Fri 17th Feb: SL: Leigh Leopards v Salford Red Devils KO 20:00 (Sky)

[Chrispmartha]

That’s a good win for Salford, could have been a tricky night. Thought it was poor quality though.

[Damien]

Just now, Man of Kent said:

But not much 

I disagree, I think this is a much stronger team and squad. Whether they are good enough not to finish bottom I'm not sure but I think they'll have a couple of teams worried.

[dkw]

Oh Phil Clark, false 7 really? Hes so desperate to come up with these "new" things every season....

[Old Frightful]

Jenna Brooks :"There was a leopard here tonight"

Ryan Brierly (with a look of astonishment) : "Was there?"

Jenna Brooks : "Not a real one"...

 

[Padge]

25 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Actually the law doesn't say that:

the Referee may award a penalty try if, in his opinion, a try would have been scored but for the unfair play of the defending team. 

I think would have is prety definate. 

[DG70]

Beaumont fired Lam yet? Lol. 

Deserved win for Salford who are a top six outfit, long season ahead for Leigh you suspect.

[sweaty craiq]

Couple of awful selections by Lam. O Brien was poor at best and Ben Nakabuwai looks unfit and attracts runners to him. Briscoe is squad and others are in front imo. We need a quicker ptb and we need to lie in when the ref is not penalising it. Not far off but disappointing tonight as we were on the back foot all night. Rowley schooled Lam

[Zilla Budgie]

Well, at least the fireworks were impressive. We were terrible with the ball, Salford were average at best but still should have won by more than 10 points. One man rugby then 'up and under' on the 6th tackle and hope for the best. Was expecting a lot more than that. Right, time for a can of cider me thinks.

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, daz39 said:

What is that dreadful noise in the background? no one can tell me that's 'atmosphere', what a god awful noise and a god awful song.

Says someone who is completely irrelevant of any noise at his own ground excepting a farmyard implement.

[Fata Sini]

Good time to get Leigh away with all the debuts. They will get better. Will take the win but we need to improve...

[ColD]

22 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Couple of awful selections by Lam. O Brien was poor at best and Ben Nakabuwai looks unfit and attracts runners to him. Briscoe is squad and others are in front imo. We need a quicker ptb and we need to lie in when the ref is not penalising it. Not far off but disappointing tonight as we were on the back foot all night. Rowley schooled Lam

Well O’Brien before Reynolds makes sense so not sure what the other option was

Big Ben never been up to it for me but again who replaces him until the other big unit is match fit

agree with Briscoe, embarrassing when you see the work Charnley did

not sure Rowley owned that, he has better players and we have a style that involves bullying the middles - worked last year but more work to do this season

plus we had a prop starting at hooker with smith being out and ipape clearly wasn’t fit so a lot more to come with the PTB 

[Harry Stottle]

20 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Couple of awful selections by Lam. O Brien was poor at best and Ben Nakabuwai looks unfit and attracts runners to him. Briscoe is squad and others are in front imo. We need a quicker ptb and we need to lie in when the ref is not penalising it. Not far off but disappointing tonight as we were on the back foot all night. Rowley schooled Lam

 

14 minutes ago, Zilla Budgie said:

Well, at least the fireworks were impressive. We were terrible with the ball, Salford were average at best but still should have won by more than 10 points. One man rugby then 'up and under' on the 6th tackle and hope for the best. Was expecting a lot more than that. Right, time for a can of cider me thinks.

We were completely devoid of ideas with ball in hand, Lam on occasion showed glimpses of what he can do but his half back partner O'Brien is as much use as a button on a sock, Salford even though not firing on all cylinders showed us how to play football, I am a fervent Leigh fan but I think if this is Adrian Lams best selection - no injuries -  this is going to be a long hard season for us unless we can recruit some  better players.

Watching Warrington last night they jettisoned those they believed were not good enough for SL and recruited those who were better suited to the job in hand, Leigh have signed 5 of those players who finished in 11th spot last season, enough said!

Only hope that my pessimistic thoughts get turned around, by the club, the coach and the players.

[LeytherRob]

Just got back from the game. Not watched it back yet but some initial thoughts:

•Prematch entertainment was brilliant in the flesh. Seen a couple of clips on twitter and they don't do it full justice. If anything, it was almost too good because it probably sucked a bit of atmosphere out of the game itself, everyone was about an hour into singing etc by the time it kicked off.

•Salford came with a very good game plan to slow down the PTB and nullify our biggest threat from last year, quick rucks and offloads/darting runs from Ipape. Sometimes it strayed on the illegal side and they were pinged quite a bit but it was very effective.

•Leighs defence was solid and i feel like we built terratorial pressure well, I thought we coped with the unorthodox play a lot more than we have in previous years. 2017/21 sides would have conceded at least 3/4 more tries tonight. I don't think we'll get many blowout scores against us.

•Leighs attack looked really scratchy at times and wasted a lot of good field position with sloppy errors, which is probably to be expected with a lot of player turnover. We were similarly disjointed this time last year and Lam needs to fix this up. 

•Big worry for Leigh is Ipape was clearly not over his WC ankle injury, he was heavily strapped and had a couple of opportunities to take on the line where he backed off and rarely got into full tilt. Keeping him fit is key his year. Asiata also had probably his worst game in a Leigh shirt and was uncharacteristically poor with his ball movement.

•Well played Salford, they have a good team and if they keep relatively injury free there's no reason they can't have another crack at going deep into the playoffs.

[Padge]

Quote

Salford came with a very good game plan to slow down the PTB and nullify our biggest threat from last year, quick rucks and offloads/darting runs from Ipape. Sometimes it strayed on the illegal side and they were pinged quite a bit but it was very effective.

That's the start of every teams game plan.

[Harry Stottle]

6 minutes ago, ColD said:

Well O’Brien before Reynolds makes sense so not sure what the other option was

Big Ben never been up to it for me but again who replaces him until the other big unit is match fit

agree with Briscoe, embarrassing when you see the work Charnley did

not sure Rowley owned that, he has better players and we have a style that involves bullying the middles - worked last year but more work to do this season

plus we had a prop starting at hooker with smith being out and ipape clearly wasn’t fit so a lot more to come with the PTB 

Like your optimism Col, but I would put Reynolds in before O'Brien every game, Mellor was to slow for SL 3 years ago that is why he ended up in the Championship, Reynolds came on leaps and bounds under Lam last season changed his game completely for the better, he deserves his chance it is not as though those who he his competing against are any better than him.

[SalfordSlim]

Not sure what to make of that TBH. Bit disappointed in Salford but we ground out the win and agree with whoever said Brierley was MOM above. He had a good game. We never win at Leigh though so the 2 points is the main thing but plenty to work on.

Not seen the stats yet but seems like we got absolutely hammered by Smith on the penalty count and would like to know what we were doing differently to Leigh to warrant that. Also interesting to see that refs are now capable of giving penalty tries.... shame it's around 6 months too late.

Need a vast improvement against KR next week or we could come a cropper.

Big positive was the crowd. Let's hope it's an omen for the rest of the season that we're going to see a lot more bums on seats. Whilst Salford have been long derided for their home support they put a lot of the big clubs to shame when it comes to away games. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Davo5]

On 16/02/2023 at 20:55, sweaty craiq said:

Leigh’s pack will destroy Salford’s tomorrow if the Leeds game tonight is anything to go by

Oops 

[Wollo Wollo Wayoo]

Well played Salford.  Soaked up everything Jack Smith could throw at them.

[Harry Stottle]

4 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Oops 

To be fair Dav, not to much difference in the forward battle, organisation and Brodie Croft in particular was the difference.

[Davo5]

7 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

To be fair Dav, not to much difference in the forward battle, organisation and Brodie Croft in particular was the difference.

But no total forward domination as predicted by the delusional one,early days & I hope you enjoyed the evening.

[ColD]

36 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Like your optimism Col, but I would put Reynolds in before O'Brien every game, Mellor was to slow for SL 3 years ago that is why he ended up in the Championship, Reynolds came on leaps and bounds under Lam last season changed his game completely for the better, he deserves his chance it is not as though those who he his competing against are any better than him.

Well it all about opinions, Reynolds tried and failed (inc a poor Wakey team) so let’s not put him above Mellor and O’Brien

Seen enough tonight to know the results will come, Lams game plan will come good 

 

 

[Snowys Backside]

A funny old game that. Salford had the cohesion and was clinical but Leigh had a few disappointing displays and a few 'hiders' in my opinion. Leigh had tonnes of possession but did nowt with it and i think Leighs team of last year would have come away with the 2 points !

Lam had a good game but let himself down at times by being exceptionally greedy and giving out some green cross passes. Hardacre was solid, but other than his mistake, Charnley was Leighs MOM.

We missed Mellor, who would take the sting away from Lam and is awkward enough to give Salford a real headache, and we need a quality Centre to compliment Leutele. No disrespect to Chamberlain, but Leifai completely owned and dominated that left edge. 

Salford are a very good attacking side but very vulnerable on the edges. Leigh didn't expose that we with no offloads and no second phase. Welcome to SL !!

Still, it was a good watch, a great atmosphere and once gelled, I can see us coming good. Would be really interesting to see how we go next week against Catalans.

Well played Salford. If they had more possession, i fear they would have really taken Leigh to the sword tonight !

[GUBRATS]

We did the basics , as every team needs to do , but they rarely win you the game unless the opposition is poor , you have to go out and win the game , we didn't , that's why we lost , no offloads , too much one out RL , not enough expansive RL 

O'Brien isn't a half , he's a full back , Reynolds chances his arm , and has strength in the run , hope he plays in France 

[Oxford]

I came on here to say that game and result surprised me to some extent.

Although there was no jiggery-pokery the decisions did make the shape of the game change.

Sky commentry was fine though you could tell there was a bit of a Leigh lean.

From the music, to the fireworks, to the Leopard skin coat to a good crowd it was everything you'd hope for from SL and TGG.

Then I read the posts above and wondered why some people consider themselves fans of the sport.

8 minutes ago, Snowys Backside said:

A funny old game that. Salford had the cohesion and was clinical but Leigh had a few disappointing displays and a few 'hiders' in my opinion. Leigh had tonnes of possession but did nowt with it and i think Leighs team of last year would have come away with the 2 points !

Lam had a good game but let himself down at times by being exceptionally greedy and giving out some green cross passes. Hardacre was solid, but other than his mistake, Charnley was Leighs MOM.

We missed Mellor, who would take the sting away from Lam and is awkward enough to give Salford a real headache, and we need a quality Centre to compliment Leutele. No disrespect to Chamberlain, but Leifai completely owned and dominated that left edge. 

Salford are a very good attacking side but very vulnerable on the edges. Leigh didn't expose that we with no offloads and no second phase. Welcome to SL !!

Still, it was a good watch, a great atmosphere and once gelled, I can see us coming good. Would be really interesting to see how we go next week against Catalans.

Well played Salford. If they had more possession, i fear they would have really taken Leigh to the sword tonight !

SB good post that as I said I thought the decions were game changing as they often are. Leigh will be better for that game than if they'd won and will be a completely different side this season and as the season progresses.

There were loads of positives to that game and it's a pity too many fans only seem to focus on all the wrong things, out of habit I guess.

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Oxford said:

I came on here to say that game and result surprised me to some extent.

Although there was no jiggery-pokery the decisions did make the shape of the game change.

Sky commentry was fine though you could tell there was a bit of a Leigh lean.

From the music, to the fireworks, to the Leopard skin coat to a good crowd it was everything you'd hope for from SL and TGG.

Then I read the posts above and wondered why some people consider themselves fans of the sport.

SB good post that as I said I thought the decions were game changing as they often are. Leigh will be better for that game than if they'd won and will be a completely different side this season and as the season progresses.

There were loads of positives to that game and it's a pity too many fans only seem to focus on all the wrong things, out of habit I guess.

We lost our opening game , again , that will negatively effect us going forward , we didn't do enough to win the game