Watching the game back last night, the sin binning was pivotal.

First, it was the correct decision. But in a match played at bewildering pace and in punishing conditions defending against saints with 12 men for 10 minutes must have been incredibly tough going.

I don't buy all this, their pack owned us they came out second half firing etc. Up to the hour mark they were struggling to get out of their half. After Hughes returned, Walmsley and Thompson ate up the yards against an exhausted defence.

The real problem remains the halves. Dominance has to be turned into points and at the moment we seem to be lacking the confidence that we can do it.

They actually started to get on top when knowles got put to hooker in the 2nd half, there was a noticeable shift, then as we all know they scored from an embarrassing forward pass.

A few points from me, 1 lama tasi should never play for us again, id rather have an inexperienced 16 yr old from the academy playing.

2nd wtf was that penalty against jason ckark for passing the ball out of thr tackle? No one was on him when he hit the floor, the arm was up when they did get to iim, he's allowed to offload it, even if he's not, the refs dont penalise that any more, its get the ball back and play it, another iffy refereeing point.

Well looks like Ashley Klein is the Aussie version of Thaler watching the Knights match.

Disappointed by the end result last night. Saints on top for a lot of the match and we struggled with go-forward.
Having said that, our defence was very solid in the first half.

Key moments -

Hughes sin bin was pivotal - just don't understand what the **** he was trying to do. (Not seen much criticism here regarding this)
Pass to Percival was made before the line and was a received at least a meter in front. Is it true that a forward pass only depends on the angle of the deliverers hands?
Patrons decision to kick on the 2nd. Should have played out the set with option of a drop attempt or kick.
Philbin poor play the ball.

I know people are saying Austin went missing and that's true but that'll always be the case when we only have a couple of game changers on the park. So fair play to Saints - they got their tactics right.

Half of me is pleased we put up a good fight but it confirmed my view about Saints being well ahead of the rest.

I'm with you on this and of course we have a decent half back coming in next season.
How I wish we had gone for Jackson Hastings. He is exactly what is required. He makes space for others. If Wigan get him it will make 'em dangerous.

FMC - I thought Tasi put some decent tackles in to be honest, but not so much go forward.

I'd have thought the better option for SP was to have Bennie on the bench (if he could control the pens....)

Hats off to Saints. Any team that can turn standing offside at ptb into an art form deserves to be top of the league. The officiating was pathetic once again.
Having said that ,for most of the game we matched them toe to toe & snuffed out the Saints attack that has done so much damage this season to most teams. As a forward battle it was a sight to behold from both teams & needed some special or fortunate plays to produce a winner.Was that Thompson who scored Saints second try ? Excellent effort.

I'll try to make this as straightforward as possible.

Yes

I thought there was very little impact from the bench players, Hopefully when BMM returns he will find some form.

The forward pass try gave them what they needed, which is quite embarassing for a team so far ahead of 2nd place. And against 12 men too. Thought our forwards near decimated theirs overall and St helens want to be thankful they have Tommy Makinson to make their metres.

I was at the game, so what did the sky team make of the forward pass.
Before the game i said to win we had to make no errors, how many of their points came from cock ups ?

Cummings tried to make out like the pass was fine because apparently it left the hands sidewards. Barrie was having non of it and said he doesn't care how it came out it went a mile forward. Every one of their points came from our errors. Sin binning. Mamo knock on. Philbin knock on.

And the winner is......................Ben Thaler.
We live to fight another day as the result counts for little. Hopefully, we'll get a fair crack of the whip in the games to come, when there's a lot more at stake than just two league points.

Agree, you battered us and we were really hanging on with all that goal line defence we had to do . . . .

Also agree that winning a game to go 8 clear is quite embarrassing for us.

Give over.

Your forwards decimated ours? Are you sure?

You were on top initially, the line speed was great, you were aggressive and we were disjointed with Smith departing so early. You had the majority of the ball but made very little ground and didn't threaten our line at all. At the end of the first half, a half you were well on top your completion was 83%. Ours was 63% or thereabouts but despite this you'd only made 60 more metres than we had.

You went in 4 nill up from penalties. Sean Long called it on Sky, you needed to be three scores up by then given how you'd controlled the general play. It was clear then that Saints were the likely winners.

For all the huff and puff in the first half, you were poor in the second. You aren't fit enough to go toe to toe with Saints like that and win. You can't keep it up for the 80 and as soon as we brought Thompson and Walmsley on towards the end the momentum shifted dramatically our way. The sin binning helped of course, but we were always going to be too strong there. Your pack was done and Walmsley and Thompson were busting holes everywhere with players flooding through in support as you back peddled.

How to fix it for Wire? Get fitter and be more disciplined is one idea. But team selection is key. You can't start games with deadbeats like Akuaola in the pack and you can't have two impact players in the same team. It leaves your front row woefully exposed when Saints had four tireless workhorse props, all of whom can do an hour with ease and the likes of LMS, Knowles, Peyroux and Lees who can do the 80. Eventually there will come a point where you just collapse. Have Clark at loose and one impact player on the bench and three big forwards that can put in a shift not just fat comedy impact players, academy players if they have to be, or use old Westwood and tell him to not give penalties away.

Walmsley & Thompson 252 metres
Hill & Cooper 153 metres

You got 99 problems but an impact prop ain't one.

Hey come on now...you can't deny a fella his kabab after a night out.

St Helens under 19s have beaten Warrington 82-16

Nonsense, your only forward who’s metres gained were respectable was Hill with 116. The rest were absolutely appalling, Cooper with 37 metres was particularly bad. Walmsley and Thompson tore you to shreds, particularly in the last 20 minutes.

Your defence was exhausted because the team had played at an intensity they couldn’t maintain for the full game. Your intensity and line speed in that first half was outstanding and had you been able to maintain for the full 80 you might well have won. Instead the whole team was running on empty and were only 6 points ahead which was never going to be enough.

Warrington's 4 props made a grand total of 205 metres, Saints 4 props made a grand total of 395 metres thats almost double.

Warrington's 4 props made a grand total of 11 missed tackles, Saints 4 props made a grand total of 3 missed tackles.

Warrington's 4 props made a grand total of 3 tackle busts, Saints 4 props made a grand total of 9 tackle busts.

So over the full 80 mins guess who bossed who in that front row battle, because Warrington's props looked completely gassed in the last 15 mins, and that was why Clark + Austin couldn't get on the front foot to challenge.

Lmao. “Decimated” us.

They’re incredible stats when you consider we had no recognised hooker on the pitch.

Can't argue with anything Saints are saying, they have big solid forwards who play long minutes.......we don't. We are seriously lacking another solid big ass prop which everybody knows. I would love to Keep Akouala and i really liked him at loose for us. Jason Clark is defensively good but his attack is not great and i really like Davis but he's small even for a second rower and can't punch his way through tackles or even make yards after impact. Really hope we can sign a decent Forward for next year.

Where we saints suffered was in having no recognised hooker to make better use of that pack advantage.

Put the best hooker in SL back into the Saints side and the damage would have been far worse.

To me it looks like ratchford is the only hope for Warrington to add some much needed creativity .