Just re-watched the game on BBC I-Player and I don't feel as deflated as I did yesterday and I'm certainly not thinking that Leigh are so far ahead of us that we are out of it. It was a game full of incident - mistakes on both sides, marginal decisions, poor choices and game management, near misses etc. I think on balance we probably were on the wrong side of one or two more marginal decisions than Leigh but the ref certainly had no shocker. Some of them we re-wound a few times and still couldn't decide such as the Ferguson try - it might have been a forward pass but equally would have been a big call to give it. The ref gets a split second to make up his mind. Locky was harshly called for a high tackle in the first half and the commentators questioned it at the time and their first try came from that set with a well executed kick and catch. (Reynolds did have a decent game tbh for a player who I've never really rated much). But these things happen and I'm not feeling robbed by either of the calls because they were pretty marginal. Leigh did not roll us in the second half anyway near as much as it felt when at the game yesterday. For me there was about a ten minute spell when they got their 2 tries in the second half when they really upped their speed both in attack and defence and that was the difference. But after that we created openings. The frustrating thing was that we didn't capitalise on them - mainly because rather than taking the tackle and playing territory with 5 more tackles in a dangerous position - instead we panicked and went for panic low percentage plays. On another day we might pull some of those off but it wasn't to be yesterday. Twice on the first tackle in their 20 we went for broke and each of our wingers were caught in touch. The Hall one was close and had he released it a fraction earlier Jacks (I think) was in. Fine margins. Both teams lost the ball at key times early in the tackle count perhaps showing the pressure of the occasion and the pressure of both teams being up against such good opponents. Obviously we regret ours the most (Ferris from the scrum in prime position in first half - Wildie dropping a perfectly good offload when in space in the first half too). Ipape definitely had a big game and changed the momentum in that crucial ten minute period, but we had Jones out and he might have done similar things for us had he been available. I'm not saying Leigh didn't deserve to win, but in my opinion the margins were not as much as it felt yesterday and their pack didn't dominate ours as much as it felt either. I went in to the game thinking that they were two well balanced sides but was worried their pack might be too , big and fast for us. I came out of it feeling that yes their pack is much too fast and big for us. I know feel that yes they are bigger and faster in the middle but not massively so - we were only rolled for that ten minutes. We are at least as good a match on the backs and potentially better in the halves. I hope we can sign a big brute for the front row but they won't be easy to find but even if we don't we aren't out of it and it is still all to play for. UTR!!