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Put hardcastle to his most effective position of centre and drop broadbent out of the 17.

That was a high quality game. It was intense and ferocious but played in the right spirit. Saints' execution was on a different level but Leeds refusal to buckle and their ability to counter attack kept the game alive as a contest.

After Hull KR, Leeds are the team I dislike the most. However, after the disgrace of the RFL disciplinary this week, I’ll be rooting for them later.

So...which is he then?

Leeds lost, did they? It's hard to tell.

######. Told my wife it was the last game of the season at 5.30. Now I have to tell her about all the games tomorrow. Oh, and the World Cup. Wish me luck.

I missed a T. Pity the fool.

This has been compelling. I can't believe how quickly the 76 minutes has gone. I simply haven't had a chance to count the empty seats.

It's almost as if RL is played in some if the poorest parts of the country and there's some kind of cost of living crisis...

Liam Moore has been faultless, for my money. Excellent referee.

Meh. If you like high octane, skilful drama mixed with controversy and a contest whose result remains in doubt then I guess so.

That was a bloody marvellous half of Rugby.

On another thread, one of our Australian friends was telling us that Samoa will play the game too quickly for England. Absolute nonsense. This game is 100 miles an hour.

Never mind, you just wallow in your misery while the rest of us enjoy an outstanding grand final.

Only 6 of the Saints team played in the GF back in 2019 when they started this run (Walmsley and Grace injured tonight). Whilst some may not like it, Saints are not just a great team, they are an incredibly well run club too.

Only 3 forward passes....

Welcome back cairan walker

Four in a row or the side 11th after 10 rounds, whatever the result it's a hell of an achievement by the winner. From a Saints perspective, I'm unusually relaxed about the match. If we lose, we know all good things come to an end and streaks can't last forever. It doesn't take away from this team's incredible achievements over the last few years. If we win, then wow! Only one other side will have ever achieved this in the UK game. Hoping for a good game where we are all talking about the players after it. Maybe that's too ambitious for rugby league fans.

Seriously John how old are you.

Belmas Da Costa Dezaria Escare Garcia Gigot Goudemand Jullien Laguerre Langi Le Cam Marcon Marion Mourgue Pelissier Puech Romano Rouge Sangare Seguier Springer Stefani Jouffret Yaha * Half backs Lucas Albert & Fages are not fit like props Bousquet & Navrarrete

Loved that game tonight Fantastic advert for the game

I have to assume the answer is everything.

Sulking A lot of England lads were excellent tonight.

Thank you for counting them. If it hadn’t been for you & others on this thread I would never have noticed as I was watching a really good game of RL which seemed to have a fantastic atmosphere

He's a cheating ###### that fella. When Salford had Saints under the pump last week, him and his sidekick water carrier came onto the pitch, threw a couple of water bottles on the pitch about 10 yards away from where they were treating an "injured" player and then wasted another 10 seconds or so to allow Saints to regroup while they went and collected said water bottles that were serving no other purpose than to halt the game. Another one of Saints "clever" gamesmanship ploys.

They kept some segments empty in case people who count seats turned up and could be kept away from fans enjoying themselves

He intentionally lifted the player off the ground.

That should definitely have been a sin bin.

Welsby with the high work rate but to he fair most of that was running in to kick off

Great singist performance.

Top of the list needs to be some big impact forwards who can make the hard yards

The fact that we are talking about the rfl allowing certain clubs academies/reserve teams whilst others in the same leagues are not says it all about the game in this country.

If Leeds had one iota of decency they’d drop the drunken criminal Hardaker and the scummy wife Beater Tetevano and let 2 decent honest lads play. These 2 young lads have had their chance taken away by 2 filthy scummy human beings

It’s always the same when they are still playing.

Fages’ injury is a massive shame. Never seems to be available for France when it matters most.

Rhys Curran for France is one example. I do the eligibility processing for Wales, there’s a young lad at a super league academy who recently made his Super League debut that resides in north Wales to English family, the moment he leaves wales he’s no longer eligible even if we cap him prior. From the IRL laws: “Residence” means the place or location in which a Player has his/her primary home for each of the preceding sixty (60) months immediately prior to playing an international match. Subsequent to establishing his/her initial residency eligibility the Player must in each year prior to the year of his/her selection for such country be resident in the country for a minimum of 210 days in the preceding 12 months to maintain his/her residency eligibility.

It's not unusual for the GF to have empty seats in the upper tiers. The big difference tonight appeared to be in premium neutral seats. The lower bowl is normally at capacity. That suggests the cost of living crisis and the world cup comes into play.

Sky told us 1,000 times that this was the greatest group of sportsmen and the greatest club in human history, so if anything telling us how brilliant they are 4 times in 20 minutes is damning them with faint praise. Sadler wrote an article last year about them having the best board, the best commercial set up, the best coach, the best juniors and the best recruitment. It is an absolutely damning indictment on the rest of what is supposed to be a salary capped “level playing field” sport for them to be so far above everyone else. But, to the victor the spoils, and so there’s no arguing with any Saints fan who wants to tell us how good they are in everything they do. I can’t see any other winner next year, but now my heart issues have hopefully been sorted out, I have high hopes I will see the day I see someone else win a GF again.

OK. Happy to have a conversation about the England squad on the correct threads. Again though, I cannot see how anyone can watch that game and come to the conclusion England are worse off than when it kicked off. I thought it was faster and just as intense as the NRL games this weekend and there was nothing the best players over there did that Lomax, Welsby, Makinson etc. didn't do tonight.

I thought someone was Injured, how anyone can watch that and think the England players were poor is beyond me.

I know. I'm an idiot. Count the empty seats first, watch the game later. I can't believe I made a schoolboy mistake.

This is not a good post.

Salford had a try disallowed for that last week. Would have put us in front. All depends which team is doing the obstruction.

Give him number 7 and play him there week in week out

Sky are desperate for a Leeds win

What an absolutely outstanding half of rugby. I am huge fan of the NRL but this game is blowing away the two NRL semi's this weekend.

I thought it was Saints who the ref favoured. I just can't keep up with who the ref is helping these days.

Agreed, some of the C. T. era signings were bizarre.