But his elbow wasn't out...not in the slightest. Pure accident, if they give penalties for that might as well stop playing.

When sky started showing it in slow motion, it looked suspicious, but at full pelt it's an accident

He clearly flicked it out at him. But it's just an instinctive reaction, trying to push off the tackler, nothing in it.

Aah Mr Saddened, we've been expecting you...

His arm didnt move toward him even in slo-mo. Funny how people see things differently

As you can see on here. Ambiguity.
So that's why I said, I'd no complaint if it was a penalty.
Very marginal and slightly harsh had it had been so, but another inch forward and the elbow catch might have been far worse for both players.

Did anyone hear the comment from Cummins when Makinson was penalised for a shoulder charge on Gidley? He said "it wasn't a shoulder charge, he tackled him with his shoulder"?

Morgan Smith and Harvey Livett outstanding for me and after given Evans stick recently he was much better tonight.

How can that squad perform at that level when we are missing top players through injury and international duty, its mind boggling!!

At the risk of accusations of being a 'Smith apologist', Friday's match does show how narrow is the gap between a solid winning performance and a defeat where the team looks clueless. A few passes stick, we get a good share of possession, we're not out-kicked so much that we play 60 minutes in our own half, these things have gone wrong for us often this season. There [iwas [/ia distinct improvement in our urgency and 'go forward', undoubtedly, but it's why I think we are still not far off returning to top-8 form ( probably too late for top-4).

It also shows how emotions can change during the course of the match. I can't have been the only one thinking "expletive deleted" when the kick off went out on the full? Or even more so when Russell went from dummy half in the 2nd (?) tackle and got bundled into touch?
But that is the redemptive nature of sport on occasion, Livett grows into the game, Russell gets the ball away to Evans, and we ALL feel happy.

You weren't very good on Friday IMO. Take away the points you scored from Saints playing like a Benidorm Select 17 and the scoreline would look very different. The real positive for you was that your pack was making metres. You were getting quick play the balls and motoring down the middle with ease. Everything else, you were pretty poor.

"Motoring down the middle with ease" ... will do for me. Praise indeed.

So we made metres down the middle, outpaced your defence, scored lots of tries, but we weren't very good? Got a bit of a "but apart from that what have the Romans ever done for us" vibe going on there Saddo!

Sanitation? Meanwhile over on their board according to Saddened apparently we were there for a complete 'taking' and it was all about them and how bad they were. I didn't want to interject but at 0 v 14 I thought that we were still in it, although I didn't think that we would turn it around as we did and to be fair to our co correspondent Saints made so many errors it was untrue.

The reason that I had a bit of hope was that their first try was a joke, we weren't over run territorially and had crossed their line twice and I thought their second score was against the 'run of play'. I wasn't in my usual spec and was sat in the East and thought yes the players aren't happy going behind, but, their heads hadn't dropped completely from where I was sat

I'm not sure the Romans ever made it to St Helens, which may explain their sanitation issue.
I see your point about not being too concerned about dropping behind but I had a similar feeling at half time against Hull.

"law and order" probably not then case closed....apud Romanos Divae Helenae.

I was a bit concerned on Friday, but, it wasn't like the away game (apart from the first try coming from a mistake) where we were doing absolutely naff all attack wise, holding 0-0 then in the 5 minutes before half time we were 18-0 and it was game over. Although there was a fleeting hope early in the second half on the attack at our end and we blew a great chance (Dwyer forward pass?).

Going in at half time 12-14 exceeded my expectations but when we did it was anyone's game and the way that Saints reacted must have been disappointing for saddened and his pals hope that trend continues