NEVER WRITE OFF THE SAINTS
The ref was poor last night, he missed a few forward passes and Wigan where constantly offside which the sky lot said was great line speed, but I dont think you need to have speed when your already half way towards Hulls line at PTB.
If we get past Catalan then we will struggle to get past Wigan if we use our usual tactics. We won’t win against them by keeping it to a forwards battle, we need to move the ball out to the centres as Wigan’s defence is not as good on the edges and I feel can be pulled out of position with a few decent set moves.
Also I would be looking to lets say unsettle a few of the Wigan players. Players such as Partington, Isa, Smithies, Clubb and Flower will be easy to wind up and we should be looking to niggle them. I think sometimes Saints are too nice but I know Lees, Bentley and LMS are capable of getting things going.
Which hacked me off a bit to be fair. Should have been a few backing Grace up, not taking any shizzle. Too busy feeling sorry for themselves. Need to grow a pair to win pots against those sorts of teams.
Although no doubt the clown would have given Wigan a penalty for running in then.
I'd developed a 'Charity Shield' mentality about it all. If we win it'll be great, if we don't win it, it was mickey mouse this year so don't worry about it.
As it is, we'll win tonight and we'll beat them next week, I'm very confident despite my reservations about the style of play and the coach. But if we win it I'll have the opinion that we won the most unimportant league title since the war and I won't really consider it a massive achievement. On the other hand, the thought of Wigan winning the grand final and celebrating it as if it's the biggest achievement ever angers me more this year than the thought of us winning it excites me. I've never been like that, I've never been one of those that thinks Wigan losing is the equivalent of Saints winning, but this year, it's all so unimportant that the thought of them winning it and it being treated as some special marvellous league title really annoys me. Hope that makes sense.
I'm the opposite - I'd give my right bollock to be there, and it's not the same - but in the current climate it's just about the only thing for me to look forward to!
I’m looking forward to tonight. I love a big game. Give me nights like these over meaningless weekly rounds against Wakefield, Huddersfield or Hull KR. I’d love to be there tonight. I’m not even thinking of what may lie ahead if we win, just what’s going to happen tonight.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
If Saints win the next two games then at least they can have a decent break and start the new season concentrating fully on the league without the distraction of the WCC. That took a lot out of the team before lockdown.
While they defended 'robustly' and with a lot of resilience and can be accused of being dour and boring, 4 of their 5 tries from memory came from their full back linking in, each winger scored as did French of course. It's an awful long time we've done that in a competitive match save for against a team of Wigan kids.
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The result was never in doubt. When will folk wake up and see what's going on? Wigan get the "rub of the green" again and again, wearing down the opposition mentally. Evey 50/50 call went their way last night. Posters on here think that if Saints players front up to foul play by Wigan they'll get a result, they will, ten minutes in the bin or worse. I've said a thousand times Wigan are officiated differently to the rest of the league. No one can fail to see the bias in Kendall's performance last night. The penalty for patting thug Partington on the head (who reacted like a maniac and had to be held back by Hull and Wigan players) being given when last week he couldn't t see a swinging clenched fist to the face in front of him. You can bet your life if a Saints player had reacted as Partington did, he'd have been yellow carded, no problem. Then there's the push in the back re the non try for Hull, wasn't Hardaker offside? Throughout the game, as with the derby, Wigan were yards offside. Tony Clubb was the first player in leading the charge on a couple of occassions.................he's really that fast? I don't think so. Then there was the usual third man in "lending weight" (that's Wigan speak for falling on two team mates and a grounded player after the tackle is complete) in most tackles. Kendall should never have been given that game after his awful performance last week, never. When he started out he seemed a decent ref, but he's obviously had the "rules" explained to him and is now towing the party line, pathetic.
I can’t see it happening at all. We’re planning on a twenty-seven round season with the Challenge Cup and play-offs squeezed into a shorter period due to the World Cup, I just don’t see how it gets added in and I can’t see the NRL wanting to send anyone here mid-season and I can’t see any Super League side going to Australia after how bad Wigan’s trip was the other year that cost them £500,000.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
Learned comment from The Don
Easy to shout 'conspiracy' when complaining about Wigan, but is it that outlandish to think that a few people 'up top' were genuinely worried last night that the team they shoehorned into the play-offs could end up in the GF on their own ground? The criticisms that that would have provoked would have been the last thing the game needs now, so when they were on top early on it wasn't a shock for me to see several calls go against them to change the game in real ways.
I'm not really that fussed about the head patting penalty because it was idiotic to do that in a semi final in the first place, but the no-try decision for a push on an offside player really annoyed me, and the forward pass by Hastings was easy to spot as well. That's a 12 point swing right there, regardless of the head patting penalty.
The forward pass I agree with but the No Try decision against Hull was correct. Just because Hardaker was offside it doesn't mean Sneyd can push him out of the way like that. By the letter of the law Hardaker needs to be given the opportunity to get back onside and make the tackle if a Hull player picked the ball up. We all know he was going to pick the ball up and make himself offside in which case there would have been an argument for a professional foul. But once Sneyd pushes him before he commits that offence, the play can't continue and it being brought back for the original offence (Wigan knock on) was correct.
NEVER WRITE OFF THE SAINTS