Plenty of effort but we struggled to break down the St Helens defence at times tonight. Too often we resorted to a short flat pass to try and break through instead of trying to confuse Saints with several runners.

I thought we had a couple of questionable tries given against us in the 1st half and that took the game beyond us.

Kicking game was pretty poor once again. Ainscough and Platt were excellent, that partnership is improving each game. Platt in particular had a stormer and made some big tackles and looked the most likely to break for us.

Not too disheartened. Lost by 12 in the end - the two tries that never were for Saints in the first half. We lack a killer edge in attack, we should have done more when Saints were down to 11, we didn't even think about going wide to stretch the defence.
Thought Sykes sinbinning was harsh and some of Silverwood's calls verged on bewildering at times, but even up against it, they kept trying. I went expecting a tonking as usual, so not too unhappy!

That's just about what I was going to post.

Never gave up, last season we'd have let the frustation take over and that would have turned into a tonking.


losing by 2 scores to Saints isn't bad, especially when there were 2 dubious saints tries.

I'll also add that Ainscough was great in attack today.

Briggs kicking for the 20's was as terrible as Herbert's for the first team.

Lets hope Potter works on it all next week.

Were Saints sinbinnings any less dubious than the Bulls one.

We where all warned that the CEO's had asked for grapple tackles to be clamped down on. That's what we got tonight.

All three were poor calls from Silverwood IMO as was the 11-5 penalty count in your favour.

This is the big problem for me rather than whether a couple of team selections should have been different. Yes kicking could've been better and some decision making on their line but giving away cheap penalties (esp at the end of their sets) is suicidal. Were we getting pinged for markers not being square again?

I do want to see Briggs back in the side but we're just setting the guy up for a fall if we think he's going to change the team one game in. In all likelihood he's going to take 2-3 weeks to get up to speed in the team.

Its not good having a poor away form but making Odsal a fortress again will get us in the top 8 by itself.

From T&A:

"They were not helped, though, by the absence of Langley, who looked to be carrying an injury as he went off."

Not good if he has picked up an injury.

Few words , not too dissapointed about the results and some players worked really hard, but the ref tonight was shocking, and on that note so was the linesmen!! they give a kick that went 2 yards wide!

I thought we played quite well agianst 14 men last night. The first 10 minutes we were awesome. We just need to stop trying to get the ball out of tackles in impossible positions. We've certainly improved since the Huddersfield game anyway. I thought it was a pretty even game, we had a try disallowed, Foster 1st and Wellens 1st tries shouldnt have been given, and Ah Van could of gone in for his 2nd if Sykes would have give him the ball at the end, but he tried an impossible inside pass with 3 defenders near him, his decision making at times his shocking. Ainscough as been an absoulute bargain for us, he's a crisp finisher, and he has been brilliant under the high ball and in defence. I just think were lacking a player who has that bit of class, can turn a game, and can make a break from nothing. I wonder if Saints will let us have Pryce now, Gaskell and Lomax looks a brilliant partnership, and Eastmond can play again now and they also have Gary Wheeler.

Nope!

Although if he's going to spend the whole season on the physio's bench then we may well change our minds!

The more I see people say this, the more I reckon I was watching a completely different game. Briggs was decent for the first thirty minute and complete gash for the remaining 50 minutes.

Class??? You and I have differing opinions of class then.

Briggs was GOOD in our first game against Leeds, however Class is like Robbie Paul who was class for the whole 80 and did magical things. Menzies is class, his awareness is second to none. Briggs is not class, he is a good player though.