It's also their arrogance in belittling the result that will have the majority of Saints fans cheering on Penrith.

Not all Wigan fans are arrogant as not all Saints fans are but most
I will always shout for the SL side against the NRL side.

There is obviously going to be some down playing of that Saints result by Wigan fans, as there would be on the flip side. It was an incredible achievement and something that the English game in general can be proud of and it will go down in Saints history.

Now for the honest part that Saints fans might not like-I don’t think anybody can deny Penrith took that game pretty easy (at least to start with). They didn’t risk players with knocks, it was lumped in as part of a programme of pre season friendlies and there seems a huge apathy with the fan base (they got their lowest crowd in many years) but even with all that, they should comfortably be beating any English club in their own country. They can spend 4 times as much as our clubs for starters, so it was still a ridiculous result for Saints.

Move forward to our game with them and I’d imagine Saints will have woken them up a bit and we’ll see a more focused Penrith rock up in Wigan. If they’re fully on, we won’t beat them and I’ve no issue admitting that. If we do beat them, I find we’ll need them to again be a bit arrogant about the fixture and should that come to fruition, it won’t take away from Wigans achievement because just like I noted above, a team spending 4 times what we can should be able to get over some arrogance/complacency, a lack of warm up fixtures and in this case travel.

People can think Saints beat a complacent Penrith ‘and’ think it was a great achievement, they don’t need to be mutually exclusive.

Honestly mate, you believe whatever you want to make yourself feel better about the game. Enjoy your victories, as much as you can.

I've said it before, Saints win was about a good of an achievement as Buster Douglas beating Tyson. He'll be in the history books for it. He, like Saints fans, will right dine out on it in years. Everyone else just shrugs their shoulders and says Tyson had a bad night.

This return match/ fight to keep the analogy going, is like Buster Douglas stepping back into the ring with a smarting Tyson. Make zero mistake - if we win, it will far out eclipse what you guys did. There won't be any flukes, or off nights this time.

As a Wigan fan,what Wigan did against Manly eclipses what Saints did
What Wigan did against Brisbane eclipses what Saints did
If Wigan beat Penrith that will also eclipse what Saints did
This doesnt mean to detract from the great achievement of St Helens as it was a fantastic shot in the arm for SL.
64,000 at Brisbane,37,000 (approx) says more fans of both hemispheres were interested in the Wigan's games than the Saints game and poss sellout at Wigan as a bonus this time.
I will say yet again it was a fantastic win for Saints but the interest isnt as strong as Wigan's sadly.

Wigan beat Brisbane mid-season in Australia with a patched up pack after a gruelling season. The Aussies can’t use the excuse of not being match fit. Regarding the Manly game, both teams had their championship winning squads available so again it wasn’t treated as a friendly and players hadn’t moved on. Having said that, I am always happy for our lads to succeed, so well done Saints.

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Well that's a load of rubbish. The majority of Saints just wont want Wigan to win without any reasons.

It was a clear afterthought for Penrith last year, probably because they had no idea who St Helens were.

They didn’t move a muscle for it and just rolled it into the preseaon challenge rested some key players, played at their normal home ground which was half empty.

Whereas this year, knowing they are playing the premier side in the northern hemisphere, they are building their whole preseason around it.

Flying right across the world, having a training camp, big game feel in front of a crowd likely over double that of last year.

A stand alone event rather than a trail game.

Different level.

Some laughable comments on here and expected arrogance.

The Premier team in the Northern hemisphere on the back of one GF win in 5 years.

Beating Penrith in English conditions at home apparently is a bigger achievement.

Comparing the most successful team in SL and the 4 peat winners to Buster Douglas is laughable. Absolutely laughable.

And people wonder why I want Wigan to get smashed.

No Wigan fan on a Wigan forum cares that a St Helens fan wants Wigan to get smashed. All Wigan fans want St Helens to get smashed every week.

Google who Nathan Clearly thinks the premier team in the northern hemisphere is.

Beating a full strength Penrith side anywhere is a bigger achievement than beating their reserves yes.

4peat, woooow. well done. We probably would have won a couple if we played 2 seasons on our home ground too. It's a fraudulent achievement, and one that is now at the end of its mini era. The big dogs are back now, step aside.

They must have one hell of a Reserves team…

To’o
Crichton,
Leota
Fisher-Harris
Luai
Cleary
Yeo
May
Turuva
Kenny

The above all played in our game. Massively unfair to the rest of the comp if that is their Reserves team. Needs raising with the NRL I think.

We were a freak bounce of the ball from winning exactly the same number of titles as Saints over the last 6* years. Sobering thought isn't it?

*Funny how Saints fans only start the count at the beginning of their run. I wonder why?

totally agree with this, bugs me when people say it was a reserve team, virtually full strength