How would you go about beating Saints if you were coach?

What are their strengths to watch out for and weaknesses to take advantage of?

For me they are pi55 poor in the backs, all their tries are either from forwards barging over the line from a few yards out or switches or inside balls to Wellens and Roby. We need to be on the ball in the middle of the park in defence becasue Puletua and Graham are both good ball players.

I think if we concentrate our attack to Foster/Eastmond/Smith and kick it to Meli/Foster I think we will get mistakes from them, for me Sam has to do the majority of the kicking or let Deacon do it, Leuluai is nowhere near good enough at kicking and in a GF we need to have a good kicking game.

When defending the markers will need to work overtime stopping Cunningham from running those 3/4 yards out of dummy half before he passes it stopping their momentum and when on our line our markers need to be ready for KFC barging over the line, same with Roby.

well then you just cant lose against
a bunch of bargers

Richards Vs Foster - The only way the ball should go is up up up.

If we can control Cuntingham, Graham, Roby interchanges, well be fine. The sheer mobility of our 3/4 line will be too much for Saints. Wouldnt be surprised if they came out to turn it into a forward slogging match which id be fine with, Fielden for HS Trophy.

Play how we play. Moving the ball quick accross the field. Saints won't handle it. Gardner will run in to the centre and Lockers can pass over him to Pat or Goulding.

In the big games we have lost it has been because we have been way too conservative in parts, not playing the free flowing rugby which has allowed us to bladder Hull twice and various other teams.

They will try and go up the middle so we should keep it tight and use our good sliding defence and line speed to stop them A. making too many yards and B. going around the outside.

We are good enough to beat saints, we currently have a better team IMO. We just need to play our own game. If we play like we can then I can see us winning with a similar scoreline to the Leeds game!

In terms of genuine tactics, their wingers are awful. Kick, kick, kick.

We need better kicking on the last.

We must take advantage while Cunningham is off the field, mark him while he is on.

I agree, if we play how we normally play we will be good enough and add to that kicking to Pat to out jump Foster will work well.

Saints will try to turn it into a forward match but like it's been said we need to spin it out wide and run at pace.

For me, it's quite simple.....

Don't change anything.

When we've tried to change our natural game this year, targetting individuals, etc., we've come up short (Leeds/Saints)

Personally, I'd prefer to see us stick to what we do best (move it quickly, kick over to Pat and defend like absolute Trojans).

Let Saints worry about how they are going to stop us, rather than the other way round.

(NB - All of the above is said in the firm belief that we will end up losing anyway. Then again, I firmly believed that for the Leeds match too)

Agreed, except for one thing, IMO - Deacon needs to be our main kicker, not Tommy.

Saints will still have the Grand Final temperament, while we won't. That could count for a lot. Whatever game-plan Wigan hatch this week, they MUST stick to it in order to have a chance of winning.

True, but that could work both ways, they also have the losing habit.

And we have a bunch of players desperate to make a mark in their first final.

For me, Fielden, Lockers and Gleeson will be invaluable as the only ones having played at OT before. There'll be times when we need to calm things down and play cleverly, and these need to set the example IMO.

Stop cunningham you stop saints on friday they looked like rabbits in headlights when he was off the pitch

Tbh after our defence on sat it will take something very special to break it

Hasn't Deacon played (and won) at OT?

im sure MM has the saints weaknesses sussed..........for me they look very dodgy in defence down the wings.......and with us having 2 wingers who came 1 & 2 in try chatrs...thats where we should concentrate our attacks.

i think our defence will look after itself

If we defend as we did on Saturday, they should be reduced to however many points Cunningham can get by flopping over from a yard out. Keep it tight and don't take any chances - that was key at Headingley - the couple of drop-outs we gave away with some scrambling defence in the second half were fine because we were strong enough to withstand repeat sets.

Kicking needs to be better; I like Tommy, but it seems that four in every five of his kicks are straight into opposing arms on the full. Mix it up a bit - when was the last time we kicked a 40/20? Has it even happened this season? Leon Pryce banged one for Saints at our place earlier this year and it gave them the momentum to take a grip on the game.

Tactically we need change nothing really. We're going into this having finished first in the table, and having beaten the reigning champions away in our last game. There's good reason for that. If the execution of our play is as good as it's been on most weeks this year, that should see us home. No need for changing now.

Phil Clarke made excellent points when he was pre-viewing the game at KR on friday night, Saints are extremely dangerous inside the oppositions 20 metre zone. They have used the barge overs well all season with JG and TP.

IF we allow them field position with silly needless penalties we could be in trouble. We need to be squeeky clean from the off and for the full 80 minutes.

I agree that our backs are better, Richards could have a field day against either Meli or Foster, we kick high towards him and he could be in for memorable game.

Defensively the stats speak for themselves, last weeks game against Leeds was a defensive masterclass, we conceeded 6 against a side who can score lots of points which they showed against Saints in the CC Semi Final.