All debate. The way the forum traffic seems to have dwindled over the years, I wouldn’t put anybody off contributing.

I think the debate about Saints is a good one, they’re a good side with a great coach but their fans have a history of getting over giddy when they have a good side and becoming dismissive of other teams. They seem to be forgetting just how frustrated they were with the way their club was heading up until Holbrook came in and to remind them that things change quickly is no bad thing.

Which is why I gave you Amor to cover them AND Bullock who has ended up as our #1 prop but realistically shouldn't even be in the side. He is out for 5 weeks now too.

Interested to hear your comments on how you would do minus the other 9 players I mentioned or shall we just look at your two defeats to London as exhibit A?

The way our season went last year, I wouldn't be comfortable saying we would dominate for months to come

Azul,
Of course you are allowed an opinion which I respect but the topic has been hijacked by a tiresome Saints fan whose only purpose is to try to get under the skin of other contributors to the thread.

We replaced them with Hardaker and Greenwood, but don't let facts get in the way of a good troll hey? Maybe you're that insular in Sintellins that you failed to notice the several seasons Escare and Tomkins played in the same squads.



Just for clarity; what's the difference between 'youth' and 'kids'. Do you think it makes it sound better to say the same thing in a different way? How are our 'kids' any different than your 'youth', other than generally being better (as proven by the multiple titles they've won)?

Give me Wigan's kids over Saints youth any day of the week.

Wigan’s junior development is what will really help us stay there or thereabouts for years to come, unless Lam ignores it and there’s no signs of him doing that. We’ve seen debuts for five lads this year and we’ve got a real gem on our hands in Smithies. We also have numerous others who’ve either debuted or are awaiting their debut who could be pretty special. They’re used to winning, they’re used to beating St Helens on a regular basis and if we’re savvy with recruitment, then once Saints suffer those big departures (and they’re coming, could be within a year, could be 2 or 3 years but they’re coming) we’ll take back over.

Ah the Saints youth!!

Whilst Wigans first team have been winning Grand Finals, Challenge Cups and WCC, their academy has won nine of the last eleven Grand Finals and currently lead the table again.

And for age the current Wigan 1st team is younger than the Saints one, who have about six or seven aged 30 or over. A recent report also showed that Wigan have the fewest overseas players in Superleague.

btw is your map to Wembley still on parchment?

I know a few Saints fans that have recently had to buy the Bohemian Rhapsody movie to remind them of their last wins there.

I can't believe how bad Lomax has played in this semi, somebody somewhere said he was the standout player in super league?

To be fair, Halifax have given us more of a game than Wigan have this season and they are part time

we will take that as a concession that Lomax isn't the standout player some people believe he is then

Wembley...
Wire or Saints?

Wait till we see the teams, 3 games before final, not and never would wish injury on anyone but it'll be a long month for both teams, anything could happen.

Saints should win comfortably but they struggled to put a mid table championship side away yesterday, so it looks like there’s still some mental frailties they’ll need to overcome. They’re probably lucky to be playing the frailest of them all when it comes to winning finals though.

Saints by 12

Not Challenge Cup finals though. Warrington have a good record there.

Warrington have more final experience recently (although they lost the last five they've played in) - think its too close to call.

You could argue that Saints played as badly in the semi this year as they did in last year's. They looked a bit lost without Coote.

A lot will depend on how healthy the squads are in a month's time.

They did have but they’ve lost their last two there and it’s those two most of this squad remember.

It’s an intriguing final because of huge amount of final losses both sides have. Saints really should be too good for them but yesterday must’ve got some alarm bells ringing for them and it’ll give everyone in superleague a reminder that knock out games and finals are totally different to run of the mill league games. Saints 2018 and Cas 2017 know that only too well.

If anything, it should have got some alarm bells ringing for Wigan seeing as though Halifax give us a better game than you have in any of our 3 meetings. The idea that we were going to put 60 on Halifax is nonsense. It was their biggest game of the season and as their season is effectively finished and has been for a while they were always going to give everything and match us for effort and intensity. Throw that in with the rain and us having to shift players about because of Coote’s injury a 24 point win was probably about right. An easy win and off to Wembley we go. If Warrington want to beat us they need to change everything about their attack, it’s blunt and predicatble. I’d much rather play them than Hull.

The Fax players had been working on building sites and farms in the intense heat all week and you struggled to put them away. Using excuses like ‘it was raining’ or ‘we were missing Lachlan Coote’ really won’t wash and it was clear your players were having a few mental wobbles.

Dress it up how you like, make out in your mind that it’s the rest of superleague who should actually feel worried because they’re somehow inferior to a part time team, struggling in the championship but teams will be using yesterday as a blueprint and the signs from your lads yesterday should be a huge worry to your supporters.

Yes it is a huge worry that we won a semi final by 24 points and are now going to Wembley whilst also having a 10 point in the league. I’m sure absolutely no one else would want to be in the same position as us.

If teams are using a game that saw us win easily, without our line being troubled, as a blueprint then we’ll win every game that’s left this season. Also whether you like it or not Halifax were more competitive against us than Wigan were. You’re trying to tell yourself that we’ve got problems because we ‘only’ won by 24 points when really you’re very concerned. Good to see.

Well put it this way pal, we ain't remotely worried about your shower who are easy beats for us this season.

FWIW I'd much rather be playing Wigan in the final rather than Warrington as you're an inferior side to them. It wasn't so long ago your mob were screaming for Lam's head on here.

The debate wasn't about wanting to be in your position, it was about your players ability to deal with semi final and final pressure and the signs yesterday were pretty shocking. Somebody commented eaarlier that you probably played even worse yesterday then you did in the Catalans semi final last year and I'd go with that. I was honestly stunned with your nervy performance and as somebody who's been actually sticking up for your chances this year saying you'll win the lot at a canter, I'm now not that sure. Halifax are 8th in the Champonship, below Sheffield Eagles and Featherstone and just above Swinton. If a game like that at a half empty Macron Stadium got to your players in the way it did then the mind boggles as to what may happen at Wembley or Old Trafford.

Also you guys keep bringing us in to it. Your head and shoulders above us, I've no issue with that. If we're lucky enough to get another crack at you this year we can only hope our experience and bottle gets us closer. If Fax can do that to you then you just never know.

We won by 24 points and didn’t concede a try. I can only assume at this point you’re taking the p*ss, it was a very, very easy win. Who cares if we didn’t play well, we won at a canter. Of course there’s going to be some mental fragility when we’ve lost 6 semi finals in a row and this one was seen as a foregone conclusion. Now we’ve won one a massive weight will be lifted and we get to play the ultimate final bottlers in Warrington. Keep telling yourself the signs were shocking, they really weren’t.

Okay, so I watched the same game as everyone else did yesterday, but I’m starting to think I didn’t - so bare with me.

What about that performance actually came across as nervy? There wasn’t a moment where we even looked like conceding let alone losing that game. We controlled every aspect of the game, Halifax barely made 30 metres a set and did absolutely everything we needed to do.

Was it that we didn’t score wonderful free flowing tries? The game before surely proved it wasn’t the game for that? Warringtons 4 fries were 2 kicks and 2 Hull mistakes. Was it we didn’t win by 40? We were 2 knock ons over the line, and a baffling ref decision to pull Naiqama back away from that. We were disjointed at times but most teams do after a week off. Rain and a championship level speed of ruck meant it was never going to be particularly high scoring, and Halifax’s entire season was played in that first half. We stretched them, grinded them down, and got a couple of late tries to round things off. We played an almost identical game away at Warrington a month or so back.