Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:58 am  

The other big imponderable is the quality & style of the refereeing. SL speed ptb &offside? Championship speed?
Discipline is massively important. A 2 match ban picked up in the first game will mean that player misses 1/3 of the remaining games. No coach will be impressed by that!

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:31 pm  

Widnes
Hull KR
Salford
Leigh V Wakey in the million game
Bulls
Sheffield
Halifax

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:47 pm  

ant7t2 wrote:

It was more of a brief summary for argument's sake. And to prompt a possible response.

I actually don't think there is a massive difference between Hull KR, Widnes, Salford and Leigh.

Hull KR pulled off some excellent results earlier in the season - think they beat Wigan and Saints at home - but are on a poor run at the moment. Campese is a big loss for them because he looked different class IMO. They have the most quality in their squad of all the Middle 8 teams I reckon.

Unfortunately for Leigh, they play Widnes away, which is a disadvantage, as Widnes are much stronger at home. At the LSV I think you'd have a decent chance but I think it'll be hard in Widnes' back yard.

I wouldn't rule out Wakefield either. They were beating Leigh comfortably in that cup game and threw the game away - a more confident side might've held on for the victory and they've improved a bit since Brian Smith came in.

As for Bradford - the bookies don't fancy us, probably given our recent run of results, but we've been missing key players for a while now that are all back in full training. I've seen enough this season to suggest we can hurt teams, but for us it's about doing it consistently over 7 games and putting in 80 minute performances, of which we haven't put in too many this season.

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 1:46 pm  

Hopefully Widnes will already be safe and they won't give stuff. Actually i hope we will be safe at that point

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 1:51 pm  

If Leigh play to the full potential for 80 minutes I think we'll surprise a few.
No such thing as a given as I also think Sheffield will shock a few given how they play when it comes to Play off RL.
Too difficult to call which is exactly what sport should be all about.

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:19 pm  

JENKY wrote:

If Leigh play to the full potential for 80 minutes I think we'll surprise a few.
No such thing as a given as I also think Sheffield will shock a few given how they play when it comes to Play off RL.
Too difficult to call which is exactly what sport should be all about.

Agreed, I keep switching from feeling confident of us turning over Hull KR and Salford and making top 3 to being convinced we are going to blow it, lose to Fax/Sheffield and miss out on the million pound game.

Think the optimism of the last 2 years as a Leigh fan is battling against the many disappointments of the previous 22 years

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:47 pm  

1. Widnes
2. Hull KR
(I think Hull KR are probably the best team in it but Widnes have big home advantage, had Widnes only had 3 home games instead of 4 I'd swap those two around)
3. Leigh
(Play to our full potential for full 80 min every game & defend as well as we can instead of taking the "We'll just score more than you" attitude we seem to have had at times and I'm fairly confident of automatic promotion. Think it's a big advantage playing Bradford & Wakefield at LSV especially considering we haven't lost at home for 2 seasons now.)
4. Salford
5. Bradford
(Two odd ones, both been a bit inconsistent, Bradford play some very good attacking rugby though & will definitely be challenging. Depends on how Salford go with their off field issues, if Salford decide "Right this is it now, last chance shape up!" they should do well, if they struggle 1st few games though heads could just as easily go and they could collapse.)
6. Wakefield
(Been poor all season, not sure a brand new temporary team just for the Super 8s will really help. Yes they pushed us close in the Challenge cup but once we stopped handing them the ball at half way on the 3rd tackle every set we ran away with it in the 2nd half)
7. Sheffield
8. Halifax
(Both will play some good rugby and both will cause a few scares might even be the odd upset but think this is where full time V part time will show. Not sure being full time has given us a particularly big advantage up to now but it's definitely going to be essential to getting enough recovery when playing against full time teams every week)

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:07 pm  

John Gilbert Reds wrote:

I hope Paul Rowley sticks by his word and continues to adopt the same attacking approach, as it will make for some great games.

Leigh don't know how to play any other way.

Even the likes of metre-monster props Moimoi and Emmit have learnt how to offload and pass too.

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:48 pm  

Lowton_Sparrow wrote:

7. Sheffield
8. Halifax
(Both will play some good rugby and both will cause a few scares might even be the odd upset but think this is where full time V part time will show. Not sure being full time has given us a particularly big advantage up to now but it's definitely going to be essential to getting enough recovery when playing against full time teams every week)

You make a very good point here, as we have seen in games in Fax's case and in some of Sheffield's games that the players are not unfitter than a lot of their full time counter parts but the extra recovery time is going to make a massive difference in how these two teams do. I must admit I was a little disappointed when the fixtures came out to see Leigh playing Sheffield the week before they come to the Shay though but it looks like the fixtures have bvee staged to favour teams finishing higher in the league and we cant really complain about that.

Im obviously biased but I would be amazed if we finished below Sheffield as for me Fax at this point are easily the 3rd best team in the league but time will tell. I wouldnt be surprised if either Sheffield or Bradford are the teams that concede the most points in a game in the middle 8's.

Re: Who is going up? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:27 pm  

BullCharge wrote:

I wouldn't rule out Wakefield either. They were beating Leigh comfortably in that cup game and threw the game away - a more confident side might've held on for the victory and they've improved a bit since Brian Smith came in.

I was at that match and Leigh didn't do anything right in the first half. Any team would have put points on us. We were almost giddy.

Have Wakefield improved enough though? Bottom of the league all season takes its toll.