Round 4 | Leeds v Widnes | Monday 17th June

[Harrigan]

Monday sees the Round 4 clash between the Rhinos and Viking take place at Headingley. It was originally postponed because the World Club Challenge between Leeds and Melbourne was scheduled in for that weekend.

Ill be very interested to see what approach Leeds take to this game as they have 5 players in the England Squad and 3 in the Exiles for the game which is being played 71 hours 45 minutes earlier. This happened a couple of years ago and Leeds played pretty much a team of kids against Castleford and won.

The game is live on both SkySports 2HD in the UK and Eurosport in Australia at 7.45pm (4.45am Monday morning AEST).

OK, I know this isnt going to catch anyone's imagination on here and it might get 5 replies, 3 being from me, but it is a regular round SL game and I would have done it for any team

 

[CC_Roosters]

I'm backing widnes for the upset here.

Ran wigan close last week, but not sure who leeds will have back in the coming weeks. Macguire is gone for the season I hear

 

[chemics]

Go the vikings!!

 

[Harrigan]

So, the Exiles game has passed and Sinfield is injured plus I heard Leuluai probably won't back up too.


At the moment Leeds are missing,

Watkins
McGuire
Leuluai
Ablett
Sinfield
Ward
Delaney
Bailey

And have the possibility of,

Moon
Hall
Hardaker
JJB

All backing up.

The team may look something like this:

Hardaker
Jones-Bishop
Keinhorst
Moon
Hall
Sutcliffe
Burrow
Kirke
McShane
Peacock
Clarkson
Achurch
Jones-Buchanan

Singleton
Moore
Baldwinson
Minns (a centre/winger because we literally have no one else :lol: )

It should be an interesting game anyway.

 

[JasonE]

So, the Exiles game has passed and Sinfield is injured plus I heard Leuluai probably won't back up too.


At the moment Leeds are missing,

Watkins
McGuire
Leuluai
Ablett
Sinfield
Ward
Delaney
Bailey

And have the possibility of,

Moon
Hall
Hardaker
JJB

All backing up.

The team may look something like this:

Hardaker
Jones-Bishop
Keinhorst
Moon
Hall
Sutcliffe
Burrow
Kirke
McShane
Peacock
Clarkson
Achurch
Jones-Buchanan

Singleton
Moore
Baldwinson
Minns (a centre/winger because we literally have no one else :lol: )

It should be an interesting game anyway.

With all those players out it's still a decent team and like Wigan last week v Widnes, it is a testament to their depth.

 

[JasonE]

The highlight of the whole season has been seeing young players have been given an opportunity, this game saw Jordan Baldwinson looking at home on debut and Liam Sutcliffe looks as classy as any 18 yo since i saw Brad Fittler debut back in the early 1990's.

 

[Harrigan]

It was a very enjoyable game. Our defence for the most was great and I think all their third cane from distance after misreads and over enthusiastic line reads.

Agree totally about Sutcliffe too. By the time he's in his early 20s he'll be a tough player to stop. I thought his size might be a hinderance at 6 but its clearly not. He's one of the most agile big guys I have seen.

Baldwinson in his limited game time looked like a mini version of Peacock, which can only be a good thing. Singleton really impresses me though. He runs so hard every time and plays the game at 100mph. When he fills out a bit he'll be tough to handle, not that he isn't now.

Not the best crowd on hand though. Just under 13k with a few hundred from Widnes but it was Monday and widnes is about 100km away.

 

[LeedsStorm]

Which is just as well re Sutcliffe, because in the absence of Sinfield and McGuire, I thought Burrow had a great game. No coincidence the club's best run of success has been with these three forming the spine of the side. Big shoes to fill Liam....