Obviously the club have improved significantly from the arrival of Tony Smith.

Performances have undoubtedly picked up but what i'm interested in, is have there been any noticable changes in the style of play?

Yes we dont drop the ball as much and we dont concede needless penalties anymore.

apart from that its steady as she goes.

I agree with that.

I meant in terms of set plays and the style of play/tactics.

Quite the raconteur aren't you.

well if briers plays then all the set plays and set moves go to plan.

if he doesn't then we just run round like headless chickens with no ideas what so ever.

Not to much yet, as it takes time to implement new ideas and that. So i don't think we will see the finished article until Tony has a good pre-season under his belt with the players and has the people in the squad that he wants.

Injured players dont get played.

We have A line of defence now?

We also seem to run plays from a little deeper rather than the flat line that we always seemed to use

I am no expert, but could see that the intensity with the ball increased massively last week - maybe we have been building to this ?

We desperately need a kicking game - both close to the line and the downtown punt.

Briers did OK last Friday, but we need options here and someone who can kick a ball dead from within our own 40 (a la Wilkin / Sinfield ) to reset defence

I like Sullys kicking game

I have noticed that our forwards have started to pass the ball ,where as before it was off-load at every opportunity or plough up the middle it seems to have improved our attack imo keeping teams guessing !

Don't get me started on the total disaster that was M Sullivan's kicking game !!

On a par with Martin Gleeson's

i noticed we've stuck with riley at FB despite reardon being fully(i choose not to say fighting) fit for ages now.

Saints do this very, especially Graham.

we will see if anythings changed when we play huddersfield. we played very well against bradford but i think celtic would of beat them.

or even Rangers

No-one is a definite starter - if you don't perform, you don't play.

our defence appeared less fragile on friday despite letting in over 20 points, the sliding defence copes better and commitment to the tackle is greater.
in attack as previously stated without briers we flounder and revert back to unimaginative rugby.
riley looks much more confident, bridge copes well in the centres and monaghan has more space to think due to more options being available.

early days tho as bratfud are a poor yardstick, nice to bury them at the cow shed odsal thought.

Two words: Defensive structures.

or saints?