Catalan v Leeds

[Charriots Offiah]

If Leeds win it again from fifth I’m done with rugby league

Me too because it has definitely been fixed!

Don’t worry you won’t have to stop watching our great game.

[fozzieskem]

If Leeds win it again from fifth I’m done with rugby league

Me too because it has definitely been fixed!

I've got an awful feeling about Leeds,who ever plays them I think will lose,don't get me wrong they are a flat average side as I've said but Smith has them playing with little or no fear and that makes them.very dangerous add the usual shithousery from Bentley,who did the same number on micky mac as he did on Willie isa last season with similar result.

I'm a terrible tipster but there you go,Leeds to win it this year.

As for Catalan what was the point of resting the whole team.last week?

[Firestarter]

Totally agree , said so myself. Also wish someone would give Bentley a proper good hiding .

I think mr bateman will have him in his sights if we get them

[Firestarter]

Terrible game and cats had hardly any ball….. one thing that annoyed me was leeds players ducking into a lot of tackles….. dont get me wrong cats discipline was awful but leeds played on it….. i still think myler obstructed for there try purposely

[Wigan_forever1985]

Thing is all it will take is for Austin/Sezer to have 2 good games and Leeds could win it

Austin in particular can win a game alone when he wants - hardaker has shored them up at the back - losing Newman was a blow but they still have leeming who again when he turns it on he’s very hard to stop

But surely it just makes a complete farce of superleague if they win it again from 5th

[fozzieskem]

Thing is all it will take is for Austin/Sezer to have 2 good games and Leeds could win it

Austin in particular can win a game alone when he wants - hardaker has shored them up at the back - losing Newman was a blow but they still have leeming who again when he turns it on he’s very hard to stop

But surely it just makes a complete farce of superleague if they win it again from 5th

Totally agree,throw in a coach who’s clearly telling to play what they see and it makes them match winners,the nasty side of them is provided by the usual suspects..underestimate them at your peril

[josie andrews]

Steve McNamara uneased as match officials travel on Leeds Rhinos' chartered flight

McNamara addressed the issue of match officials being made to travel on the same flights as Catalans' opponents when games are played in France.

Steve McNamara believes referees are being placed in an uncompromised position by being made to travel to France with Catalans' opponents. James Child and the rest of the match officials were on Leeds Rhinos' chartered flight ahead of the semi-final contest before returning to the UK with the Rhinos following the game.

The match officials were the subject of abuse from the Catalans supporters, who threw drinks and objects in their direction after the final whistle of the Dragons' defeat to the Rhinos. Child had sin-binned three Catalans players and sent one off in a bad-tempered affair.

McNamara was keen to stress he was not aiming his comments in Child's direction and admitted his side's discipline had conspired against them as they bowed out of the play-offs. But he said it was unfair on the officials to put them in a position where they are in close contact with the travelling team either side of a game.

"I need to be really careful because this isn't a crack at this game tonight," he started. "I get during Covid why that situation happened, but the amount of pressure those officials must be under, travelling on a private flight with a team with what is at stake.

"Please, I must restate this, this isn't a crack at James Child or Ben Thaler or any of the other officials who are involved there, they just shouldn't be put in that situation to start with because it's a no-win situation for them. They should not be put in it and everybody knows that. The flights are all open now.

Because then people start asking questions like you ask me, you asked the question because you know that's the situation, they shouldn't be in that position to have to do that. We didn't deserve to win tonight based on what happened out there on the field, but jeez, it's common sense."

McNamara did question the decision to sin-bin Pearce the first time, with the influential halfback sent for ten minutes on the sidelines for running in at an incident. Catalans were in possession at the time and attacking Leeds' line, but ended up with the penalty going against them and losing a man.

Frustration got the better of our players," he said. "The Mitchell Pearce one, the first one, there is a rule that if you run in and get involved you can get sin-binned but it's not been used all season, not used at all. And there are Leeds players who run in as well. So I don't understand how it's rolled out on a night like tonight.

"We'd been under pressure but we'd forced a repeat set, got field position, forced a drop out and then there's a penalty against us. Those situations lead to more and more frustration for our players. We didn't handle that well enough and in the last 20 minutes we could have got a way back into the game but discipline let us down."

McNamara also reacted to Rohan Smith's post-match comment where he claimed Sam Tomkins had dived in an incident involving Leeds forward Matt Prior. Prior's head appeared to make some contact with the Man of Steel, who dropped to the floor.

"I've got to be careful here, but not too careful, but Richie Myler did something similar a few weeks back and got a sin bin," McNamara said. "It's not exactly the same incident, don't get me wrong, but I think as coaches sometimes we pick and choose when we want to look at the incidents, but make of it what you want. I'm not going to go down that too much there."

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/rugb ... dium=email

[josie andrews]

Rohan Smith on Sam Tomkins altercation, Mikolaj Oledzki injury and more

The Rhinos boss spoke to the press after their victory over Catalans Dragons.

General thoughts

I thought it was a very controlled performance. We went out paying footy and pulling them apart a little bit. I was a bit disappointed when the Sezer one went up no try, I thought that was a try. But we played with good control regardless of the scoreline. An unbelievable amount of stoppages, we've been to France four times and it's been the four slowest games of the year. No significant injuries, just really slow. But in the end we really held our nerve. We were composed among the chaos and closed it out well enough without being great.


The Catalans cards incidents

I don't watch the replays of that stuff, it's not in my control. I did watch to see what Aidan had done in the tackle, he'd done nothing, I didn't even know after the card had been given. The high tackle ones, I just don't see them as sin bin offences but that's just me.

The scenes at the end

Disappointing. It was a good, tough contest, playing a sudden-death game. I thought the referee adjudicated things strongly, there were some 50-50 calls, a couple went both ways, but when the crowd was roaring he refereed the game as he intended which was great to see but disappointing to see him get things thrown at him and our players to be treated like that is disappointing, but no actual harm done.

His heated exchange with Sam Tomkins

It just goes on, and on, and on. Every decision he's questioned and challenged. A suggestion that we should just play footy and see who is the best team at the end of the day.

Morgan Gannon concussion

He's a little ginger, he won't play next week clearly. But he's OK, he's a brave young man. He got himself well and truly in front of the big ball carrier that Kasiano is.

Zak Hardaker's goal-kicking

He's been striking them sweet since Rhyse had to miss that game against Hull KR, he's been practising more frequently and striking them sweet. He's been practising with Rhyse, maybe it's infection.

The decision to not select Brad Dwyer

Against big teams in semi-final footy we can't fit three hookers and the way things are at the minute, Jarrod is a hooker best suited for us today for that rotation that he got in there adn got his head where it hurts and worked hard with his defence. Kruise came on and finished it for us. Brad's done well, next week is a new week and we'll see what the situation is next week. I just couldn't really fit three smaller bodies in the middle today given what they possess in the middle.

Sam Tomkins' reaction to Matt Prior incident.

Dived.

Would you go as strongly as that?

I only saw it live, there was a lot of them where people hit the ground trying to win penalties at the end.

It's not good when it turns into a scuffle. There's always going to be gamesmanship in sport, where someone thinks they can gain an advantage by falling over taking a bit of a bump, they make more of it. That's been part of any sport for years. But when that turns into a scuffle and the game stops for three minutes while the match officials figure out what happened and if they need to take action, it's no good for the game. The game doesn't flow. So I don't have a massive problem with the gamesmanship if that's what you want to call it, but let's play and see who is better at the end.

Mikolaj Oledzki injury

He's got a bit of a shoulder injury there. Hopefully, it's just one of those decent stingers, AC pain you get for a little period that can sometimes go away. Hopefully it's just that.

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/rugb ... s-24983634

[moto748]

If Leeds win it again from fifth I’m done with rugby league

Me too because it has definitely been fixed!

Sorry but this is garbage.

1. Nothing has been 'fixed'. The finals are being played according to the agreed format. What do you think was 'fixed', anyway? Do you think Cats should have won the game? 'Fixed' is a big term. It implies bribery/corruption. If you have evidence of that, lets hear it, otherwise it's best not to bandy such expressions about.

2. All this "I'll never watch rugby again if Leeds win from fifth" **** News just in, that's the system we use. You are entitled to dislike it, but that doesn't make it invalid. Or is it just because it's Leeds? I don't like the Rhinos either, but supposing it was Wigan in 5th place, what would you say then? 5th place have (rightly) the hardest route to the Final, just like the lower ranked teams in the NRL do (although they use a different system).

[Firestarter]

If we play well we will smash leeds….. they will only beat us if we go into the game half hearted like we did last time