I definitely think losing Leuluai and Powell hurts our defensive organisation - despite the win on Friday our line had more holes in it than Swiss cheese. A better attacking side than Warrington would have scored more points. Plus as individuals Leuluai and Powell are two of the strongest defenders in the league.

Both superb defenders.

I have to admit that I like the thought of Sironen or Matautia running at Smith however on Friday it was noticeable how our attack dropped when Lomax went off. We looked devoid of ideas and given we may have someone playing FB on Saturday for the first time this season then our spine is completely different.

It may well be that Wigan don’t need to worry about defending as much as they think.

It’s tough to say what Saints struggles on Friday were down to. Was it the players having an eye on this weekend? It was it the disruption caused by the loss of Lomax? I’d suggest it was a mixture of both. That mean this weekend will be extremely intense from you guys, as usual against us but it might not be pretty. We had the conversation on here a few weeks back about how both sides could cope with injury disruption and in particular injury disruption in the spine positions. That test could well be upon us if Lomax is out. They might not be Leuluai and Powell, especially in defence, but to have a natural 7 and 9 to throw in has been very useful for us. In attack I’m not sure we’ve lost anything and we might actually be better off but it’s defensively that the worries creep in.

Saints still big big favourites for my money but I’m not totally ruling us out (I was before Friday).

I've never posted on there but I do read RedVee so I'm well aware not a single Wigan player would make the Saints squad let alone a place in their starting 13 so them possibly missing a couple of players won't make the slightest difference to the result unfortunately

I think this part of your post nails it. That’s my point. I think you’ve ended up making a bad situation actually better than it was before.

In terms of Friday it’s hard to say why we were off. Salford slowed the ruck down massively, Kendall absolutely hammered us with pens and 6 agains and I do agree that the players may well have had an eye on this week.

Whenever we have a week off we always struggle and it was the case this time. Walmsley and Knowles had their worst games of the season (bar that try saver from Knowles in the last minute)

Matautia was gassed too although he’ll come on from that performance and another weeks training.

Of the two teams Wigan look fresher now which seems daft after our week off and are certainly the more in form of the two.

I know that this is tongue in cheek somewhat but I think if you talk to any reasonable Saints fan you’ll know that this is not the case.

When did RedVee and reasonable ever come together in the same sentence

The problem we have though is that if it does improve us, it’s only in attack. We’ve lost probably the best defensive 7 and 9 in the comp and I know as fans we love to concentrate on attack but there’s two try lines to think about and it’ll hurt us pretty badly. Saints minus all their pivots would still be a tough nut to crack defensively, so we won’t be walking in try’s like Friday and if we don’t pick up defensively, a lack of halfbacks for Saints won’t matter as that Saints middle unit will have a field day.

I’m looking forward to it anyway. It felt a forgone conclusion at one point but possibly not now.

I fancy going To this one as a neutral. Do you think there’s much chance of me paying on the gate, as I need a few stars to align…….
Plus I just prefer doing this to any game…!

It's the first time in a good number of years that Saints look like they will have been impacted by injuries in key areas which already seems to be causing some of their supporters discomfort with the our semi final coming up (even though we have also lost a half back, hooker and centre).

There's been times where we have been decimated with injuries 7, 8, 9+ players out we've had to crack on. We have lost players to the NRL year on year disrupting our rhythm, in effect almost starting again at times.

Yet... Saints have largely got away with it for years (luckily for them and fair play to their conditioning team btw).

But this... "we are doomed" comments I've seen on social media, (not necessarily on here I may add) is laughable when you think it's just two injuries and a 'potential' ban.

At the end of the day Saints are still firm favourites and are the team likely to win to the final. All the injuries have done is slightly reduced their chances (we have a 1 in 10 game chance of beating them prior to the injuries which has probably reduced to 1 in 7 chance).

They are the favourites, the pressures on them.

[*

To be fair if Grace and Hopoate don’t make it then it’s 4 injuries and a potential ban.

Also it’s the positions and quality of the injuries. It may well be that the two England halves are injured. I’d liken it to VVD and Konoate or Salah and Mane both being injured at the same time

Whilst 2 isn’t a big number it’s the nature of the pivotal positions and quality that will hurt us.

To lose both halves would be awful luck to be fair to them. It was always the area you felt they could struggle in with an injury or two as they don’t have a natural back up (certainly not anything older than an out and out junior or a utility back up). It’ll bring them back closer to the pack if Lomax is ruled out for any length of time. They’ll still be extremely tough to stop because their defence is outstanding and their pack is the best in the comp but it does open up chances to get at them due to the switches they’ll have to make.