Form is temporary, class is permanent. Eventually, we are going to hit some form again, and who's to say its not going to be after the week off?

Exactly! The doom and gloomers on here are having no effect on me! We are capable of winning this, obviously we aren't favourites, but that's when we play our best rugby!

Thank you



Saints will be good for the weeks rest but i still think a bit of game time after that will be needed until Saints get back to business.

But yet again after you lose to Leeds

it wont be long until you have HKR/Hudds to deal with, and we all know about your record with those 2 this season. Jeez Potter is going to be busy this week!

Back to Back Champs = Class

Class + Form = hugehidinghandedouttosaints!

That's a bad analogy. Leeds were looking pretty good up to that play-off game, nothing like as bad as the recent form of Saints.

That said we all know that what matters most is how you play in the final (if you make it). Things look doom and gloom for Saints now but you've got what remains an excellent squad that knows how to win things, so who knows. Leeds really don't cope well with the favourites tag either.

I never look at he saints Leeds game and never think it's a given for either teams!! you cant write these 2 teams off ever!! I won't be suprised if saints win! Just as I won't be suprised if Leeds win! Al be suprised if its a crap game!! That's about it

I'l go with that. Leeds must be favourites, but its never a given against any side, let alone between leeds and saints!

Will be good to go in as underdogs

Nobody fancies us versus Leeds or say Shudds or the Robins in the play-offs.

However, we have had a bad patch, we can only get better and players coming back will help that.

I think we will put in a solid effort v Leeds but lose out and comfortably beat Les Cats - if we can have a near fit pack for the play-offs I would back us to make the GF and then see if we can do a bit better as underdogs than favourites

Lots of ifs but let's stay positive!

I'd agree with pretty much all of that.

Get away!

We've also got the following excellent attacking moves,

the "Last tackle, take the tackle trick" - very popular recently, it always catches people by surprise, I often hear them say that they can't believe we've done it again

and not forgetting,

the "Quick hands to stationary right winger ploy" - also with a variation where we pass it [ibehind [/ithe winger to outfox the opposition even more

and last but not least

the "Ginger up the middle bash up" - to be fair we do rely on this one maybe a little too much

Music to my ears friend you are my hero.

Bring back Daniel Anderson. Problems go deeper than injuries for me...

The team looks poorly coached at the moment and why that is, I have no idea.

I think your optimistic. Anything like the recent games 75 point loss. Although if we are lucky leeds are also still struggling.

come on, 3 props out injured from an already thin squad. No team would do as well as we have with these injuries.

I don't think you can blame Potter. Saints are entering a transitional period now with many of the pivotal players of yesteryear coming to the ends of their careers. The coach and management must have been aware of this at the start of the season, and probably weren't expecting things to be completely rosy. In fact, given Potter's experience building Les Catalans up, this was probably a factor in choosing him to be coach in the first place.

I think the poor form at present of many players (e.g. Pryce, Wellens etc) may simply be a factor of too many games played. As a Leeds fan I'm amazed by how consistent Saints have been in the league over the past few seasons while we have tended to blow hot and cold in comparison. Saints had to hit an extended bad patch at some point.

This.

It has been the manner of the losses that have been the concerrn. Losing games is one thing, to be completely devoid of ideas or invention is a big concern.

At the start of the season, St. Helens Star ran a encouraging story on how much fitter the Saints squad were. This looks positively foolish given the lethargy on evidence at the moment.

It is a concern, but maybe having the player who has been our scrum half for the last 10 YEARS out through injury for a long time has been a factor?

I remember how terrible we used to be without Long under Millward and Anderson. It's not a new thing. Eastmond is a good player but he is very raw. Even with Long playing poorly all season we had more direction and options in the final third.

Get Longy back and firing behind a pack with some big men back, we'll start looking more dangerous.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see us win at Leeds either.

I agree it is the manner of how we been losing games.

Also even in some games we have won, we have played pretty poor.

How long was Long out injured prior to the 2007 grand final? It's just that we managed to secure top spot in the league and get into the grand final without him at that stage but I can't remember if he was just a couple of weeks out or for as long a time as he has been out this season.

about 5 games from memory and matty smith did a great job filling in

I'm pretty sure smith played about 11 games when longy was out. I think we was on something like 8 game winning run when longy came back.

IIRC longy came back for cc final then didn't play until playoffs.