"People look back and talk about the old Saints sides, you're not going to see that side. Nowadays, if a St Helens side was around, when you've had Sean Long, Keiron Cunningham, Paul Sculthorpe, Paul Wellens, then you'd have a bunch of stocking fillers around them because of the salary cap. The value of those players now would be immense and you'd spend a lot of money to bring it in. We do our best within the remit of what we can do with the money that we have to spend."


I think KC is responding to growing criticism here from fans who (like me) salivate over the glorious sides of the past and get frustrated with our recent recruitment. This is why he's bringing kids through, coughing up for 'prospects' and cheap overseas players. He's been dealt a crappy hand in my opinion and doesn't have and can't afford the mouthwatering personnel that we've enjoyed in the past.

I agree with the salary cap, but surely it's time to increase it? Fans are paying more than ever for tickets to watch a product which in relative terms has decreased in quality.

It's a fair point regarding us comparing to the old Saints but I'm not buying this excuse. We had mediocre teams in the 80s but we played good rugby and was entertaining.

I'm sat watching hull FC v Cas and Cas are playing free flowing entertaining rugby which is good to watch. Leeds are good to watch and they are under same cap restrictions as us.

So basically Yes we will never be as good as the Longy, scully KC etc but no reason why we can't play good rugby.

Also, wasn't the a salary cap when we had the players he refers too ?

I think we've pretty much had the same salary cap since 99 haven't we? Not sure how much the cost of living has gone up since then though...Mars Bars have got smaller though

I agree about the 80's team playing exciting rugby. I want him to succeed, like all fans but I do wish he would encourage his side to throw it about a bit.

Did he actually refer to himself in the third person?!?!

I don't think increasing the salary cap would make that much difference here in the super league, KC is probably correct in his comment on the "player pool" here in the northern hemisphere. There just isn't the quality of players anymore, we lost a lot of Sport England funding because of our grass roots lack of participation in our sport, most of the problem resides at the door of the RFL with no pathway model to produce the stars of tomorrow. Our better players will see the challenges are in the southern hemisphere I can see Sav and Alex going down that route sooner than later.

That's because they have good coaches.

I always think someone's lost it when they start talking about themself* in the 3rd person.

*Made up word alert

Did you watch Cas last night ? Great to watch as always . Play good rugby and not got the players we have.

The salary cap is no excuse to play boring one up rugby week in and week out. It's down to the coach.

I'm talking about quality of Superleague throughout the season though, we can always cherry pick one particular team or teams who are playing well over a couple of weekends. People have been talking about Cas for 3 seasons now with a so called brilliant coach, who historically have one of the worse defensive stats for a so called top team. But they have won nothing and until they do consistently then they are just part of a non intensity, boring super league which lacks real quality players.

Themself is a perfectly good word, in frequent use in the medieval and early modern period in England, it's still current, with the OED quoting a newspaper using it in the late 1990s and in a medical textbook in the 2000s.

That doesn't mean that KC's use of the third person to refer to himself isn't worrying, though.

We are talking about our dull one up rugby here. The cap is no excuse

Rubbish. Look at Darryl Powell his turned a bog standard scrum half into a international in Luke Gale. His recruitment has been tremendous turning the likes of Solomona into the league's best winger.

We don't need BIG names we need players that fit our team and have something about them. Were the only team that constantly play forwards at half and centre to suit our style. Were God damn awful and I'm sick of it

Something that was mentioned in passing in the commentary interested me. It's striking how many of the Bitish SL coaches were forwards in their playing days. McDermott - prop. Anderson - prop. Wane - prop. Radford - prop/2nd row. Cunningham - (very physical) hooker. Betts - second row. The two clubs coached by former half backs - Salford and Castleford - seem to be playing some of the best rugby.

Last night showed what an amazing job Powell has done at Castleford, so good to see so many of our ex London players helping them.

If we had any ambition I would throw whatever money it takes at Powell and tell him to rebuild this team.

Cas's first try was almost perfect.

Big prop runs it in and draws 2 or 3 defenders, turns round and offloads to the waiting halfback who without hesitation whips a long pass wide into the gap created by the first run and offload. 2 more passes out to the wing, whilst moving forward at pace and its a try in the corner.

In that situation our big prop would have just taken the tackle. A simple offload and a halfback with a bit of vision to take advantage of the situation and they created a try from nothing.