed by a smaller pack (I await being even more unpopular for this

).

Fifita, Allgood, Huby even Hirst and Batchelor have not come cheap.

It was great to see the comeback and credit to the team but in parts of that game we were a bit soft and with a pack as big and mobile as ours tat wasn't on - we certainly won't get away with it at Headingley no matter how poor Leeds supposedly are.

I hope we do it and we have a chance but the effort level required will IMHO need to surpass anything we've managed so far this season.

I see a Leeds victory by 12-16 points but hope for the opposite.

I do agree that Leeds are dangerous and we should certainly not take them lightly.
When we were guessing league positions at the beginning of the season I said Leeds would be well in the 8. They are not as good as they were and their pack is their weak link but their backs are o far ahead, they simply have to break even in the pack.
We on the other hand have a strong pack but haven't really fired in the backs. We have one of the best wingers in the league and his only involvement in a pretty open game against Salford was to cart the ball up like a prop, with one piece of broken field play which resulted in a try.

The key for us being, that when our pack does get on top, which I think it has for stretches in every game, we need to use the ball and get the strike players striking. When we get it right like two of the tries against Salford we look great, but we go down the middle too far. The pack does really well to get us to the line, then we keep smashing it in instead of spreading it and working the players we have just tired out.

It will come, but Leeds will be looking at that and working on just containing our pack and then countering on the break.....which they do very effectively.

I look forward to seeing us develop more.

I think with Singleton out our pack is better. Our halves are better but their backline is better (we out do them
In speed though)

The point with Leeds is that, they are miles away from the all conquering team of 2 seasons ago and they have weakness in their halves and at FB plus, our pack is significantly stronger than theirs (especially with Singleton out).
The old adage that its the forwards who decide the game and the backs by how many should hold firm and I'm hoping and expecting another tight victory and nobody should leave early, as we have a habit of leaving it late these days

I think we have enough dog in us to stop teams running rampant. I know we had that 10 minutes against Salford where we let in 4 tries, but other than that we've managed to stop other teams getting any kind of a roll together by getting a decent level of control in the tackle.

As long as we can keep close to Leeds on Friday, we have the speed and guile to create something out of nothing and hit a winner. More important I feel will be discipline and the big guys getting decent ruck speed.

Leeds squad if you are interested:
Golding
Briscoe
Watkins
Moon
Hall
Mcguire
Burrow
Parcell
Cuthbertson
Ablett
Sutcliffe
Delaney
Garbutt
Keinhorst
Ferres
Mullally
Walters
Baldwinson
Oledzki

I agree with most of what you say, and it's an interesting point about Johnstone, and the other wingers. I just don't think we have wingers' centres! I think they have good attributes, in differing ways, but it's not in their natural instinct, like say a Matthew Gidley etc, to put their winger away at every opportunity. Reece Lyne, Tupou scored similar tries using strength near the line, and particularly Lyne has been excellent so far, but neither are naturally inclined to find their winger, although to be fair Lyne has a decent out the back door pass. A lot of Johnstone's tries last season were opportunistic, a few interceptions etc, because he's so naturally athletic and is reading the game well now as he develops. I actually thought last season Arundel got him in space more than any other centre, so will be interesting to see if he's his partner in the next few games with presumably Lyne out for a while.

Gibson is the closest to a traditional centre we have. The debate rages on whether you need a creative centre or a powerhouse who drives the ball out instead depending on the halfbacks to find the cut out ball as was Tim Smith speciality.

Personally I think both work if done correctly. There was nothing special about Australia's centre play in the recent internationals but their power alone blew us away. I agree the old way looked prettier but there must be a reason why centres are rarely used that way anymore.

Maybe it is so-called modern day 'coaching' methods, maybe most centres' nowadays are glorified second rowers?! At the end of the day I suppose it doesn't matter whether a centre scores more tries than his winger, but I bet just like last season with Solomona, the leading tryscorer will be a winger just like it is more often than not??

Yeah agreed but a lot of that passing to the winger is done by the halves and fullbacks etc nowadays. Not as often you'd think to see a centre put his winger away.

I think a more defensive kind of centre is key for us anyway, we look very vulnerable out wide near our line.