Considering the players that we didn't have on Good Friday (O' Loughlin, Mossop, Farrell, Lauaki, Flower plus Richards first half injury) and the 18 point win we got in spite of their absence, expectations are always going to be raised as a result of all of these players bar Richards being available

In all honesty we had players missing too and I think that the players returning for both sides probably evens out. If both teams play similar to what they did on Good Friday then I can see a very similar result. Saints need to up their game from Good Friday to win this game.

Make no wonder that the southern softy rugger mob call us northern monkey's when they see silverback on tv
"Am gutted i am,absolutely gutted"

thats about the some of it.

We need to play with a whole lot more aggresion to win this

Whilst we were at full strength and didn't lose anyone to injury in the first half . . . .

I loved the guys on their forum after their playoff defeat last season blaming the defeat squarely on the fact that Tompkins wasn't 100%, conveniently forgetting that we were completely without Pryce, Eastmond, Perry, Clough and Wheeler at the time....

I think Wane is actually doing very well from a results and performance perspective. I wish Saints demonstrated some of the tenacity and aggression his side are showing so far. He may not be the greatest orator but at the end of the day it won't matter if they win stuff.

I had my doubts about him taking over from Maguire but looks like he's dealing with it well enough so fair play to him.

I think he's dealing with it very well. They still look slick and the forward still work together very well. We've also seen how they can really up the temp in a derby game.

I don't know how much is him just keeping up what Maguire set out, or if its off his own back. It will be a real test of that if they were to lose Finch this off season and has to rebuild around a new play maker.

Wane has already changed both the defensive and attacking style and structure since taking over from Maguire so he's certainly not just copying Maguire and hoping for the same.
He's got the best out of some of the younger home grown players like McIlorum and Goulding and it's really paid off and helped to negate the losses of some key players.

As for how coaches look or sound or whatever else people want to go on about, I wouldn't care if the coach looked like Joseph Merrick and sounded like Joe Pasquale as long as the team is winning.

The "Ape" is top of the league and inspired his team to inflict a painful first derby defeat at TP on you not that long ago. He seems to be doing a good job to me.

Strange that you want to have a pop at him. If you lose (as I think you will) then you won't just have been beaten by your hated local rivals - that's bad enough - but by a team coached by some primitive, gorilla-like creature (according to you).

What will that say about Saints? What does it say about what happened a few weeks ago?

Keep the abuse coming, we know you're rattled.

Nope, but I would do. He's probably just smirk, then sulk, then be sarcastic, like he does when he's being interviewed. It's a local trait, I think.

Hey up, we've someone here who's not a clue what he's talking about.

TO be fair, that's a great comment.

Wigan and St Helens, both coached by local people who have had this rivalry drummed into them since they were in nappies.

It's miles better than a couple of nasal Aussies exchanging quotes devoid of, well, anything. And I've always said, Aussie coaches may well pay lip service to this rivalry, but they really don't know or appreciate what it's all about when all is said and done. They can be told about it, and they can preach it, but they don't FEEL it.

Wane and Rush do, though.

Lomax and who else...?

Not convinced it's a total continuation of Maguire's setup to be honest. Our defence at times hasn't looked as clinical, but our attack near the line is pretty much flawless, and certainly better than it was under Maguire.