It's my natural response to this much doom. I'm giving up on reasoned arguements and just going with plain good old supporter one eye'dness.


Saints are great, Gaskell is going to kick Wigan to death and Royce will not put a back on the bench.

Hell ya!!!!!!!

They've been the most consistant side without doubt and have played some great rugby. We on the other hand have gone through the motions at times in the lesser games and that has been the real difference when it comes down to it.

Wigan and Wires records in games against the top 4 this season would be pretty similar I guess and they would be the real measure of what sort of difference there is between the sides. Our head to head games should probably tell us more then they do. They beat us at the DW but we'd had a hangover after the WCC, we beat them at their place in the cup but they were missing a couple of big players and then they beat us at their place in the league but we'd come off the back of winning the challenge cup and the players minds were elsewhere (as was mine as I couldn't give a monkeys all week in the build up to the game).

If they prove to be better then us then fair play to them. They still have to prove that though.

Saints managed what just fine? Beating the might of Wakefield at home the week after Wembley? A rather different task to the one we faced 2 weeks ago.

We'll see in the next few weeks just how well Wigan do in trying to back up a Wembley win with the Title.

Saints in 2006 lost only four games by no more than four points.

Warrington are a better team than Wigan this season. You need to accept this to find peace.

Win it and we'll give them all the credit they deserve. They've been fantastic.

Whilst your blowing all this smoke up Wire's ars*s I take it you've wrote your chances off?

I don't see why.

You've defo been drinking.

The reason why is = we could play fir 8 weeks and fail to put enough points on the board thaw capable of beating Wigan or wolves as our backs a crap.

Aye. That's why, barring one awful showing against Wigan, we've only been a try (and a dropgoal in Wire's case) away from being winners. Less than that at Cardiff. Had Jamie Foster had his kicking boots on that game would have been ours. And we led for most of the match at the DW. Stop making out that we have been hammered by Wigan and Wire this season. We haven't. We were hammered once because our forwards decided to be puny.

We have had endless disruption this season and inexperience in key positions. Expectations of fans are too high if they think two rookie halfbacks can pull off drubbings in their first season at top flight, especially if the forwards stay in the dressing room.

I'm all those games you mention if we have had creative halves and good attacking centre we'd have won.

Made me laugh the number of Pro Players last night who backed Huddersfield on twitter, perhaps Wishful Thinking LOL

Well, not in every case. At the DW what we needed was players to be on their mettle all of the time. Alas, Ashurst and Moore went to sleep for a moment and Wigan snuck through. At Cardiff Jamie didn't have his touchline kicking boots on. Against Wire we get dropsy and I think dropsy has undermined us more than anything this season. But certainly having experienced halves would have helped in all but the game against Wigan at Widnes (when they would have made no difference). However, the only way to have experienced halves is to give halves the experience, and experience means failure as well as success. Fans need patience.

When we got tonked it was not because of the halfs. It was because the forwards could not get us out of our half. In the closer games yep a long may have won it for us. But what can you do Eastmond useless Pryce injured. The lads who stepped in ran them asclose as they could. Not bad for a first year. better for it now and next year.

That's very nice, but I fail to see how it is relevant to my point?



Thus far, they have been. But if Wire don't win the GF, that will count for diddly $hit when the other teams share out the major trophies.

Well you'll know better than me. Do we have a back on the bench. Pppllease be no.

The problem is that when are extremely predictable with the ball. A few drives up the middle then telegraph that we are passing it wide to the left. The backs can't do anything if there's no space and we don't create space because our forwards die with the ball. When we have given the ball air via offloading we have looked good this season. Unfortunately we only open things up when we're comfortably in the lead or down by three tries with ten minutes left.

We do seam to have gone for less risk, and so less reward at times. That does seam to come from the coach.

ie less risk lets put a back on the bench, incase a back gets injured. Most games the back is sat having no effect. It's a risk averse stratergy but bring up other problemslike other players playing too many minutes in a game.

Is that really a problem though? It's not like we've run out of gas that often except perhaps against the big teams which has usually been more down to being behind anyway i.e. less possession. When was the last time we exploded out of the blocks against a half decent team?

I don't buy this at all. I think this year may be too soon but I think our backs are and will prove to be very good in time.

I'll treat this as a loaded question. ie who do you call a half decent team?

I'm assuming by this you mean Wigan and Warrington. My analysis of half decent would be a top 6 side.

But going on Wigan or Warrington, the last time was probably good friday at the DW.

Also depends what you mean by exploded. But some say Wigan exploded us in the semi final and that was 2 tries late in the first half.

Yup. He stated very clearly when Lomax and Gaskell first stepped into the roles that he had simplified the game plan to enable them to play. He has also stated that because injuries have repeatedly disrupted the side he has been unable to build on the basics, which makes perfect sense.

Assuming whatever the problem is which has caused our injury crisis this year is resolved ahead of next season, we should see a more complex attack developing as our rookies will have more experience and there will be more stability, allowing for more complex plays to evolve.

You've basically said what I've been saying all year more or less about our halves. It's clear to see we are in dire need of a quality experienced halfback if we want to WIN things in the near future but if we go with Gaskell and lomax then we need patience and accept that we will not win anything for at least 2/3 season and thaw if the risk pays off.

This current team doesn't struggle for field position or possession but in big games against top teams have not put enough points on the board after being camped on the other teams line for large periods.