I am not convinced Saints are in that class, certainly not the Leeds class. IMO they are with Hudds, Cas & Wire at least. They needed London & Bradford to get their season back on track after easy defeats to Leeds, Widnes & Wigan, & could well have lost 6 in a row having only beaten Cas, Hudds & Leeds in the last minute.

Saints seem to be in that very fortunate position of having really gifted youngsters to bring in whenever the injuries strike and it's the fact that so many of ours have walked away after reaching the end of their time in the academy, or shortly afterwards, which is killing us right now. Saints go into games against Wigan and Leeds with a very realistic chance of success - last minute wins or not, and indeed, beat Leeds with a very patched up 13 IIRC. They are a class act, imo.

They have a few world class players, a group of seasoned pro's, some great youngsters with bags of potential & a few average players. Which is better than most, but a lot short of Leeds, & not as much as Hudds & Wire. They are similar to Wigan in that respect, who I think constantly perform beyond their individual abilities.

I wont deny Leeds have been looking very classy this year, but having seen Wire and Saints at the iconic Odsal stadium in the last week Saints looked a much better outfit - faster all round and better organised as a team

And the next time we play Leeds, Saints and Warrington it will be at their place. In the last 13 games we will probably need to win 8-10 of them not forgetting the points difference. The other teams will win a handful of games. Is it a bridge too far? It is now looking like it. 2 points back will not make much difference. We have played half a season and are further behind than at the start. Some people are saying the last game could be a win and stay up game. We could also be relegated by the start of July if Wakey and Salford win a few more and we don't. It ain't looking good I am afraid to say.

After having seen all of them, I'd put Saints up with Wigan and Leeds as the standouts and certainly above Hudds and Wire, both of whom seem to have dropped away this season. Though, that said, I'd imagine any of those five could beat any other on their day.

I'd say the Saints performance against us is as good as it gets [I'm allowing the performance, or non-performance, against Wigan to pass as an unrepeatable one off though there is room to say that our injury situation maybe allowed them to put a bit of gloss on it, but they looked the quickest in thought and deed that we've come across this year, imo.

I think Hudds over-performed last season, but they are just a back-up hooker/HB short of a top 3 team. I don't know if Wire are building to a end of season climax but they have far too many top players, & a top coach, to be mid-table. If a Yorkshire team isn't going to win it I wouldn't mind Saints, otherwise Brown could forever be labelled a nearly man, & I quite like him as a coach.

Before easter having Leeds, Wigan, Wire & Saints one after the other plenty of people on here said we would lose them all so surely even 1 win out of 4 has surpassed peoples expectations on here, we are just unlucky that Wakey have produced some results,

As for the Magic weekend, Huddersfield really struggled at the start against London, if we can get most players back and firing and get some stability in the squad no reason we cant pick up 2 points this weekend and get some momentum building up to the "must win" wakey game,

The season is not over until its mathematically not possible to stay up COYB!!

We're still the only team to have beaten Leeds this season though, so how are we 'a lot short' of Leeds?

You may have a point, you may not but we are debating whether Bulls can stay up not whether Saints are as good as Leeds. Think that was mentioned as a comparison between the two teams that beat the Bulls,

Well, the predictions spreadsheet indicates that we are going down ... on points difference.

Here is the latest version:

Wigan ....47
Leeds ....42
St. Helens... 42
Warrington ...33
Hudds ...32
Castleford ....25
Hull FC ....25
Widnes ....25
Salford .... 24
Catalans ...20
Wakefield ...19
Hull KR ...18
Bradford ...18
London ...2

and we are of course a point effectively worse off than KR as we regrettably have had too many shellackings.

Of course OTOH that if accurate would mean that a mere 2 points back on appeal would relegate HKR.

18???? You do realise you only get 2 for
a win don't you?????