I think it really struck me at Leigh how their attack and runners were genuinely hard to cope with in good ball.

Saints was actually a necessary game, as a yardstick. Hopefully we get Mom and Lisone back next week and the team composition is more balanced.

Leigh are probably the best team in the league at those plays (not winning them many games though since the CC)

Since Woolf took over St Helens they aren’t actually a brilliantly structured attacking team like Leigh. They are just machine like, especially in defence. Look at how few trys they concede, think theyve only shipped in 40 points in 5 games, and most of those were against Salford with 12 men.

They’ve also got Lomax!

They won’t have forever.

Weve got Croft, there’s not much between them imo.

Thought you guys were great to watch last night. After 20 minutes I thought we could be on for a morale destroying drubbing. Not sure how you didn't end up further in front, but our scrambling defence was excellent which it had to be! Really looking forward to round 2 next week

Thought Ackers, Croft and obviously Miller were brilliant and all look like really good signings. Sangare is an absolute monster as well, if you can get him more involved and running at steam with some aggression then he'd be really hard to stop. Think you've got a good base to build with now, which is not how I saw your team last year. Think you will improve and I think your team is probably the top end of the chasing pack to us and Wigan. Do need some more beef in the pack though

Saints are a top side - they are relentless in defence and you need a well thought attacking structure to break them down - something Leeds don't have.

I am struggling to see what O'Connor brings to the team that Johnson didn't - that move for the Saints try was out of junior rugby.

I know a lot of fans bemoan our lack of power in the middle, but looking back at the game, I think the lack of real pace in the backs really held us back. Roberts especially had a chance in the 2nd half that I think a winger like Marshall, Johnstone, or Ashton finish in the corner, we're creating lots of half chances out wide, but i never feel confident we're going to score unless we get a walk in.
Martin is always solid wherever he plays, but we really could do with a pacy centre who can deputise when Newman or Mom are injured. Has Simpson recovered from his injury yet?

Very fair comment.

From what I’ve seen Jack Smith has more toe than Simpson; Max is more a Keith Senior type player who will be a big physical thing when he fills out.

Mom should be relatively quick we just haven’t seen him show it yet.

We’re clearly a much better side than last season, which is what fans wanted but looks like that still isn’t good enough and the usual lot will moan regardless.

We showed that we have attacking structure with the try, we also created that same opportunity a couple more times but they weren’t finished. We just need to show it more when in their half.

Saints defence was outstanding, and apart from a poor read from O’Connor, so was ours. Bentley seemed to be in every tackles, crazy that people can’t see what he brings to the team.

We defs miss Fusitua in yardage out of our own half, as Roberts was pushed back pretty much every time.

Frawleys kicking game doesn’t seem great, always gets caught on the full. He does seem to bring the organisation and defence that Sezer didn’t.

I'm not sure we're a MUCH better team than last season.
We're probably marginally better.
We have better players.
And defensively we look more solid.
We have won some games that we would have lost last year.

But there's still a lot to work on to compete in the top 4.
We still look very disorganised at times.
The attack is very unstructured.
We make far too many mistakes.
We haven't yet competed for 80 mins.
We need more on field leadership.
And we're lightweight in the pack.

I still expect us to probably finish 6th.

I know he’s been injured and ill so far but I want to see more from McDonnell as the year goes on. Falling off too many tackles for my liking. Thought he was our best back rower for chunks of last year.

Very very early in the year and lots will change. I think what we’ve seen so far indicates we are a top half team now, which was kindof minimum expected.

For me, the key is the stupid errors. If we don’t make three or four daft errors last night I think we win that game, Saints looked gassed when we played tight and clinical on them for half an hour.

The defence has gone to sleep 3 times this year costing soft tries against Salford, Catalans and Saints. Those errors have to be cut out along with the kicking out on the full.