Not proven as consistent title challengers - they'll clearly be a threat but not the certs for the top 2 that some have made out.

Saints exceptional. They've made consistently good decisions over a long period of time getting the right people in place, outclassing the decision makers at other clubs including our own. Not just talking player and coach recruitment but the scouting of academy players and their strength and conditioning recruitment.

tackle well? Slow the play?....saints live off that now

You got home early.

First win of the season and within minutes is posting on the Wigan forum

It does not matter what year it is aggresion thrives in the game

Saints are very much the litmus test in terms of who is the superior team in the competition. They are are the best all round team in terms of their starting 17 by a country mile.

Their defence and work rate is first class.

Their Achilles heel I suspect is their strength in depth. If they keep relatively injury free I can’t see anyone getting near them.

If referees start to give free kicks for moving off the mark they will also struggle. A minor snipe but at some point a referee will slate them for it.

But to be fair you’ve got to tip the hat to them after Cunningham’s disastrous couple of seasons since then they have been very impressive

They’ve set a very impressive standard hopefully we can at least give it a go this season after last season’s lamentable performances.

A backrow of Bateman, Isa and Farrell won’t cut it for us when we play them. Too small and one dimensional.

It's possible squad depth may be an issue for them if they get hit hard with injury - outside of that 17 they have Amor, Grace and Bell as experienced first teamers but not much else outside of that. I'm not convinced Welsby has the same passing game as Coote and he definitely has a mistake in him - I think Woolf with his Tonga hat on will be tempted at some point to play Hopoate at fullback with Hurrell at centre.

But clutching at straws really when looking for a weakness - the real answer (and the best one for the sport as a whole) is for other clubs to be really harsh with themselves and their decision making and demand higher standards.

I couldn’t agree more with your last paragraph. Absolutely spot on.

I don’t know what to make of Welsby. He makes some sublime movements in a game but has the “gate” of a non athlete. A bit of a freak as you say an accident waiting to happen but for me continues to make some really great moments in a game. Let’s see how he performs in the World Cup. As a Brit I hope he over performs but as a Wiganer a knock or two in the Derby would be gratefully accepted.

Saints are class, I don’t buy into there depth issues too much, like us lesser know players with squad numbers 23+ will be good talents. I’d never really heard of Dodd this time last year.

They are the standard we need to be competing with.

The referees did their best to spoil that game last night.

The referees are a perennial problem, but they didn't have much bearing on last night's result. Saints were class, Catalan were rubbish.

Still getting every 50/50 call I see. Like someone else mentioned, I don't think Walmsley has played the ball correctly for 3 seasons.

Walmsley plays for a penalty every time he plays the ball he moves forward into the defender ive seen penalties given that way.

I had to laugh on one of the last plays of the game when Walmsley basically got up and had a discussion with the ref for a couple of seconds about how clearly he’d felt there had been an infringement and the ref took his time, agreed and give the penalty.

That’s the closest I’ve seen to a player refereeing the game themselves. He’s certainly from the JP school of building relationships with the official is Big Al.