watcherofRL

I know people don’t support the concept of London but regionally if Salford went it would need a Manchester contingent and London should have the pull as so many antipodeans live in the capital as seen in the SCL teams make up. As we all knownThey were relegated in 2019 with enough points to have kept them mid table in many subsequent years and last year they grew over the year but had left the recruitment of players too late to challenge early on leading them yo yo ing down again. If we are looking at 3 up or 4 if Salford go down, I am perplexed why Bradford are included in the mix as, even if they could get a side that could hold their own their ground is awful. I think Oldham could replace Salford but then you have York? And Toulouse but I think they should look to build in France so who else?

Loop fixtures have long been a joke and give teams unfair advantage when they draw a bottom table 3 times. It also makes for boring viewing - seeing the same outcomes!

It’s time to support France to set up their own ‘super league’ - it’s always seemed odd to me to have French teams playing in a British league. The French support their rugby and this should be encouraged - in the long run it should then produce better cross channel fixtures - and a cup comp could be developed or they could join the challenge cup

And some of next - following Ashton into surgery so should be couple of weeks behind him if all gos to plan

I heard MCL was mentioned for Oli so doubtful - I reckon we’ll have to wait a year more for the battle of the leyland brothers. Been a few over the years - Davis brothers, mata’utia and obviously the burgess brothers.

Thought he was going well until the injury and kicks and defence were good. Another game littered with injuries for wire

Agree with that tbf. Warrington have not yet played cas or Salford yet either but haveing watched Huddersfield yesterday I would question is WW would have beaten them as they had go forward against KR just lacked rhe finishing move!

Winning an nrl final as a player? Not sure apart from that! Some very singular decisions but sometimes it works and other times are a shambles.

Leyland needs to play to develop - played 1 full season of SL and I guess the hope was to develop under the guidance of Williams, playing some ‘easier games’ but instead he has played Wigan twice! Something odd there and it’s the same with Musgrove, another strange one, he has a good game and then gets 18th and week after doesn't even feature in 21? When you are carrying injuries what is that about? Today trinity just out played them despite them having players out with injuries.

Yeah I did watch it - and agree Leigh pushed well second half but Wigan with a week off were fresher and more hungry for the win. Sad for O’Brien again Wakey missing their half backs still?

I hope they prove to be the exception as all the semi final teams have not been great this week although KR turned up in the 2nd half and out to bed Huddersfield- not so much of a challenge but for Catalan to be nilled was massive!

Agree that they played well last week but sneyd had 3 charge downs and a try through Ratchford- player that made the difference was Vaughan and sneyds kicking imo - also they had help from ipape who was trying to do too much himself and led to loss of structure. Leigh began to lose shape and Warrington do pull together in those games - when in vegas they started appallingly and had that disallowed try and poor tackle on fitz early in but still came back and put together so great moves and then following week went back to Ratchford against Wakefield and they lost but although they blamed the loss on Russell and leyland there were surely questions around who has been the common denominator for subsequent losses or look to blame injury (which have had impact obviously ) ?

Wakefield will win as it’s the same as the first time played with burgess making decisions that he thinks will be popular rather than looking at what works best for the team

And mine

While burgess in charge I can’t see him playing leyland - lots of rumours that they fell out? Depends if he is prepared to move on! Dont know if true but as a young player you’d hope Sam don’t punish indefinitely

But won’t play

Hardly

It’s already been well leaked that sneyd and Ratchford are playing and the word games and squad release is purely incidental - leyland did well and truly enough and tbh never showed difficulty when he played Leigh in pre season or Catalan in SL - it’s suited the narrative to blame him imo as not a local lad and easy scape goat! He needs time and a nailed on position and expectation of either a 6 or 7 to develop his attack - he set up at least one try in vegas and against Catalan and Wigan too! Jake is fantastic as a young player and will be hard for him to be dropped

But bet he’s dropped next week along with leyland

I heard he played full back - best place to be as cannot be blamed for a loss which totals 4 now - it’s strange how quickly fans started to say he can’t tackle when they had been celebrating him prior to vegas! Any impartial will know how bad the whole team played and against Wakefield the week after they were even worse

No - apparently his defence isn’t up to it but 27 games at London last year, a win against catalan and mom in the pre season testimonial would say otherwise! No confidence from the coach but the best thing for leyland is that they have now lost 4 matches and he was only involved in one! We’ll have him back to get him match fit and he can then go to a proper outfit

As a London fan who has followed our ex players and Warrington we knows how hard it is to keep players on side and motivated as Mike Eccles did so well as did Danny Ward during his tenure so I think the difference is the coaches experience and their approaches to situations - Lam and Cartwright are both experienced at this level and it shows in the way they respond to results with their players and handle losses. Burgess and Wellen are relatively new to this side of the fence,the former seems to have so far come out unscathed despite losses and the blame has been placed with players which the wire fans follow blindly - London fans aren’t like that so it’s interesting to see clubs and fans react. Dan Russell has been dropped without mention following the Wakefield game so that loss must have been placed solely down to him - the stats are nowhere to be seen now so hard to see who is doing well or not. in the Wigan game the team as a whole played poorly, Williams missed 2 less tackles than Leyland who was then dropped and the inference was that he was the sole cause of that loss but he played 27 games for us last year and was not blamed for the defeats as the yeam And coach took ownership. he played 2 games in SL this year for Wire, won one lost one so could be the common denominator as no single player can. The Wakefield game was equally woeful but did not have Leyland involved!-the solution - buy sneyd which was a great scoop but as a coach I reckon he should have looked at how he can build from within to ensure the players had confidence rather than look to solve elsewhere. Now that there is chat on here about Williams being injured he can’t play leyland as he’s not had any games since 1st March so poor prep. Is this the Difference between him and wellen maybe? Time will tell But definitely the difference between him and more experienced coaches.

Having a honorary pack is important as hard to make things happen when this isn’t the case. Did you never think that the game plan was to always goes through Williams which means Leyland and Ratchford are just making up numbers! At least leyland has a decent kicking game and in his full SL season last year with a smaller less experienced pack he was able to create things as he had autonomy- this is clearly not the case with Wire’s game plan. I fear for Hayes too - he filled the gap defensively but did the same thing as is asked of the 2 HB who played this year! 10 games and short memories means some fans are pinning their hopes on his return and will turn on him if things go wrong! Burgess needs to change his plans and mix it up

Biggest way to build skill and game smarts is play and have a coach that develops this- Williams missed tackles and assists for a number of wigans tries by biting in - can’t see wire doing anything this year but if 2 year plan then might build over time

I think wire are in danger of flip flopping now first Ratchford then leyland and what next? All plays through Williams and with the reported injuries to king Ashton and fitzy I reckon it’s touch and go for a win! Wonder when the coach will come in for stick? Heard tai back in but scramble and lack of ideas