Congradulations on the win Saints. A bit too much for us this time. Big thanks to all those who travelled down. Hope you enjoyed yourself in the Kings bar after the game. It was bl***y COLD!

See you in the playoffs.

Roby made 45 tackles and missed 0. The most shocking thing is, I'm not even surprised.

another little stat,

Jamie foster made 1 tackle in 80 minutes!

That tells me they didnt put things much down his wing, apart from a couple of kicks.
Although the stats did show him missing two tackles as well.

Certainly when you compare it to the 9 Tommy Makinson made with no misses.

Yardage wise it was encouraging for Jamie, stats of 84 metres gained with 2 tackle busts and 1 clean break. It perhaps indicates he has started to fill out a bit and is now able to muscle up more when returning the ball.

Makinson only made 47 metres from 2 fewer carries.

Pack wise Laffranchis stats are very encouraging, he made 113 meters going forward, alongside 38 tackles, with zero missed tackles.

This compares to LMS 101 meters and 23 tackles, no misses

Soliola's stats look decent as well 90 meters and 30 tackles

Roby was as usual a machine with 156 meters and 45 tackles

Jonnie Lomax was the meter king with 167

Amber alerts however for Mark Flanagan, just 25 meters from 8 carries, (did lots of tackling though with 30)
and Josh Perry also only made 47 meters. Though interestingly this was from just 5 carries. So thats nearly 10 meters a carry. Hopefully with more game time he will get upto speed and be able to put in bigger stints.

With 2 missed, not great when you miss more than you make. Offensively his stats are decent though.

There's still a lot of development with Jamie Foster, something which he admits himself. The problem is some fans appear to be impatient with him and judge him as though he is the finished article. Obviously he is a great kicker and likes to run with the ball, its up to Royce to coach the defensive skills into his play, which won't happen overnight.

I have no doubt he isn't the finished article and will improve areas of his game. But finished article or not, 1 tackle with 2 missed is still pretty bad.

The way I see it with Jamie, is that he is a good SL winger. For some reason the bombs have got to him and if he just gets that sorted most people will not be on his back.

He is the sales rep for the club and so as a pretty boy is going to get people who hate that having a go because they think every RL player should look like a rottwiller that has run into a bus. They would not say it about a decent looking pack player because they know that they can handle themselves in a tussle.

If Jamie got in a punch up in his next game I reckon most of the agro he gets would disappear. (although maybe he should save that for Tomkins and become a St. Helens hero :p).

For me he does the job, he gets the points with boot and with the tries. His defence is somewhat in question, but the big answer to that is who did Leeds batter in the GF. Meli and Sia or Wheeler and Foster?????

Nobody can deny it, even though people will continue to slate Foster.

I am still weeping at the vision of Meli and Soliola 'defending' our try line. OMG. It will haunt me for years.

Why is it that when somebody wants to have a go, they state that everybody who doesn't agree with them is deluded? Your posts are generally good ones, but this is just childish tosh.

Foster has to work outside of Meli, who is a crap communicator, a crap defender, a crap passer of the ball, offers no protection and no security to Foster. Foster was fine outside of Gidley in 2010 and that is because Gidley is a good centre.

I will happily bet (and I don't bet, except on the Grand National) that if Royce puts Wheeler inside of Foster as soon as Shenton is fit (and either sticks Meli in the pack or in the u20s) then Foster's defence will improve dramatically because he will actually have a partner in Wheeler, which he doesn't in Meli.

I went a bit far, admittedly. In all honesty I was offended people would say that Jamie's looks would have bearing on how I view him as a player. I take that part back.

However, his defence is somewhat questionable at the present moment in time, I'm sure you can see that?

I agree having him outside Meli doesn't help matters at all though and a better positional centre will help him no end. Even in 2010, he missed 1 in 5 tackles outside Gidley. He was very young back then and much smaller so that's understandable. The point I'm trying to make is he needs to be better when he gets to the man, his percentages aren't very good at all, hopefully in time it will improve.

Anyone who Boo's a Saints player ain't just saying he can't defend. On redvee someone who was at the match said he was getting booed. He is a far far far far far far cry from getting booed by his own fans. Therefore I say again that it's not just his form why people are so quick to have a go.

my mate at the game said it was the london fans booing him, to put him off. apparently it worked

I have never booed any player, let alone a Saints player. Your generalisation probably shouldn't be including me.