Did they honestly play THAT badly ? I thought they played as well as we let them - our forwards dominated theirs and forced them into errors and restricted their ability to offload.

I wouldn't mind betting that we committed much more "unenforced errors" than they did, whereas all of their handling errors seemed to be forced by our defence.

To be honest, in the greater scheme of things, I think you might as well discount this weeks match as having any sort of effect on the cup match. The logic that we beat saints once therefore will beat them the following week doesn't follow. Look at Giants, beat saints last week yet were given a close ride by wakefield...does this suggest that wakefield are on an even sort of footing with the Saints?
For any cup match you can throw the form book out of the window. The lads did the deed this week, they have to raise their game another level to do the same again, complacency loses matches.

Agree that Saturday's match will have no effect from a Saints perspective, but from our lads perspective they really did get a monkey off their back.

Imagine the effect another late defeat or worse still, a solid hammering might have had on our boys.

My team would be:

1. Connolly
2. Calderwood
3. McKenna
4. Senior
5. Walker (OK, he's not a winger, but his form is better than FC's, but may be injured anyway)
6. Dunneman
7. Burrow
8. McDonald
9. Diskin
10. Bailey
11. Furner
12. Adamson
13. Sinfield

14. McGuire
15. McDermott
16. Poching
17. Feather

Starting McGuire and Burrow together is suicide defensively, and criminal because Dunneman is playing well at the moment.

LadyDee

I think you underestimate the physcological effect - we also don't know how seriously Saints took the game - if they took it seriously and got beat easy then they will be nervous of what could happen on Sat.

If they genuinely believed they could beat anyone if they really put there mind to it - then defeat in the last two weeks will have seriously dented there confidence.

I think if we play as we did on Saturday we should win

mathers in for cummins, you can tell the guy's itching to get on....just look at saturdays game, the amount of times he was told to get off the pitch!haha......

connolly
mathers
mckenna
senior
callderwood
dunnemann
mcguire
barrie
diskin
mcdonald
adamson
furner
sinfield

burrow
ward
cummins
feather/poaching

byes

james-david

Connolly

Chev Walker
McKenna
Senior
Calderwood

McGuire
Dunemann

Barrie Mac
Diskin
Wayne Mac
Furner
Adamson
Sinfield

Bailey (if fit)
Feather
Poching
Burrow/Cummins

Connolly (Picks himself, had a solid performance on Sat).

Calderwood (Having a good season, deserves place).
McKenna (Good game on Sat, should be back to full potential for semi).

Senior (Cannot leave him out of the side, just wish he would help his winger in defence).
Cummins (His form may be erratic, however cannot leave someone with his experience out of the side, did little wrong on Sat, needs more support in defence).

Dunemann (Defensively he is rock solid, really closed down Scully and Long on Sat, much the same needed for the semi).
Maguire (Can create much more than Burrow in attack, deserves a start).

McDermott (Need a solid start in the forwards, you don't get more solid than Barrie).
Disko (Having a good season, no reason for him not to start).
Ward (Works well with Barrie, wouldn't risk Bailey).

Furner (Showed how much we missed him against Huddersfield).
Adamson (Great in defence, makes good yards in attack).
Sinny (He has come on leaps and bounds since being given the captaincy).

Subs

Macdonald and Feather (Both great coming off the bench, real impact players).
Poching (Made alot of difference when he came on for Adamson on Sat, deserves to keep his place).
Burrow (Much better off the bench when Saints forwards are tiring).

I have not included Chev or Bailey, as they are both coming back from injury, and should not be risked.

I have not included Mathers, because although he is a great prospect for the future, he does not have the experience in big cup games.

Agree entirely! Except switch Dunemann and McGuire so that McGuire's at stand-off and Dunemann's at scrum-half. Gives Mcguire more space and Dunemann's still good at scrum-half.

If Saints are going to win on Saturday, my bet is that it will be on the back of a great performance from either Sculthorpe or Long. I saw nothing in Dunnemann's performance the other day to suggest that he should play anywhere but at stand off against Sculthorpe in the semi.

I really like McGuire as a player, but asking him to contain the best player in Britain in a game like this after only 4 or 5 league starts is a bit much.

If that sounds negative, the way I'm looking at it is that if we MATCH them in the halves, we'll probably win because IMO we can beat them in the forwards and at least match them in the threequarters. With that in mind, I'd stick with what worked so well the other day.

I would have

Connolly
Calderwood
McKenna
Senior
Cummins

Dunneman
Burrow

McDermott
Diskin
Bailey/ward
Furner
Adamson
Sinfield

Subs:
McDonald
Feather
McGuire
Poching

The way Wayne worked off the bench on Saturday was fantastic.
Bailey or Ward is tough, on the one hand Wardy is steady and won't let us down. But Bailey would cause more trouble or Saints.

I don't expect Saints to play as badly in the semi, but I still feel we can beat them again.

Not sure what type of injury it was that Bailey had (ribs ?), but unless he was 100% fit I wouldn't risk him. If he were to break down in the first ten, that's a big part of our game and a big advantage to us out of the window.

As long as everyone is fit I'd go with Davids team. McGuire at scrum half ahead of Burrow would be interesting to see. Other than his scurrying runs its hard to see what Burrow has over Danny, the moment when Danny set-up the no try was a fantastic bit of natural talent, skill and vision, Burrows kicking seems to consist of a run of the mill grubber. Dunnemann has to play at stand-off against Sculthorpe.
Bailey should be in ahead of Ward.

I have to disagree slightly. Yes, the fact that we beat them does give a psychological advantage if harnessed in the right way. The thing they have to be cautious about is not to get in the mindset that we've beaten them once so we'll easily do it again as has been seen in the past. If ever a coach can psych his team up for a game it is Millward which is why in my opinion it is better for them to put last weeks game to one side and prepare themselves mentally and physically for this weeks match. Last week was a massive effort, but this week will need a bigger push. If Big Wayne wants to reenact his try this week though, i won't be complaining!!

I don't think our lads will need much psyching up for this match, with or without the coaches help.