Best team won, our ruck speed for the the first time this year was slow. On the other hand the saints ruck was quick. We all know that suits Roby perfectly. Thought Ward and garbutt along with peacock tried To have a go.
Coupled with the fact Walsh had his best game of the season just about finished us.
Any more injuries to the squad might make going to old trafford a bridge too far.
At the moment I still think us and Wigan are the best two teams in the competion. For me Huddersfield could upset the apple cart. I would sooner play saints or Wigan at home than Huddersfield.

I can't say I've noticed Golding much before tonight, but on tonight's showing he's not a bad player. Pretty agile and came up with a few tough catches. If the attacking team is on your line and get the kick right, as a fullback there will be times where even if you do all you can, you're still going to concede a drop out. Fullback is probably the toughest position to play if you aren't used to the standard, because you are constantly isolated, which means every mistake is glaringly obvious. The fact that none come to mind (bar the kick off, where the blame was shared between 3 of them) is proof enough that for his age he's not too bad a player.

Another thing is, we had Walsh, Burns, Roby and Wilkin all kicking tonight. For territorial kicks, a fullback will (ideally) set up on the kicker's outside foot, because kickers are always going to try and avoid kicking across their body. The option of 4 kickers means your back 3 can't really do this which puts a lot more pressure on them. Especially with Wilkin on the blind side on the left, there were times where Briscoe would have to stay in the defensive line as a result and it was Golding and Hall covering the width of the pitch. That is a difficult task for any fullback, nevermind a 19 year old who's got very little first grade experience

Ward will develop his decision making as he gets older, he's a very skillful player. Delaney has terrible hands. He's proof that the NRL isn't the pinnacle of skill it's made out to be if he could ever play almost 100 NRL games in the centres. He's defiantly not fit at the moment.

Further injuries, errors and Wembley hangovers to several players plus a rejuvenated Saints conspired to our defeat yet we were still in the game with 10 minutes to go.

Because of the many errors and penalties we had to do more tackling than we should have and Mags, Cuthbo, Singleton all looked a bit under par. JP despite a Saints elbow in the gullet was able to resume and was strong in the closing stages. Ward once again put in a big effort.

But IMO big hearted young Golding deserves big applause for a classy all round display at full back which included some crucial tackles, fine backing up, a bit of Watkins like footwork and a lot of mopping up around our try line and he almost scored a try too. A star of the future.

I would prefer to see a half back introduced after the first 30 to give the side more balance but I can understand holding Lilley back for this one. Maybe next week he will get more minutes as it sounds like the latest injuries may take a week longer to clear up.

Ablett is the only ever present for us this season and usually plays all or nearly all the 80 so I don't think it's anything a decent break wouldn't fix.

As for the talk about lineup with regards to hooker/HB and Sinfield at hooker....tonight isn't the night to judge it properly. That was a very tired performance from the off really. A good 8 day turnaround now and hopefully Hardaker, Watkins and Burrow back and we'll be more like the team for the last several weeks. Not particularly worried by the Saints performance. A lot of scores tonight gifted to them from us and as mentioned, they were playing a very tired opposition and couldn't blow us away and had to resort to wasting time in the final 10 mins.

I didn't think Saints were all that either. Their kicking game was good but of the tries: the first one was a gift, the second wasn't a try, the third would have been stopped by a stronger fullback, and only the fourth was quality.

It's not a question of knowing when, he holds on all the time. He has world class players outside him, it is is criminal how little Moon gets of the ball, consistently. The difference with the others you mention, is that Ablett actually has the opportunity to release but doesn't, the space is there, but he plays like he can beat all himself. He seems to stand and watch a lot, and regret afterwards.

It isn't an ability thing, we know that with how he has previously been, it seems to be an attitude thing, and a sense of complacency from him. And I am writing this has a general theme, rather than specifically last night, as I have a feeling due to the amount of times they ran at him that his stats would probably show a high tackle count.

As for the game, as far as I saw, the missed tackles and errors was probably pretty much the same for both sides, and I guess the territory if anything was probably in our favour. The major difference was, the first class kicking game of Saints, and their ability to bring their backs into play and us not, which for me is where players like Ablett are not doing it.

the major difference was saints were fresher and we had a referee, and I use the term loosely, that let them be offside at most play the balls and lay on all night. I don't think we had a quick play the ball all night

Ablett did put in a good tackling stint, but I agree with Gotcha regarding his failure to offload when he has the chances. IMO last night JP and Ward were the pick of the pack. Cuthbertson, Garbutt and Delaney spoilt their good work with missed tackles, errors and penalties and Singleton was disappointing and once again missed the chance to step up when he is needed. Mags too was lacking spark yet had their kicking game not have been as good we could still have won it.

With Sutcliffe and Burrow out injured and Sinfield playing at 9 we have a problem at half back. It is too much to expect Lilley to be ready to step up yet and it highlights Burrows importance to the squad and the up coming problems when Sinny moves on. If McGuire were to get injured next year we would have a big problem unless we recruit. However Golding could be a good option at scrum half.

I thought there were similarities with our injury-disrupted performance away to wigan in July. Our response needs to be as good this time starting with a win in France. No reason to panic just yet but the treble just became that little bit more difficult.

For me it is all about how we respond to this loss. The loss itself isn't a massive shock, Saints got us at the best possible time. We looked jaded and apathetic at times, we were slow and could not make space, but post Wembley and with several key bodies missing that isn't really a surprise. What shouldn't be forgotten is how key this game was for Saints. If they had lost this game against a weakened Leeds side, it would have been hard for them to recover confidence and self belief enough to have a decent say in the end of the season. In short this game was more important to them than to Leeds and that showed on the night.

Our season hinges on how we respond next week. Another poor performance will both shake our self belief and encourage the rest of the comp to believe that they can beat us. RL is as much about mental strength and confidence, the memories of last years post Wembley collapse must not be allowed to take hold.

Can't remember the scoring sequence but I suspect that it was the one that involved a knock on by Walmsley? Ball went forward and rebounded off a tackler's boot into the hands of the scorer. At least that was my take on it.

I think that was the Wilkin one wasn't it?