He wasn't though was he. Offers so much more than your Welsh convert who you laud as some sort of Corey Parker. Keep a tight hold of that crown Mr Saint, it seems to be slipping. Im sure Dwyer for Roby next season will prop you back up though and the new contract for Matty (Tom Burgess) Lees who Redvee sem to think is one of the best props in the league. I don't see him make any metres and drops the ball a lot. Just a big lump. Big contract too apparently. Two words ......... Greg Richards

I've expressed plenty of doubt about Smith in the past, based on his ratio of successful plays to errors. All halves get it wrong sometimes, and nothing ventured, nothing gained. But the bad stuff needs to be few and far between. He's really come on this year under Peet, though. Like many, I'll reserve judgement until I've watched the game back on TV, but he was there for the big plays that mattered, and really won the game for us.

Under Peet or under Briers?

Your lot are the masters at the professional foul.

Another to add to the list of things we are masters at. Like winning the cup.

#20times

So did I at 20/1 for a tenner - thought he deserved it.

Had Leutele for first try at 18/1 so had a good day.

The masters of unrivalled greatness, safe in the knowledge that our noisy geographical neighbours will always be in our shadow and when the people outside of the M62 corridor are asked about rugby league, they speak of Wigan not St Helens. The side too scared to play Penrith that became Australia's laughing stock.

As Eggy said

#20times

you are sounding like a bitter Stain,
Farrell had to cop a high shot or hadnt you seen that with your Stain glasses on.

All that matters is the best team won,you know the one with the most points !!!

Considering that Briers is under Peet, and that Smith is under ALL of the coaching staff, it's both.

That’s all he is. For balance, I thought it was a yellow (only one of them though), on the referee if they want to play that game

I also thought the holding down on French just before half time was a yellow

McQueen’s try had 2 obstructions in it, both lead runners ran straight into defenders, pretty much the same as the one that was given against us in the first set.

I’d question why the game was stopped for Hill’s leg injury but not for Thornley’s.

The bottom line, for all the talk of them being the better side for large parts of the game, they weren’t good enough to register more points than us. That’s the only stat that matters.

Far from bitter pal

To scared to play Penrith? Ha ha

nice to know pal

Does every thread have to degenerate into this?

I had originally intended backing Leutele for the first try but instead doubled up my bet on Smith for MOM.
At the end of the game I was made up. A great win and I thought a great day out for free at the expense of Mr Patrick Power. It's the first time in life that I didn't win a penny but didn't give a shiny shoite.

I thought that Smith was absolutely the MOM on the day and after watching the game again this morning I'm even more convinced that he won it in canter.

I was worried about a disappointing start to the game and some unenforced errors by us just opened the door to Huddersfield.
Very pleased on how we hung in yesterday even when we were not playing particularly well.
We are nowhere near the finished article but we are laying some great foundations for hopefully,a great future.
Yesterday we scored 3 cracking tries against a well disciplined and organised defence and we can play much better than we did. I don't think we can ask for much more than that in a final.

The 2 highlights of the day for me were firstly my grandsons face at the end of game which was worth more than a million to me, Secondly, the sight of IL raising the CC. I think it was Farrell and Bateman(?) who cajoled IL into raising the trophy. IL has had some criticisms over the years with some of it totally and utterly unwarranted particularly in terms of his financial support. I have criticised him at times but I have never doubted his love of the club. I tip my cap to the players who ensured that IL quite rightly, enjoyed some of the post match celebrations.

No.

We scored 3 tries of absolute top quality.
All of those tries had to be worked for and all of them had first class skills and delivered at a fantastic pace.
Ive been lucky enough to see us score some great CCF tries over the years and yesterday's 3 are in my top 10 of all time.
Smithies offload was brilliant and the lad is improving leaps and bounds.
Fields try was a classic. Brilliant passing finished with astonishing pace from French & Field.
Marshall is the most underrated winger in the competition and I love the fact that he was our match winner in the SF & Final.

Smith played almost single handedly in the halves, knocked on early in the game in his own 20 and didn't get his usual support from the second row but still managed to score a blinder and set up a brilliant winner. The lad is still really just a kid but has the capacity to mature into a top class HB for club and country.

Having watched the game again today, there is far too much significance being given to this 'Hudds had their pockets pinched' idea.

They were a bit steadier than we were, but they didn't do anything like enough to justify such a claim.

The move that killed them was attempted at least a couple of times earlier in the match, and yet they still got caught out by it. None of the presenters mentioned that to my knowledge, which makes me think they were commentating on what they wanted to be happening rather than what actually was.

Lets face it if this game had been played under the rules applied at the beginning of the season it would have ended up a nines match

to be honest moto only when a saints fan comes on and tries (see what I did) to put Wigan down.

Agree with both posts. I was quite down on our performance and felt the game was a little dour for the most part on the long journey back on the coach yesterday. Watching it again without the uncertainty and stress of sitting in the stands, I saw a lot to admire from both teams. In the heat of the moment, it’s those daft knock-ons that catch the eye, but you don’t register the sheer graft in defence and all the pivotal plays that could have swung either way. I thought Huddersfield came with a superb game plan designed to shut us down, but watching it again, you could see they were creaking during the last quarter of the game as we kept pushing at their edges. Sometimes it can be hard to appreciate the performance of the team when you’re there and the game is so tight.

And anyone who thinks Harry Smith had an off-day seriously needs to watch his performance again.

I've not had chance to watch again (going to do the first half now, rest tomorrow).

Before I do, one of the main things I noticed at the game was how little Mago did (minutes and metres), I thought he was very uninspiring when he was on (ten minutes or so)? My question is, did he suffer an injury or was he not fully fit in the first place. Like I said, I'm going to watch again without the pressure but for me it was his poorest game for us so far.

Yes Mago was underwhelming - he needs to start running his weight and pumping those legs after contact instead of purely focusing on offloads.

Whilst we're onto negatives I thought Jake Bibby was poor again at centre - two bad defensive reads which led to tries. Not unhappy that he appears to be off to Huddersfield in all honesty - a solid right winger at Wigan but nothing more than that. Maybe Ian Watson can get the best out of him.

I’m amazed people are criticising Child on some platforms and blaming him for the Huddersfield defeat. I’ve watched the game back and we got a bad hand from him. The first pen is a joke, the penalty for Huddersfield messing up their own scrum down is also a joke, he should sin bin their man on half time for a professional foul, McQueens try shouid go upstairs for obstruction, he missed a blatant 6 again part way though the second half, which ended with French being tackled in possession and just before the Smith try, Faz gets a whack to the face from Yates and stays down but gets nothing. The replay clearly shows he gets hit high.

If he gave us a helping hand, I shudder to think how he’d have performed if he’d been against us!

All history now and all that matters is Challenge Cup Number 20!

Having just watched it back I stand by my initial comment.

For much of the game we lacked any direction.

That isn’t just on Smith it’s on Cust and O’Neil too and non of them took the responsibility on.

Smith however did come up with key plays at key times which got us the win and that a sign of quality.

One player I thought had a poor game on the day was Singleton however I thought he went well particularly on his first spell.

He was at least as worthy of the MOM award as McQueen, if not more so.