Rush: '..."Because of that I lot of people are looking at our half backs but I am confident in them. We have Lee Gaskell in the wings who is learning his trade. He played well in the 20s and played well against Wigan in that comp. That is a positive step that the lads in the 20s are playing well enough to put some pressure on first team players.

"But Lance Hohaia and Jonny Lomax work well together even though on this occasion they haven't executed to the highest order. Things go wrong, but we shouldn't throw it all away because it goes against us. We need to keep the consistency there."'

Really!!??? Learning his trade and played well in the U20's! Did Rush not watch the first team last season? Gaskell got us to a Grand Final and worked great with Lomax and was learning his trade well until he was dropped. He is far too good for the U20's. Quite worrying this, anyone got any idea what this is about? Can't stand another game like last week but it seems that's what we'll get. I have a suspicion the above statement is masking something?

Same here. Presumably he isn't in the present coaching staff's good books.

I don't think it's anything Gaskell has done wrong. It's just to build his confidence which will in turn improve his decision making

He'll be back in the team soon I reckon

Dropping someone when they've done nothing wrong is a strange way of building their confidence

It's more likely to dent his confidence.

Just as the comment made in the press by Mike Rush a couple of weeks ago about Wheeler earning his way in the u20s (due to Josh Jones playing well) probably won't have done [ihis[/i confidence much good either and may well go some way to explaining what was his worst performance of the season so far against Wigan.

I see no problem with dropping players for any reason, even if it's you think we are under using a key signing like Lance.

However my problem is that when you have tried that out and seen what we have, there comes a point where you have to recognise that the change has not improved matters and infact in games like Wigan puts us in positions that Roby alone can't get us out of.

In a way Roby has become a problem in being Roby. Against poorer teams his world class abilities are enough in themselves to create tries for the Saints. They just cannot contain him. However this has lead to us directing pretty much the majority of our attack through him leaving the rest of the team underused. So we only see the rest of the team exposed when we hit a competitive team.

I don't think we where dramatically different when we played Wakey, to when we played Wigan. The difference was that Roby could run riot against Wakey. Against Wigan he got 1 or 2 oppertunities off his own efforts.

Lance was as poor against Wakey, did nothing till the last 10 minutes when he tried a kick through, same at wigan nothing bar a chip in the last 10 mins.

Lomax against Wakey, lots of inside passing, lots of running along the wakey line, but no creation. Same for Wigan.

We are a very consistent team that will hold most teams out, even Wigan struggled against our defense 2nd half, but going forwards unless Roby or Wellens pulls something out the halves offer no options. Hope TP recovers as he offers another strike option.