I went last night, after watching the first two games was really looking forward to the game. Souths were just too good.
As for salary cap, I don't think that's the issue. If we raised it, it would only mean average and poor players would command a higher salary. For me the issue is the lack of pure talent, competition for places and the lack of numbers playing the sport in comparison to Aus.
All IMHO of course.

Lomax's positioning is what disappoints me more than anything. As Wellens proved, you can make up physical flaws by being in the right place at the right time and Lomax just hasn't been able to grasp that. The first try was very poor and the try after the clash of heads just had an ominous sense of foreboding about it. I've always worried he was too short to be effective at fullback ... But again is there a SL side out there who could exploit it, because I'm not sure ...

Wilkin wasn't great, but he allowed Burns to at least create some space (even if it was closed near enough immediately!) but a fully fit Walsh would of been incredibly useful I agree. Thing is, would matty smith or Richie Myler done any better than Wilkin tonight?

I was expecting more from Mose tonight, the eyes of the NRL and a chance to improve his next contract should of seen him trying to go blow for blow... But he didn't. When you compare him to George Rose's performance for example, you wonder how the Aussie conditioning teams are so far ahead of our own ... On the other hand, I don't think we need to worry about Savelio leaving for aus any time soon, he was out of his depth from the minute he stepped on the pitch.

I think we have potential world class players at the minute. But potential doesn't beat the real thing. We're as young a team as any, and providing they learn the lessons, will be better for it, as hard as it is to see right now. I also think there's 1 maybe 2 players in SL who are world class, so it's not a problem localised to Saints.

SL clubs are full time and are quite capable of matching fitness levels so that is clutching at straws. Wigan matched Brisbane's fitness levels. For me the issue is that SL clubs do not play at that intensity often enough. It didn't do Saints any favours playing Salford last week and winning so easy. SL needs high intensity week in week out as this develops the speed of thought and composure in that intensity.

If that deluded thought helps you get over a bad night at the office then dream on. Wigan are not good enough to beat Souths but they would not have lost by that score!

To be fair to lomax he's probably still a little rusty, he hasn't played rugby for long long time and that's only his 3rd competitive match since June last year. Look at kevin Locke last week!

For me, I'm not bothered mose going next year. He's easiky replaceable.

Just need to draw a line under this and get back to our league form.

I'm more than happy to give Lomax time, but I think it's the first time I feel his place in the team should be under threat.

Mose's main advantage of drawing players in and creating space on the edges was completely nullified yesterday, but after years of an undersized pack I'm not prepared to give up his size so easily! Wonder if Tom Burgess fancies a stint over in SL

Thing is, against SL opposition I reckon we'd of scored 6 tries if not more - we just can't let it affect our confidence...

Having watched it back again, there are more than shades of Melbourne about Souths now. They are so utterly dominant in the NRL that it does become a little suspicious. They won the Grand Final 30-6 against Canterbury and beat us 39-0. No real shame there for us IMO, especially when there were a couple of tries that were just pure luck. Either they are in a completely unsustainable position of having a heap of players earning way less than their potential earnings could be and they will gradually weaken as their current contracts come up for renewal, or all the other clubs in the NRL are doing a terrible job.

I'd cut Lomax a bit of slack. He's having things tough at the moment.

To give balance, the top 3 teams (1-2-3) in superleague should be playing the bottom play off teams (6-7-icon_cool.gif in NRL. The top 3 teams in the NRL would probably beat an England International side.

I'm not bagging him as he's a good player but I think he's lost pace and obviously he's a little rusty with not playing for long time.

NRL champions v a SL select team might be good fun, but I'm not ready to give up on the wcc yet - we lost by a similar score to the roosters but came back to win another wcc title.

Learn from it, move on. There was a time not so long ago people were advocating England not bothering playing Australia as there was no point in the constant hammerings.

Good lesson for our young team and a reality check for some aswell.

Souths were brilliant, I don't think we've played a team as strong as that in all my years of watching Saints. It's not that we were very bad, it's that Souths were that good.

The only disappointment is the nil scoreline against our name, but I think they'd have done that to anyone, they were that ruthless last night.

This +1

And the scary thing is i think they could have upped there game further if required.

We are a good Superleague side but not world class. NRL have better sides in there comp that were not on show this weekend that would stuff all superleague easy.

Souths would beat any international side at the moment.


Last week we probably made 10-15 unforced errors, and won by 50 points against a team that is paying the full salary cap in the UK. We made 5 or 6 mistakes last night and got punished each time. Souths made a couple of mistakes and we didn't punish them. That tells you all you need to know about the difference in class on show.

In a Super League game, Percival scores both his tries because the cover defence wouldn't get anywhere near to him.

I,m hoping technically the club can learn a lot from this game as a positive. After the score was 14-0, I thought there is no way we are going to win this game so I started to look at the way the Souths played the game technically.

Did anybody notice how there attacking line out changes depending on there position on the field, in there own 25 metres they had a flat attack, in the oppostion 25 metres the attacking line was very deep sometimes the winger back towards the half way line. This meant they where coming at us with speed and space with a world class full back in support, our backline most of the time contest a flat attack in superleague, yesterday our backline was lost in defence and exposed, can we learn from this and technically adopt something similar.