28/03/08 (1) - Raising The Bar
Awesome.
Since their World Club hangover defeat at Cas, Leeds have set a new benchmark for Super League. Three matches, 122 points scored and, astonishingly, just one solitary try conceeded.
Against Hull at the KC on Monday the Rhinos combined speed, skill and fluency with power, aggression and determination to produce a devestating, at times breathtaking, level of performance. Even as a Hull fan, I just had to sit and applaud. All the talk - much of it from my good self - has been of the most competitive Super League ever. I’ve heard fanciful predictions of the table toppers losing as many as ten of their twenty seven matches. Are this Leeds team about to blow those notions apart and crush the competition en route to inevitably Grand Final glory?
Here’s the case for the remaining eleven sides: In 2005 the Rhinos won 13 of 14 matches over the first half of the season, were being hailed as an irresistible force, odds-on to lift the title and favourites for the Challenge Cup. Yet as Anne Robinson might’ve said had she being presenting the Trophies (and why not?; the RFL have employed some pot-givers of equally spurious qualification in the recent past), they left with nothing. In other words, once again they’re making the mistake of peaking too soon. Shooting for home prematurely, so to speak.
Here’s the counter argument, which is broadly speaking my take (and yes, I’m not too arrogant to admit that I’ve change my opinion (although I remain pretty arrogant): they’re just too damn good, and they’ve got too much strength in depth, to be stopped. It’s a tough comp, but certainly no tougher than the NRL, and that didn’t stop the Storm sweeping all before them in astonishing 2007 season during which they lost only twice. This Leeds side are, I believe, better than the Saints double winning vintage of 2006, and unlikely to be stopped.
Saints v Leeds on Friday is a match that no follower of rugby league - no self-respecting sports fan - would want to miss. St.Helens will be all out to prove they’re still in the game, still a mighty challenge, still as big and strong and quick and talented as their Yorshire rivals. But my money says the Leeds juggernaut won’t be halted this week, and the Saints will go the same way as the Bulls and the Airlie Birds before them.
Unfortunatley, I’ll be on my way to Perpignan, so I WILL miss it. C’est la vie, as the locals in that particular neck of the woods might say.
