Basically I think we lost this because we lack any impact off the bench whereas Saints had tons of it. We did well for the first 25 mins but when Puletua, Faasavalu and Roby came on Saints grabbed the momentum and went from being behind to getting three tries before half time.

When those players went off we managed to get a grip again but when they returned for a second spell the scoreline blew out again.

We had no answer to the Saints go-forward at all, it was like watching the Bulls of old with the Saints playing the biff-ball power-game thanks to some big kiwis up the middle.

Our bench, though willing enough didn't have the same "impact".

We also seemed to get our tackling technique wrong versus the big kiwi lads, everyone went upstairs and got bumped off, someone needs to go low too.

Our brainless errors didn't help and we got punished everytime. Burgess and Menzies runs into touch were totally needless and you could see the danger well in advance. Langley ought to be shot for that stupid pass on the 20m line to nobody.

Now that's daft. I agree we did some high shots (though I find it hard to imagine someone of Eastmond's height could do a high shot to your bloke, though I suppose it's possible). We deserved the penalties against us that we were given. In fact, although almost every Saints fan around was worried about our discipline (ball and behaviour) under Potter (given his rep with Catalans), I was somewhat ashamed by our discipline at Odsal on Sunday (both ball and behaviour). I thought we were cr@p in the discipline department and I was waiting for a yellow, especially when I saw Cunningham called over following Eastmond's tackle. Had we been given a yellow, we would have deserved it. I hope Potter decides to take action but I'm not holding my breath since he isn't Daniel Anderson (unfortunately) and doesn't take that same honest approach to the game.

But besides the very real disciplinary problem we clearly had on Sunday, where I think Bradford and Saints differed was that our scrambling/goal line defence was better than yours and your guys were knackered towards the end of each half, hence our purple patches at the end of each half. Fas did his job very well, I thought, as did Tony P (unlike James, who played rubbish on Sunday, which is rare for him), and they along with Bryn and Paul Clough (fab season he is having) wore your forwards down.

Had Bradford been able to hold their line at the back end of each half then the score would have been a lot closer and could have gone either way. We both played total tosh for the first 20 of the second half. I've rarely seen such awful rugby in a Superleague game! But other than that I think we both undermined each other in different ways but we had the advantage of your guys tiring first and our scrambling/goal line defence being that bit better.

That was my first ever visit to Odsal and I really enjoyed the day. I had a great pre-match chat with a couple of Bulls fans in a local pub and I thought a lot of effort was put into the pre-match and half time entertainment. What a shoddy job we do by comparison! God, it was embarrassing to think of!! But I think Odsal is a great place; pity it couldn't be improved as is (like a roof on the terracing) rather than rebuilt in the way that is being planned as it's unique and has a real atmosphere. Still, I haven't had to sit/stand there in the pouring rain! So what do I know!

I thought we lost because they have better players than us.

Don't be ridiculous... some of our players are as good as theirs, some are nearly as good and some aren't anywhere near as good

Unlike following the Ryan Bailey legitimate tackle?

depends. can be excrutiating but depends. A couple of weeks rest can fix it

Your ribcage 'rippling' whilst driving though is perhaps one of the scariest things I've experienced

I think Saints should have had at least a warning though with next offence going in the bin. But I suspect they know how far to push with a specific referee and then ease off at that threshold.

Would that have made a difference?...maybe but probably not. Faasavalu and Puletua were immense and changed the momentum and in the end the class showed. Pity as we looked really good for the first 20

Mine always does that, unless its my stomach of course...

Perhaps I was watching a different tackle but the shot by Eastmond seemed really bad, like he was really trying to knock someones head off. I stand to be corrected if I see the incident again on video but at the time I thought it was a 100% red card.

Oh, hi by the way.

We can and have played beter this year. We can and have played worse. taking the average of the year so far, you'd have to say that the score was pretty much what you'd expect if both teams had an average day and so it came to pass. Saints ironically took the record off us of most away wins on the spin, and bearing in mind that that's their 16th (?) consecutive away win, it hardly counts as a disgrace. Plus we won at their place so it's a better record v. Saints than most teams will end up with.

Morrison's injury was a huge blow for us. And we will miss him v. Leeds too. This in turn disrupted the available substitutions and is one reason why we ran out of steam faster than Saints.

Until Morrison went off it was a very close contest, although we were in front, and both teams displayed some cracking rugby. The only disappointment was that we couldn't put more on the board when we had all that pressure, and I also couldn't believe that we took the two at that stage. Crazy decision. If we had scored then, or indeed if the disallowed 'try' had stood, it could well have ended up a different game -but we'll never know. personally, though, I thought that on the day, enough of Saints players displayed enough of their best form that they would have beaten us whatever we did, so I'm not too disappointed, they have the overall edge in playing personnel and we needed Morrison and everyone manning the pumps.

Deacon was much better than of late and some of the positional kicking (not all of it) was very good, though why he never tries to make any appreciable distance with penalty kicks to touch remains a mystery, it's almost as if he thinks the extra 20 yards we could get is unimportant.

It was a stifling hot day down on the pitch and it's no surprise that with Morrison off, menzies ended up struggling with the work he was asked to do but I thought he had another very good game. I was worried about Burgess though and can only think he was injured somewhere in the first half as he was spending a lot of time resting behind the play and seemed more shattered than what he was doing in the match would justify.

Whilst making allowances for Morrison's disappearance, and also it being Saints, still the biggest disappointment for me was the way we defended in Saints' purple patch from 25 minutes. Sure when they throw it about like that they will score some against anyone but not conceding points quite as cheaply as that. We have had these defensive collapses before, still at least this time it was a decent team piling on the points in rapido order, not some mugs.

No argument with the refereeing though I was disappointed with the sheer number of head shots and grapples from Saints, they need to cut this out from their game, half the team was at it. No arguments with the key decisions, presumably could have gone either way but the officials were near by and called what they saw so that's fine by me. I would call it a fine example of critical bits of luck, though, like our 40-20 attempt that took a sharp left to stay in play, and Saints' relieving kick for touch and a scrum on our 20, which instead took a sharp right and put Halley under pressure. Rub of the green etc.

No idea of the stats but off the top of my head I reckon both sides made a similar number of mistakes, and our ball security was OK overall, and our discipline was decent too.

Shame the game went simply true to form, but it did, and I'm not too disheartened. You need some things to go your way to beat Saints when you're in our position, and on this occasion they didn't.

Pretty fair assessment FA. IMO we just couldn't cope with their impact players and were hamstrung by injuries to at least two forwards.

You need to change your sig.

* edit *

Damn! Too late!

I know a Dave Smith.