I thought he'd see the season out, and I'd have lived with it, but what was most alarming was the quality of performance. Awful defensive errors (I haven't noticed a dramatic improvement defensively as we've leaked soft tries in our 2 most recent games, and not all down to current scapegoat of choice Foster) and the most impotent attack I've ever seen in 27 years of watching Saints.

Had this been down to one or two poorly performing individuals, then I'd agree that RS had been harshly treated. However, when the substandard performance runs right through the side (with only Soliola and Roby able to say they had maintained their previous level of performance) there has to be some questions asked of the manner in which they are getting prepared for games.

I'm surprised he's gone at this point, and feel for the bloke, but can't say I'm disappointed. He wasn't the answer.

I'm not looking for a bite here, but I'd be interested to know why you're prepared to show far more patience to Simmons than you did to Potter during his tenure?

Its the best time to get rid of him imo,if we see an improvement ( and i think we will ) in the next 3 games it will be a boost for everyone,players and fans alike.

Yes he got us to Old Trafford last year,but thats over,its in the past and counts for little now,the defence may of improved a bit but the alarming lack of attack is a worry and when after a game your coach says " im the coach and i didnt know what we were doing " then thats alarming,he should of fixed it during the game as he saw it unfold,but he left it another week and still did nothing.Im not one for advocating sacking a coach,but there is or was no confidence in him and his tinkering was unsetling.

Its a results and performance based industry and if the performance was there then he would still be here,but the performance wasnt there and he has to carry the can for that.

and that was the week after leeds had them off 70-0, not a good week


Is this season a write off? No, even if we dont make the grand final the experance the players will pick up going through this kind of 'bump' in the road will be invauleable as something most of the players have never had to deal with it before. there is no way we will finish out the top 8, we just wont, so Rush and Cunningham have the whole season to get the team ready for the play offs a stronger defence and a few different plays ball in hand.

we all know what the team is lacking, IMO a born and breed half back with some experance and a real hard as nuts prop who only knows one way.

and who knows Mr Anderson will be at langtree park this year, maybe he will stick around a faw weeks longer if the new man is not in place......who knows whats going to happen we just need to keep faith

If MR & KC can use all of the subs,bring in a couple of extra plays and tell Lomax to stop skipping we have moved forward from Royce?

I'd call conceeding fewer than half the points in the last two games to those conceded in the previous two as a dramatic improvement defensively! And yes, Jamie Foster has been responsible for most of the points we have shipped over the last few games (and you will see from on here that I have defended Jamie Foster, so I don't scapegoat him). Our attack was just fine against the Dragons. It was after that loss that we began to go downhill. But last season our attack took longer than our defence to come round and we were struggling with the same set of circumstances as thisHowever, when the substandard performance runs right through the side (with only Soliola and Roby able to say they had maintained their previous level of performance) there has to be some questions asked of the manner in which they are getting prepared for games.'"

im glad royce has gone from a team point of view, but like most i feel for the guy, but i never called for his head, saints havnt sacked a coach for a very long time for poor performance and i liked this fact.

the differance with potter? timing after DA it would of have been 4 years with the wrong man at the top and this is when the 'saints style' gets forgotten by the players it would of been a really long time not being trained the 'right' way the 'saints' way.

the other reason is what people see, the team look lost and lack any sort of idea or leadership i know this is a different matter BUT potter had Leon, KC, jammer and a year with long other than roby (who has not had his place filled because IMO this should be lances role) none have been replaced and the same goes with the forwards to many TOP BIG props have not been replaced in the team. this has finaly caught up with performances and royce has paid the price

I still think we will win something this season.

Rubbish. They had gone off plan and were in a bit of a panic so obviously the coach hadn't a clue what they were doing as it wasn't in the plan. The context of what he said was as if you had asked what on earth someone was doing when they did the exact opposite of what they were supposed to be doing.

So if they had gone off plan isnt it the coaches job to put them back on plan ? yes it is,did he ? no he didnt.You can rubbish it all you like,the fact is this season the team has been poor,its the coaches job to sort this out and he didnt/couldnt.

I think the point when I wrote Simmons off came with that 'I didn't know what they were doing comment'.

To me, his reaction to that defeat was one of avoiding blame. We didn't plan that, they didn't do what I asked, etc. It was a marked difference to an interview given by Powell at London earlier in the year when he also blamed communication issues on the field for a loss, but then took responsibility by stating that it was an issue he would have to work on, he would have to deal with.

I also noticed something Wellens said in a post match interview after the Bradford game, when he made a point of saying that what was going wrong was not due to a lack of effort in training or on the field. Now I may be looking into this too much, but to me that was a captain placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the coaching staff. When a captain is doing that, especially from such a club man as Wellens, the writing is on the wall for the coach.

back on topic, is the season a write off?

Well depends on what your expectations where.

A write off for me would be when interest had dulled, this is different to the point where we were no longer producing results. Been into work today and no one is surprised that Royce went.

As for the season well, it depends what you are aiming for. Personally I'd like to see some better structure to our plays, maybe a decent cup run. Once you hit the semis well its all to play for. Top position is pretty much gone as it would take an unbeaten run for the rest of the season. Top 4 will be difficult but not impossible. Huddersfield did it with 11 losses last year.

Lets say we take a hit on the next 3 then that's 7 losses, but if we can start to turn the corner then we could get a run into the playoffs giving us 5 or maybe even 4 spot.

Then there are games like Warrington at home, Wigan away that regardless of form still generate interest, so is the season a write off, not for me but depends on your initial outlook and what you wanted from the season.

The season is not a write off, we won't finish top 2, if we have a great remainder of the season the top 4 is still do able, but even so a top 6 finish with a good run in the play offs and a good cup run and it'll have been a decent season all in all.

That's the benefit of not having league leaders as champions, everyone outside the top 2 still has something to play for .

You had written Potter off 80 minutes after a grand final, let alone 7 matches!

I can imagine you being on here talking about knee jerking and giving our Mick the benefit of the doubt had he taken us on our worse run in over 20 years . . . . .

Your reaction to this has been so hypocritical it defies explanation.

At the risk of sounding like a cracked record, our entire season boils down to being able to perform on the day in 5 or 6 games in about 6 months' time. We have the squad of players to beat anyone on the day if everyone turns up and the players aren't throwing a strop at the coach at the time. So long as the new guys can send a team onto the pitch in August that is fit and can execute a few plays then we have as much of a chance of silverware as anyone else does.

wooden spoon?