Walmsley in that first stint was absolutely tearing us apart, no surprise we scored our 2 tries after he went off, If we play again and Cooper is back that will help massively, jack hughes and Jason clark in the same side just doesn’t work! to many plodders last night, fair play to saints top performance by a top side. They still won’t want to have us in that semi though that’s for sure and I truly believe we’re the team that will have the biggest hope of stopping their 3 peat .

We’ve played Saints, Wigan and Catalan six times in total and won five of them. We packed go forward and bad decisions on the last tackle. Saints were better and we lost. I’d take 5/6 against though three teams every year.

The performance against the better sides isn’t an issue, it’s the intensity we play with against teams further down the league that needs to improve.

For all the stick Bentley has got on here at least he takes it to you and has a bit about him. Our pack are like choir boys.

Saints were very good last night.
Their wingers and centres ran the ball in really hard I. The early tackles as they always do. I thought we missed Charney in that department a little bit.
Off the back of that their pack dominated when Lees, Walmesley and Knowles were on the pitch and D Clark had nothing to work off. I noticed Knowles go off for a rest and it was like a switch was flicked and we started to play.
Their line speed was unbelievable. I watched the interviews when I got home and noticed that Woolfe highlighted Naquima. He was getting off the line and shutting us down to stop us from trying to go round them because trying to go through the middle was not working.

I was impressed with Lewis Dodd. Not only in attack but he also did well in defence. He could well be the second coming for them..

So I think saints were in top gear last night and credit to them but we were not far off. I noticed J Clark did not come back on so for a large chunk of the game our right edge was Thewlis, Mamo, Williams and Longstaff which is not the biggest or most experienced but stood up reasonably well.
I think this year is beyond us as I just can't see up playing like that 3 weeks in a row but you never know.

Must admit I know pricey has waxed lyrical re longstaff, he's not very big, even as a junior, it's a concern that he's on the small side for a back rower

He stood up really well last night though and didn't look out of place at all against good opposition.

If they were on the Warrington squad our fans would be saying the same.

Every defeat would be blamed on Price picking the 'big names' signed from the NRL over them.

My view is that our biggest problem is allowing teams ,not just Saints, to make too much ground in their sets of six then we are getting the ball back in the wrong part of the field & we are then struggling to get away from our line. Some of these length of the field campaigns are being helped by our own errors & indiscipline piggy backing opponents upfield. Apart from that ,they were two pretty evenly matched teams.
It was also noticeable how Saints 's cause was helped by their "invisible men" standing well off side at ptbs which the ref failed to see on many occasions. I've said it before & will say it again , winning sides know how to play the ref.

Thanks for the entertainment though to both teams.

Best team won, their line speed especially was incredible and they bashed us up in the forwards. 20 mins for Jason Clark? Awesome coaching in terms of subs usage again there Pricey.

Thought we would lose tonight, Saints owed us one.

No complaints, they dominated us up front and we couldn't match their intensity and line speed on the night.

Enjoyed the game, seemed a step up from games I have watched recently, was good to have a bit of atmosphere in the place too.

Not too concerned, we know we can match them when we are on our game and Williams looks to be improving every week which is a real positive.

Clark looks like he need to rest up, seems to have been carrying an injury for a while now, interesting to see what they do now it looks like Hughes will be missing for a while.

Very good game to watch last night I thought. It was a very similar game to the Challenge Cup final this year. We got off to our usual quick start and threatened to blow you away. A mistake from Welsby gave you the ball and you had it for 15 minutes and went in leading. Second half though you didn't get into the game at all and didn't threaten once. We're very difficult to beat when we play like we did in the second half.

Some interesting comparison between the two sides I thought. Your backs were lacking, they didn't bring the ball out at all well, Lineham is completely out of shape and such a poor player these days. Where is Ashton? Surely he offers more? Is he still injured? The halfback battle was key. Welsby did some great things and made a couple of errors, Dodd looks like he's played the game for years, what a talent. For you Williams had a quiet start, then exploded into action for 15 minutes and got you into the lead. Widdop never really seemed to be on his game, he looked very distracted by Bentley.

You missed Cooper in the pack, Hill didn't contribute to the game at all. Darryl Clark seemed to be injured too, I think you'd have been better playing Danny Walker throughout. We were missing Lomax, Fages, Amor and Thompson so quite balanced with you missing Cooper, Charnley and Davis?

Some interesting observations above.

Saints deserved it. They played (or allowed to play) too fast for us - particularly for the first 30 minutes.
I felt they made less mistakes than we did in the 2nd half and that was a key difference.

Dodd and Welsby are good, but were made to look better by the forwards having the upper hand.

Currie had his best game for a long time I thought.
Not just the try, but the try saving grounding, some decent runs and good tackling.
Pleased for him.

I think both sets of half backs showed given the opportunity they will cause some harm. Difficult for Williams / Widdop to get the upper hand given the battle was well and truly lost in the forwards.

We know we're good enough to beat Saints when it matters - though Saints are the better side, what we lack in comparison is consistency.

I don't think Fages is a loss for you, and Welsby looked more dangerous at 6 than Lomax, he needs to be playing 80 minutes every week.

We were also missing Austin, but like Fages I don't think it particularly weakens us. Not sure if Jase Clark was injured, only played the first 20 mins or so but again, first choice 17 wouldn't have beaten Saints last night such was their dominance up front.

Saints were at their best last night. We did struggle to make ground. I would guess that Jason must have picked up a knock.

Bateman Isn't the biggest, Nor is Currie and they manage. You don't have to be huge to be solid in D and break the line in attack. You just need to have a bit about you, which he does seem to.