For all his rightfully deserved plaudits, Welsby needs to work on his defence and stop shooting the line everytime.
We're really missing Zeb on that left edge. Thompson is solid but not creative.
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For all his rightfully deserved plaudits, Welsby needs to work on his defence and stop shooting the line everytime.
We're really missing Zeb on that left edge. Thompson is solid but not creative.
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RFL Championship / Super League (17) - 1931–32, 1952–53, 1958–59, 1965–66, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Challenge Cup (13) - 1955–56, 1960–61, 1965–66, 1971–72, 1975–76, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2021
World Club Challenge (3) - 2001, 2007, 2023
League Leader's Shield (9) - 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2022
This is exactly how every single NRL team play with Penrith being the masters of it due to Cleary and Luai being top drawer kickers. The NRL game plan is all about field position. It works over there because every single team has a kicker who can put in a good kick on the last tackle and can also unlock defenses once they get the chance. We dont.
Obviously with his NRL background, Woolf is trying to implement it here
Thought the first try was Grace fault. He stayed in his position and just ended up 10 yards from anyone and unable to stop anything. If he goes with Welsby then we have a chance to stop it, as he did nothing we had no chance of stopping it.
Coote is the big issue at the moment with the ball. He just doesn't seem to be round the back in attack often and that's why we haven't really got the numbers. When he's up to speed I'm not worried.
Teams see us as the big scalp, they'll put everything into playing us because we're the champions and we're unbeaten. I thought first half was fine in terms of 12-0 (should've been more) but I did expect us to kick on second half.
Finding positives I think it's good they've given us a tough game ahead of the CC QF as we shouldn't be complacent now although we're incapable of playing well in that comp based on the last 10 years!
I think yet again we wont make the challenge cup gf
Most teams look like scoring more than us when they are on the attack.. I think that lack of creativity will cost us early in the season.
Then hopefully. A kick up the arse to kick on and improve
Not sure who is our attack coach but I wish he'd tell our backs to stop running directly into people, I know you have to go forward but we are sending guys like percvial directly into contact time after time
Even lomax seems to be smashing into people now , can't fault our commitment but it's not very smart and it's certainly not very exciting to watch
On a personal note, I will continue to watch the Saints games on TV but, with the current style of play, I will look forward to it less and less and enjoy it less and less. The style will not change and nor should it. The Coach has to go with principles and cannot change these at the behest of fans. However, I cannot see why playing a more expansive style would affect the winning of trophies.
As for Superleague as a whole, to quote a previous poster, Superleague is at an all-time low. Having seen all games played by the big 3 (Saints, Wigan and Leeds based upon trophies won since 1995) the overall standard is extremely poor. This will not change without a complete upheaval in the governance of the sport.
Interesting comments as well on the NRL. If GB played Australia 10 times, GB may just win one on a bad day for Australia - it may come in the World Cup Final but I won't be betting on it.
However, if an NRL team played GB 10 times, we would have 10 massacres. The difference in standard is immense in all facets of the game. In my view, no individual Superleague player would get into the best NRL team. (Yes, I am aware of Walmsley who would maybe reach that standard with some experience playing in the NRL but not good enough now. It would be good to hear suggestions on other players who would qualify).
Unsurprisingly, the NRL is booming as the NRL has a great product to sell to media companies and sponsors. We don't.
They’ve played 4 games, I think any of us in a new job take more than 3-4 weeks to be the best we can at it.
While Thompson does not stand out, to me he’s looked extremely solid and reliable. Our whole attack at the moment looks stagnant so new guys always tend to kop it at bit more than others in these times.
Thompson’s been solid, unspectacular and reliable. He’s a different type of player to Taia, comparing the two is harsh. Thompson, for me, represents Woolf and how he wants his teams to play.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
The NRL is faster , their players have better basic skills, and the whole package just looks and feels like a superior package
Thompson is a player who I think will slowly grow on people. He's not flashy, we're not going to see him scythe through the line like superstars of old like Peyroux did, but what we are going to get is remarkably consistency, effort and solidity. Sure you won't notice it some of the time, but eventually it'll dawn on people how much of an impact he is really having.
Paasi is the one we need to focus on. He was superb against Leeds but played like Mr Soft from the mint adverts in the other games. He needs to play with more intent and anger and lift us a bit.
Matautia I've barely noticed. But with all three we've got to give them a few months before we can really judge them.
Have we played the same 1-17 twice yet? I know lots of teams are in “injury crisis” mode, and we’re only missing a couple, but it feels like we’re swapping and changing every week, not great for our game, nor the newbies in the team. I don’t think we have seen anyone playing consistently well yet (across the whole team, let alone the newbies).
I think we have seen flashes from Paasi and Mata’utia (whom I’m reserving judgement on until Knowles gets back and he can play his more natural game). I want to see more from Thompson, but it’s a long season and I won’t write him off yet.
I,m thinking the complete opposite, at the moment our style of play is more suited to cup rugby where the game is tight and less expansive, that should help us progress in the Challenge Cup rounds.
The teams we,ve played so far are trying attacking plays but they are mostly ineffective thats because we absorb pressure and apply our own when opportunities arise. Thats why we have the best attacking points and the best defensive points in Superleague.
We are still only around 70% of our capability because the likes of Coote and Percival are nowhere near their potential at the moment. A big positive now is that Dodd is getting more game time and we seeing a bit more attacking shape when he gets use to the team.
At one time we scored tries without a finger laid on the scorer. Its a bit sad when Lomax has to storm onto a short ball and dive in at feet and shins to score. He got up touching his head as if he’d loosened some of his metal plates. We shouldn’t have him (or any half back) having to run lines like that because we can’t unlock defences with good ball movement.
screaming in the family corner, scaring the kiddies
Agree with most of that.
On last nights game around the 60 min mark the Giants half back were smart and saw a weakness on our left edge. That was when Bentley went to right centre, he has one of the best sliding defences in our team, his right centre position left us weak on the left edge with Welsby and Grace caught in 2 minds defensively.
While not disagreeing with your comments I think there were mitigating circumstances for their second try. The way I saw it Percival was taken off, Bently covered and Thompson moved into a more central role hence there was a glaring gap for the try. If you watch the replay Thompson is under the posts when they played the ball - I leave you to speculate why?
I agree that we'll kick ourselves if we don't get to Wembey and win the Cup this year. Good QF draw, two of Wigan, Hull, Wire and Catalans to go out before the SFs, we have to be massive favourites and our style of play is suited to grinding out big games. I've never been more confident for years that our team is equipped to win trophies. But it's still dull as hell watching us not deviating from the 'Cup game' style when we don't need to. You mentioned our attacking and defensive records, but we've just played four of the five worst sides in the league and have beaten them by an average of 21 points. I'm not sure that's anything to be that OTT about IMO given how much better than them we are. It'd be like crowing about Man City starting the year with four 2-0 wins over Fulham, West Brom, Sheff United and Brighton. Job done, nothing more.