Pre season friendlies mean nothing

Sorting out these troubles is what they do, that cant be done on the training paddock.

cant wait for cross vs odonnell.... a rematch of the flair ups they had in the NRL

agree about cording, think hes just going to be one of these solid players whos just does his job nothing specatcular.

not looking good for lawrence so prob wont make the saints game, shame because i think he would of started, gives someone an opportunity.

maybe ferres, chan, odonnell with ferguson/cording on the bench but think they may start with odonnell off the bench. would prob put taai in ahead of feruson and cording though.

I wonder if I was watching the same game? Do not agree at all with the comparison between lunt and fooey. Fooeys distribution was MUCH quicker than Lunts- we scored three quick tries after he came on as a result as widnes weren't quick enough to cope with it. We looked sharper AS A TEAM with him on the field and breaks were made as a result

Cannot understand this love in with Ta ai.

Most of us know nothing about him other than see him scoring two tries from five metres out on Youtube.

As far as i am concerned he is a squad player until he gets here and does something

Watch Fooey,he has to double pump to get the ball any distance from dummy half by which time the defence are up on us.

Errrr....Who was the guy in the fur trimmed parka doing the half time draw?

The three quick tries scored in the second half when we were 12-6 down were scored when Lunt had come back on for Faiumuand were directly as a result of Lunt speeding up play from dummy half

From where I was standing Fiaumu was slower at dummy half, he also threw two terrible forward passes from the PTB, but these pre-season friendly games are for exactly that; blasting the cob-webs away and getting back upto speed. And don't read this wrong, I don't have anything against Fiaumu, just my opinion.

You could see how rusty our attack was in the first half, putting the ball down a lot and inviting Widnes up to our goal line. Once a bit of fluidity came back and people switched on it was a different game and the pace came back.

It was good to see Jerry doing what he does best, a pack built around some big props making decent meters and Lunt playing a fantastic game.

I think we will see Faiumu start the first 20 mins and then Lunt do 60 with Faiumu sparing with who-ever plays 13.

Anybody any news on Bruno? He looked to be really struggling, I hope it's nothing too serious.

Two more thoughts on today -

Not sure are half backs will very creative but that's not the team nor style Anderson has built

Today without taai and lod - our last 2 close seasons marquee signings. If they both hit form... Dreams may come true.

Looked very rusty at the start and lots of mistakes, people blowing out of their whatsits - on both sides, but this is to be expected pre-season.

I'm sure the lads will benefit alot from the run out, not to fussed with this and we all know it's not how you start a season it's how you end it.

Lunt was clearly MOTM for me, a great 'new' signing

Last 10-15 mins we were trying a few attacking plays which is good to see.

Thing that did stand out with Robbo back at Scrum Half was that Broughy wasn't in the game half as much as used to seeing him and he didn't seem to have as much time as he used to do.

Might be cos its still early doors but if we are gonna do owt this year both halfs are gonna have to be on top form behind what I must say is a monster pack

I thought Lunt was outstanding - especially when he came back on in the 2nd half.

Brough & Robbo - work in progress.

Grix didn't have much to do at FB, he caught every high ball, and was always backing up whenever a forward looked as though he would break through.

The forwards were steady and fairly domineering.

Other backs were OK, with Leroy standing out.

The first half was dire. We didn't have a lot of the ball, but we lacked attacking ideas. However, as the match progressed, confidence seemed to grow.

Far from perfect, but still early days. As people have said, better to end the season in full flow rather than start like a house on fire and burn out.

Not dispirited at all, but quick improvement is needed if Saints aren't to repeat last week's performance.

Good to see Phil Joseph back in SL action. Another one whom I feel was treated badly by a certain previous coach!

Oh, and good to see Chris Thorman back in action - albeit in a different role.

true... i havent put him in my starting 17 team BUT with lawrence now injured it leaves me a space to fill so may give him a chance from the bench.

ferguson , fairbank and cording could fit in to the side nicely with odonnell,ferres and chan.

lets just hope lawrence is ok to play then the space is filled.