Back on topic, I'm not sure I agree that Pryce was no worse than anyone else. He is reputed to be the best stand-off in the country. For me, great players show up when things are going against them. He vanished. Again. I was wondering if he was still on the field for much of the last 20 minutes. Eastmond lacked composure, which will come with time, but got little support and guidance from his half back partner. He tried to do too much himself, but at least he put his hand up and tried to get it done.

All that said, full credit to Huddersfield. Their defence was a joy to watch and they fully deserved what they got. Having not seen much of them for a while, I was forced to at least consider revising my opinion of Kevin Brown, who I've never really rated, but who should have been MOM in my opinion.

I still thought until the last minute that Saints were gonna win though - credit to Giants for holding on - how much would you want Big Eorl in your team - I thought he was immense

Needs to work on his kicking game though........

One thing that I noticed was that Wellens looked really slow when he was chasing the ball back towards his own line. let's hope Bluey and the boys saw that as well. Could be the secret to beating the Scousers in the upcoming fixture.

In fairness, Wellens being slow is hardly the greatest secret in the world.

Lets' hope Bluey has cottoned on to it.

The Cudjoe and Wild kick chases were especially embarrassing though. Cudjoe is lightning, but wasn't even in shot when the ball was kicked, Wellens must have had 15 yards start at least, even allowing for the fact that he had to turn, it really should have been enough. The fact that Wild (a forward, albeit a quick forward) was sooooooo much quicker at the end didn't enhance his reputation much. He's been (and to an extent still is) a very good player, but that degree of sloth has to be a little limiting for a full back.

Did I hear someone use his recent broken hand as an excuse?

I don't think so,it was roby IIRC!!

He was being measured up for some new concrete boots

Exactly. Eastmond's half breaks from around the ruck would've been a lot more effective, had Pryce been in support. OTOH, Eastmond did little to play Pryce into the game, so maybe it'd be fairer to say that the HB combination didn't work effectively, rather than lay 100% of the blame at Pryce's door. I'd agree that, with experience, Eastmond will be some player though.

Has he always looked so laboured in his running though?

When he runs nowadays he looks like someone in an 'It's A Knockout*' game with a bungee cord round his waist.




*please note that mention of 'It's A Knockout' should not be seen as an excuse to print any picture of said programme, unless you've got a gag to go with it.

I'm hoping that * wasn't aimed at me sir

As for Wellens, yesterday was just the final confirmation. We all remember Ali's try in the 2005 play-offs and he's been getting slower ever since. Last year's World Cup "performance" was another landmark, where every kick was fielded in times measured by ice ages. He may well have seemed even slower yesterday, but that's just natural progress.