The thing that slightly concerns me is Keiron playing Flash on the bench. Given that he offers us very little I can only think it's a contingency in case Walsh breaks down. Which suggests that even Keiron is having second thoughts.

Walsh was often criticised in the NRL for playing when he felt like it. But he wasn't a bad defender. Certainly nowhere near as bad as he was tonight.

That leg really does worry me. I kind of expected that he'd be short of zip coming back. But it's very noticeable that he's struggling when forced to change direction. Either he's frightened that the leg will go under load. Or it's hurting. Or he's lost some degree of joint flexibility. Whatever the case - it needs to improve soon.

When Wilkin and Vea are back in the 17, Flash won,t get a game.

It would be nice to have an old-school loose forward. I know Sav is making a stab at the role. But he's too young to have picked up the skills which a wily old 28-year old veteran at loose possesses.

When you say the forwards cut down the space are you referring back to the start of the season when we were playing well and winning? If you are, we were still missing a lot of tackles down that left side. The combinations in defence down that side really need work on so that they can improve.

The biggest issue in defence isn't Walsh, it's Turner. He can't read play/make decisions well at all. He ends up either planting his feet and getting beaten on the outside, or shooting in. Then half the time Walsh ends up having to defend a player he shouldn't, meaning either a passive tackle with a quick PTB, or a line break because there's a weak cover tackle which is broken, or a 3 on 2.

I'm referring to what our forwards WERE doing in defence at the start of the season which they ARE NOT doing now. I think it's reasonable to assume this might have some slight bearing on our performance.

WTF?!! Turner's made mistakes, yes. But to seriously suggest Turner has been a bigger problem in defence than Walsh over the last two games is totally absurd.

Your right, it was poor on that edge at the start of the year but as we was winning and everyone thought we was the best thing since sliced bread that nobody noticed it.

That left edge is probably the weakest ive ever seen and probably the worst in super league in defence. It looks worse now with Walsh on that side snd teams are targeting thst edge more.

Yes, they're were doing it at the start of the season, but our left edge defence was still poor back then. It can happen you know, that the forwards do what you've stated they did but for us to still miss tackles on the left side of defence.

I doubt there is a single team in SL which defends equally well on either side. In any case, performance is meaningless without some kind of context. The fact that going into last night's game ALL BUT ONE side in SL had a worse defensive record than Saints speaks volumes about the problems other sides have to worry about.

Given the injury craziness we've had to contend with this season it's nothing short of a miracle our defence is as good as it is. Let's see how well Leeds or Wigan or Huddersfield do when they're down to their 7th choice fullback, missing their best winger, second row, loose-forward and nursing a crocked scrum-half back to full fitness.

2nd best defence but think I read we've missed more tackles than anyone.

Hull KR 684
Saints 645
Salford 634
Catalan 625
Wakefield 613

Bottom of the league stuff. Still time to get the MIT award. Good chance of getting the PEN award we are no 1 offenders for that one.