Johnson and Smith both drop out as both are at Butlins this weekend with the rhinos challenge.

One could also conclude that coaching is one of a number of elements that has something to do with that.

Good coaching can negate a whole host of those factors.

The forwards aren't laying a platform - a complaint we hear a lot in RL, but it is as true of this Leeds team as any I have seen.

I'm not sure why Leeds didn't address this in the off-season. RS bears some responsibility here. Given the limited pool of players available I suspect we gambled on blowing a lot of our forward budget on Ackers, who is obviously a better 9 than O'Connor, but it has left us weak up front.

I'm not sure if any of our front or back rowers really scare the opposition. You know the feeling when the likes of Satae, Walmsley etc come on - Leeds are going to struggle to contain these players. Do we do that to opposition teams? Probably not. They are scared of the likes of Miller, Newman and Handley breaking from deep but it's not our forwards that inspire fear.

There's Lisone, I suppose. He can have impact but I wonder if he's the best use of an overseas quota space.

It's a problem that the club have struggled to deal with since the days of Peacock, Leuluai and Cuthbertson in their prime. The likes of Prior and Seumanufagai stemmed the tide but their homegrown replacements haven't matured enough yet. Tetevano was a disappointment but he would walk into our pack if he was available now (pre-health issues, of course).

Regarding the forwards, the biggest issue I see is the inability to take the ball on the run, they all seem to wait to receive the ball and then decide to run. This is too easy to defend against.

That`s true and that is my point.
We have one of the best centres in the league who like I`ve said has had one or two decent touches.
Other than that he hasn`t done much which is a real shame.
Handley in the backs appears to be the only one who has looked something like promising as I feel the "off the cuff" approach suits his style of play as imo he doesn`t play well to a structure as shown in his defence sometimes.