How good was it to see a Saints back galloping free tonight? Percival had a fantastic game tonight, some superb centre play to put the kid over in the corner and a constant threat to Widnes. He's got that effortless class elite players always seem to have, he doesn't need to do anything really, drift out, change angle slightly and he's away. Makinson for me was the difference tonight. We'd have lost that game over the past few seasons as we wouldn't have scored enough points. He made three stunning contributions tonight, the try saving tackle, the break for Fleming's try and his solo effort. He's solid under the high ball, can tackle and has pace. If he could work on chiming into the line he'd be an outstanding fullback.

What to say about the rest of them? I thought Savelio was again superb when he was on the field, LMS played well and Mose lead a much improved showing from the props tonight.

Percival and Watkins will be England's centres for a long while.

I,m glad Percy is back, the team has better balance when he is in the back line, very natural gifted player, he should get much better service with Walsh and Burns controlling things.

With Mose when St Petes away then Mose will play!!!

Completely agree with everything you've said here Saddended.

Percival and Makinson gave us that star quality in the backs to win that game last night. Percival was incredible. His 1st game in 7 weeks and he showed Josh Jones how a Centre should play. He's a complete natural and when his body fills out in a few years he will be up there with the best.

Spot on about Makinson too, he was superb and those 3 moments you mention won us the game. I'm glad you noticed his weakness at full back about him chiming into the line. He runs laterally far too much when chiming in rather than arcing his run like a natural full back will do. Understandable given it's not his natural position but if he could work on that and learn the trade he has the pace to be a real threat in that position because the rest of his game is very solid all round and he has pace to burn.

The only thing I'd add is Jon Wilkin's performance. I thought he was excellent last night and looks much better in back row where he's not relied upon to be our creative player. He can still throw a pass on the edge but running off Burns and Walsh he was hitting some really strong lines and making good yards with the ball.

He played fullback a lot in his junior days and his try for the 2011 GF was from chiming into the line beautifully. I rather think he has 'unlearned' how to be a fullback because he has spent the last three years learning how to be a winger.

I think you need to watch that try again haha. He took the ball at 1st receiver and kicked through. Nothing even close to "chiming into the line."

Well, I definitely remember him chiming in, and on both sides of the field too.

HOwever, since the 2011 GF was one I wanted to forget, I will happily own up to conflating more than one move by him in the course of the game, albeit entirely by accident.

Fully agree with this. I mentioned that he will be looking forward to defending as a middle again before the match and he relished it, I imagine his tackle stats were high. He isn't cut out for defending on the edges and teams were starting to notice it, especially Leeds. He was superb last night both in his running and his defense around the ruck.

The other player who was superb was Kevin Brown. Had he had his head screwed on as a young lad at Wigan, he could have been up there with the best.

Think he was actually a centre the majority of the time, although he's never seen senior action in that position.

Thats correct I'm pretty sure his debut was also at centre, Foster was also a centre but because of lack of size debut was on the wing. The thing with Makinson though is that he is now a mature player and could quickly adapt to any of the outside backs, fans would have to be patient though and not expect him to be up and running after a couple of games, at full back you would need over 8 to 10 games to get productive in that position. My preference though is Makinson on the wing or maybe Fleming will develop quickly to be an alternative option for KC to think about.

Makinson, whilst inconspicuous, is proficient, determined and - most importantly - he gets the job done.

A bit like a Mafia hitman.

I'm only going off what I've read from interviews with him. He has said he played both and he also said, originally certainly, that he preferred fullback.

If he was a star in the under19s (his try scoring ratio was very high, I remeber) then they probably moved him where they'd get the most use. He definitely wasn't a winger, though.

Percival just brought a touch of class and shows what we need on the other side too.

Makinson had a great game. I had my doubts about him being full back but he's showed a glimpse last night that he can do well in that position.

Yes, he said he had never played on the wing before doing so at first grade. I think the job he has made of it shows he has both talent and application, which is also why I think he should be left at fullback to grow into the role. He is showing very good signs there.