All you could expect from First game of the season, a hard fought win, excellent defence particularly from Makinson, I dare say Lomax wouldn't have made that one.
Fages absolutely outstanding, more so in defence, but took his try well, I think smith and Fages will look really good together.
Too many knock ons in the first half, but sured it up second half.
Dreadful from Bentham, the penalty from Amor, then the penalty to us in the next set was poor, but the Ryan Hall 'defusal' was absolutely laughable - edit, apparently that's the rule, but what a load of garbage
Leeds look totally disorganised, can't see them making the four
First time I've seen Richardson, and I thought he did well. He saw a couple of gaps and had he not overrun the passes (or the passes had not been wayward - it's hard to tell), he could easily have been through. Some good carries from Walmsley, and Roby really pepped us up when he came on.
I was sat next to Paul Anderson in the south stand and he said that the officials have been told to clamp down on players moving off the mark and milking penaltys which would explain the 2 quick penaltys against Amor and then on Leeds. To be honest though he could've penalised a lot more players for the same thing.
Pleased for Richardson and Fages. Considering how little ball we had that 1st half the tackling was exceptional. A lot of lost possession of our own making.
I ttought Lee did ok. Not a Roby but then who is. He did a decent cover job. That pack performance will do me. A bit more possession and we will be alright.
Decent first game and happy getting two points courtesy of our defence especially defending our own twenty. Lee did a solid stint and Wilkin played OK allowing Fages and Richardson to play what was in front of them.
A few howlers from the ref turning the ball over to Leeds, biggest turning event was that Makinson tackle. Our new recruits OK Morgan played solid throughout the whole game, Douglas did a bit of work but went down too easy in this game.
Wouldn't change anything for the next game, I,m assuming Lomax was a head knock.
A lot of negatives but we won.
I was surprised to see Walker not playing is he injured? Wasn't that impressed with Douglas although still an upgrade on Tasi and Richards. Swift had one of his bad days.
Thought Makinson and Fages were great. Makinson looked in great condition and looked very pacey, good to see him back. Morgan had a couple of good touches. Wilkin was fantastic in defence.
Morgan showing good touches in the first half and then never gets a decent pass again all game. Never mind we'll persist in going down the left.
well it was 2 points and some stand out performances from big alex and theo but if im being really honest i didn't think much of the game. People mentioned "its only the first game" but lets be honest many off our games last season our attack was as clueless as that game then, luckily leeds was just as bad as the had tons of possession in our 20 in the first half. I have seen people on the saints idiot fbook page describe the game as "thrilling" and "outstanding" and even "astonishing" if this is the case then i must be out of touch as i was pretty much bored.
I don't want to begin another Wilkin debate and I don't want this to be seen as a negative post because I don't meant it to be, but for me he needs to be standing deeper in that role. He is way to flat and too often his pass puts the receiver in contact immediately. He leaves the runner no opportunity to change their line or run into space.
Nice enough for first game. Love seeing our defence on song. Fages fantastic and not a bad return from Tommy.
If we can maintain that level of defence in the big games then we'll be absolutely fine. We won't need to be that good defensively every week, but this should be the benchmark for those games that are close and more intense. Hopefully, being that good defensively on a consistent basis will enable us to loosen the shackles in an attacking sense as well. Here's hoping!
Given my first match back in 2012 was a defeat, and my second was last year's semifinal in Warrington, it was great to finally get a win. Not a great match by any means but always good to start with a win. Theo was quite clearly one of the main highlights of the team, even I could see that. The Mexican friend I brought with me to the match managed to take a picture with Luke Douglas after the final whistle haha. Just got back to Liverpool now. The weather was freezing cold, I was suffering!
St Helens fan from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I for one enjoyed the game
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Excellent attitude in defence. They showed a real unity and pride in defending their line.
Just a quick reference about Wilkin who according to the stats, gives away a lot of penalties for us. You have to look at the type of penalties though. They broke our line down the right hand side in first half, we were bang in trouble and Wilkin eventually pulled their player down...then he deliberately hung on and gave the penalty away. On paper, it's a penalty, in reality he's just killed their momentum and given us an opportunity to get reset in defence. He's a clever lad.
I thought Lee played really well in his first spell and although unspectacular, he oozes experience and assurance.
Excellent team performance overall. Douglas gave away possession and penalties but he'll sharpen up and he doesn't half work his backside off to hit them head on and get us on the front foot.
Had some leeds fans near me and they never shut up about us being offside almist every play. You know what? They were right. But so were Leeds when they defended. Bentham just didn't enforce the 10m, which made it a game where defences dominated.
That apart, Bentham also gave one of the most one-sided reffing displays I've seen in a while, pinging us for everything for the first 60 mins or so. Most noticeable was giving Leeds a pen for interference when their player milked it spectacularly, then penalising Amor for simulating or something a couple of sets later in almost identical circumstances.
From where I was stood he was hit in the head by a knee and the Leeds player appeared to give him a sly hit for good measure with his left arm.
Hope he back for the next game.
Certainly a good win for us. Our attack was probably blunted a lot by Lomax going off. We obviously need to improve in this area but defensively based on that performance we are miles better than last season.
Excellent performances from Fages and Makinson and Richardson did not look out of place.
Great to start with an exciting game, even if the quality wasn't so high.
The first half was frustrating, mostly because I felt that if we'd have completed a few sets we'd have run all over Leeds. On the few sets where we kept the ball we were chewing up the yards. But thankfullly we were gutsy enough - and well organised enough - to soak up pretty much everything they threw at us in that half with the exception of the try.
The second half was much better in terms of ball control and discipline, but I think we were running out of gas after all the defending we'd done, so it ended up having to be an heroic effort. That try saver by Makinson and another great tackle on Watkins by Fages were standout moments, as was our defence during that set Leeds had near our line at the end.
The good thing about today is that we could hardly play worse in terms of ball control and discipline, yet we still found a way to win. If we can get the errors and penalties down we should be in pretty good shape.
Without wanting to downplay the defence, though, I thought Leeds looked a bit rudderless in attack without Mcguire. A side with a better half back partnership probably would have put us away tonight, I reckon.
Lomax failed the concussion test, so had to come off.
Solid start. Attack scratchy but defence outstanding. Thought Morgan showed some promising touches when given the ball. Fages outstanding, as was Walmsley. Thought it worked well re Lee, Roby seemed to benefit from it and looked fresher with the ball in hand. Makinson also impressive and produced probably the tackle of the season already and Richardson made a super debut for a young man in a really pivotal position. In general, the team worked really hard for each other which is a great sign.
Thought Leeds looked fairly blunt in attack and we soaked up a lot of their plays with ease. All in all a good win to get started and puts us on the right foot. Compare that to Salford away last year when we were immediately in disarray
I thought Burrow & Sutcliffe were two of their best players on the night.
From our chaps, Fages was brilliant - best game yet in the red v IMO. I can see that Richardson has a big future - he's got a good rugby head on him plus self-confidence. His partnership with Fages needs work, though. Makinson was good first half, fantastic from fullback. I think Lomax is great & can offer something extra from FB in terms of being a pivot, but Tommy's defence & running from FB adds a different 'something extra', and I've always thought it's his best position. Swift, as so often, some good, some not so good. Percival didn't shine; Morgan showed some glimpses (but got his body shape wrong when Moon scored)
Hoping Douglas is just shaking off the cobwebs for now. Amor did his usual strong stints. Walmsley looked in much better nick than most of last season. Lee did better than I anticipated. Wilkin was OK (I really should stop subconsciously expecting more from him), Greenwood ordinary, Peyroux anonymous. Thompson average in attack, Knowles usual all-action. Roby perked things up without setting the game alight.
Overall, a satisfying start to the season. More expansive with the ball, more offloads - but still too flat in attack, which, combined with the short 10m lines, gave the ball carrier next to no time before they were tackled.