Saints

This thread has been done to death. To me the game further underlines they are a dirty team Lees/Knowles/Sironen are a disgrace - bunch of thugs. Anyone who disagrees go and speak with Jermaine McGilvary or Mike Cooper. The late hits on Croft and Atkin were a joke, again bent Kendall choose to ignore this and I won't be holding my breath on Lees twisting of Wright whom we may have lost for a season on Monday's match review. Oh and their fans the most self entitled lot I've come across.

Yes we massively imploded in the 2nd half - Williams needs dropping end of, stupid passes, not being able to support when Cross broke 2nd half (Cross had to wait to pass), its just not good enough at this level. I thought our forwards did well, we lost two plyers and restricted them to 14 points playing with 15 men but the lesson is we should not be in this position.

Anyway we have once again seen Kendall's love in with Saints, deja vu again from September.

Still gutted how we let that slip 2nd half but like someone said above let's not go overboard. We pretty much did everything wrong for 40 minutes at the home of the "best team in the world" and still "only" lost by 14 points.

The errors were inexcusable, I get it but we can't get on our players backs. Williams had been a brilliant servant over the years, he's sat on the sidelines for long periods and generally comes in and rarely lets us down. Yesterday was just one of those days where he had an absolute stinker. We all know Costello isn't good enough but we haven't got the cash to upgrade him at the minute.

If Sio & Lafai play yesterday we win that game, I'm 100% certain, like the play-off game last year when we were missing Brodie & then Ackers for 90% of the game.

Hopefully we get a reaction against a Hudds team that must be low on confidence after a couple of drubbings.

I agree, I think we can beat anyone on our day. Our attack still hasn't clicked except against Hull and the first half at Warrington - who I think look very beatable. I don't know how they are top.

Can we quit the ref blaming? It's one of the worst jobs in the world. They make mistakes with on the spot decisions in a very fast game. Everyone makes mistakes. On the whole I think refs get far more right than wrong. And I don't think any ref goes into a game intent on screwing a team over. Is the standard up to that of the NRL, no? Is that an individual refs fault? No. It's down to the RFL. In Oz they benefit from the bunker, cameras at every game, and the captain's challenge - which incidentally, if Saints had had it yesterday would have managed to get two calls that went in our favour overturned.

Our issue is composure and being smarter with the ball. How many times have we given up the ball in the first two tackles? Not completed a set after points? Thrown away possession in good ball area? Literally given tries away? Overplayed when it clearly isn't on and ended up in touch? These things need tidying up and I agree SS, we can win both the CC and GF.

We don't have the attack (yet) - we struggled to beat the bottom two clubs scoring only 13, and 14 points - to blow teams away and we need so we need to be a lot smarter. Our defence has, in the main, been excelllent this year. But, we have been gassing ourselves due to extra defending on the back of our own mistakes.

We were the best team in the first half against Warrington, Wigan, Saints, and Hull KR. In each game mistakes cost us in the second half. Wigan, I think was down to energy and I stand by the lack of effort Bourough showed for two of their tries. But in the other three we imploded... and I'm not buying it's all the refs fault - yes, we've had a few bad calls, mostly in the Wolves game, but we got the rub of the green against Leigh, and the two worst high shots yesterday were King and Wright. We didn't score in the second half against Warrington or Saints, and only scored 6 against Hull KR - that's 6 points in 120 minutes while concededing 74 - over a normal 80 minutes that's a 49 - 3 shellacking, that isn't the refs fault.

Are those teams 74 - 6 better than us? Absolutely not! We showed that in the first half of those games when we combined for 36 - 18. The difference was woeful second-half performances cause vely really dumb plays, overplays, and unforced errors.

The solution is internal, within the team, and Rowley and the lads showed last year that they have it in them. It's not a ref problem or another team problem. I don't doubt we'll get there. The weather is drying up and we'll really benefit when we get Lafai back. We are ahead of where we were this time last year and the league is looking very close - the closest I can remember. We hit our straps at the right time last year and I suspect we will do again. We also benefitted from a few late recruits mid-season and I suspect we may do so again this year. Our defence has proven to be very good this year. Our attack has stil been effective when inside the opponents 20, not so much from outside it (like last season). We need to maximise these strengths. We just need to stop putting ourselves under pressure - it'll conserve energy and teams aren't likely to go 90m very often against us.

Just moving off the Cup, we saw yet another dirty Saints team getting away with it and yes Rowley was furious.

Rowley has every right to be furious, my dad as a neutral called out that late hit was cynical and intentional. Sironen should have been binned. As Atkin wasn’t expecting it. Some real damage could have been done. Let’s hope he’s charged by the Disciplinary Committee but I won’t hold my breath it’s Saints after all. We don’t play **** house tactics of hitting half backs off the ball.

Hope our injured lads are ok.

Spot on and Wright will be out for the long term like when Wigan lost Cooper in the Derby. Still the dickhead Saints fans are always the ones hard done by.

Just seen them in melt down on FaceBook when Love Rugby League posted about him Lees being banned classic, one claiming Rowley had given them a back hander, yeah right after the event..............

As I have said before Lees and Knowles are always at it - a dirty team.

"St Helens prop Matty Lees could be banned for three games after being summoned to an independent tribunal on a Grade D striking charge following Saturday's victory over Salford.

The 25-year-old was denied the option of a penalty notice, with the challenge on Shane Wright deemed "reckless" and also causing an ankle injury.

Lees has already received penalty notices for other incidents in 2023.

Grade D offences usually carry a two-to-three game ban." from the beeb RL section

So they don't find he's guilty or they won't on appeal, I think that's the usual performance.