Me too... Probably against Wigan... God help us... Give me 2 80-0 defeats against Wire in the playoffs beforehand any day.

We had something last year that we don't this year: an effective halfback partnership. It's a sad state of affairs when Wilkin is our main kicking threat.

I agree, but a lot of people are too blinded by the past that they either won't or can't admit it. Wellens has been a great player for us but sadly doesn't contribute enough anymore to warrant being in a top 4 side. He made 2 good contributions tonight, catching a bomb and putting Shenton through for his try. Other than that he was constantly late getting to attacks, threw the ball on the floor a couple of times and killed possession.

Our play off run blew up in the last game of the season against Leeds. But we were and are a comfortably team than Saints last year or this.

We can't stretch a defence out wide like Wigan and Wire do and its mainly because Wellens movement across the back and into the line is so easy to monitor. Hohaia proved his pace last night tracking down Myler and we know he can be dangerous with the ball in hand.

We've based our revival on a % game, but surely that lends itself to picking a standoff with a kicking game, rather than a player based on the odd bit of flair. Lance can be dangerous, but I'm afraid our ball movement, when compare to the W's is poor. Gaskell should be #6 - The team would be much better off for it.

As most of us mentioned, we were worried about Wire's ability to up the intensity. We've had a poor line speed since Royce took over and that hasn't really improved. Wire came on to the ball at pace and our failure to meet them properly meant they were getting easy yards, landing on the front foot and getting offloads away without a problem.

Our players didn't disgrace themselves. I thought we had good games from Perry, Clough, LMS, I thought Dixon played well when he came on. I thought Shenton was good with ball in hand, despite getting a few hospital passes (although I haven't rewatched the Waterhouse try, which could have been a black mark to him), but as a whole, much like the Wigan games, Wire played 10% quicker/keener/more agressive across the park which left us with little chances. If we can flick that switch and gear things up (like Leeds do when its needed), then we will be be a true threat to the clubs above us, but untill then........

Final remark - Ben Westwood. What an animal. he way he trucked the ball up was immense

Willie Manu will add some much needed fire power to our pack but we still are in dire need of a prop.

Tommy makinson is a real worry for me now, he's very low on confidence and Warrington had his number all night and it was clear from the first min what they was going to do with tommy.

He'll come through, he's got some great qualities and seems like a solid character.
A few weeks ago he was picking bombs out the air for fun, but he seems to have the colly woblles with them at the moment.
Also, whilst it was a great effort to get riley into touch, he'd drifted in towards the centre, which is something he's been guilty of doing earlier in his career. As you say, if we can get his confidence back up, these things should dissapear.

As we mentioned before the game, playing puletua wide of the ruck completely marginalises him. Whilst he was ok in his stint later in the game, on the whole he was anonymous. They'd have been better playing Laffranchi out there and Puletua in the middle.

The one saving grace for Makinson is that the fans don't seem to identify him as a scapegoat. Had that been Jamie Foster last night, there would have been pitchforks and torches and a mass witch hunt.

Makinson should be playing fullback, he should have been playing fullback for 2 years. I think we're going to ruin the potential he's got, he doesn't seem comfortable on the wing and he isn't playing well this season.

In hindsight do you not feel you missed a trick not signing Chris Hill last season? I know Purtill and others from Saints came to Leigh and watched him quite a bit last season and his ability was there for all to see. Saints had eyes on him way before Warrington came onto the scene and yet seemed to hesitate, and hesitate and eventually he got an offer from Wire instead.

Absolutely. I was gutted when he signed for Wire, he's a class act.

Yes we did miss out on hill and we also missed out on ratchford as well, they are two good young British players.

Our biggest problem is in defence where we were found wanting again in the collision and speed of PTBs. We couldn't slow down Warrington and Tony Smith, being the very good coach that he is, did the same as the pies do against us. Suck us in with the quick PTB then throw it out wide.

We don't work hard enough or show enough aggression. I was amazed at how much work Warrington do after the initial contact. They are doing what Wigan did last season and getting as many into the tackle as possible, with at least one and often two or three joining after the initial contact, just to slow the resultant play the ball down and minimise the chance of an offload. They also work really hard to turn the player round or over. We don't do any of that.

We're too disciplined in general. It was amazing how much ground Warrington stole last night by moving off the mark. They were walking forwards to play the ball, stealing two or three steps. I really hope Brown makes us more ruthless, numbers in the tackle and more aggression are things we need to focus on.

Line speed & aggression badly missing last night. I thought we were equally lazy in attack. One man rugby with no running options or support which is so easy to defend against. I dont like Hohaia, he'll never be a half back as long as he has a hole in his ass, but no one running lines or hitting holes makes it even harder.
These tactics dont work against the top sides. Would rather go out "having a go". Next three games gives us the chance to implement some changes & experiment. We currently have no plan B.
Blood Makinson at full back, Gaskell in at six, & interchange Roby & Lance with Roby spelling at loose forward.

After the Catalan game, Mike Rush spoke about how he couldn't understand the ruck this year, and that every team we play have lightening fast play the balls and we can't seem to buy one.

I was so frustrated when he said that, as it is clear as day to me, unless he was just trying to put pressure on referees. Maybe you should send him a letter to explain?

unfortunately Rush doesn't have the bottle to make such changes

I think we were awful round the PTB area last night, the amount of times we still had players with back to ball trying to get back the 10 and Warrington had played the ball was unreal.

For me the only person who won the PTB consistently was Josh Perry, everytime he was involved in the tackle he was trying to hold the player up for as long as possible before dumping them on their backs with such ease.

One idiot behind me was moaning about how quick Warrington PTB was, then in the next breath screaming at Perry to get off Morley before he give a penatly and he was nothing but a peantly machine, and IIRC correctly he never gave a penatly for messing about in the tackle, he does that very well.

With ball in hand i thought Clough had a good game, espically when running back at the ruck on the angle, he managed to get a few loose arms make good yards and land on his front alot which we never did much thoughout the game.

Good shout on Clough. I thought he was probably the pick of the side yesterday.

We're losing territory as the defence wasn't as intense as Wire's, we also lack a kicking game. If Gaskell does nothing else he gives us a booming kicking game than consistently finds the floor behind the winger/fullback.

Lomax has done little for me recently, his running game is not effective and he doesn't contribute organisationally. This may be down to him, this may be down to the set up of the team, but he's just not getting involved in broken play which is where he's more effective.

I think player wise, we aren't far behind Wigan and Wire, each team has it's positives and negatives, where we are behind is in coaching. We have players that can turn over 3/4 of the league with a basic game, what we don't have is a coaching team that can deliver that extra 10% to enable us to beat teams of similar stature consistently. Brown can't come in quick enough for me.

I agree about the kicking game, yesterday everytime it was last tackle for Warrington i was worried about the outcome, whereas with our kicking game i found myself thinking thats a decent kick for 'us' because it bounced once before it was easily collected. On one occasion i think it was Lomax? got the ball off Roby and i never seen him once before or after receving the ball have a look where anyone was it was a case of how far can i kick it.

Also what was with the amount of time we gave for them to get a kick away, im not making excuses for Meli or Makinson, they was awful under the kicks, but i bet they was sick of the sight of Briers have 5 minutes to pin point each kick without any pressure being put on him, Briers is the best kicker in the league, why give him the time? Once we put pressure on him.

Absolutely right on all points. I'm still no fan of Gaskell but he couldn't be doing any worse a job than Lance is. I reckon we need a half back [idesperately[/i, an extra prop for squad depth, a replacement for Meli if he leaves, a replacement for Makinson if he continues his Foster-like decline of late and a replacement for Turner if he doesn't improve PDQ when he gets here. Give us that lot (easier said than done granted), some decent coaching/tactics and a bit of the old hunger and we're pretty much a match for anyone player-for-player. Otherwise we'll be back to tediously grinding up 80% of the league for most of the season and then being run ragged come the big games as this year.

The reason we can't get a quick PTB is because we get absolutely mullered in contact.

The few times we won the collision yesterday and actually got on the front foot, Warrington scrambled off us and we got the quick play.

We need to get out of the habit of expecting to be given a fast ruck. It's not 2005 anymore and you need to earn it by getting on top in the forwards.

I think some things can be taken from Rush's comments in regard to going back to what Anderson did in his time at Saints, the game has since moved on and we've gone backwards tactically.

We totally lack structure in attack, Warrington moved up quickly in defence and we just fell to pieces, it was embarrassing at times. Got to agree on the prop situation too , Laffranchi (sp) looked like a back rower playing prop yesterday

For me we should have Lomaskell in the halves and Lance at FB , it would make us far less predictable

The only player to come out of that game with any credit was probably Josh Perry. First 40 mins of one man rugby, i was expecting a change in tempo in the second half but no we got the same again with the exception of the 75th to 78th minute.
It was avery similar game to the Wigan one at the DW, our backs struggling big time against a tight defence.
Well done Warrington they played like the Saints of Old, when are we going to get out Mojo back.