Announcement of Fages playing in the next game and Sean Long will be attacking coach.

Quote: Mugwump "Given our shocking record against HKR and an admittedly poor first half I thought the lads showed tremendous character to turn the match around and in the end win quite comfortably. Not sure what people want. With that wind blowing through the ground, low confidence and a vociferous home crowd shouting for anything I'm not sure throwing the ball around made any sense. Sure, we can play better. But you only need notice the difference in the side the moment Roby came on to know we've had some problems filling a full compliment of playmakers. If Lomax can get back in any kind of shape and we keep McDonnell and Roby fit we'll pose a lot more problems. ATEOTD it's a better result than we have been showing at HKR in years.'" Bang on Mugwump https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=co ... 875e4705o2

Quote: Mugwump "Given our shocking record against HKR and an admittedly poor first half I thought the lads showed tremendous character to turn the match around and in the end win quite comfortably. Not sure what people want. With that wind blowing through the ground, low confidence and a vociferous home crowd shouting for anything I'm not sure throwing the ball around made any sense. Sure, we can play better. But you only need notice the difference in the side the moment Roby came on to know we've had some problems filling a full compliment of playmakers. If Lomax can get back in any kind of shape and we keep McDonnell and Roby fit we'll pose a lot more problems. ATEOTD it's a better result than we have been showing at HKR in years.'" Bang on Mugwump https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=co ... 875e4705o2

I agree, you cannot decide on yesterdays game solely. Come Easter you have to play Leeds, Wigan and Widnes that will be a better indicator.

Outsider looking in but your attack is awful. Still can't see them sacking a man who has a statue outside the ground.

I'm all for looking for positives but you must be worried at the lack of enthusiasm and organization showed in the first half.

Highlighted by the kick off when Savelio got tackled behind his own line. Nobody showed any interest in the kick or taking a pass to drive it in! It was shocking.

You only improved when Roby came on.

Just to put this into perspective you beat a team tipped to finish in the bottom 4, with a far to thin squad to start with who also had out the following
1 half back plus the other for half the game, our back up is out as well
2 hookers
Loose forward for half the game, back up loose has a broken wrist.
Top try scoring winger and kicker

We had a totally good try chalked off and only really looked like losing once we lost 2 interchanges.

I honestly thought saints would be the team to beat this year but watching the last few weeks I can't see it. Leeds and Hudds have key people missing but you had enough on the pitch that should in all honesty be looking at beating our team last night by 40.

It's worth pointing out that - judged over both halves - we played better football against Hull KR last season.

And lost.

Where Hull KR are tipped to finish and where they actually finish are two completely different things. As for injuries - we had plenty of them last season. Indeed, I seem to recall our stand-off having to play nearly the full game with a depressed cheekbone and fractured eye-socket after he was blantantly attacked to the head in the most obvious sending-off incident that wasn't.



I thought you had at least two tries chalked on after what seemed like clear forward passes. Luck evens itself out - or so they say.

And you looked like losing about ten seconds after James Roby appeared on the pitch.



Early season form means very little. We were the best team in the competition early last season. Huddersfield were one of the worst. Leeds were pretty poor, too.

As Jon Wilkin said - if Saints are playing this way at the end of the season then it's time to be worried. Not before.

We looked like a team playing a centre at stand-off, a stand-off at hooker and a winger as a strike centre with none of them having any aptitude for these roles.



Roby was crucial for two reasons. First his abilities - but perhaps more importantly he forced Saints into moving at least some of their players back into more familiar roles.

To be honest I thought the game-changer was Travis Burns getting himself binned. Up until that point many Saints players seemed to be strolling around the pitch as though they owned it. Certainly they weren't all that interested in shouldering the hard labour.

Burns was silly but in going toe-to-toe with a big forward he showed a few of our lads what it means to have some fire in your belly.

Travis gets a good deal of criticism and in some cases he deserves it. But the guy is unquestionably Hardcore.

Sorry I must have missed that last year's injuries were relevant to last night's match.

We won the league and prem double in '86 so should have stuffed you last night...

I'm not for sacking the coach and I would never judge a team this early.
That being said, that first half we were no were near a standard that anyone could say was average.
Ball's being thrown to no one, dropped balls people bunched together in attack like school boys all following the ball.

It was woeful.

For me Swift stood out as one of our better players. Thought dawson did ok, but can't see why we would not just play Turner there and fages as hooker???

Turner has a huge boot on him and maybe we need to use that more, but he can do 2 or 3 kicks from the centre position.
I get why he is being played at stand off as he is a strong runner, but in the middle of the park those strong runs are easily nulified. I'm not sure burns is the answer either at stand off as he brought less to that role last year than Turner.

I think fages (a half back) is the only player who we have not tried at halfback.

Wilkin can do a job, but admits he is not a natural there
Burns seems to lose his impact
Turner offers running and a big boot but is ineffective and it also means we have to patch up the centres with less attacking threats.

When Roby came on the organisation of the teams attack smartened up almost immediately. Losing Kelly stopped Hull KR scoring, but we were not looking like we were going to threaten much either. Roby got us rolling and into positions to be effective.

It's scary how much we are dependant on him and how little capability there seems to be without him.
We may have talkers across the park, but few who can on their own take action that will actually change a game.
I've no idea what we practice, but at the moment it's not good enough.

As always I'll give it the first 10 games, before I put any nails in the coffin or any pedestals out to place people on.

The point is - no one cared when we had injuries so I'm not going to lose any sleep over yours.

If it were impossible for teams to win with several injuries this debate might lead somewhere. But it isn't. Likewise, teams with no injuries often turn in terrible displays.

It's a factor - sure. But how much of a factor neither you nor I nor anyone else has the faintest idea.

Roby is very important to our side. But it wasn't just Roby who turned things around for us.

Luke Walsh looked twice the player the moment he started getting quick and accurate service out of the dummy half.

We have to look at this problem less as a function of individual strengths or weaknesses and more in terms of the team and the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

It's not that Walsh upped his game necessarily. It's just that he's a far less effective player when he has little of note to work with in other key positions.

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