Don't think he'll be worrying, far from it in all honesty, the Leeds defence last night was immaculate, 3 times they held us up or stopped us inches short. The Aussies are hardly renound for playing breath taking attacking rugby league so I think last night will have been a good hit out for the Rhinos, due to injuries we missed our most creative players but we made the breaks through hard work and determination. Drew was superb and offered the sort of threat that the likes of Matt Orford will offer next week (although Orford is slightly younger!). OK we're not as good as Manly but we gave the Leeds side a good hard game and they'll be greatful for that imho.

Our defence was also superb, the first two tries coming after knock ons on our own line and the third after a blatant forward pass in the play before the try was scored but hey ho these things happen and I'm sure we'll get a call at some point this season.

Positives:

- Drew - excellent game.
- Grix - tireless display.
- Aktins, looked very strong and made some good runs.
- Good team spirit.
- Good line defence, looked organised when defending.
- Excellent work rate and fitness looked good.

Negatives:

- Real lack of any go forward, we urgently need TWO big front rowers ASAP.
- Jay Pitts looked completely out of his depth and seemed to have trouble bending his back.
- Bibey, sorry went hiding when we needed some go forward - useless lump IMHO, sorry but he's got the frame of a giant and the heart of a shrew. Simply not SL standard. Putting far too much pressure on Wilkes and Stosic.
- Poor ball retention, needs improving.
- Discipline, needs to improve.
- Silly penalties - still giving away silly needless pens and piggy backing teams out of their own half far too easily - STILL.


Summary:

We can take a lot of positives from last nights game, but IMHO Leeds were there for the taking. They were very average IMHO last night and although they defended well I don't feel we really went at them. We won't have a better chance of beating Leeds at Headingly as we had last night.

Soft tackling let in big Ali, a silly mistake allowed them to score their second and back to back pens on our own line gifted them their 3rd when in all fairness we were on the back foot.

We lacked go forward and just didn't seem to have anyone other than Drew or Atkins who could break the Leeds line.

I don't think we'd have scored if we were still playing now I'm afriad to say and we were asking far too much from Drew to work behind a back offering no go forward whatsoever.

Disappointing in many ways, but lots of positives to take from it.

I reckon we would have won had Obst played and thats what dissapointed me, we could have beaten them and gift wrapped them two tries. I cant knock the effort and commitment at all but we were so close to winning..

Ifs buts and maybes dont count my friend and an upset never looked likely really.

IMO you were never near winning ..competeing yes... striving yes... scrambling yes... effort yes... ...but succeeding no, you were shown to be short in the pack and out wide as well.

Were you had an edge was around the PTB at times but you couldnt covert this to points.

3 tries to none sums it up for me and however you want to dress it up with what ifs and other excuses .....the 14 margin was spot on...as I predicted on our board.

Don't think you were 14 points better than us, but your defense was top notch. In fact I though both teams defences were good last night.

We deserved at least 1 try but hey ho that's life. Was a good performance by our lads and they did us proud

I stand by statement, Sam Obst doesnt get injured in the warm up for the game and we would have won. There wasnt much between the teams and sam would have made the difference..

I repeat ifs and buts dont count...we would be justified in saying exactly the same with regards to Sinfield.

poop happens and you can only play with players avaliable can't change that. We had at least 9 out but we are not using that as an excuse.

The lads that played did really well and can be happy with how the did.

I agree that the better side one last night, but had we not lost our best tackler in the warm up (considering also he is a 'pivotal' position too) really left us with a mountain to climb. I agree that you we struggled to cause you too many problems, and your defense always appeared on top of our attack, but the disorganisation that came with this. the majority of systems and patterns would have involved him at the very least, if not been built round him - so it really put us in it.

I am not saying without that we would have won, but it might have been a different story. Can't really (fairly) compare it to Sinfield not playing as you had, presumably, most of the week to prepare without him - whilst we did not have that relative luxury.

The game was killed in 20 mins when that idiot Ganson decided to give 17 penalties! I dont want to watch rugby union i want to watch league! Some were justified others were utter tosh! Our defence and fitness levels look superb. Drew tried everything. I thought Blaymire was superb and he is playing with real confidence! We tried extremely hard and with a couple of players back we would have won. keep up the great effort lads you cannot be faulted! 2 of there trys were from out mistakes, Leeds were very lucky!