Deary me. 39-0 and I don't think there were many who I could criticise really. Mose wasn't great but the rest were okay. Just absolutely outclassed by a side who haven't had a competitive game yet. Put any Super League side against them mid season over here and there is a 50 point difference. Play it in Australia and you are talking 70. They were just sensational, Reynolds kicked us to death and they simply didn't make any mistakes. Can you imagine the score if they played Salford which is the equivalent of St George's involvement in the series?

Tonight was just men against boys, amateurs against true pros and the talk of us closing the gap are way off. It's as big as its ever been.


If there is a gripe to be had, it's the refereeing again. Scared to death of the Aussies and incapable of giving a 50:50 against them.

The Saints backs were exposed badly, and frankly looked mediocre to poor. Have Saints ever had a worse pair of centres? I know Percival is young but he should've scored both those chances, and had they been at the other end I'm sure Souths would've finished them. The back 3 looked slow and were out of position on numerous occasions.

Percival is quality. Turner isn't.

I thought the ref was actually quite good tonight. Which decisions did you think he got wrong?

He's a good prospect he was exposed physically and mentally tonight, but he wasn't alone in that this weekend.

Must admit I was a bit shocked by the scoreline.
The referee I think got 3 try or no try decisions wrong but apart from that was ok!
Your front row of Amour, Roby and Walmsley is good but you're back up after those 3 isn't.
The Souths ball retention under the conditions was unbelievable.
Souths would unfortunately have beaten any other SL by at least a similar scoreline.

Right. I wasn't going to post tonight, because calming down is always advised. But I have to say something.

To me, the facts are these. Saints are currently set up to take on anyone in SL. The small 3/4 line is fine against 99% of opposition in SL and even when they're not we have enough size in the pack to conteract those who can beat us in that area. However, the physicality in the outside backs, snuffed any space we were able to create. We came close to matching them in the pack (I wouldn't go so far to say we matched their pack, but we did at least as well as Bulldogs did in the GF imo, which is no shoddy thing looking at their pack!) Percival would have scored both against SL opposition and in 3 years will score similar chances.

It's very easy to throw the baby out of the pram in these situations. I'm sure in the coming days opposition fans will love to stick the boot in, but no one in this league would of done any better. They might not of scored through kicks like they did with us, but they'd of found a way, because Maguire is a very good coach. It wasn't a fun night, but it's important that we carry our heads high.

The advantage of Jones over Flanagan is obvious now we had LMS in the centres, and obviously Walsh coming back can't happen soon enough. Lomax is the one I'm closest to calling though. His positioning was poor today and was exposed. I thought Thompson showed up well, and actually won metres in the collision at times which was more than most, and Walmsley was our clear mom.

A couple of early decisions, the charge down which led to the first try sticks out, and there was another 50:50 in the lead up to the penalty kick but I can't remember what. Doesn't excuse the way we reacted to them, but there were some harsh 50:50s early that we simply didn't recover from.

I'm not buying into the fact the Rabbitohs are un touchable. Im telling you now had that been Wigan tonight playing instead of Saints the scoreline would be extremely different.

I have been a big fan of Lomax since he came on the scene and love his style of play but he didn't seem to get much right tonight.

The reason why it'd be different is because the likes of Bateman, Tomkins, Clubb and Farrell would of made sure the Rabbitohs knew they was in for a tough game.

I love our club but i feel embarrassed after tonight and feel we have let Super League down massively. Wigan and Wire fans have the right to laugh at us after tonight.

I wouldn't get too downbeat. Many sides if not in superleague all would have shipped more points tonight against a truely world class side.

We're lagging behind as a comp in truth. In days gone by it was still tough to be winning the WCC but when you look at Saints sides with guys like Lyon, Long, Sculthorpe, Cunningham etc in it and compare it to today it's chalk and cheese. If those guys were playing now and in their pomp, Lyon wouldn't be here (and isn't) and at least one or two of those others would have been snapped up by the NRL as well.

The superleague clubs are fighting a losing battle at the moment! Put James Graham, Luke Walsh, a Lyon type centre and a Sculthorpe type back rower in that Saints side tonight and you know what...they'd still be up against it but at least they'd stand a chance.

Teams have one hand tied behind their backs at the moment.

They'd of gotten run over the top of, they are (by Wigan fans own admission) too small and would keep the intensity in the middle.

Calm down, don't throw the baby out of the pram. Learnt he lessons and use it to drive us to the GF this season.

It wouldn't.

Brisbane are nearly as far behind Souths as we are. Saints forwards got man handled and ours are smaller.

Over reactions aren't needed by Saints fans tonight. It's tough to take but the issue doesn't sit at Saints door, it sits at the door of the RFL. Our league had been allowed to fall further behind then it's ever been.

Yeah it would have finished Wigan 0 v 60 Souths

Hopefully this will be a wake up call for some at the rfl to bring in some new rules/ up the cap more generally as well.

Fair point mate. Good post.

Very decent posts from you tonight Nicky. Out of interest, what would you do to close the gap and improve Super League? Is it just a simple case of increasing the salary cap? If so, is there not a risk we'd lose several clubs as the crowds and sponsorship just isn't sufficient to make them sustainable.

I don't think the RFL can win in this situation. The only way to stop promising British players from leaving SL and heading to the NRL is by raising the cap to similar levels to which the NRL operates at. Even then, players will still leave because of the attraction of the climate and surroundings.
Clubs like Saints will always have a decent production line of academy prospects, but other clubs are not in the same position and they would undoubtedly use the extra cap space to bring ageing australian players over to SL and consequently prevent British players from getting a spot in the side.
This is before we even consider the clubs who simply cannot afford to spend to a higher cap. Combining a higher cap with the threat of relegation is simply a disaster waiting to happen.

The Aussies are just fitter athletes, it's their national sport over there (in some states), they have a much bigger player pool to produce talent from, and the sport is booming over there.

this rule is currently in place in the championship:



This is the rule that can (and should of been by now) brought in that can at least start e tide. Tomkins and Graham are lost to us imo, what we need is to start the process to protect the next in the production line. That combined with slow, regular and planned cap increases will start to turn the tide, limits the risk to smaller clubs, and rewards clubs for producing talent as opposed to buying in.

Isn't that rule already in place for SL? I thought it was £100k for club trained in SL?
If not, then I agree it should certainly be brought in.

It was lesson in Rugby League. Souths were untouchable.

Nope. It was supposed to be, but clubs refused to vote it in for this year. I'm hoping to God the rfl don't let them dig their feet in too long and it's due to come in next year...

100k is also too high - should be 100k normally, 75k upon an England knight appearance and 60k after a full England cap.

That and a cap increase to £2m in 2016, and an agreement to increase it by ~100k per year for every year after that for 5 years is step 2

Stuff the Aussies and stuff their salary caps.

We beat Wigan in a Grand Final last year with a young side and then the aussie champs came over to play us in our new stadium, we sold out and we made some money out of it.

Come on, let's not get too down hearted. On the showing of Wigan and Warrington, there is not this gulf people are talking about between the SL and the NRL. Brisbane and St George will both fly back knowing they've been in a game as intense as their own league.

We know what rugby league is like sometimes. If one team doesn't do the basics right, and the other team gets it all right, then they will potentially pummel them.

Last season, Catalans tore us a new backside at their place. They turned up and we didn't. That 42-0 score line wasn't a reflection of the gulf between the two teams in general.

These things happen, it's not nice to be on the receiving end. It's just what happened on the night unfortunately. I guarantee South Sydney will have a few big defeats put on them this season because it's impossible to get it right in every game The lads will learn an awful lot from it.