Quote: supercat "Saints have been pushing their luck for a few weeks now and it seems their luck and energy has run out.'"
I think that's the crux of the issue there. We're 10 points clear in the league because we've played our strongest 17 every single round. With Walmsley out long term, the pack has been flogged and the whole squad is now at that 'Jeez I'm done' stage. They all need a couple of weeks off, but Holbrook's philosophy seems to not allow that. He's an inexperienced coach and he'll no doubt learn from this season. I can see us now stumbling through the 8s and exiting at the semi final, or getting Cas'd in the final.
Another area where experience is crucial and we have none is the halves. Richardson is a fantastic prospect but he's got to learn from today and Lomax has always been a headless chicken who is great at unlocking defenses, but useless at controlling a game. It was blatantly obvious what Catalans gameplan was and what it was always going to be. Throw the kitchen sink at us, blood and thunder, fast start. All Saints had to do to win that game was four, or even three drives and a kick for the first 20 minutes. But because their line speed was good, we just went wider and wider and were playing in the first 15 like it was the last 5 minutes of the final, just panicking. If Holbrook, Long and Lolesi can't work that out and fix it for the next time a team does that to us, I'd worry about them.
It'll be interesting to see what Warrington do now. Do you go all out to get 2nd or 3rd? Or just focus on the cup and take 4th? There is nothing between the top 4 this year, no stand out team at all. I fact, they're all awful. It'd be great for the sport if Catalans could win the cup and Wire/Cas the Grand Final. Wigan look ominously placed, out of the cup, benefiting from the week off and a lot of their players returning fresh for the 8s.