How is their pack MILES better?
I may be wrong but think only Amor was any different for the wire game on thursday than from the the pack that got bullied by Hudders on the opening day of last season.

We conceded 7 tries against a mid table side. Doesn't matter when you concede them

saints best attribute on Friday was their quick and aggressive defence. They were moving up super quickly and in wire's faces from the off. If they continue to do that they will be a very difficult side to beat

You are wrong. Wilkin was named at prop and Turner played loose man. Puletua was on the bench. Walmsley didn't play but was immense against Wire. And Amor in place of the woeful Josh Perry is also a massive upgrade.

I meant as in new personnel

You can only compare what was on the pitch back then to what will be on the pitch next w/e. Saints have a much better rounded squad as wellas first 17, as with a few sides they had an awful injury filled season but still did alright even so.
Saints look pretty slick in attack and their D is excellent already, I think they made Warrington look ordinary. It's either going to be a close win either way or Saints by 16+.

IF we let them get on top as Cats did in the first 20 minutes or so and they rack up 2 or 3 tries don't expect the turnaround we had on friday.

Very true, but I would attribute the last 4 of those tries to us switching off rather than defensive errors per se. As I said hopefully we will learn our lesson from it.

I think people like to put a lot of spin on "our (equal) worst ever finish in the last 15 years" - the final game of the year against Leeds proved we weren't a million miles away - a kicker and we would of won (and I'm biased but I reckon we'd of given Wigan a better game in the semis )

Our 1 - 17 was strong enough to compete with the top 4 last year, but we were the least capable in dealing with injuries and it showed. Losing lomax, Roby and Soliola all at once for 10 weeks (and they it wasn't like when they returned they were fully fit) would damage any teams chances (take tomkins mcilorum and o'loughlin out of Wigan etc.) and the rest of our team wasn't strong enough to compensate for that (like Wigan were for example.)

The flip side of that is that we have blooded 13 youngsters last year all who look much more capable of making the step up now than they did last year. Our strength in depth this year means saints fans feel almost spoilt for choice and there's a lot of flexibility in the team. Flanaghan for example who should be a starting player didn't even make the 19 this week.

Whilst losing a talisman like Walsh/ Roby/ Lomax would hit any team, we should now have other areas that can step up in their place.

IMHO saints have got the most balanced team in super league this year , I don't think they will win the league but wouldn't be surprised to see them lifting a trophy come the end of the season .

Looking forward to seeing the usual crew from Hull in The George pre and post match.

All welcome as usual, thanks to school half term I shall be on site earlier than normal for the "warm up"

Will dig out a Hull classic game for you early arrivals before I put an old saints match on.

Al

We've got an unbeaten record to defend at theirs haven't we? Looking forward to it but think the main difference for Saints this season is the coach. Undoubtedly one of the best around and now he's got 'his' side I think Saints will really fire this season.

Not sure about Brown been one of the best around, makes some odd selections at time, look at how much Hudds improved with the same side when he left. Make some good signings though.

Really hard game for us, but not impossible to come away with the points if we improve on a few things. Not expected to win, so a bit of pressure off us for this game.

Want to see us tighter in defense and improvement in discipline, don't think we can win this as even if we can match Saints, Walsh kicked 7 from 7 including 2 from the touchline IIRC, although I don't honestly expect it to be that close. Looking forward to it though.

Will be interesting to see how Wire respond this week at Leeds, might have a chance there....

Anyone know of any coaches with a couple of seats available?

try the mighty black and whites on facebook ask dan