On the whole it wasn't a bad performance I thought. We had spells when we looked useful and played some good Rugby, I particularly enjoyed the tries from the Menzies break and the lovely bit of centre play by Nero for Semi's try. But those silly errors in the 1st half cost us dear and probably took the game away from us.

I thought Burgess looked a little flat which was a problem because we struggled to compete with Saints big men. We still lack that impact prop that we can bring on from the bench to lift the side like Maurie and Puletua did for Saints.

On a positive note I thought Deacon showed glimpses of his old self without ever fully imposing himself on the game. I thought Nero carried on his excellent form and looks to have formed a dangerous partnership with Semi.

I don't think we learnt anything we didn't already know though today. If you make mistakes against a Saints team who in form, then you're unlikely to come out on top. It is hard to look past Saints for the trophies this year from what I have seen so far.

The lads now have to find some energy for the short turnaround against Leeds on Friday. Looks likely that we will be without Rinaldi and Morrison for that match too. With only one hooker available we will need top class performances from BJ and Deacon if we're to compete.

Yep, thats what I just said!

What's up with them? I wondered why Morrison didn't come back on.

Indeed but judging by the times.. I'd already typed it.



So don't steal my thoughts ok?

Well I don't have the medical knowledge of Stevo but Rinaldi was a leg injury of some sort but he was walking on it by the end albeit struggling. He didn't look like someone who could play on Fri though. Morrison looked to be holding his ribs?

Were you as close as the IGJ.

It was allabout the bench for me today:

Roby v Rinaldi
Faasavalu v Kopczak
Puletua v Worrincy
Clough v Whitehead

The biggest difference between the two sides was the periods when Saints could bring on a new international front row whereas we had youngsters (whose time will come) and a journeyman French hooked who suddenly looked well out of his depth.


However, that apart our pack bossed the first half hour, our back line looked solid (other than Menzies who had a bit of an off day), Deacs had his best game in months and I do think that Whitehead is looking really quite useful. But not to be today....

The ref is usually closer than me but there are often times when I can see that he's got something wrong.

Nope, but I obviously have eyes.

So does the IGJ who was a hell of a lot closer.

Well let's settle this, which step were you stood on? Red.. which step were you stood on?

I thought it wasn't a try but the man who mattered who was a lot closer than both of us did.