I'm sure everyone will be reassured to know that Rush rldoes not intend changing the halfback combinationrl for the trip to Leeds. No surprise there. I'm glad he noticed that Makinson played well anyway.

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?

Saw the interview with Mike Rush. The Gaskell comments seemed forced and borne out of rumours that he
has been frozen out.

The view that Lance and Lomax work well together was staggering along with the suggestion
that the forwards matched Wigan's pack. Lance hides behind the ptb and Lomax does his little shuffle.
The only thing they do together is kick poorly and they do that well and consistently.

The fact that Makinson played well is noteworthy considering he only got the ball from Wigan kicks and scooting
from dummy half. I didn't count one pass from Shenton or anybody else.

The spin and lack of honesty regarding Saints creativity is a major concern. Still no cladding either.

Dark days at Saints.

I had a similar reaction.

I also didn't like the overt criticism of Jonny Lomax - who was after all the player who jumped out of the defensive line - without giving him any credit for the try he created. Our only try. No criticism of any senior players though or any comment on how Hohaia - the experienced international - didn't actually do anything to help our cause.

This isn't the first time Rush has taken a pop at the young players in the press and I'm starting not to like him for it.

Edited to add: I've just re-read the article and the reference to Jonny Lomax (he wasn't named but his coming out of the line was referred to) has been extracted.

If Lance continues in his poor form and Gaskell is left to rot, does anyone think that the crowd may start to take control of the situation and start asking for Gaskell at games, or even worse start chanting for Lance out.

Win's help, but in the cold of the Wakey game, although we where comfortable we where not exciting as everything went through Roby and Lance just wandered about. Lomax tried but again nothing. So for me that's 2 games on the bounce that I've seen live since our up turn in fortunes and it could have been balloo and alan hunte at half back for all the difference it made. I think we have improved as a team from earlier in the season and credit must be given for that, but from 9th to 5th does not mean we should stop tinkering to try and get some better combinations.

Gaskell on loan? Widnes or somewere.

Surely he wont be happy at playing 20's rugby when he was first choice 6/7 last year?

Ive heard basically Gaskell and Rush don't see eye to eye. Or they didnt get on when Rush was coaching the younger players.

Sounds like its time for Rush to swallow his pride

Or.... Rumours of finch, or another half back coming in next year are true, and lance is going to mutually agree to leave. Only way he will agree to this is if he starts every game at half back this season? If he is dropped in favour of Gaskell, would any super league, or nrl club touch him? Unfortunately, Gaskell gets screwed as a consequence.

absolutely, its only a matter of time before the fans really get on Lance's back, which isn't good for anyone.

Fortunately, we have 3 away games now, so gives Lance chance to do some good work out of home spotlight a bit.

That's the bit of this interview that I find most alarming. We ended up with a decent amount of possession and territory because Wigan had the butterfingers, but we were clearly outperformed up front. If Wigan hadn't had an off day with the ball we would have been given a proper schooling.

Whilst I think we're all judicous enough to realise Johnny's far from a complete or rounded half back, there's simply no denying that he can perform that 1st receiver role very well when placed in the correct set up. He proved that last year.
Lance, on the other hand, has proved very little. We needed an half back to run the show,but what we appear to have bought is an older, slightly inferior version of Lomax himself.

As the weeks go by, Nathan Brown must be becoming more and more excited by how good he's going to look next season.

Drop them all, that would show em.

Our approach in the wigan game (both with the ball and in defence) was of more concern to me than the abilities of the players on the pitch.

The issue is deeper than one of chopping and changing, it is one of structure and attitude - both of which are the job of the coach. I said that when Royce was in charge and I'll repeat it with Rush/KC.

We need to replicate the desire and hunger we showed against Leeds/Wire, a desire and hunger which Wane has his Wigan charges showing every week. Our pack need to scrap for every inch with the ball and without it in the same way that the Wigan set do - that will go a long way to allowing Lomax/Lance/Roby to operate on the front foot. Wigan carried the ball almost a metre more per carry in the cup game, which came about through a combination of aggressive carries and the lack of urgency in our own defensive line compared to theirs.

We need to be less conservative with the ball too. I don't mean flinging it wide every time because that is easily dealt with, I mean looking for more offloads to create the broken field our halves would thrive on. Playing to the strengths of this Saints team requires looking to offload far more IMO.

That said, I would still prefer Gaskell in the halves to give us a kicking game.

With Saints even when they are not on form Im usually quietly confident they can win big games.

I honestly dont think we have a chance in hell against Leeds.
This is the first year im 100% convinced Saints will not win anything this year.

The fact they have won some of the games they have is showing how p!ss poor the league is this year

I don't have a problem with keeping Gaskell away from the first team for a short period - if it's to work on, say, the kid's physique. But I can't see any reason to drop him. It's not as if he was playing THAT badly anyhow. The mistakes he was making were purely down to inexperience and you could level precisely the same criticism at Lomax.