The last two games have been important for saints as a team. To come back from 10-0 down against Salford and then to win a game after giving away a big lead show real character. We have lost the never write saints off mentality, and I can hardly remember a game in tge last couple of years whwn we have come from behind. In 96 we made a habit of playing games like that, and those wins have saints the confidence that carried us through for our successes in super league. Winning easily is great, but having the mentality to win games like last night is more important.

Perry was terrible in his first 20 min stint, they hammered him, he's flat on his back soon as the defence hit him. The field postion came from some very good good kicks from lee Gaskell. Perrys second spell was much better.

Flannery was ineffective but I'm starting to think flanaghan will be the new flannery, he's totally invisable when he's on.

TP is wasted outwide, it's pretty rare he touches the ball.

Shush! You will only get accused off SaintsFan of derailling this thread

Not my impression at all.

I thought they very much targeted him in his first stint with 3 men tackles from offside positions. His second stint much better against forwards who were not as energetic, Cloughy had little effect coming on and LMS very inconsistent.
Flannery is not providing anything now, would sooner play Dixon instead.

He was murdered in that first 20 mins.

Well done on the win, looked like you'd blown it but showed great character at the end.

After seeing some dull, uninspiring games this year yesterday's match was absolutely scintillating. For the opening 25 minutes, we were brilliant. Our forwards were running with more aggression, the PTB speed was quick and we were playing some enterprising rugby. If we can out that type of performance together for 80 minutes we will absolutely hammer someone. Let's hope we play like that against Wigan or hopefully in a big play off game, because KR couldn't live with that early spell. Jones' 2nd try was the major highlight and it was good to see us go the length of the pitch.

After that we were 2nd best for a good 45 minutes. We lost all concentration, slackened off massively in defence, dropped the ball uncharacteristically and gave away alot of penalties. We criminally allowed KR to take the lead and if we'd have lost that, it would've been a complete embarrassment. I couldn't believe we brought off TP, Laffranchi, Soliola and Perry at the same time, the momentum of the game changed when they came back on towards the end and that's why we won.

Perry had his best game in the red vee for me, superb performance and when he came back on he gaves us aggression both in attach and defence and started to bring us back into the game with territory. Same with Soliola who is massive for us. After that I thought Wilkin went well and Gaskell's kicking game was good for the most part. Roby again worked tirelessly and was able to hit holes and make half breaks up the middle. TP was really good in patches also. Josh Jones and Meli are playing well for us on the left hand side too.

On the negative side I thought Lomax was woeful, often picking the wrong options. I don't think he reads the game particularly well, he doesn't seem to spot the gaps opening up at times and just hits the man he thinks he should be hitting. It's like he's on autopilot and can't change his train of thought and react. I'm still not convinced he's a 7, although clearly he's a very talented player.Shenton was also very quiet again and Flannery was completely ineffective. As for the referee, a truly disgusting and clueless performance once again. The standards of refereeing are poor, but Alibert is in a league of his own when it comes to complete ineptness. I hate the guy, he's awful in every way and makes decisions up. I can't believe he's still reffing in this comp.

Yep. Not just that but he made three mistakes, right in front of us in the West Stand. I am sure there are blokes in the u20s who could have done a better job in that first half.


Yep, and then in the second half I don't think he kicked one. It was all Wilkin and Lomax so far as I could see. That seemed to be a strange coaching decision.

There must be two Perrys in this team because his first half performance was abysmal.


I thought he'd had some better games too. Didn't make any mistakes but didn't stand out like he often does.


Gaskell only kicked in the first half and his kicks were excellent.


Meli was lazy in defence, running alongside and letting others tackle. I'm sure one of their tries was Meli's responsibility?


And yet at least two of the tries were thanks to some beautifully timed and weighted passes by Lomax. He did drop the ball on the way to the line again, which was a disappointment, especially when we made the silly mistake of trying to run a perfectly kickable penalty, something we shouldn't have done given that we were at best losing our lead by then if we hadn't actually lost it.

No. He wasn't.

You repeating the same thing ad nauseum isn't going to make it true.

Perry did ok in first spell but his downfall was giving three penaltys away on the bounce

Thought Perry did OK as well in his first spell, got through a lot of solid work. He didn,t make metres until his second spell. Being a starting prop, teams will always try to dominate him early doors, thought he took the hits and got on with it.

What were the penalties for? Holding down?
Perry is very good a dominating in the tackle and getting the opposition on thier backs, (generally) holding them down just long enough to slow them down without getting pinged. However, if the ref was "setting his stall out" for the game, he may have taken exception to this in order to force a quicker PTB.

Well said. Lomax is a natural runner but he doesn't yet have the reading of the game that's required although I'm sure he'll grow into it, in the same way that Long did, eventually. However, I would also say that, and it's the same for Gaskell, the timing of our runners is nowhere near as smooth as the pies has been this season. It's something that needs addressing now and next season. Part of that problem though is the players not knowing what Lomax is doing which goes back to the training field, increased awareness of each other and of opposition defensive patterns.