You never fail to put a negative spin on things Saddened!!

FWIW I thought Laffranchi had a good game last night, but I'm sure you will disagree with that...

We haven't had too many moments to celebrate this season, and I agree that recruitment hasn't been the best, but let's just enjoy last night and savour the moment. It was a great performance, great atmosphere and a great night.

Yep!

What a poor attendance - oh for the old days!

14k was abysmal really. I really thought it looked like a lot more than that. South stand and both terraces looked full.

That's Monday night games for you. I would have come on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. But everyone suffers a drop on a Monday night. Hope Sky are paying the difference.

It's true though, the fans will connect. The player who most connects with the fans is Sia. He will acknowledge the crowd. It's not about being un-professional, but when the crowd chant your name on a walk back from a try it's always nice to acknowledge them.

Bit like actors on the red carpet, it's the time to connect with those paying the wages.

Agreed. I'm not a fan of his but he tried his best last night for a change.

I wasn't having a go, I understand Monday may be difficult for some, but there looked to be far more than 14k on.

Laffranchi is an honest, if undersized grafter who has looked lacklustre this season. What he does have is a decent offload (which we seem to under use), that move that he a roby does near the tryline that he scores from and (one we saw last night) the odd tackle that'll cut a guy in two. He did the latter last night to force one of their eroors.
To be fair, he was ok going forward too - it goes to show that when you turn up as a team, things go a lot better for you.

Laffranchi tackles okay, but he runs the ball in really soft. He just needs to put more effort in, charge the ball in and hurt players in defense, just give it everything. At the moment he plays like it's a training warmup, everything is in second gear. Same with LMS, if he plays like last night, he'd be a great player, but he doesn't.

Saints need to look at how Leeds, Wire, Wigan and Huddersfield do things. Their game is 100% aggression, they tackle to hurt and do everything with a solidity and extra effort to physically dominate and intimidate the opposition.

This is the key point, for me.
Boof went well enough last night, but as you say, most weeks he generally wanders aimlessly into contact for little gain.

One wonders if the vibe of Browns "experimental phase" has soaked into the senior forwards and has affected their attitude to the weekly rounds. Perhaps once we hit the playoffs and Brown moves to execute his masterplan, will the motivation crank up a gear?

First time I've seen Langtree Park rocking!

Playoff semi final last year was well rocking at the end

Someone was commenting on Wigan and how they blitz teams in the opening 20 minutes.

Maybe this is something we should be working on. Against Wigan and Leeds, Warrington, the natural urgency and intensity is there. So you get a performance like last night.

However, against other (lesser) teams we have lacked that from the forwards. If it's an issue then we need to work on some motivation, if that is copying Wigan and trying to blitz teams in the opening 20, then so be it.

You could argue we are all plan B, with no plan A.

Indeed.

You just felt it was going to be a special night. Wilkin saying we were going to rip in during the week, Wigan without Tomkins and the build up by SKY about our past success and recent losses. It was all building up to a moment and thank god we got it.

Best atmosphere there's been at LP. Probably the best at a home game since we left KR. W4 was bouncing from start to finish, but all three stands really got behind the lads and drove them on.

Special night.

I bet you were the one high fiving Wellens at the end





Must disagree with this...if you think Hohaia and Laffranchi are the worst we've ever had you cannot have seen Phil Adamson, Darrell Trindall, Heath Cruckshank, Bryan Henare, Leon Felton and you missed the blatantly obvious one in Josh Perry

First home game I had to miss all season.. think I better stay away every week!

Interesting, given that some people have said that it's the ground at fault for the lack of atmosphere in the past. I think Monday conclusively disproves that.

Once the cladding is up and the stadium gets that reverb sound going it'll be fine. We had many, many dour games at KR as well, games when the team played terribly and didn't try. But the team there was special for the last 15 or so years. We get a semi decent side that can at least hint at winning trophies and a team that approaches every game with the effort and commitment it showed on Monday, the atmosphere will never be a problem.

Really? You either haven't been watching Saints long or you have a very poor memory. They're not the best by any means but a million miles away from being the worst.

Damien Smith? Remember him (199icon_cool.gif?

I remember him coughing and spluttering during matches as if he'd been out on a 15-pint bender and smoked 40 Regal Kings the night before. The fact that this was the conclusion I jumped to at the time probably says a lot about the level of performance he was producing.

Michael O'connor, the best player in the world...

Michael Smith

I tend not to worry about the Michael Smiths, Tricky Trindall ans Phil Adamsons - they didn't actually get much game time due mainly to issues aside from their playing ability. Its when you find out we've signed a Kiwi prop for the up coming season, get all excited, and then it turns out to be Bryan Henare

....and then he stays for (what seems like) an age.

I think there are two classes of bad imports, in truth. One sort are the good players who fail to make an impression because they fall out with the coach/are over on a drinking holiday/get homesick/have injury problems etc. I think you can put the likes of O'Connor, Trindall, Adamson, Micheal Smith and Josh Perry in this category.

Then, occassionally, you just get players over who clearly have no ability whatsoever. Leon Felton and Bryan Henare spring to mind.