It was no coincidence that we were full of enthusiastic kids who just let rip on cas.

You've just undone your ONE sensible post on the Wigan site with that one.

bet you're going to lose sleep over that tonight eh mugwamp

You know, I think you may be right! Lets have the enthusiastic kids in a lot more often!

Yes please, been there done that.

Problem was, yours were rubbish

Not according to Stevo, he gave Kevin Brown a couple of watches you know

wow you can name a couple of try's that wernt entirely achieved through bash and barge tactics. I saw a great Ainscough try earlier in the season too (dont recall who it was against now) where he did what hardly any British Winger do these days and took someone on the outside, doesnt mean your not a very very Dull team to watch under Noble.

As for the people who say Saints are more boring , well I guess we probably are and have been since Millward left but we are a better team for it and we still retain more flair and attacking finess than most teams in SL .. Modern Rugby for you I guess...

I agree with that...

Super League is becoming quite monotonous at times. We've also been served up some tosh games on TV lately including the Eng v France non event.

I thought Quins were bad a few years back but slowly more and more teams are playing the dull 5 drives and a kick way they seemed to be obsessed with then. Cas are probably the most entertaining team at the moment.

Us Saints do try and entertain, espeically when Puletua, Gidley or Pryce are on song, but we really lack genuine pace outwide to really scincilate these days. I know I'm sounding like a spoilt brat but its true.

Defences are getting better and better and the fall back of the quick scoot from dummy half doesn't work as well as it used to. Until the playmakers get used to playing in that environment they will struggle to break teams down.

Hmmmm, I'm not 100% convinced on that. I just think the game has been slowed down this year which has allowed the defences to get set.

same principal though - it will take time for half backs to adapt their game to get used to slower play the balls, and be more creative due to having less space to work in. slowly we will get there - at which point, the Aussies will change their interpretations of the rules and we will be screwed again.

They've already changed them.

I'm not convinced defences get better year upon year. In Anderson's first season Saints had the meanest defence I've seen. Even the teams with big packs (like Bradford) struggled to make 40m in a set.

bloody communist cap

Teams defences are far more organised nowadays, look at the defensive line in most current SL games and then look at a video from even as early as 10 years ago, the difference is there, go back even further and it's even more apparent.

Aye - agree there. Watching the video of the 30-28 game at the Piedome in 2000, our defensive line was absolutely shocking compared to that of now. Half the pitch was wide open - literally - for the majority of our defending.

I think Lomax did this on Friday, didn't he? He was a class act on the wing, given that he is so new to the position and the first team.

He did indeed, it was the first time in memory i can remember that at KR very good to watch, more please!

They play Leeds at home then visit us in the two weeks before the semi. Tough fixture list.

Your not wrong, their entire run up to the semi is very tough. If they win more than 50% before then, they will have done well IMO. Alot depends on if the team come back from their holiday with or without the right attitude.

Half the problem with RL is that the fans are kept in the dark about tactics so cant appreciate what truly goes on, on the pitch.

As a result the only interest fans get is from seeing someone score what looks like a great try.

Many of todays trys from inside 40 metres of the opposition line are technically far better trys, than the solo long range efforts of yesteryear. Todays trys are often real team efforts that move through multiple pairs of hands and work the opposition defence hard.

Defences pre SL were very bad, so a lot of trys that were scored were very soft efforts, even if they looked good.

As a guide i got the stats for Widnes v Cas in 1989. At half time Widnes had made 126 tackles and missed 26, while Cas had made 90 tackles and missed 30. The score was 12-12 by the way. Match played in dry conditions and this was two teams in the top 6.
GB international centre Andy Currier had missed 5 tackles after just 30 minutes play.

Statistically therefore Cas had a 75% tackle completion rate
Widnes had a 82% completion rate.
Remember this percentage was likely to drop as players tired in the second half.

For Comparison Saints currently average 94% tackle completion this year, and we dont have the most miserly defensive record in the league.

In the modern game a team completing only 75% tackles would be annihilated, yet strangely this supposedly very exciting game from the 1980's was locked at 12 all, despite paper thin defence.

That to me points to a far poorer game than we see today, as clearly players were not good enough to exploit the gaps constantly appearing on the pitch. Overall application and execution was poor, and it was generally left to pieces of individual inspiration rather than great teamwork to score a try.

Jesus wept, just how long did you waste writing that up?

It better be 3 times as long as it took me reading it or i'll be ed off.


what percentage is that?

so you've chosen one game out of the 96,567 other pre superleague matches. rubbish

p.s why does EVERYTHING have to be about Superleague and pre superleague comparisons with you lot

because one is the current game and one is in the past.

If it was still called the Stones Bitter Championship things would be exactly the same.