I'm hoping to go myself as I haven't been to Rochdale before either (not the town, not the rugby league ground).

Yep.

[urlhttp://www.saintsrlfc.com/news/page/2644[/url

"The side will contain both first team squad players and the next generation of first team players who will be part of the new Under 19s competition".

I would expect to see the likes of Forster, Hand, Walker, Ashe, Percival, etc. Looking forward to see how they play again. Hope we can get quite a few fans down there to support the lads.

Back to the Wakey game, can we have more details please?
How were the new signings? Who was the star of the show? How didLomaskell fare? What role did Lance play? Did we play an expansive game? Did we defend well?

no one played bad, i think everyone played well. the passing was a bit off here and there in terms of both quality and pass choice, but we were running good lines and the kicking was good as well. the goal line defance looked very soild again, it looks like some hard work has gone into this.

* manu was strong and off loading at will linking up well with roby
* turner looked better than last week, missed a easy kick, but hit one over from the touch line
* greenwood impressed me more than anyone, he was strong defended well and looked more than the part, and would be more than happy to see him fill a spot in the season
* perry - the last couple of years he has been poor and called up by many people, myself inclueded but i think he had a good game, good yards, strong defence and had the awearness to take a kick off on the full giveing us the pen on the half way line resulting in a try
* lance had a good 40 at FB last week and a good 40 at hooker this, IMO has to be played as a second hooker looked good taking on the line and came up with 2 trys
* sia was on fire, tackleing anything in a white shirt busting holes in the line at will. i think at one point he nearly tackled ben cokehead in two!! only problem with his tackleing is that fact his flank is left short of numbers and wakey did make some good yeards down here

everyone else were solid, i know we have played a funny game against hudders and a slightly weaked wakey but im looking forward to the new season, not getting carried away saying we will win everything but WE WILL be a lot more fun to watch again

It was a good performance for a friendly. We were pretty physical up front and there were some good individual performances. We were a bit disjointed at times, but that seemed to be because we were trying to throw the ball around a bit more. The kicking game was good, too.

All of the old stagers played well. Roby only played 40 minutes, but was his usual dynamic self. All four of our main props (Brown used TP and LMS as rotation props, and then gave Walmsley about 15 mins at the end) were industrious, and I also think Wello deserves a mention, as he was excellent in attack and defence. Lance played hooker for the second half, and I thought he was very good.

It's clear that Manu is going to add an extra dimension to our attack, especially as our other players get used to anticipating his offloads. As mentioned above, he already seems to have a good understanding with Roby, which could do some real damage throughout the season.

Walmsley looks good, but a little raw. I reckon it'll be a year before we get the best out of him, partly because I think he could do with putting on a stone - he is a big lad and has a broad frame, but overall looks a little lean for a front rower. Given that he's only been a pro player for 12 months I'm sure that's something that'll sort itself out now that he'll be on a proper conditioning programme.

Joe Greenwood was very impressive in his stint. On his first carry he flattened a defender and went straight over the top of him, and he looked good defensively too. I suspect we'll see plenty of him this season.

My only concern from the match was that we looked shaky defensively on the right, where Gaskell and Turner were defending next to each other. Lauitiiti, in particular, had plenty of joy down that side. Gaskell also missed a fairly routine one-on-one tackle on Lee Smith for his try at the end. Not necessarily a major problem, but there definitely needs to be some work done on our communication down that channel.

Cracking game of Rugby League yesterday, really enjoyed it. Saints played well, once again we were superb defensively, especially on our goal line, and were really clinical with ball in hand. Out forwards laid the platform for and we looked a lot sharper this week than we did last week.

Individual wise, Josh Perry had a great game up front, and got really physical with Justin Poore in particular. He looks a lot fitter, and his performance on the field benefited because of that. He made great yardige from first reciever, and his workrate both with and without the ball was superb.

Sia was absolutly devastating yesterday and threatened every time he had the ball in his hands and was breaking the line at will. Roby had a cracking first half before being replaced by Hohoa, and his combination with Manu will be devastating througout the season. As I said, Lance played 9 yesterday and looked sharp, took his try superbly well.

Walmsley had another good game, although he does look a little bit lanky for a Super League prop. Hopefully that will have been acknowledged, and he will gain a couple of stone throughout the season. Having said that, he did ok when he came on which was good to see, and put in a decent shot on a Wakefield player. Obviously this is a huge step up for him, and I am sure he will benefit from a more professional environment, physically more than anything else.

Joe Greenwood impressed me a great deal once again, and carried the ball forward agressively and hit some cracking lines. His leg drive was extremely impressive, and he has a bit of pace about him and put in a belting tackle on a Wakefield player during the second half, absolutelly flattened him. I am expecting him to get a few opportunities throughout the season, and our front row looks to be extremely strong. We have 6 or 7 props competing for 4 spots in the 17, and they are all pushing each other that little bit further.

Gaskell had a decent game at 6, he put a cracking pass in for to Turner for one of Gardner's tries. Defensively we were good, but we did look a little bit vulnerable down the left hand side with Reece Lyne looking particularly dangerous playing centre for Wakefield. His kicking game was good, and him and Lomax seem to have a far greater understanding that's Lomax and Lance.

Thought it was great to see TP back, and he played well down the middle when he came on. Attendance wise, the figure given by Saints was 2,158, but I thought there were less than that to be honest. Plenty of room around me in W3 and throughout the West, whilst the seats in the South Stand looked practically empty to be honest. Anyway, as I said, it was a cracking game of Rugby League, and we are looking pretty good.

I can echo what has been said along with , I was entertained , it was a joy to see Saints play as we want to see them play , with a bit of flair , a couple of people around me said "this is like Saints of old" and it was in places!!

Only downside of our performance for me was the defence down our right side. Lynne made far too many breaks and was their main attacking threat. Turner and T-Mak need to tighten up down there, because better sides will punish us.

I think we're going to miss Shenny this season as his defence was his strength. Turner comes with a rep so far as defence goes. Aside from a tendency to come in from his wing, Makinson's defence hasn't been an issue. In fact he has sometimes put on some outstanding efforts at defence.

I think it'll more be the Gaskell / Turner combination that could be exposed rather than Turner / Makinson. However, Turner's slight problems in defence come from positioning, this can be coached out of him and I have no doubt Brown is capable of that. Turner if more than capable of tackling in the contact, it's just his positioning that could improve.

In the Huddersfield game Lomax defended well done the right side with Turner and Makinson. I was surprised to see him on the left, and Gaskell on the right on sunday.

Probably a case of testing combinations. I'd imagine long term Lomax will be on the right as he's the stronger defender. Gaskell will be on the left as Josh Jones is a very good defender and he'll have Manu inside him too.