Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Mar 11, 2023 11:07 am  

Saints will be blaming fatigue from their Penrith friendly in October

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Sat Mar 11, 2023 11:16 am  

2 defeats each for Saints and Wigan probably makes the season more interesting. Wakefield and Cas aside - all teams look competitive and the league table after 4 games is not what people predicted.

Although if Saints finished 6th and went into the playoffs fit and on form then they'd still be favourites.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Mar 20, 2023 3:36 pm  

Ban for Knowles, surely there must be an appeal https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/65017886

Ban for Knowles, surely there must be an appeal https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/65017886

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:11 pm  

Star? Who writes these columns? https://www.totalrl.com/paul-wellens-co ... -fc-clash/

Star? Who writes these columns? https://www.totalrl.com/paul-wellens-co ... -fc-clash/

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:23 pm  

Zig wrote: Star? Who writes these columns? https://www.totalrl.com/paul-wellens-co ... -fc-clash/ Now now, he's a member of the greatest squad of players in the history of the sport, "star" is a barely adequate description

Zig wrote: Star? Who writes these columns? https://www.totalrl.com/paul-wellens-co ... -fc-clash/ Now now, he's a member of the greatest squad of players in the history of the sport, "star" is a barely adequate description

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:55 am  

apollosghost wrote:

Now now, he's a member of the greatest squad of players in the history of the sport, "star" is a barely adequate description

When Phil Clark mentioned " the Rugby Gods" it was alluding to this St Helens team,everyone a god of some description-
Welsby-God of "petulance"
Ben Davies- God of "who is he"
Bennison-God of "dropsie "
Knowles- God of "the offside rule doesnt apply to me "
LMS- God awful
Hurrell- God of "Hamburger stall"
etc etc

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:06 am  

It's going to hurt to write this but here we go.

Taking the Michael out of them as a squad at the minute sounds daft. They've just gone and beat the NRLs best on their own patch. No way would an NRL club just let that happen.

There is of course a debate over whether they are the best that SL has had to offer or whether they've benefited from a poor competition, but that win has quite rightly sealed their place in history alongside one other. Calling all their players just seems daft.

Granted I'm claiming we still lead because of the Canterbury win in 97

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:09 am  

Egg Chasing wrote:

It's going to hurt to write this but here we go.

Taking the Michael out of them as a squad at the minute sounds daft. They've just gone and beat the NRLs best on their own patch. No way would an NRL club just let that happen.

There is of course a debate over whether they are the best that SL has had to offer or whether they've benefited from a poor competition, but that win has quite rightly sealed their place in history alongside one other. Calling all their players just seems daft.

Granted I'm claiming we still lead because of the Canterbury win in 97

Agree with all of that, and i have posted on both forums, that this blip is all down to the WCC. Saints will probably be factoring into their season 3-4 losses by Easter / late April time, and will feel they are good enough to win the GF from 3,4 or 5th, but its just a little harder

the one thing they probably hadnt factored in, and is having an impact has been the bans picked up. Was chatting to one of my mates who is a Saints ST holder, and he said they look laboured / lethergic, especially in the last 20-30 mins of the games he's been to, and falling off tackles, so no doubt some of this is brought on by the fallout from the WCC. That then impacts on ability to rotate squad and try to keep them as fresh as possible.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:18 am  

The pieman wrote:

Agree with all of that, and i have posted on both forums, that this blip is all down to the WCC. Saints will probably be factoring into their season 3-4 losses by Easter / late April time, and will feel they are good enough to win the GF from 3,4 or 5th, but its just a little harder.

I'm not writing them off in the playoffs that's for sure regardless of where they finish. We lost 8 games last season and finished 2nd. Catalans lost 11 and finished 4th.

They'll finish top 4 no worries, and will need to win 3 games as opposed to 2.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:34 am  

The pieman wrote:

Agree with all of that, and i have posted on both forums, that this blip is all down to the WCC. Saints will probably be factoring into their season 3-4 losses by Easter / late April time, and will feel they are good enough to win the GF from 3,4 or 5th, but its just a little harder

the one thing they probably hadnt factored in, and is having an impact has been the bans picked up. Was chatting to one of my mates who is a Saints ST holder, and he said they look laboured / lethergic, especially in the last 20-30 mins of the games he's been to, and falling off tackles, so no doubt some of this is brought on by the fallout from the WCC. That then impacts on ability to rotate squad and try to keep them as fresh as possible.

Agree with you and your mate. We definitely aren't defending with anywhere near the same vigour as the last few seasons, we do seem to be falling off tackles and are missing way more than we normally would.

The Knowles/Sironen/Matautia ban bingo game has started in earnest, its Knowles's turn this week although to be fair he won't be as big of a loss as previously in my opinion, as he has started the season poorly. A week off may do him the world of good.

I also feel we may have under-estimated just how good Woolf was. He goes to the Dolphins (granted not as head coach) and they are 3 from 3 and smashing teams in defence.

I was very critical of us at the Hull game however in the cold light of day when I reflected, we had Batchelor, Hopoate, Hurrell and Matautia all missing and then lost Percival in the warm up. That then meant Makinson went to centre and Ritson came in. We then lost Davies in the first half who had been playing as centre so Sironen had to play there. The back line was decimated which was reflected in our clunky attack.

Also it was obvious that Hull were going to have a response after being smashed by Salford and played quite well.

At this stage in the season it was just good to get a win again. Worryingly though both Lomax and Walmsley are way below par.