So back to more pressing issues, away at saints, we where hammered 50-0 last time at their ground.

How would you lie us to line up???

James Donaldson, Brett Kearney, Adam Sidlow, Tom Olbison, Luke Gale, Elliot Kear, Nick Scruton, John Bateman, Heath L’Estrange, C, Michael Platt, Keith Lulia, Oliver Roberts, Adam O’Brien, Matt Diskin, C, Danny Addy, Jamie Langley, Jacob Fairbank, Ben Evans, Matty Blythe

vs

Wellens, Turner, Soliola, Meli, Hohaia, Lomax, Roby, LMS, Puletua, Wilkin, Manu, Jones, Makinson, Walmsley, Hand, Percival, Thompson, Howarth, O'Brien

James Donaldson, Brett Kearney, Adam Sidlow, Tom Olbison, Luke Gale, Elliot Kear, Nick Scruton, John Bateman, Heath L’Estrange, C, Michael Platt, Keith Lulia, Oliver Roberts, Adam O’Brien, Matt Diskin, C, Danny Addy, Jamie Langley, Jacob Fairbank, Ben Evans, Matty Blythe

1. Kearney
2. Kear
3. Lulia
4. Platt
5. Blythe
6. Addy
7. Gale
8. Sidlow
9. Heath
10. Scruton
11. Langley
12. Bateman
13. Donaldson

Interchange

O’Brien
Fairbank
Evans
Olbison

Would rather Roberts plays some part against Widnes, not saints we really need our strongest team, and no silly errors least with sammut, walker and whitehead all missing we should at least stop making silly errors and missing tackles.

Would like something like that

EDIT: didnt realise we where missing Foster also

1. Kearney
2. Kear
3. Lulia
4. Blythe
5. Platt
6. Gale
7. Addy
8. Scruton
9. L'estrange
10. Sidlow
11. Olbison
12. Donaldson
13. Langley

14. Fairbank
15. Bateman
16. Evans
17. Diskin

I'd be tempted to start Langley at 13 this weekend, just to improve the defence. When we need to change things up, Bateman can come on at 13, or move Donno to 13

Kearney to stay at full back for me, this should improve the attack into the backs. If he's in the middle, we will never attempt to use Lulia or Blythe

Looking at the squad, this is not a poor side, we just need to minimise the errors and keep our discipline!

1. Kearney
2. Kear
3. Blythe
4. Lulia
5. Platt
6. Addy
7. Gale
8. Scruton
9. L'Estrange
10. Langley
11. Bateman
12. Donaldson
13. Diskin

14. O'Brien
15. Evans
16. Fairbank
17. Roberts

I'd rather give Roberts his debut this week in a match where the odds are massivley stacked against us. Saints are on fire atm. Widnes is more of a must win in my eyes and we can't afford to give young players their debut then. Plus it's cup weekend next week so we may get one or two back the week after against Widnes.

And widnes are played wigan so thats a bonus for us

Reallyhttp://www.saintsrlfc.com/resultsrl

1 win in 8?

I mean't the fact that they have got a lot of injuries (getting players back though) and are still battling with the bigger sides. Performance wise they are on fire or have you not watched/listened to their previous few games?

Edited for accuracy.

Now they know how we felt when we first got onto the greasy pole. They will find it hard to stop the slide, and that's regardless of whether they win or lose to us.

And no, performance wise I think they are comparable to us.

I tipped saints to be a front runner this season, how wrong was I.

They are in the same boat as us 1 win in 7 but they can score more points, which our defence will need to stop. Sammut is a big loss but we rely too much on him and when he makes a mistake our heads go down, without him Gale may be more a of leader and be able to organise.

This is the best effort to justify a stupid comment I have ever seen!! lol In fact, i'll give you a like for that!

I agree with FA, they are in a bigger rut than us, and there will be more pressure on them to perform. Not sure if Lomax will play, I think the result will depend on him. Bulls need to play out their sets and stop trying to score on every play.

Need to build pressure, and try and get repeat sets in their half, rush the play and force an error we will have to be on fire to get a result, as i fear Lomax will be playing.

Instead of panicking when we get to the 5th tackle and cant score.

Agree with that, back to basics, and no penalties!

Wonder if we're planning on using l'estrange at standoff. Seems odd to name all three hookers in 19. Unless we're planning on using them all in some form would have one would have made more sense for one to have been left out and wood included.

In regards to Roberts, he looks exceptionally skinny for a forward. He maybe ripping it up in the U19's, but it's a big step up to first team. He doesn't look physically ready to take on Manu, Puletua etc

But the coach knows more than me. Doubt we will see him play though.

Round 12

Bradford Bulls 6 - 36 Wigan Warriors
St Helens 12 - 22 Catalan Dragons

Challenge Cup Round 4

Rochdale Hornets 10 - 70 Bradford Bulls
Hull KR 26 - 18 St Helens

Round 13

Warrington Wolves 32 - 4 Bradford Bulls
London Broncos 21 - 14 St Helens

Round 14

Bradford Bulls 22 - 42 Leeds Rhinos
St Helens 28 - 35 Widnes Vikings

Challenge Cup Round 5

London Broncos 25 - 16 Bradford Bulls

Round 15

Salford City Reds 7 - 28 Bradford Bulls
Leeds Rhinos 22 - 30 St Helens

Round 16 - Magic Weekend

Bradford Bulls 6 - 42 Huddersfield Giants
St Helens 22 - 48 Warrington Wolves

Round 17

Hull KR 28 - 18 Bradford Bulls
Huddersfield Giants 25 - 16 St Helens


They are the results from Round 12 onwards. Yes I was wrong about the results. I can admit that I was wrong about that. 1 in 7 for both teams. Our win came against Salford (who at the time had a new-ish coach and have probably the second worse squad in the league), St Helens win came against the current Champions and World Champions Leeds (who at the time were on an unbeaten run of 7 league games and only had two key injuries in Peacock and Ablett).

For the past 3 weeks St Helens have been on television for all to see. They went behind early doors against Leeds (16-0 down in the first 25 minutes) but came back with an outstanding performance to beat them 30-22. They went down early to a near full strength Warrington (12-0 down) then fought back with sbut ome quality rugby league before the class of Warrington showed and took the game away from the young Saints side. Then came Huddersfield last weekend (18-0 down after 32 minutes) yet managed to fight back and give the Giants a scare before the class of Brough and the size of the Giants finally got them home.

Now onto us the Bradford Bulls. We started our last 3 weeks at Salford (2nd bottom with the highest points difference against). We went 7-6 down after gifting Salford possession with a number of mistakes. Thankfully we picked our game up enough to post a few more tries and beat Salford (2nd from bottom if not bottom at the time) 28-7. Next game for us was Huddersfield at the Magic Weekend. We were shocking, appauling, I could go on describing it but you get the picture. Missed tackles galore and we never looked like scoring a try until Foster got on the end of a Kear tap back. It was a complete joke of a performance. Hull KR last week, played some good rugby to get in front with Sammut (the man who we rely on) but lost 28-18 thanks to ill disipline and missed tackles. We managed to hold out till around the 70 minute mark (please correct me if I'm wrong) but then gave away 2 tries. The one from the kick-off maybe couldn't be helped but the one before was a result of a poor kick on our behalf.

The point I'm trying to make is although we are both 1 from 7, the St Helens side has performed better on the pitch than us against better sides. I know as a player that when you face adversity (as Saints and Bulls have been doing) then to perform well and still lose or beat one big team can lift you. The Bulls got hammered they won't be lifted, losing players left right and centre and will be demoralized. The Saints side will have looked at their last few performances and think we have done well, but still a little disappointed to lose. That is why I can only see Saints winning by 18 plus points. Sorry for the long post, I do respect all your opinions but don't think I'm stupid for giving mine. I am only trying to share what I see and interpret. I hope I'm wrong and the Bulls win of course but I can't see it.