Quote: NickyKiss "I’ll give you HKR, I didn’t see it, so can’t comment but I’ve seen your other three games and the attack functioned as a result of your defence. Grinding the opposition down and picking them off in their 20. It isn’t traditional attacking rugby (that Saints are famed for) by any stretch (maybe at HKR it was try’s from all over the field, 60,70,80 metres, I don’t know).
We’ve had great points differences in the past and been much the same in terms of a style of play. You score your points through your defence IMO and one or two individuals bring a bit of magic. In terms of my post, I’m saying for us to replicate that is pretty much impossible. Saints clearly put so much time and energy in to practicing that, as well as Woolf coming up with his ‘energy saving’ tactics.'"
I actually think that you could cause us some real problems this season when we play. Any team with genuine pace could (if utilised correctly) get around our linespeed.
Wakefield caused us a whole host of problems, they kicked early, went wide early in the tackle count and were genuinely inventive and different. I can’t recall a team making as many line breaks and half breaks against us for a long time. We scrambled superbly otherwise they would have posted a few points against us.
Field in particular in broken field will definitely cause us problems. I agree with you that to take us on down the middle would be foolish.
I’m really looking forward to Saturdays game. If Wigan win (or even lose by a close score) I’ll hold my hands up and say they are a real threat this season. Toulouse game apart (and parts of the Hudds game) they’ve looked good this season so Saturdays game is a good barometer of where they are.
It will be really interesting to see how your pack goes against Catalans. We nullified them for the first game however we’ve got our own great pack anyway so it was fighting fire with fire.