Again, I'm completely baffled by the TV pundits' bagging of our pack. I thought it performed pretty well. Indeed, in the first twenty minutes (when Roby was getting enough go-forward to spring him from the dummy half) I thought it was outstanding. Sure, Perry looks like he could do with losing an extra six pounds or so - but even so, he wasn't THAT bad. The problem for me - which has been the problem all season - is no matter how hard the pack works there is NOTHING outside to capitalize on its efforts. It must be infuriating being a Saints forward right now - here they are doing all the hard graft, providing the platform for our backs to provide the cutting edge and whenever the ball moves twelve feet either side of the posts it stops dead (or worse).

Even if we had any decent backs there is no play-making scrum half to give them the ball! Worse still, we can't keep opponents off us because we don't have any kicking game to speak of. If ever there was a recipe for catastrophe this is it.

In retrospect it was a mistake to jettison some of the youngsters in favour of bringing back Wheeler and Wilkin. Neither was anywhere near effective with the former being something of a liability. I guess it's the kind of error you expect from a new coach - trusting to experience over youth in big matches. But both Rush & Keiron are going to have to learn quickly if we are to salvage anything from this season.

Priority #1 - Bring back Gaskell. He might be undercooked in terms of physique - but he's the only halfback we have with a kicking game who can also organise the attack. Gaskell is our future and the sooner we begin to mould the team around his talents the sooner we're likely to dig ourselves out of this mess.

Swift, Jones & Makinson must also be fast-tracked into regular first team action. Makinson is ready now whilst Jones' freakish physique should allow him to stand up to SL punishment. Swift is the biggest risk because his body isn't quite there yet - but if it's a choice between the standard sub-standard tripe served up by Meli & Gardner and taking a chance on a rookie I'll take the latter every time.

But by far the toughest decision is Wellens. Both Rush & Cunningham have a long history with Wello. I imagine they are good friends. Which will make the job of moving him out of full-back all that harder. I suspect they won't have the stones to make that call. But they have to.

I don't agree with that: we took a chance on LMS, Shenton and Flanagan who are potential (or at the time was) young England internationals.

Coupled with that we have also brought through the likes of Makinson, Lomax, Wheeler, Gaskell, Jones, Swift and (arguably) Foster who could all be potential international players

Admittedly we have signed the likes of Perry and Hohaia, but they aren't 'old' players 28/29 when they signed? That's good logic from Saints to bring in these sorts of experienced players to go alongside the younger players named above.

The problem lies in the recruitment, scouting and planning of singing our imports which has quite frankly been abysmal; your point that we have done nothing at all but sign old Aussies is a very weak argument.

I couldn't agree more; I'm sure that I read that we had 90% territory in those first 10mins and then throughout the game the pack got us in some great positions, but as you saythere is NOTHING outside to capitalize on its efforts'"

Hardly a tonking???? we was'nt that bad, 75-0 is a tonking?

Yes Wigun have the beating of us at the minute but we are not that far behind you? Sort our attack out and we'll be a differant side

Not sure I follow the logic. You want to get rid of Meli because he may make an error, and replace him with Foster who has made some serious howlers this year that have cost us games. Foster who offers less than Meli in attack??? How does this work out?

There is a difference, though, between an experienced, so-called international who has played the game for years and who consistently and predictably makes the same errors year in, year out, and a young guy who last season often won us games with his kicking and finishing being a bit off form at the start of the season. Or don't you agree?

Last season we weren't far away from Wigan. This season we are miles away.

Foster is cheaper, English and kicks goals. He scored 20 tries last year, compared to Meli's 12.

However, we were ably assisted by Wigan, especially in the first half. Wigan performed 19 handling errors (to our 11) and conceded six penalties (to our 10). Those errors, which were more numerous in the first half, definitely assisted in getting us up the field. Our pack was not that outstanding. And they seemed to give up entirely during the final 20 minutes of the game.

Our field position was 74% in the first half; 53% in the second according to reports.

I'm not. Josh Perry is simply the worst forward you have signed since Paul Round. Actually he's not. Laffranchi is.

The pair of them are awful. Just awful. Laffranchi is anonymous, and Perry is a big baby and got literally owned, twice, by Gaz Hock. I noticed on Saturday, Hock moved up into our front row when Perry was on, just so he could wind him up. It worked.

The only good prop you've got fit at the moment is McCarthy-Scarsbrook, and even he has underperformed of late. That said, it's not surprising he looks bad, because he can't carry it all on his own, can he?

And yet, statistically, Laffranchi is our best prop. LMS tends to be less effective against an opposition who give him a hard time and defensively he can be less keen shall we say than Laffranchi.

What a ridiculous comment.

Laffranchi has been one our most consistent performers this season.

Robinson is one of the more cringeworthy Wigan trolls on here. But it just demonstrates the papering over effect that a win in a game actually has. If your side wins, every one of your players becomes a superstar and has outplayed their opposite number, whether than was the case or not.

Laffranchi isn't great. He isn't a prop at all. But he's still better than Perry and Clough by a distance and contributes far more than LMS.

Tbf it looks like everyone else is just as far behind Wigan as you lot.