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    Default Saints 13 best of British v Aussies

    Inspired by an article in the St. Helens Star, pick your all-time Saints 1-13 of British players and then Aussie/NZ/Pacific Islander players, compare your team and which one you think would win. Must be players you've seen in the red V live.

    1. Wellens - Coote
    2. Makinson - Albert
    3. Gleeson - Gidley
    4. Newlove - Lyon
    5. Grace - Meli
    6. Lomax - Barba
    7. Long - Walsh
    8. Graham - Fairleigh
    9. Cunningham - Hohaia
    10. Fa'asavalu - Cayless
    11. Joynt - Soliola
    12. Gilmour - Sheils
    13. Sculthorpe - Hooper

    Fa'asavalu played for GB, so that's good enough for me. I picked him because the other Saints pack seemed more aggressive than the British one, so Fa'asavalu goes in for the extra aggression. I believe it would be a really close quality game but the backs for the Aussie/NZ/Islander Saints would just sneak it and be that little bit more clinical in attack.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SaintJon View Post
    Inspired by an article in the St. Helens Star, pick your all-time Saints 1-13 of British players and then Aussie/NZ/Pacific Islander players, compare your team and which one you think would win. Must be players you've seen in the red V live.

    1. Wellens - Coote
    2. Makinson - Albert
    3. Gleeson - Gidley
    4. Newlove - Lyon
    5. Grace - Meli
    6. Lomax - Barba
    7. Long - Walsh
    8. Graham - Fairleigh
    9. Cunningham - Hohaia
    10. Fa'asavalu - Cayless
    11. Joynt - Soliola
    12. Gilmour - Sheils
    13. Sculthorpe - Hooper

    Fa'asavalu played for GB, so that's good enough for me. I picked him because the other Saints pack seemed more aggressive than the British one, so Fa'asavalu goes in for the extra aggression. I believe it would be a really close quality game but the backs for the Aussie/NZ/Islander Saints would just sneak it and be that little bit more clinical in attack.
    I’d probably go Sullivan or Gardner over Grace and Walmsley over Fa’asavalu, but i cant disagree with any of the rest of them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tomsepho View Post
    I’d probably go Sullivan or Gardner over Grace and Walmsley over Fa’asavalu, but i cant disagree with any of the rest of them.
    Can't believe I forgot about Walmsley.
    Yeah was a tough call between Sullivan and Grace

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    British - I've tweaked the forward line to fit everyone in, I'm sure it would all work out okay!
    1. P Wellens
    2. A Hunte
    3. S Gibbs
    4. P Newlove
    5. A Sullivan
    6. T Martyn*
    7. S Long
    8. A Walmsley
    9. K Cunningham
    10. K Ward
    11. C Joynt
    12. P Sculthorpe
    13. J Graham
    * I know Martyn was capped by Ireland but he's from Leigh. If I'm not allowed him I'll go Long at 6, Goulding at 7

    Southern Hemisphere - again, not everyone is in their best positions but it'd work out fine.
    1. P Veivers
    2. M O'Connor
    3. M Meninga
    4. J Lyon
    5. D Albert
    6. B Clark
    7. S Cooper
    8. D Fairleigh
    9. L Hohaia
    10. P Sheils
    11. G Mann
    12. V Anderson
    13. J Hooper

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    I am surprised that Apollo Perelini hasn't had a mention yet.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tilly2006 View Post
    I am surprised that Apollo Perelini hasn't had a mention yet.
    Perelini, Britt, Martyn, Pryce, Roby - there are loads that could be mentioned. Would love to see other peoples teams

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    Quote Originally Posted by SaintJon View Post
    Inspired by an article in the St. Helens Star, pick your all-time Saints 1-13 of British players and then Aussie/NZ/Pacific Islander players, compare your team and which one you think would win. Must be players you've seen in the red V live.

    1. Wellens - Coote
    2. Makinson - Albert
    3. Gleeson - Gidley
    4. Newlove - Lyon
    5. Grace - Meli
    6. Lomax - Barba
    7. Long - Walsh
    8. Graham - Fairleigh
    9. Cunningham - Hohaia
    10. Fa'asavalu - Cayless
    11. Joynt - Soliola
    12. Gilmour - Sheils
    13. Sculthorpe - Hooper
    Your first 6 I couldn't decide, but 7 to 13 and the Brits win it hands down.

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    Based on who I’ve seen:
    1. Wellens
    2. Makinson
    3. Gleeson
    4. Newlove
    5. Sullivan
    6. Pryce
    7. Long
    8. Graham
    9. Cunningham
    10. Walmsley
    11. Joynt
    12. Gilmour
    13. Sculthorpe
    vs
    1. Barba
    2. Albert
    3. Lyon
    4. Talau
    5. Meli
    6. Coote
    7. Walsh
    8. Perelini
    9. Hohaia
    10. Fa’asavalu (as British as Coote anyway)
    11. Soliola
    12. Taia
    13. Hooper
    Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.

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    1. Wellens
    2. Makinson
    3. Gibbs
    4. Newlove
    5. Hunte
    6. Martyn
    7. Long
    8. Ward
    9. Cunningham
    10. Walmsley
    11. Joynt
    12. Sculthorpe
    13. Graham


    1. Barba
    2. Albert
    3. Lyon
    4. Meninga
    5. Hoppe
    6. Ropati
    7. Coote
    8. Perelini
    9. Hooper
    10. Fairleigh
    11. Soliola
    12. Taia
    13. Cooper

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    Hooper made a handful of starts at hooker, and also spelled there during some games.

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    Default Saints 13 best of British v Aussies

    Hohaia was one of those players who had a decent set of skills but wasn’t quite right for for any position.

    Him and Laffranchi were a disastrous pair of signings - among the worst in my time following Saints - not because they were especially bad players, but because neither of them were suited to the job we signed them for, and they maxed us out on the overseas quota which made it nigh on impossible to strengthen elsewhere when we badly needed to.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dux View Post
    Hohaia was one of those players who had a decent set of skills but wasn’t quite right for for any position.

    Him and Laffranchi were a disastrous pair of signings - among the worst in my time following Saints - not because they were especially bad players, but because neither of them were suited to the job we signed them for, and they maxed us out on the overseas quota which made it nigh on impossible to strengthen elsewhere when we badly needed to.
    Glad you called out Laffranchi because he was an awful signing on big money; consistently underwhelming and rose little if at any above what say the likes of what Jonkers, Hargreaves or Stankevitch ever did.

    He seemed to fly under the radar at a point when Wigan bullied Saints and he was as dangerous with ball in hand as a Peter Tatchell stick up a with a spoon.

    At that point we had a great track record of excellent overseas signings such as Fairleigh, Shields, Hooper, Smith, Talau, Cayless, Gidley Maurie etc but then followed it up with also rans such as these two, Vea, Manu, Burns, Flannery, Perry etc and to a lesser extent Douglas. Ill add I was never a Walsh fan either. Hugely overrated. There was the odd gem like Soliola and Pulutua but generally the overseas signings declined from 2006 to around 2015

    Hohaia was also similarly underwhelming but most of us called out the signing was not ‘a fit.’ Both were not lazy by any means but in big contracts they were C minus at best.
    Last edited by eddiewaringsflatcap; 30th January 2021 at 23:27.

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    Quote Originally Posted by eddiewaringsflatcap View Post
    Glad you called out Laffranchi because he was an awful signing on big money; consistently underwhelming and rose little if at any above what say the likes of what Jonkers, Hargreaves or Stankevitch ever did.

    He seemed to fly under the radar at a point when Wigan bullied Saints and he was as dangerous with ball in hand as a Peter Tatchell stick up a with a spoon.

    At that point we had a great track record of excellent overseas signings such as Fairleigh, Shields, Hooper, Smith, Talau, Cayless, Gidley Maurie etc but then followed it up with also rans such as these two, Vea, Manu, Burns, Flannery, Perry etc and to a lesser extent Douglas. Ill add I was never a Walsh fan either. Hugely overrated. There was the odd gem like Soliola and Pulutua but generally the overseas signings declined from 2006 to around 2015

    Hohaia was also similarly underwhelming but most of us called out the signing was not ‘a fit.’ Both were not lazy by any means but in big contracts they were C minus at best.
    I wouldn’t say Puletau (spelt wrong probably) was a gem. He was the epitome of a flat track bully. Great against Wakefield at home on a sunny day but went missing when the going got tough and failed to turn up against the likes of Wigan.


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    Sometimes a poster makes a left field statement and you think WOW! Reacher has done that and he is right. Lance I feel for, like Crosse and Blackwell soup he does what it says on the tin, is it Covent Garden soup quality no it's not. That lad gave us what he had and just like Jack Welsby won us a grand final. His salary and longevity of contract is not his fault. Perry was our Burgess and you get stuck with those charlatans, sadly.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reacher View Post
    I wouldn’t say Puletau (spelt wrong probably) was a gem. He was the epitome of a flat track bully. Great against Wakefield at home on a sunny day but went missing when the going got tough and failed to turn up against the likes of Wigan.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    I always thought Puletua was a bit of a "hybrid player" seen as a prop but used in the second row and loose forward roles as well, don't think the club used him as a grafting prop making hard yards. That showed up in the very tight games when space was tight, despite that he had a pretty good scoring rate with 40 tries from 130+ games, good signing for us until he got a bit injury prone in his latter year.

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    Quote Originally Posted by eddiewaringsflatcap View Post
    Glad you called out Laffranchi because he was an awful signing on big money; consistently underwhelming and rose little if at any above what say the likes of what Jonkers, Hargreaves or Stankevitch ever did.

    He seemed to fly under the radar at a point when Wigan bullied Saints and he was as dangerous with ball in hand as a Peter Tatchell stick up a with a spoon.

    At that point we had a great track record of excellent overseas signings such as Fairleigh, Shields, Hooper, Smith, Talau, Cayless, Gidley Maurie etc but then followed it up with also rans such as these two, Vea, Manu, Burns, Flannery, Perry etc and to a lesser extent Douglas. Ill add I was never a Walsh fan either. Hugely overrated. There was the odd gem like Soliola and Pulutua but generally the overseas signings declined from 2006 to around 2015

    Hohaia was also similarly underwhelming but most of us called out the signing was not ‘a fit.’ Both were not lazy by any means but in big contracts they were C minus at best.
    Laffranchi was unlucky that Perry was such a flop and hardly played. IMO, Laffranchi was signed to be a mobile prop - running at gaps, getting his hands through, making half breaks, quick PTB. With Perry stealing a salary sat on his arse, Laffranchi had to take on hard-yards duties that he wasn't suited for, and his performances suffered. Couldn't fault him for effort.

    You're right about our overseas signings dropping in quality for a period, too. A lot down to bad luck, though, as many/most looked at least as good on paper yet for whatever reason didn't sparkle.

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