Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 12:05 pm  

The thing is with that style we've seen from Saints over the years is that it needs to be done with a certain aggression and intensity. I can just about stomach the repetitive "arm-wrestle" style when it's done at it's best because we absolutely suffocate teams and it's fairly ruthless. However what we saw against Huddersfield was that very one-dimensional style but done at snails pace, which suddenly makes it absolutely awful to watch and not very effective either.

Personally I would always taking winning (when it matters) over a swashbuckling, entertaining style of rugby. However, the minute that our boring style stops leading to us winning the big games, it becomes unforgivable in the eyes of fans.

As entitled as this may sound, as a fan of a club like Saints I expect to either be reaching and more often than not winning the big matches, or I want to go out in a blaze of glory with the team giving us a run for our money and some fantastic rugby to watch. To that end, if Wellens doesn't win the GF this year and he doesn't change our style, he should be looking for a new job by Christmas because he'll have delivered neither of the above for 2 years.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 12:10 pm  

Aye YG, timing wasn't the best in a way but perfect in another. We weren't there at all mentally on Friday, with no intent in anything we did but it was very similar to how I thought Saints played that first half against Huddersfield. It surprised me more with Saints than it did with us tbh because clunky attack or not, Saints desire to defend, with great line speed and aggression is always there and it is what has taken them to the top of the league. Wigan on the other hand have nights like that in them and have done for a while. We had them last season at Magic, the week after at Saints, the home game against Leeds against 12 men and so on. I just thought that first half for Saints was probably the least enthusiastic I've seen a lot of the players in a good few years. I don't think they will but if they turn up like that at HKR but if they did, they won't find a guy like Bibby dropping ball after ball in good positions or a numpty like Connor putting on his one man idiot show. Add in the 5,000 refs in that touchline stand and you can't get away with a 40 minutes like that.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 12:25 pm  

Really stupid but it will depend on which team starts the best. We looked shocking in that first half and we conceded early and it got the crowd up. From there we just couldn’t cope. We lost the ruck and from that the quick PTB they ripped holes in our un-prepared defence. Like you said NK reminder of the Magic fixture and the season opener against them last year. We have it in us to win that game we just weren’t on top and nothing seem to stick on the night. Only saving grace I can see is when we play in CC they’ll not be 100% sure of us as we were poor in this game. Also when did we stop kicking on the last? I think saints could just grind out a win here but I am not confident. That edge with Makinson and hurrell was unbelievably poor, I think I could have beat hurrell at times in that game. Think they’ll target that all night and if Bennison is FB he’ll get peppered with kicks

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 12:31 pm  

I think the Bennison experiement at 1 is over. To be hooked off after 20-25 mins or whatever it was shows how it clearly wasn't working and I would be amazed if went back to that.

Welsby will be at 1 and Lomax at 6. Then Dodd or Mbye at 7 depending if Dodd is fit.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 12:32 pm  

I think this, in part, comes back to the 'who has most improvement in them' discussion that we had post Good Friday. As NK says, we have these performances in us. Leeds against 12 men last season being the most glaring example. We completely switched off in that match in a similar way to how we started the KR game and, in both cases, looked like we were miles off any silverware. However, we can also 'switch on' in spectacular fashion as we did following the CCSF loss last year. We then get performances like Catalans away, the subsequent unbeaten run and the WCC.

When we raise our game it's in both attack and defence and I think that's the difference. Saints can raise their game for sure but it's been defensively only for a couple of seasons now. Their attack never really seems to improve by anything significant.

Are both sides likely to be as poor as we were in the first halves of our respective games? The short answer is probably yes. It won't determine where the trophies end up though.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 12:57 pm  

We have that lethargy, carelessness, arrogance or whatever it is in us, where we just don't turn up in games but it very rarely happens in a big game under Matty Peet, so I do think Friday can actually be a massive help when it comes to the cup semi. The players now know that they need to be at the very top of their game to win that game and any risk of us not showing up that day is pretty much gone IMO.

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 4:39 pm  

The Saint 71- James Graham disagrees with you about Dodd, it will be interesting to see who is right. https://www.totalrl.com/james-graham-cl ... nrl-links/

The Saint 71- James Graham disagrees with you about Dodd, it will be interesting to see who is right. https://www.totalrl.com/james-graham-cl ... nrl-links/

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 8:13 pm  

Could being the operative word there Zig

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 8:48 pm  

Be great if Dodd goes and turns the worst team in the league into contenders, the meltdown over the lump would be priceless

Re: Wigan v Sts discussion - THIS THREAD ONLY PLEASE : Mon Apr 29, 2024 9:16 pm  

Zig wrote: The Saint 71- James Graham disagrees with you about Dodd, it will be interesting to see who is right. https://www.totalrl.com/james-graham-cl ... nrl-links/ Perhaps but Graham has since shot down a journalist who thinks Dodd will not make it, he seems pretty confident.

Zig wrote: The Saint 71- James Graham disagrees with you about Dodd, it will be interesting to see who is right. https://www.totalrl.com/james-graham-cl ... nrl-links/ Perhaps but Graham has since shot down a journalist who thinks Dodd will not make it, he seems pretty confident.