As I was saying in January..

I think you were condemned for being negative, weren't you?

Certainly people said the squad isn't weaker and the prop situation was fine. I think my assessment was reasonably accurate. Defence is better against the teams below us which is helping but against the top sides our pack is not dominant. I'm fine with that actually - we don't have the personnel and as a mid table side/club we are entitled to nothing, but can hope BH will bring in what's needed. He doesn't seem daft.

The key thing for me right now is errors and discipline. Impossible to compete with the top sides when you're constantly giving away territory and ball.

I think you are being unfair on Brown, he wasnt great, but only came on in the 2nd half when the game was on, doing about 20 minutes, I'd bet that when the stats come out they are better than Bowdens despite Bowden playing longer minutes

Brown had 6 carries for 32 metres. Bowden had 5 for 19. Brown had 2 tackle busts to nil. Bowden misses a tackle which Brown didn't. Both had an error and a penalty. None of our forwards were great, but I agree that Brown didn't stand out as being particularly poor.

Bowden made 19 yards Brown got just over 30 from a similar number of carries. So maybe you're right!

When Brown is on though, Ive noticed him give away a few daft pens.

I'm sure he'll come good in the long run though. If we can get another prop in this year, I'd be sending him out on loan to a champ team. Regular rugby and longer minutes will do him the world of good.

On his day he was, then you would get 3 weeks of knock ons and laziness. Kelly at that point though had played in SL for 3 seasons, watch him in the CC final for Rovers.

Thought Fash and Ma'u were our better forwards last night.

Just wondering about individual performances.

Bowdens metres made simply wasn't good enough 5 carries for 19 metres is terrible. Average of under 4 metres a carry, is he even running onto the ball?

Does anyone have Fash's metres made? Yes the lad tackles all day but we need metres made from our props, I'm not clapping my hands for him just because he can tackle.

Coupled with some weak metres made performances , the errors savaged us, who in the teams making all our errors or penaltys against?

Interesting Hodgson said we didn't muscle up or want to compete physically, I saw Satae and Sao ripping in as well as Mau at times, so who isn't competing physically?

If we want to reach the top, it's this accountability that needs to happen and improve upon, be that players leaving the club , with better replacements coming in so be it.

Fash had 7 carries for 55 yards, so not exactly scattering defenders all over the place, but decent enough yards per carry.

I though Lane had his worst game for a long time last night, and Cator was ineffective too.

For me Ma'u, Satae and Griffin were the only ones who really matched Saints physically. Sao, Tuimavave and Fonua did just about ok. The rest were bullied.

What are people's opinions regarding areas in the team we can improve on?
Which positions need the most attention?

The glaringly obvious thing I'm seeing apart from silly errors and not completing sets (field position ends up none existent) is our go forward or lack of it.

Would love a Kaisano or Pauli Pauli type off the bench to scatter defenders.
I think we improve with Taylor's aggression and intensity, but crying out for one more as Bowden/Fash don't do it for me.
Would like to see a presence brought in with leadership qualities ala Ellis.
Let Mau go get a second row in with pace
Let Faraimo go sign a winger with speed and strength with good defence.

The hull from the first two games needs to come back, where we looked after the ball, completed our sets, the line speed was brilliant, and the kick chases where intense.

Dare I say it's all dropped off abit with Taylor's absence.

We can’t rely on how we’ve been defending to win us games.
We can’t show indiscipline and poor ball control knowing we can defend sets, so it doesn’t matter how and where we turn the ball over.
We played the same way last week, but Leeds weren’t good enough to capitalise on it.
We have to start completing sets and building pressure, otherwise all the defensive work will come to nothing.

From the kick off we didn’t look right, first play we made an error. Later Sneyd breaks through, gives Mau a pass, that Curry or Farrell would of been under the sticks, Mau instead of running, stupidly gives it back to Sneyd I think.

To be honest Saints appear to have had their best game of the season, and sometimes you have to hold your hands up, and credit the opposition, they were outstanding at times

We fell miserably short against the benchmark team, but we will bounce back after getting our backsides kicked.

As many have said, we are a prop short without the loss of Tag, and Massi, we’ve gone with a skinny squad, understandably I suppose, after nearly two years of financial hardships.

I think if we are being realistic this is probably a transitional year. Hodgson is still learning about the squad and indeed about being a coach. We have made improvements in some areas without a doubt. I just want to see us keep making those little improvements. If we make the playoffs then you never know but realistically next year and the year after are what we are aiming for, when Hodgson has brought in the players he wants and moulded the side to his vision. This squad isn't far away, but there are definitely a few pieces of the jigsaw that we still need to find.

The cup should be the main focus now imo because we just need 2 big performances and it's ours, and then it would be a decent season whatever happens in the league.

Sounds like Savelio has a decent chance to be fit for next week