Just watching the replay and my heart stopped when I heard that 11 of the 17 for us were 30+. Can anyone help me out and shw me a younger team that still would of done just as well or shouldn't I be worrying. Also when Eddie said tha he said this year could be do or die for wire because of the age.

He actually said 11 out of the 19, and two of them (Solomona and Carvell) weren't in the 17.

Whichever one of them said that was wrong - 9 of the 17 were 30+ not 11. You could swap a couple of them out and expect a similar performance, probably not as good but still good enough I reckon - Bridge when fit at centre and Ratchford at full back, Harrison in the 2nd row (people keep saying he could be a prop, maybe instead of Wood?), and on a good day Dwyer for Higham. It wouldn't be as good, you would miss the tackling in the 2nd row and Hodgsons' creativity, but still an excellent squad with only 6 players 30+.

I think we need to be keeping an eye on props in case one of Morley, Carvell and Wood decide to retire in the near future, as that seems to be the one position we are short on as far as young talent goes. I hope they stay and carry on being as great as they are, but it's not going to last forever and it could happen sooner than we are expecting.

EDIT: 11 of the 19 makes sense, but in the end we didn't play 2 of them and still won comfortably.

I thought Saints were awful last night, they need a serious shake up. Hohaia is awful and offers nothing. Lomax didn't do anything, though I understand it must be tough behind a beaten pack. Like others have said their tactics were just run into Myler really and his defence was terrific. My one surprise about Saints was how anonymous Tony Puletua wasbecause he's usually quality especially against us.

Oh, and I still reckon that Joel Monaghan's try should have been given (I thought he took the ball off him before he hit the floor) and even Briers' as I thought McCarthy knocked it backwards, but that's probably just me being biased.

I'd forgotten about that, wasn't that the one where the replay showed he knocked it back over his shoulder? I know it's more complicated because of the way your hands are facing/moving/whatever, but I don't think it is possible to knock it forward in any way and have it travel backwards over your shoulder.

I suppose it depends on trajectory.

However, IMO both Monas bros' tries should have stood, as should Briers'.

I agree with you on the first one, but McCarthy knocked the ball forwards, no argument.

I thought they were outstanding last night. Hodgson, Briers, Myler, Waterhouse and Westwood the standouts for me, although the whole 17 played well, Atkins was quiet for his standards IMO (but not by any means poor). Great all round performance. Lets hope this is the start of a big two months, and Sir Tony has timed the end of season run in to perfection!!

I'll check McCarthy's on the replay as well then, as it seemed clear to me last night but people are disagreeing, so maybe I was wrong. It definitely travelled backwards though, for what that's worth.

It's possible to knock it forwards, then because you are running quicker than the ball is travelling, run underneath the ball. Therefore at first glance it looks like it's gone back over your shoulder but actually the ball is still travelling forwards.

It definitely didn't travel backwards.

Sorry, I'll rephrase that - I meant it definitely travelled backwards relative to McCarthy, and I'm aware this means very little. You couldn't see the ground on the Sky replays so I don't know how it was travelling relative to the ground.

Like I said, I'll check it again, as it seemed clear to me last night but it could be I was wrong and getting caught up in beating Saints again

Lomax wasn't allowed to do anything. He's there danger man in the middle of the park and normally makes alot of breaks with support around him which leads to alot of Saints trys. But everytime he got the ball he was closed down very quickly.

Defense won us that game last night. Simply awesome.

Saints were predictable one out rugby as they didn't really have a recognised half back of any note. Running puletua at briers all night didn't work at all & shouldn't be a game plan.They're best form of progress up the field was off the back of our brain farts.

Referee had a shocker. The two obvious disallowed tries were correct. If it's the rule that you jump from in goal and catch the ball to defuse a bomb then fair enough, if you have to land then it was a try as monaghan had the ball when both layers touched grass. The penalty for a forward pass in the second half just because he ed up one for Saints was laughable.

Atkins passing was off but he'll get more right than he gets wrong. morley was incredible, and Micky higham was by far the best hooker on the pitch.

Lomax always looks great against weak teams but has never impressed against a real on-form top defence. He just doesn't have the attributes to ever be a top #7 and in our current utterly one-dimensional setup and with Hohaia alongside him he has no chance against any top side. We need 2 new halves and Lomax at #1 for me, or at the very least someone who can move a team around and kick a damned rugby ball alongside him to cover for his deficiencies.