A few observations:



Defensively we were awful, as bad as I remember. It was summed up for me by the Hall and Kirke "effort" on Atkins where he made them look silly to score his 2nd try.



We lacked structure in attack and seemed to have no game plan. McGuire for me offered the only real threat and he had no real platform to work from.



We seemed to lack enthusiasm from an early stage. There was no urgency even right at the beginning of the 2nd half. The crowd never really got into the game and think the main reason was the players gave them very little to respond to. For a team that have talked this game up for 2/3 years there was something missing today.



Big game experienced players had poor games - Buderus, Sinfield, Webb and Burrow were about as poor as I can remember them ball in hand.



2 many of our forwards made little or no contribution - Ablett, Kirke, Clarkson were all fairly anonymous for me.



We didn't have the rub of the green. It might have made no difference but the Webb to Hall forward pass looked harsh and the Mathers to Riley offside was a bad miss. If we score to make it 8-6 it's a different game.



Bluey was comprehensively outcoached by TS on this showing - if Ali was fit to leave him out is a staggering decision.



Few Leeds players emerge with credit for me - I thought Bailey did OK and Leuluai had a decent 1st spell. Eastwood made an impact in places and Delaney was strong all day. McGuire should walk our player of the season though - always a threat.



On another note, I thought Mathers was outstanding for them. He seems to find a new level for big games

The only explananation which makes sense, from the performance today, is that the whole team, excited at being in the capital, were out clubbing 'til 4 a.m.



We weren't even second best.

As a Hull FC fan that wanted Leeds to win, I have to say I thought McLennan was a bit arrogant in the pre match interview on BBC. Fair enough, 3 back to back titles, he's earned the right to be confident, but his words and style of delivery suggested he thought the game was a formality and bordering on disrespectful to a team that's joint 2nd and arguably the form team of the competition.



As a neutral, it seemed that Warrington were more patient and Leeds tactics of ploughing down the middle without Peacock or Burgess were strange, plus the number of basic handling errors was telling on a hot day against opposition that were pretty clinical. Personally not looking forward to the backlash at the KC, though. Could be a long night at the office for us if you respond in champions' fashion.

Thought the Buderus dropped ball in the 1st minute set the tone for the rest of the game, sloppy errors all round. We weren't clinical enough in attack too many of our big players who needed to step in for the loss of Peacock had poor games such as Sinfield, Buderus and Webb. A couple of things didn't go our way but we can't complain, the better team won on the day and Warrington were magnificent, looked dangerous everytime they got near our line and we always looked clueless. Poor decision leaving out Ali IMO, he's a game breaker and it would have made Senior and Hall alot more of a threat as well. On reflection, I would have played Donald as we needed a bit of pace but tbf to Bluey, Smith does bring the goods in a lot of big games. Didn't make enough yards forward, too many errors, not clinical enough and the bounce of the ball didn't go our way basically summed up the day. You can't win 'em all, let's prove we can bounce back from this and get a win at Hull heading in to the play offs, we have a week break, I don't think fatigue will be too much of a factor next week.

Shocking and embarrassing, end of !!!!!!

From a wire fans point of view.



Peacock takes 20+ drives in for you, no on stood up & took his place.



McGuire & Burrow didn't click. even had words & for long periods had space but no runners. Wire crash balls in comparison were awesome.



The 40/20 turned the game.



Budherus bottled it completely.



Still at 20 up I though it was a matter of time before you came back & did us. It's the first time i've seen Leeds play poorly. I'm sure it's a one off.

The stats saiod it all, warrington making over 400m more metres forward than we diod. And what the hell was Mcclennan doing dropping Ali and playing an un match fit Ablett.

Choking on a big day, who do we think we are, St Helens?

I was sat on the half way line with my dad but my friend sat in the Warrington end corner you mention. When we were travelling home later in his car he said that once Anderson scored near the end to confirm victory for Warrington some Leeds "fans" who were sitting in that end just could not accept the fact that they had lost,and started throwing punches at anyone in a Warrington shirt near enough to be on the recieving end of them. Quite frankly shameful as was Ryan Bailey who spent all afternoon hiding from Carvell and Morley but put the elbow in on Chris Riley in the last minute just for the hell of it. Bailey is just a cheap shot merchant. Before the game I had a nice chat with some Leeds fans who told me the result was a formality and the cup was going back to yorkshire. They were unbelievably arrogant,oh how I wish I had bumped into them again after the match!!!!!!!!!

Is yesterday the result of having a "get stuck in, up and at em" type coach, who can motivate players for some games but doesn't know how to produce a game plan, coming up against a technical coach who does all the detail and makes specific plans for specific players?



We were comprehensively outplayed, but even more comprehensively outcoached. All the same issues we have had for the last 3 years were evident, we gave away penalties, dropped far too much ball, and didn't have enough go forward or depth to our attack when we had the ball.



Very disappointing performance from a poorly coached team IMHO.



Well done Warrington, by far the better team, and thoroughly deserved to win.

We did not get the rub of the green when Leeds threw the ball 5 miles forwards for Smith to score in the corner but you don't mention that one!!!!!

when youve achieved all the success weve achieved in super league then you can call yourself st,helens....

you may have beaten us in 3 grand finals..(which im sure will come up again as per-usual)..but compare our challenge cup success to yours how many times have you won it compared to saints?..and why does st,helens always seem to come up in a game which had nothing to with us?

and just for the record.its a good job silverwood felt a bit sorry for you and let that mile forward pass go to let you score..otherwise you'd have been nilled..