YEP Jury: Leeds Rhinos need to pass their capital test to avoid end-of-season angst
ANDREW SUTCLIFFE
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Hide AdSo we head into the final few weeks of the regular season following the Challenge Cup final.
Firstly congratulations to Warrington for preventing St Helens winning the treble! It goes to show how impressive the 2015 season was for us. I felt Saints thought they only had to turn up and they’d win the game.
On to Leeds and Sunday’s game in the capital. After the week off, I hope the team have rested and got over any knocks and go into the game with the right attitude.
If we win then it’s pretty much guaranteed we’ll be fine, lose and it’s going to be a tense few weeks.
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Hide AdWill we see Stevie Ward or Jamie Jones-Buchanan this week or are we going to stick with the same squad from the previous games?
I feel we are a different team from last time we played London and think we will be too strong for them.
The only issue is their plastic pitch which often causes problems.
If we play like I know we can do, we’ll win and be safe!
LUKE CROSSFIELD
First of all I would like to congratulate Warrington on a superb performance against Saints in the Challenge Cup final.
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Hide AdDaryl Clark for me with his performance has booked himself a place on the plane Down Under for the Lions tour.
On to our biggest game of the season this Sunday. We need to ignore everything around us and concentrate on coming back up the M1 with two points. The result is more important than the performance this week.
The way London have approached this season has been brilliant and they have played well beyond anyone’s expectations.
The team has their own identity and play to their strengths. Credit to Danny Ward, his players and the rest of the coaching staff.
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Hide AdI do believe they will have a very good chance of staying up.
For us to win we need to be well disciplined and put in 100 per cent effort, be patient in attack and produce a defensive effort I know we are capable of. This will be a very tough game and we have to respect London.
THOMAS LAWRENCE
First of all, congratulations to Warrington on their Challenge Cup victory despite the assists from the poor officiating and rules of the game.
Nonetheless, they showed fearlessness and desire and it got rewarded. I’d like to say I sympathise with St Helens, but I don’t – maybe a bit of karma played its part after their gifting of four points to London this season that is the only reason that Leeds are still not mathematically safe.
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Hide AdDespite this, Leeds head to London this Sunday knowing that a win eases all the pressure on us and would leave us four points in front of London with two games to play, but a massive points difference in our favour. Just like I’ve said in recent weeks, Leeds just need to maintain the performance levels that were rewarded with victories over Huddersfield and Catalans and perhaps show that fearlessness and desire that Warrington showed on Saturday.
After all the struggles this season, it would be nice for it to be all but over come Sunday evening. I am confident and fully expect to bring the points home from the capital, but I couldn’t see London beating us back in March.
KATIE BURROWS
The season is almost over and things are looking very tight at the bottom of the table.
I’m optimistic that the week off will have given us time so regroup and, with any luck, we will produce a performance like the one at Huddersfield a few weeks ago.
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Hide AdOn the whole, our form has improved since we last played London, so I’m hoping we’ll be able to record another convincing win.
Two points for us would just about secure our Super League safety, but a win for London would give them a chance of overtaking both Hull KR and Huddersfield, so I think it will simply come down to who wants it more.
We beat Salford convincingly back in February, but with them fighting for a play-off place I think we could struggle to repeat that, and I don’t hold out much hope for us beating Warrington.
Sunday’s game is definitely the one we should win out of the three; if we don’t, I still think we’ve done enough to avoid relegation, but it puts a lot of pressure on us going into our final two games of the season.
TIM NUTTALL
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Hide AdFirstly, well done to Warrington Wolves for defying the pre-match odds and beating St Helens in the Challenge Cup final.
Not a result that many would have seen coming, yet in the lead up to the game you had to think that Warrington had a performance in them somewhere and they found it.
Focus now switches back to Super League and this week’s massive game against London Broncos. I am struggling to remember the last time I was this nervous about a game.
Being in play-off games and the like is one thing, defeat at London on Sunday doesn’t bare thinking about, with tough games against Salford and Warrington to come.
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Hide AdOn the flip side, the lads will need to stay calm, composed and look to strong leadership from our senior blokes. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but we need to make sure we get the basics right and not let London capitalise on our mistakes.
I think it will be a high scoring game, they often have been at Trailfinders, but we just have to make sure we are on the right end.
OLIVER HAWKHEAD
I’ll start with the Challenge Cup final at Wembley over the weekend. The treble is once again proving to be a task for even the most dominant of teams.
The final was definitely a game for the defensive lovers in our sport. I hoped Warrington would win to stop the treble, however for the good of our sport I wanted Saints to receive the trophy from the Duke of Sussex.
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Hide AdMoving on to our game at London Broncos on Sunday, we really need to win the match to throw relegation speculation out of the window.
I’d like London to stay up as I think we need them for the sport, however for me it is between them and Huddersfield Giants as to who will ultimately go down and it would be a huge loss to lose the team from where this sport was born.
Obviously, my primary concern is about the Rhinos and our team simply needs to focus on us.