What, and move Dawson out of centre? He's the new Willie Talua!!

On a serious note, I agree we should move him back to centre although I believe that KC's maybe thinking that Turner's switch to stand off (with some patience) could work and be reminiscent of Leon Pryce's successful switch to 6 in the latter part of his Bradford days.

There's still tons of improvement to be made with Saints style of play, however they were excellent in turning the screw on Cas last night and forcing so many drop outs. It could be pure coincidence but opposition players appear to be getting hurt/injured against us, so I'm happy with the physical side of our game.

3 wins out of 4, and in the top 4 so we must be doing something right.

I'm not the biggest fan of Turner due to his defence and I think he lacks heart sometimes but in attack he's pretty good. I'd go as far to say he's probably our best strike player if given good ball.

3 out of 4 is good start and the sign of a good team is one that wins when not playing well

Amor on both occasions, he struggles a bit one on one and was flying out of the defensive line on a couple of occasions as well, I think the opposition know his weakness.

Amor's problem is the twin brother he has who occasionally locks him in the space under the stairs on match days and steals his jersey.

Never known a player who does so many things right only to inexplicably do them wrong.

Just goes to show what people focus on. The radio Leeds commentators gave huge credit to Amor said he had a massive for Saints.

I didn't see the game on Friday so can't comment.

Amor was fine. I will tell you who the defensive liability in our side is, Jon Wilkin. He missed so many tackles again on Friday. The whole team can't defend though, it's the weirdest thing about KC's tactics. He goes for this 'grind em down' philosophy, but we simply can't defend our line. We had so much more possession than Cas but they scored pretty much every time they got the ball near our line.

Friday was a strange game, not unlike the Huddersfield game. We were solid, completed the sets well and kicked superbly. I think from memory we forced something like 6 or 7 drop outs. That pressure told eventually as Cas lost players to injury and we managed to grind out the result. The negatives were our defending close to the line, which is truly shambolic, and our inability to attack with any sort of cohesion. We looked far better balanced when Swift went off injured. It put Turner back to centre and brought Theo into the halves, which meant we had options across the field. We still didn't gel, but we at least had the ability to shift the ball across the field competently and had options when kicking with Walsh, Wilkin and Fages all available. I thought Fages did well, stopped two breaks with superb cover tackles. The lack of breaks is a concern, if we're behind in games we'd really struggle to get back into them.

That does not sound like LMS at all...

Wilkin, not for the first time, was our top tackler. He missed 5 of 39 (13%), but there were plenty who attempted fewer tackles and had a higher miss rate: Dawson missed 33% of his, McDonnell 40%, Turner 42%, Walsh 25%, Walmsley 15%. So, while I agree that our defence looks ineffective and that one factor in that ineffectiveness is poor tackling, it's odd to pick out Wilkin as a particular offender.

Maybe I'm the odd one out but I enjoyed Fridays game.

I don't expect to see free flowing rugby on a wet windy evening in March.

It was a tight evenly fought game of rugby where the result was in doubt until the last minute and I think it's fair to say that if Roberts had stayed on the result may have been different, but that's rugby.

Yes players miss tackles but sometimes you have to credit the opposition.

I preferred the shape of the team in the second half with Turner at centre and Fages in the half backs, in this case the change was caused by Swifts injury but maybe Fages is best used as a second half sub to run at tired legs.


Maybe I'm a glass half-full type of guy

Strange, but true, he didn't give away a single penalty on Friday.

Which game was Judder Man watching?

The stats haven't shown it, but he gave away a penalty on the 5th tackle for lying on around the half way line, myself and half a dozen others were cursing him for doing it as it just piggy backed Cas up the field. LMS is one of our worse offenders in the team for it.

Don't think the stats are right for Amor either, he missed 4 tackles, 2 of them when he rushed out of the defensive line grabbed and missed and he also failed on both occasions for Castlefords 1st and 3rd try.

Cas's first try was caused because Vea slipped when coming off the line, Amor tried to cover from marker but got stood up as a result. the third try came about because Amor came off the line and Vea didnt.

LMS is frustrating with his penalties, and is seemingly offering ever decreasing returns.

Wilkin, regardless of percentages, is 4th for missed tackles across the whole of the SL.

Our entire back row needs a shake up imo.

Amor got through mountain of work in first 20 mins. He was taking it in 2 times in each set at times

Wilkin did stick out like sore thumb for his missed tackles as he seems to be left on the ground and then you see him slowly running back into the line so it stands out.

Does anyone know the extent of Swift's injury? The lad has been fantastic for us in my opinion. He's probably the only one in the team I would back to go full length of the pitch from broken play, has great footwork, defence and an excellent attitude IMO and I love how he never gives up a lost cause, cutting across field to make sure an opposition player can only score in the corner at the very worst.

I've said all last year and this year that our backrow can't tackle. You can't knock Vea and Wilkin for effort in defence but they miss far to many tackles.

The stats dont pick up the ones where he doesnt even attempt a tackle. I think if we could get a stat for breaks made in the gaps either side of Wilkin it would be a very high number.

If the stats are right, Cas made 5 clean breaks in the match. Did the majority come either side of Wilkin? I'm asking a real question since I was not at the match.

But one cannot judge the significance of Wilkin's position in that table without knowing what the percentages are; though I accept the point that's been made many times on these boards that the stats do not show the nature of the misses, either in terms of field position or in terms of the ebb and flow of the match.

I think Amor and Vea tend to miss the most tackles as they're out there for long periods of time.

We run Vea especially into the ground playing 80 mins week in, week out, taking 15-20 carries per game (sometimes more). I think missing tackles are a consequence of this. I'd like to see Vea, LMS and Greenwood interchanging with none of them doing more than 60 mins at a time. Let Wilkin direct us round the pitch at 13. Tasi/Thompson, Walmsley, Savelio and Amor as props. I'm happy with Wilkin playing 80 mins as he's more of a pivot than a metre maker.

m.sthelensreporter.co.uk/sport/s ... -1-7768962 He's just the biggest excuse man now. Not playing attractive rugby because of the salary cap? I've heard it all now

m.sthelensreporter.co.uk/sport/s ... -1-7768962 He's just the biggest excuse man now. Not playing attractive rugby because of the salary cap? I've heard it all now

If he is up against the salary cap, then from what I've seen so far, he is overpaying a lot of players.

I think he's just completely lost in his own idealism, someone needs to have words and put him back into reality.

Two outspoken legends of the game in Alex Murphy and Garry Schofield have both criticised our approach and style of play and KC has brushed their comments off.

Has I've said in previous posts, I think Cunningham can be a success coaching us but I admit I am a little perturbed by his comments disregarding an expansive style as being the way to win games. He's a St Helens lad and he knows the clubs philosophy. A few years ago, Rush compared the clubs philosophy to that of football teams like Ajax and Barcelona. The hierarchy at this club expect the team to be entertaining and so I expect KC knows that too.

I expect another 2 points tonight and that will be 4 out of 5. We should be aiming to keep them to at least 1 try because personality I'm more concerned by our defence than attack at present.