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.

Just reading the list of potential bans on Serious about rugby league and they list Cade Cust. I didn’t notice it at the game but I watched the replay last night and I presume they’re referring to a challenge he made, where he lifted a Wire player (Thewliss I think it may have been) and slammed him to the floor. He had him a pretty safe position, so he could be ok but you just never know. The Thornley one I’ve seen mentioned was a bad read, rather than a late challenge as such. That would be a harsh ban but again, you just never know.

No charges for either club by the looks of things. Hull KR have had Vete banned and Matty English from Huddersfield has been banned, so they’ll miss the other semi.

Right decision on Percival as well - the Salford player slipped turning upper body contact into head contact through no fault of the defender.

Just been reading that Lomax is out for a while and potentially the season.

If he plays he plays. One less excuse for the Red Vee conspiracy theory?

Really looking forward to the day and the match.

Lomax/Dodd out challenging but not terminal by any stretch. We’ll be clunky but our defence gives us a chance of winning any game - albeit part of that defence is domination of field position which has a lot to do with your halves and their decision making.

Should be a cracker - bring it on.