On the bright side the academy had a good win showing some really good prospects for the future. Well done lads.

Strange comment. I was under the impression that the salary cap was there to introduce level playing field as well as stopping clubs going bust.

Saints ain't the team campaigning to abolish the cap and introduce marquee player rules. We believe the future of the game is to Develop youth not to sign 17 superstars from all over the world.


We also didn't vote to scrap the u21s to save £30k a year like Salford.

Hi Chaps Leigh fan here.

I thought it was a great game and a fantastic advert for Super League,

Harrison Hansen was best player on the pitch tonight and ran himself into the ground for 80 mins and looks to be by far your best signing, young Johnson on the wing also showed up well and reminds me of Jason Robinson.

I thought the obvious poor tactic from Noble was the consistent "drop off" pass from the first receiver, the attacking line just looked disjointed and never looked like threatening the Widnes edges.

I Think you will come good though, I like the Doc, I think you threw the ball about much slicker when Sean Long was with you though.

Chins up, your in a much better state than this time last year!

I watched the game on the box last night and it to me is very apparent that we look shockingly low on attacking set plays (maybe due to chase being out but you'd have thought that Theo would be up to speed on them being the first deputy for them both) Smith's drop off ball is so telegraphed it's not that far removed from a hospital ball.

While I'm not a fan of him being in the squad for reasons I've stated before if your going to have someone with the pace of Johnson then you need to utilise his speed, chips over the top must surely be a good option occasionally.

We need to involve Mullaney more in attack ala Patton, we saw with his footwork for Theo's try that he has no little skill in areas other than at the back.

Howarth I'm sorry is now just getting found out, Lee (while most like me didn't see him as the best option to buy in at hooker) offers so much more skill a ruck speed, either try ad get Lee to play 80 minutes or bring one of the younger kids through. And the flop in the first half was the laziest piece of rugby I've seen in an age.

A couple of positives for me was how good Walton looked when he played in the second row, think if ever needed he'd make an excellent #13 and that S'au looks to have trimmed down from the first game and looked eager for the ball, just hope his shoulder injury is nothing serious.

I'm just hoping that Rapira and S'au are fit for next Friday as we are starting to look seriously light on bodies.

yeah we'd just lost mate - doh !!!

Hello Leigh fan.

All very fair comments. Hopefully, the lack of attacking flair is mostly a timing issue, and will improve as the players get used to each other. In that respect, the chopping and changing of the team due to injuries can't be helping. Things are getting pretty bad on that front, and we're having to play players from other clubs who are currently under treatment for a serious eye injury. According to photo and caption in the print edition of this week's Advertiser, Sean Gleeson took a big hit off Saints last week while playing for Salford.

Will we have anyone fit for Friday? Sa’u, Rapira, Mullaney, Tasi, Howarth and Hansen all looked like they picked up injuries of some form or other. Hopefully none of them are too serious as we’re pretty light on numbers as it is.

On reflection of last night we did ok in the middle, our pack was on top for large parts of the game, but we looked clueless in attack. There was no understanding at all between the half backs and for all Theo’s effort, scrambling around, backing up and picking up loose balls etc he didn’t push the team around the park enough - saying that he was the miles better than Smith. Tim Smith was poor again and his kicking game was woeful. Greg Johnson kept us in the game single handily in the first half with 3 try saving tackles and an absolutely outstanding individual try. Hansen ran his blood to water and put in some huge hits, but what disappointed me is, when he put a huge hit on someone in the first half the fans lifted, but the players didn’t respond at all, a hit like that should have sent shockwaves around the rest of the team and got them pumped, it didn’t! And if anyone needed anymore reason as to why I don’t think Howarth is up to it, look no further than yesterday, he was awful! Scapegoat? Nah he’s just crap. Morley and Tasi were good and I like the look of Mullaney. Williams was busy and got through plenty of work I just think we need a little bit more quality. Another major plus was Jason Walton, he was outstanding when he came on.

Anyway – we’ll get there, I think. We need Chase back asap, difficult to say I know, but I think we could have won the game if Chase was playing yesterday.

The only excitement of the first half - apart from the other try - and the individual try from Johnson,of an attacking piece of play,was the kick by Mullaney,which saw Johnson do a startling impression of a speeding bullet,which resulted in the GLDO.
The tactic was never repeated in the second half - which,of course,was lost.

We managed to lose all the second halfs last year when Stu Howarth was not around to be the scapegoat.

Poor display notwithstanding some atrocious decision making by Silverwood.

Oh right, so did the salary cap prevent Bradford going into admin and Salford and London very nearly going bust but for the intervention of new owners?

'Level playing field'. In other words a status quo. The salary caps works really well when a star studded squad (Leeds) can sign a would be challengers best player (Briscoe).

In your own words 'strange comment'

Biggest disappointment has to be Smith. He looks completely out of his depth and I really cant see him getting any better when Chase returns with his 'unpredictable' plays. Mullaney looks good, S'au looked unfit. It really says a lot when Jason Walton looked the most dangerous player in the team. All in all, Widnes looked like a TEAM, Salford didn't!!!!!!

Good to see some sensible posts from opposition fans.

Ok where do I start. Silverwood had a poor game, some of his decisions left me absolutely baffled. How did you manage to adjudge the Salford player (at the end of the first half) had obstructed an on rushing Widnes defender when he was facing his own sticks and had his back to them? If you're penalising for that, you could spend half the game giving penalities. How many times was he going to allow Theo Fages to receive a high tackle? The worst for me though was their final try, Phil Joseph appeared tackled and then Kevin Brown didnt look to get the ball down. If they did fair enough, but why didnt he go to the video screen? He did for Theo's try.

Stuart Howarth and Danny Williams both not Super League players in a month of Sunday's. I dont care how hard they try and the effort they put in, their both just not good enough. Williams I accept is in the squad due to injuries, yet Howarth is appearing to become a regular in the 17. Why we loaned Gareth Owen out and kept this lad on I'll never know.

Greg Johnson, Harrison Hansen, Theo Fages and Jason Walton were all outstanding.

Our defence is concerning me. We've got some great individual defenders, yet as a unit we're still a long way from where we need to be. I understand this will come with time.

Attacking wise we were predictable and boring. It was only when Theo began to play off the cuff (which he should always be doing - let Smith do the organising) that we started breaking the Widnes line. To many times the players around Smith didnt know what they were doing and we either dropped the ball, took it flat or Smith ended up getting wrapped by Widnes. Again, I think it's a time issue and the longer we give it the better it will become. Lets not forget Rangi is a crucial part the machine we worked hard on in training.

Widnes were decent, but that's it. I was impressed with their effort but they just do the basics right. I still felt we were the better team last night (even with our injuries) but I hope they push for a top 8 spot.

If Chase was fit for next week, who would you drop Fages or Smith?

The salary cap is a good thing, you will find no arguments with me on that one. However, it has not been reviewed for around eight years and a number of clubs, yourselves included, would be able to work under a higher cap without putting the clubs at risk. Also, it's all well and good developing youth, however a few years down the line some of that youth will the talented superstars of the day. Do you carry on offering them less money than they can get elsewhere and bank on loyalty, watching a slow drip of talent moving to Union where they can earn more cash, or do you look at ways of keeping that talent in the game without putting the clubs in financial risk? Whether the marquee signing is the way to go, or whether there's another way around it, is up for sensible discussion and hopefully the clubs will discuss it sensibly. Dismissing it so bluntly gets us nowhere.

As for the U21s, I think it should have been kept as well, but I do wonder if you've used it as a rod against any other club, or if it's just convenient to use in your blind rage and hatred towards Koukash.



Nowt to do with him being a scapegoat, he just really isn't good enough.



We really, really weren't.

Good question. I would still stick with Smith though. Most of what we've worked on in pre-season would have involved both Smith and Chase and whilst Theo was excellent, I would demote him to the bench in place of the untouchable Howarth.

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I disagree.