Ritson- poundland Marshall
I do love it when Walmsley looks at the ref with his pleading eyes "its not fair give me a penalty I have been stopped again when I am supposed to walk over opposition players routine"

Lose another game and the RFL are against them and they will do anything to stop them from winning 5 in a row
brigade will be out in force again.

Ritson isn't even a Poundland Marshall. He's more like a Poundland Discount Store Marshall.

A Home Bargains Marshall

A "lucky, lucky" man Marshall

Ritson, "I've caught him easy, now I have to tackle him, nah, forget that"

I've been saying this for a while - it's so annoying when he does it and you're spot on with the cringe word. He acts so hard done to at every play the ball and the ironic thing is that whilst he's moaning about us being slowed down, he's doing just that himself.

As for Ritson, last night was the first time I thought to myself he looks out of his depth a bit. His positioning when defending kicks was erratic to say the least.

I'm glad you've acknowledged it with Walmsley. I'm struggling to watch games with him involved in at the minute because it's just boring and so predictable. There are always players who whinge at the ref throughout a game (Tomkins being the main man) but they at least have some variety to their grumbles. It's like groundhog day watching Walmsley-take the ball up-get tackled-start struggling-slowly get to your feet with the ball in the air-stand there moaning for a few seconds and repeat over and over and over again. He's obviously being reasonably polite in his moans because none of the refs seem to warn him to pipe down and some even listen to him and give him the decision. The guy is an unreal player and it's letting him down for me.

I’m amazed he’s never been penalised mate. Or at least I don’t recall him ever being.

Walmsley has arguably been the best prop in SL over the last 4-5 years. However he's just not doing it for me this year.

We all know the standards at the top in SL are pretty poor this season, in theory he should be absolutely standing head and shoulders over everyone else but it hasn't happened.

He's 33 now. Not old exactly but certainly at an age where a player can be on the slide. I wouldn't be writing him off just yet but, as you say, he hasn't seemed as consistent or, in many games, as effective this season.

And as for his moaning....

Walmsley, Roby, Lomax, Percival, Makinson, the backbone of the Saints team, no way am I writing them off yet but age and general wear and tear looks like it's catching up with them and so far the players filling in or lined up to replace them look a million miles off their standard

All that is gone with Saints is week to week intensity. That won’t come back because Woolf really drove that but they’re favourites for everything IMO. They’ve shown enough in the WCC, against Wire with a weakened side and against us two weeks back to show they’re still a fantastic side. There will be a natural break up of the side over the next few seasons but there’s big potential for more trophies yet (sadly). If we believe anything else, we’re setting ourselves up for a fall.

Isn't it that intensity that wins trophies though? I'm not saying Saints can't turn it on for a final, should they get there but, much like ourselves, they seem to need to flip a switch rather than it being ingrained. That's a risky strategy for any team and is little more than a 50/50 call on which team will turn up for any given match as they found out last night. The Leeds second half capitulation for ourselves is another great example.

Were it not for the brain fart and having Kendal in their back pocket, I'm of the opinion that they'd already be out of the cup.

Very enjoyable game last night. Hull were great and were very unlucky to have that Litten try ruled out by the video ref especially as it had been sent up as a try. Tony Smith has really turned them round.

Very amusing to see Saints fans complaining about opposition players "rubbing opponent's hair" after a mistake! I think my hypocrisy meter just exploded

I just think they’ve come back to the pack in terms of not being able to play at their cup final intensity week to week anymore. They spent a few seasons playing 90% of games at an intensity most teams could only get close to in the play offs, semi finals, finals etc and I don’t think that is there for them anymore. They are now doing what we’ve done for years (and we’ve shown it this past few weeks) and what other sides have done and are flicking a switch when the biggest games come around, as you say. I agree it’s risky in a way but it also doesn’t make them any less dangerous in the biggest games ‘if’ they can get to their best levels. I think they’ve shown already on a few occasions this season that they can get to extremely high levels, so they’ll still take some beating.

I hope they crash and burn like and I do see a real drop off coming in the next few years but it’s not there yet.