Really? I think we look a lot fitter than most clubs and came strong last 10 mins. It’s the lack of creativity that’s most worrying for me.

I disagree with that, again tonight the scrambling defence showed just how fit we are and we finished the game stronger than at any point of the match

We are lacking ball players in the middle at the moment. Hard work only gets you so far and we are miles off at the moment

I thought we were blowing for most of the game, the Tomkins try gave us a bit of enthusiasm and energy but in reality Saints knew the game was won and the match was never in doubt.

More of an issue though than “fitness” is our injury record.

We currently have 40 and 41 on the field in first team shirts.

That speaks volumes to me.

How many of them relate to conditioning though?

Burgess - Ipitch Injury
Manfredi - From a tackle
Farrell - From a tackle
Williams - During the game hurt his knee
O Loughlin - Calf injury (possible conditioning but more to age for me)
Gildart - Broken Thumb
Sutton - Knee injury again in a tackle

I dont think its to do with conditioning, just bad luck. Most sides have plenty out. Saints have been lucky this season

Conditioning is exactly that, conditioning the players for the rigours of the game.

It used to be a real strength of ours when Britcon arrived, over the last few years it seems to have become a weakness.

Having squad numbers 40 and 41 turning out doesn’t mean a great deal. They’re new signings and lower numbers aren’t available. It’s not that we’re missing 20+ players but more that guys above squad number 18 aren’t being selected in many cases. The injury situation isn’t ideal but we’ve had it far worse and I can’t use that as an excuse tonight.

Fitness wise we’re a mixed bag. We have some unbelievable athletes like Davies, Isa, Bateman and Farrell and then some lads who are blowing after ten minutes like Hamlin, Navarette and Tautai (ok I’m being generous by 9 minutes with that one). In that area I feel Farrell is a monumental loss for us. He bangs out 80 minutes every week without losing any impact and that allows us to rotate our props and Lockers around him.

No matter how fit or conditioned a player is, they can’t avoid collision injuries which the vast majority of ours the last few seasons have been. If they were pulled muscles etc I’d agree it could be training g methods but it isn’t. Collision causes injuries and we’ve been bloody unlucky with them!

Fair enough.

Seems like it’s just us that continue to be massively affected by collision injuries.........again....must be a coincidence.

Also it’s not like there has been consistency in the type of injury our players pick up...once again, must be luck and coincidence.

The player who looked fittest on the field was Hankison, and it's his first game.

The others had lead in their boots.

Ones of the worst performances in against Saints in a long time.

Wane should have gone when his ego told him to go.

C'mon Lenners, get rid of him this week to save our season.

Just for the record, Jon, how would you condition against, say, a broken thumb?

Not have the team playing full on against each other in training would be a good starter. We tend to suffer more blue on blue injuries than any other club.

Do we?

How many of the current players who are out received their injuries in training?

Burgess
Gildart
Williams
Sutton
Manfredi
Farrell
Lockers

Freak shoulder injuries, broken thumbs, wrecking your leg on a plastic pitch etc aren’t anything to do with conditioning. I’m not even sure why injuries are being mentioned tbh. Yes we’re missing a few but it’s hardly a 2016 or 2017 style crisis. We had enough on that field last night to come up with better then that IMO, especially when you consider who they’d left out.

Gildarts occurred during training for starters, maybe I should have phrased it as “training and non rugby related injuries”