I mean, feel free. He, Vaughan, Fitzgibbon and Musgrove are clearly of the size/power needed to keep us competitive in a game. Crowther, Russell and Holroyd (appreciating he didn't play) remain a worry for me - they're not big enough to cause the opposition a problem.

I thought we rotated the forwards better last night so that we weren't left with a period in the middle of the game where the opposition could dominate us. Releasing a fresh Philbin for that last quarter worked well and he made some good metres. Vaughan has progressed really well since the early part of the season; he is a handful and looks like he is enjoying himself.


Before I get accused of being a happy clapper after one win against a poor Saints team, we need to keep working hard on the defence on both wings as it was poor again yesterday. King and Ashton both need a bollocking for the tries Saints scored down their flank in the first half - both preventable. We are also terrible at dealing with a half decent kick off, it kept costing us.

A real backs to the wall performance last night, well done to all. We will surely need another in the semi final.

No matter how bad we are Saints will always be worse under Wellens. He's turned a once great club into an absolute shambles. 7 in a row.

This...

I said to my mate after the 1st try where Ashton rushed out that he needed to trust his centre/the defensive process, then blow me down, for the Percival try he puts his trust in King who just backs off & stains stroll in!


Needs sorting, and whilst we're at it, our goal line defence could be a lot more dominant too.

I don't think King is fit, seemed to pull up when Percival went round him, groin I think.

 There?s a bit of work to be done with Sneyd defensively. The first he is caught well to tight to Fitzgibbon and not quick enough to allow King to slide, and the second he is well in advance of the line, then goes in reverse. Taking nothing away from Percival, great footwork, and King has to do better, but it?s definitely a trust issue on that side. 

Agreed Sneyds defence is causing a bit of an issue on that side. Need a dominant defence next week in order to scrape a 0-0 draw 

1st time I have been able to post in a long time as there seems to be an issue with my personal ipad/laptop/phone. This from a works laptop!
Incredible teamwork last night whatever the weaknesses in the Saints camp.
Given all the disruptions to our halfbacks and backline all season I wasn't surprised that we had struggled in attack.
Last night I thought that Sneyd looked like he was settled and was producing the goods from hand as well as foot.
The coaches had clearly targeted the Right hand Saints edge, hence the first pass going to our right before changing the point of attack to the left.
I thought Sneyd would have caused a lot more damage in the second half...
I really thought we would lose without Sneyd but fair play to the team a magnificent backs to the wall performance.
Wilkin pre match slating our inability to deal with pressure really came back to bite him, and to see him virtually in tears at the end blaming the ref was karma in all its glory.
Hope they keep "Wello" for a couple more years at least.
The next few weeks are going to be very difficult but if the team put in that sort of effort we shouldn't complain too much!

Ps did anyone else read the BBC match report talking about Saints' injury issues. Only Feldt and the human Blimp Hurrell  and the young lad missing through injury? And they wouldn't play Hurrell and Robertson together anyway?

PPS have we dodged a bullet with LEES?

Only down side to last nights victory was the injuries and HIA's which will come at quite a cost. Sneyd out for several weeks i presume. Ashton will miss the Wigan game which will cost us at least 1 try in a game as he is that prolific. Fitzgibbon issue with a finger? possibly out or maybe strapped up for Wigan. Add that to Williams, Hayes, Wrench, Lindop already out. Are we already accepting that next week would be a miracle? 
What was good to see from me was that when Sneyd went off we actually did rather well with Walker and Currie at half backs. We kind of threw the text book out of the window and threw the ball around a bit which caused Saints more problems that they expected. 

I see Sky have their new favourite in Whitby as well.