Checked last night there were only 60 seats left in the West Stand and these were dotted all over the place.

SS1 opened up for sale

Hope they have some seats available after Jan pay day. Xmas is very expensive, especially with an xmas day baby (albeit it 14 years ago)

A potential sell out will be great but I can't get over the nagging feeling that we're in a bit of trouble with this one. It feels like Penrith will really prioritise this given the commitment to fly over here, the fact that its a trophy they haven't yet won and the possibility of being the first NRL team to lose in successive WCC's. Even just mentioning the game in some of their press releases and retweeting the crowd figures wouldn't be something you would normally see the NRL clubs do with this fixture. St Helens maybe caught them a little cold last year and ground it out in horrendous conditions - I think we'll see a much improved version in Feb.

There is no way we’ll catch them off guard. To beat them will be one hell of an ask and Saints result only make it harder for us IMO. They (Saints fans) can like it or not but Penrith treated that fixture last year with real arrogance and I don’t think they’ll do it again. I actually came across the highlights on YouTube the other day of the Saints game and the NRL site had titled them ‘Pre season Round 2’. That didn’t mean Penrith saw it like that but it tells a story of what the general feeling was over there.

I reckon we've got 30 to 60 mins max before we see a Saints fan pop-up to refute everything you've said. They can't help it.

I don’t get why it’s so insulting to them. If Penrith play at their best against us, are totally switched on and we don’t get the bounce of the ball, they’ll beat us and so they should. They treated that Saints game pretty much as a friendly but that doesn’t take away from the achievement. A team spending 4 times what you can, playing on home soil and being lauded as possibly the best Australian team of all time, should still win the game, even taking it lightly. It was an amazing victory for Saints, no doubt about it.

Spot on and, like you said earlier, facing them this time is even more of a challenge. They won't be caught off guard twice, so it will take a herculean effort to turn them over. I'd go as far as to say that, if we played them away, it would be almost impossible.

The hope for us are the exits of Crichton and Leniu but any team with a spine including Edwards, Luai, Cleary and Yeo is going to be a monstrous challenge. Add in Leota and JFH and we’ll need everything to fall our way. It’s going to be a great night regardless of the result and you just never know what can happen.

Stopping Leota, Fisher-Harris and Liam Martin in the first 10/15 minutes will be crucial. They set the physical tone for Penrith for the spine to play off the back.



Met them three physically. Move up quick/kick pressure on Cleary. To’o is the most dangerous outside back, similar to Makinson. I’d bomb him to restrict him taking a proper carry.



As you’ve said Leniu is a big loss, they should have too much experience coming off the bench but knowing them they’ll be very good young players.



Should be a great game, Panthers are 4 point favourites with the bookies and that’s probably about right.



Should be low scoring.

So looking at our fixtures prior to Penrith on 24th Feb at the moment we have:



26th Jan - Wakefield A (Friendly)

4th Feb - Hull FC A (Testimonial)

17th Feb - Cas A (SL Rd 1)



So, surely we go strong from the off playing almost full strength at Wakey then full strength at Hull, obviously we will at Cas. I'd even suggest an additional friendly needs to be arranged for 10th/11th Feb. Too long a gap from the Hull game to the Cas game to keep us on point.



By the way, not seen anything relating to Penrith friendlies yet, anything happening there yet? Fully expect a SL team to provide a match and training venue prior to playing us.

Big block of tickets just disappeared from N2, be fantastic if Penrith have organised a supporters trip

20k barrier broken now, should be a great occasion and hopefully a full house under the floodlights.



Are the club allowing the flags to go back above the South Stand again? Wonder if the club themselves have anything big planned apart from the standard pyrotechnics...?

Absolute nonsense mate and you're doing us a massive disservice there. Watch the game again and watch their players reaction to their late try and their reaction to our drop goal. They cared, a lot. To say they treated it as a friendly or took it lightly is just plain wrong and is simply an attempt to play down our achievement, regardless of you saying otherwise.



By the way, 20,000 tickets sold 6 weeks before the game is a fantastic response from the Wigan fans. I'd be made up if that was Saints, fair play.

That would be a problem, the TW Stadium doesn’t hold that many

Haha touche!

The reactions late in a game aren’t going to tell you as much as the general malaise in their play for the first hour did or the fact they decided to rest up Dylan Edwards and Liam Martin. They thought they just had to turn up and you saw the panic in them late on when they realised they were in trouble. It probably didn’t help them the NRL heading it as a R2 pre season game and when they looked around the stands and saw the lowest crowd in donkeys years, that can’t have get the juices flowing either.



As I say, it doesn’t take away from Saints achievement, it was absolutely huge and the disadvantages they overcame were far greater than the fact Penrith took the game extremely lightly.

Players don't react like that if they were treating it as a friendly, that's my point. You're implying they didn't care about the result either way. They clearly did.

As I've said many times before, caring about a result is totally different to preparing properly for the game in the first place. They clearly cared. They're professional sportsman and any defeat hurts. They also clearly underestimated the Saints side. That's on them. However their reaction isn't an indicator of how they approached the game which was definitely lacking. In truth I'd be happy if they approached our game in the same way. Unfortunately it doesn't take a genius to work out that they're unlikely to make the same mistake twice.



As NK says, it doesn't detract from Saints achievement in the slightest just as it wouldn't ours if they come into the game undercooked. You can only beat what's in front of you. The team that approaches the match in the best way, wants it more and executes the best will win. That's the same for any and every game. Excuses are for the losers.

I can't quote again for some reason but replaying to YG above-



I saw their reactions and yes they were disappointed. It looked like the realisation dawned on them suddenly that maybe they should've treated the game with a bit more respect. Did they treat it as a 'Friendly' as I described it? maybe that term is slightly downplaying how they treated the game but I can't sit here and lie and say that I thought they treated that game as they would a GF, a Play off game or even a regular season game and if Saints fans want to think they did, I think you're lying to yourselves but I'm not here to change your opinion.



I said earlier in this thread Saints achievement being a fantastic one can go hand in hand with Penrith not showing the fixture the respect it deserves. Hand on heart opinion-I'm certain we'll be facing a more switched on side, they'll not get caught out twice, they'll beat us by 10+ points and Saints will get even more credit for their win last year on the back of it.

I think the defeat last year will certainly motivate them more, but I have the game much closer in my mind. On Wigan soil and already with a league game under your belts; those two things will bridge the gap. Plus I think the Wigan style will worry them. I think you will play expansive and look to surprise them. It won't be the arm-wrestle type "grind" that they're used to. The bookies are only giving Wigan +4 which I think is about right.

I think we’ll push them definitely but maybe with them pulling away late on.

Well they aren’t playing a warm up game this year so clearly aren’t taking it any more seriously this year, and Wigan get to play this game after they have started their SL season so have a bigger advantage.



See - it’s easy to play things down isn’t it! Wigan fans say this is the real deal cos they lost last year but in the same breath say they didn’t care last year so if they didn’t care last year (having lost previous forays into this game), why would they care now?



Well done for doing the Aussie’s job for them re: perpetuating the excuses though.

At least it's factual and better peddling the lie you guys seem to be all in on.



I saw that Matt Shaw said something like "it was one of the greatest ever sporting achievements in the history of RL". That one really made me laugh. I know journalistic integrity in RL has always been non existent, but come on. Really? I doubt even someone like Trump would get away with BS like that.

Fantastic! I hope they're going into it half-d again and, come the end of February, we've inflicted two defeats in a row on them.



As I said in my previous post, excuses are for the losers.