It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if its Lee and Wilkin in the halves. If that happens that will put a lot of people on a downer and give a lot a good laugh.
It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if its Lee and Wilkin in the halves. If that happens that will put a lot of people on a downer and give a lot a good laugh.
I don't care what anyone says we need a scrum half at scrum half or we will get nowhere.I see no value in making Wilkin play there again and Tommy Lee is a bigger backward step than putting Richardson in for me.
Learned comment from The Don
The closer it gets to the game the tougher I think it'll be for us to win. Few things we need to get right IMO:
Contact in defence. We have a history of struggling against teams with pace and play that offloading game - the reason generally being because our contact isn't the best. We often struggle against the Cas and Leeds type. We really need the starting forwards to stay in the game and wear their starting 6 down because I feel we have the edge when it comes to the replacements. Amor, Roby, Douglas, Thompson, Greenwood, Wilkin would be my starting pack. We have a habit of losing games inside the first 20 mins against Leeds because we let them offload and play on the front foot. If we hold them early on, Walmsley, Walker and Knowles' hands around the ruck will do them I reckon.
I'd be putting Ashton Golding under pressure all night. He's played a few games now but he's far from perfect under the high kick. Wilkin should be launching them all night at him. Kick down his throat and he'll lay it off to Hall all game and we can't have him running 1 v 1 at Richardson/Fages or Makinson down that right edge. Need to turn their old heads around and dominate them physically.
I think the basics will be hugely important tomorrow. We can't give them field position because they've got quick backs who will tear teams apart if you give them too much of the ball. No cheap penalties, no soft handling errors like we saw against Castleford. I think possession will be really important, it's the first game of the season and that battle of fitness will be really important.
Really looking forward to the game, it's a shame we've not got a game the week after but round 1 is a big physiological point for all teams. Should be a big atmosphere, a tough game and hopefully we get the right result.
Steve Prescott MBE (1973-2013)
V
I think Leeds will be under pressure to start well after last season and may be a little nervous early on. If we can start the game well and as Tez says not give away cheap penalties we will win imo.
We have to be more difficult to defend against though
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