Brad Arthur has confirmed Cam Smith is now a doubt for this game with a back injury, our pack is looking really depleted atm he also confirmed Ethan Clark-Wood might have suffered a season ending shoulder injury in training I can see that being the end of his Career at Headingley.

It wasn't an easy game to watch. We're clearly missing two of Oledski/Holroyd/Gannon/Smith in the forwards, and Bentley didn't help us by taking out Connor and then immediately losing the ball afterwards. 


That said, despite the multiple occasions in which we coughed up the ball, we were actually in with a good shout of winning after O'Connor's try. People are complaining about our attack but we had so little ball (a lot of that was our fault, admittedly). There's still too much Rohanball DNA in this side, we've gone back to spending long spells in the game doubling down on errors and penalties and we can't front load defensive effort for long if that keeps happening.


It's difficult to know where Leeds need to go next. Is it just a case of getting a few more bodies back and working harder on mental composure? Or do we start looking at individuals? Or both? I have to say at this point in the season I'd much rather we had given a contract extension to Lisone than Bentley, and even McDonnell. I don't want to turn Bentley into the new scapegoat, probably he's fine in the team as a squad player. 


As for the backs we have Sivo to come back in next season. Edgell has shown up as being a bit better than I originally gave him credit for, maybe there's a SL player in there but I'm still not seeing a top 4 winger - Lumb at least seems more potent with ball in hand. I like Newman and Handley lately, but missing that longer-range strike from Handley since he's moved to centre. If Bentley is too small for a forward, Hall is too big and lethargic to be our first choice winger - he's just better (right now) than Edgell/Lumb in bringing the ball back in yardage.

How many clear and blatant trips have you seen not penalised?

I think the mental side of the game is largely a collective issue, in having trust that 1-17 will do their jobs as per the game plan. That, of course, then comes down to individuals doing just that. If any go off piste, then that's where the second guessing come in and the wheels can come off very quickly, as we've seen far too often this season. On field leadership , something I think we lack, is needed to bring things back in line, and while not a magic bullet, gives some stability and gets everyone back on message. 

Sivo will be a huge plus next season, not that Edgell/Lumb have done anything wrong. His yardage bringing the ball out, and his ability 10m from the try line will be massive. 


The conundrums at 2nd row / hooker rumble on and we are lacking genuine pace. Listening to IB, though, I'm confident that he's all over it. 

With the missing forwards back nobody will relish facing us in the play offs, but I don't see the right mix of composure and game breaking talent that it might take to win 3 games. To move forward next year I think we'll need to replace Gannon with a 2nd rower who can provide a point of difference, a prop who is as good as the best of Lisone, and a back who can add a bit of stardust. In terms of the latter, I would be having a very close look at the  union player (Murphy) at Salford. While he would need some polish we are crying out for a player with his pace and athleticism. If we don't make a move for him he'll be lighting it up at Wigan or Wire before long.

Murphy isn't as good as Lachie though, so how does that improve us?