I've played against a few of the younger players before I switched to Union and they are all decent lads to be fair. Most of the squad are. I don't have any issues with most of them off the field.

Saints need to get back to doing what we did at the start of the season. Defensively we started the season pretty well, but our line speed in particular was as good as it's been for a long time in my opinion. We looked in good shape and our contact was much better than it is now. Far too many players have been bouncing off tackles lately and it needs looking at ultimately.

It's those little things that have been, and will cost us. Our kick chase was shocking at times yesterday. People have been asking questions about Luke Walsh's kicking yesterday, but I don't blame him. Wilkin isn't a 6. When I played at 6, if I'd have done some of the things he did yesterday I'd have expected more than a few words. Nowhere near decisive enough but again, he's a back rower.

We have talent in this team, but until we look at and focus on the basics we'll get nowhere in big games.

On a brighter note," the best stand off at the club" was flipping burgers in B&Q butty van this morning

There you go again Pete, where have you got this from? Either back it up or stop posting it will you? We haven't had a consistently good defence since DA left in my opinion.

I find a lot of posts on here just state the obvious... we weren’t aggressive, we lost too much ball, too many missed tackles blah blah. Everyone is quick to criticise but no one comes with suggestions, just alternate players to sign and different starting lines ups to try.

I don’t see anyone, who 'claim to of played the game' of which standard they never mention, talk about training techniques, phycology, fitness tests, tactics, game management, the importance of rest days, injury management, sports science, training camps and the benifits, team bonding sessions, aggressive contact training like boxing / judo, the benefits of research into other sporting fields and how this can be transferred over to a RL team, player care (the ones 1000s of mile from home) and how the performance may be affected by the move, family support.

I can talk tactics if you want.

As a former stand off that played to a pretty high level, I would have took the steam out the pies by kicking. It was plainly obvious there pack was on top and was smashing ours to pieces like they do.

I'd have kicked them to death, like Leeds did in the play offs few years back. Pin them back, let them have to work and take the steam out of them.

I had a chat with a former st Helen's great who plays 7 and he said the same thing.


Why didn't Walsh do that ?

That would limit posters dramatically. First of all they would have to have knowledge of the Saints current training techniques to say what they would change. They would need to know what tactics Nathan Brown sent the team out with, to know what to alternate.

Some can probably pick up elements from watching the game, but no one would really know the full extent.

If your suggesting we just let people post who have inside information only, just look at the fuss that gets kicked up when someone posts the team line up. If tactics and training methods where publicised we'd really get it in the neck.

It's a forum, it's the same as going down to the pub and discussing the game over a few beers. Surely you are not suggesting we vet people before they post.

What does high level mean?

'Kicking a team to death' is all well and good if you have any sort of field positions to start with. Can't do it from your own 20, which bears back to the route cause which is defence and organising to stop them marching down the field in the 1st place. You can take it back further by saying, yes get a good kick in whilst attacking to pin the opposition down. Everything works in phases, and a knock on straight from kick off isn’t the way to start a good one.

The was times we was on our 40m and could kick deep. Walsh kicking early on in the season was very good and could easily have pinned them down. At times they had Clubb on the wing as well.

We can't match Wigan with fire. They are to strong for us.

it’s just annoying when posts say 'xxx missed to many tackles' which is obvious and correct, they never seem to expand on why those tackles where missed. Did the player pick up an injury the set before, where they out of position, are they in a new role, is the technique wrong, does the last few games show they have confidence issues, are they stood next to a new player who is young and attempting to protect them more..... you get the drift.

Put it this way, I know what Bobbie Goulding, lee briers and Kevin sinfield would have done

That doesn’t really relate to the post however feel free to expand