Ben Barba is to rugby what Ozil is to football, a luxury show pony. Went missing and his attempts on lineham were pitiful

Bet Saints wished they'd have celebrated winning the League Leaders Shield a little more now...

Don't think he even made contact, but it'll be all about intent....probably

Apart from a few pens, I thought Benny was massive tonight.

Good comparison that.

Style and no substance when it matters. A lack of bottle and work ethic. He’s taken Saints for a bit of a ride these past couple of months.

Agree there was hardly anything in it, plus if you watch, the Saints player on the floor put his arm around the leg of Westwood, he then lifted it catching him on the head slightly. it's hard to say his actions were malicious or not imo.

We’ve sniffed this out for weeks. We gave them a game at their place in the league and we showed we could mix it with them quite easily and they hadn’t realised we weren’t bothered by their qualities after that night. Saints did what we did in 2011 and just presumed they’d win at OT. We cemented our top four place and we’ve just managed the squad since then.

Saints have been quite average since July. That’s a long time to coast and when you coast it’s hard to get your form back. Saints could not handle Wire’s intensity tonight and they had big name players who should offer their wages for the week back to the fans.

Barba has been a joke for months. Total waste of a place in their team.

As for us, I’ll enjoy tonight but not gloat as winning a semifinal is nothing to celebrate. Again, I wouldn’t expect us to beat either Wigan or Cas at OT as they have shown they are consistently better sides than us over the course of the season... but you don’t need consistency in a one-off game. So you never know!

NOW THE WIRE!

It was a little bit mischievous the Westwood comment in truth but in the weekly rounds and with his record, I could’ve seen them having a look. They won’t ban him for a final though.

Benny will be ok

If Saints had won I reckon Percival would have a bit of a sweat on this week though, that bang on BMM was proper borderline

You sure about that petal?

Regards

Warrington Wolves

Hard to see any result other than a Wigan win in the final. Unless Cas are going to pull an unexpected performance out of the bag tomorrow, Wigan should take that at their place.

And while Warrington were deserved winners tonight, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that they played to nearly their best, while Saints were suffering the same mediocre form which - as others have pointed out - has been ongoing now since mid-season. Wigan will offer a lot more in attack than Saints did, and their defence out wide is far better than Saints who carry a non-tackling scrum half and a non-tackling fullback.


Saints have a big problem though. They cannot win when there is any pressure or expectation on them. The only big game they've won in the last seven years was the 2014 Grand Final, and notably, nobody expected them to do so and they were rank outsiders. In literally every single big game for the last seven years where Saints were expected to win, they've lost. That's the worst record of choking in my rugby league watching history of 30 years.

Saints have had too much their own way all season. Not enough adversity. Similiar to cas last season. Holbrook's gleeful face beaming down from the stands, everything wrapped up perfectly in a neat little package. Saints fans learnt a profound lesson tonight, a profound lesson.

you are joking right? Nearly our best! Did you watch Ratchford try to give you the game, along with Westwood, Hughes and G King? You were awful tonight...awful against a bang average Warrington team who tried their best to throw it at times. Did Roby and Barba even play?

I wonder how he’ll be thought of in the future now by the Saints fans. A few months back they were saying he was the best overseas player since the likes of Meninga or Lyon.