: Sat Mar 14, 2009 9:34 am  

moonlight flit wrote:

You really don't like Gaz Hock you blokes do you ?

Cos he stood up to JP perchance ?

No... it's because he's a knob.

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:02 am  

My overview (for what it's worth):

Best opening 30 minutes all season. Blew Wigan away. Great tempo and desire to play with the ball. If we stick to playing rugby rather than getting sucked in to slugging, we make our job much easier.

Nobbie trys to win the ruck and slow us down, that's been the key to his success over Leeds. So Leeds had to win the ruck and PTB as quick as they could. Slotting Burrow there for the opening quarter helped achieve this. And Ryan Bailey PTB quicker than anyone out there. You could see Bluey has been working on this through the week.

Dodgy end to the first half and the start of the second. Wigan had 2 scores rightfully chalked off, but Leeds were also lucky, with Donald letting the ball bounce. Never let it bounce!!! Donald had a intersting dual with young Ainscough, with the Wiganer probably winning it on points. But his mis-kick allowed Donald to score a, technically, quality finish.

After these moments of panic, we just needed to show composure and complete a set, on the last play, at half way, Sinfield shifted the ball to Burrow, he shifted it futher left, which resulted in a panic kick. We were playing as if we were chasing the game. The message must have got out, the following set saw Burrow put a lovely touch finder into the South-West corner on the 10m line and composure and the game was restored.

Personal mentions:

Kylie - world class finish for the opener. Great line of run and was an impossible task to stop from there.

Hall - Great finishes. Very powerful runner.

Gibson/Watkins - handling errors from both, part of the learning curve. Gibson looks the more solid at this stage.

McGuire/Burrow/Ali - always a handful.

Sinfield - star of the show. World class. Definitley got a yard of pace extra. Superb leader of men.

Kirke/JJB/Ablett - all equally as good tonight. Kirke another huge break. Really running with purpose. Runs like JP, vastly improving week after weak. I've always championed the benefit of Kirke, and I've yet to be proved wrong....because it won't happen.

Bailey/Burgees - both solid, made the yards.

JP - awesome. Always carting the ball forward, no more than the last play of the first half, we were well under the cosh, and with the last drive he made a hefty 10m drive. More than we had made in the previous 3 plays. Always there when needed.

Finally.....Superman - great to see him back, having a run out. It was nothing more than that. Obvious weight loss, as expected. But deserved the reception.

Other than that, twp 40-20's and Leeds killed the game before Nobbie could make 100 chews of his chuddie.

As for Wigan, simply poor. Leeds blew them away, but the resistance was minor. Another wake up call for the pie-eaters. Individually, young Ainscough looks a prospect. Was Fielden playing?? They need to get shot of that soft lump, useless. Hock littered with mistakes, he had his once in a blue moon game last week, failed last night. But was willing to keep trying, when many Wigan players weren't. Amos Roberts looked pathetic. Hall's gamebreaker barely saw Roberts lift one foot off the ground. If he didn't think he'd make the catch he should have swatted the ball to safety. Lazy effort.

5 out of 5. Better performance, good run out. Sets up nicely to the fixture next week.

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:28 am  

Nice summary BB.

I was impressed by the energy, especially in first 20-30 mins, and how they rose to the challenge of playing without a hooker. Young players seem to be improving week on week. Discipline seemed to be pretty good this week too and we look better for not getting drawn into a brawl. We need to come out for the start of the second half wide awake and switched on.
I just feel so proud of our academy products.

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:43 am  

LS16_Rhino wrote:

No... it's because he's a knob.

Is he?

Did you see what he did with his man of the match prize last week?

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:51 am  

Essex Rhino wrote:

We need to come out for the start of the second half wide awake and switched on.

That's very true. A better side would have made Leeds pay for swithing off. I suppose it's a mental thing. Previous games have been tight and we've had to fight tooth and nail, where-as this was virtually over at half-time. So mentally they may have slipped down a gear or two. This is what I was hinting at with Peacock (last drive of the first half), he still does the job, all the time!

But it give us something to work on, and gives us focus to improve in games. It's a long season, we are no-where near peaking, we have players to establish themesleves in the team, and we need to kick-on. But, so far so good. The Saints game is crucial. We win we have a 4 point gap (which 6 games in would be classed as very considerable), or we lose and the 'top 2' go neck and neck. Even if we win, and go 4 points infront of our most obvious contenders, it's nothing to get carried away with (re: last seasons 6 point lead). But it gives us a strong platfom to build on.

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:24 am  

King Monkey wrote:

Is he?

Did you see what he did with his man of the match prize last week?

Did he repeatedly drop it and then have a pathetic look of disbelief on emaciated face?

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:41 am  

LS16_Rhino wrote:

Did he repeatedly drop it and then have a pathetic look of disbelief on emaciated face?

If he had would that make him a knob?

Why is he as knob?

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:46 am  

King Monkey wrote:

If he had would that make him a knob?

Why is he as knob?

Because he looks like one.

I'm not playing with you today Danny mate so you aint gunna get a straight answer.

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:47 am  

LS16_Rhino wrote:

Because he looks like one.

I'm not playing with you today Danny mate so you aint gunna get a straight answer.

Well lets just say I dont class a knob as someone who when given a man of the match prize goes straight over and gives it to a disabled supporter.

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:05 pm  

LeedsPokerGuru wrote:

Ali offloaded to someone well too.

Your powers of observation astound me. Thats a joke, btw, before you get all macho. It was to Hall, Watkins presence in the cenrte drawing the defender

Not trying to be harsh but the way they played up the middle and the way we did I think we would have won with Allan and ratu in the centre tbh.

Did I not make that point yesterday? Tie up your cap space in 1,6,7,9 and 13 - add some decent props and you're there. Don't waste big money on centres.