I want to win this badly (and it's got nothing to do with Saints) because if we don't how long will it be untill we get another shot at 3 in a row? another 120 something years maybe?

I'd say it would be at least 3 years

Then you don't understand the rivalry between Saints and Wigan. Perhaps Bradford didn't do it for you in quite the same way, back in the day.

Austin: you mean in the CC semi? That wasn't embarrassing at all. Longy bumping into another Saints player near the tryline was embarrassing (but then we were doing quite a few embarrassing things at the time!) but not the loss. I chatted to a lot of Hudds fans after that match while I was waiting forever for the coach because they were the better team on the day and deserved their win but I wasn't at all embarrassed by being beaten by Hudds. Disappointed, obviously, but not embarrassed.

I understand it. Its' Rugby league's 3rd biggest derby behind the Hull Derby and Leeds versus Bradford.

It features one of SL's best teams (you) against one of its' most mediocre, Wigan.

Its' not such a big deal to anyone outside of Wigan, the small town within WIgan or anyone not called Eddie Hemmings.

Oh I dunno. Phil Clarke salivates over it too.

He does. He's held in such high esteem on here these days.

Everyone was salivating about your most recent derby. The big one with a Grand Final at stake. You know, the one that drew a smaller crowd than our game against a team from France with 50 supporters.

Who is 'everyone' exactly?

The aforementioned people of Wigan, people of the small town in Wigan and Phil Clarke obviously

So you were not embarrassed losing to a team who, all things been equal you should have beat, but are embarrassed at the possibility of been beat by the current back to back SL champions who are also this years league leaders? Struggling with the logic if I'm honest.

Clearly you [iare[/i struggling! It's about rivalry. If you meditate on that concept for a while, you may get it in the end.



In addition to the rivalry, there is also the fact that we had won the Challenge Cup for three years on the bounce. That made it relatively easy to be gracious losers, albeit disappointed gracious losers. Personally, I didn't have much hope to start out with because we had been playing rubbish for ages by then so all things considered the loss was not embarrassing. Certain elements of our performance on that occasion were, as I mentioned, but not the loss itself.

I am struggling for sure, you would not be embarrassed by losing to so called lesser clubs but are embarrassed by losing to top teams. Rivalry does not enter into it. Surely you should be disappointed losing to your closest rivals and embarrassed losing to so called lesser teams. That logic I could at least follow.

An example, I was embarrassed losing at home to Salford, I was disappointed losing away to Saints. Simples