Anderson will be around whilst he's over here for the Exiles.

Spot on.


Absolutely. Both have improved and we still have to play them again.


I agree entirely.


Exactly.

The bit about Hudds is what continues to concern me in relation to the appointment of Brown, especially given our lack of fire.

[iBecause the players had thrown their toys out of the pram and were no longer playing for him!!!![/i What is so difficult about this for people to understand? He may have been **** but we still (practically) won a GF with the guy and nearly the same players just a few games earlier, with little difference between the team that mullered Wigan twice and was well on top against Leeds and the shambles against Bradford except for individual player performance. If the players had put in 1/4 of the effort in the Hull/Bradford/etc. games [iwhen they weren't turning up[/i that they put into the Leeds/Warrington games [iafter[/i they'd gotten their way then we would now be performing a lot better and be looking a lot healthier for the rest of the season. Simmons has been shown up as far from being a top SL coach and needed to go at the end of the season. But Rush is being shown up as being not a SL coach at all.

Mugwump my lad, you talk a lot of sense. There's some hope for you yet

Sounds as if Rushy has slipped into our old 'Brian Noble' philosophy of its not how you start its how you finish blah blah blah. Expect a dire season, with a couple of playoff wins. Oh how times change

When Northampton and Mugwup agree surely that's a sign of the apocolypse.

Whilst we are not great, we are more organised. Rush and Cunningham(interesting we've now seperated them and MR is getting all the flack) seam to have taken us on a basic game plan which works against most SL outfits, is far from enertaining, but they have simply no interest in managing players.

However I do believe that every cloud has a silver lining. This extended period is allowing to see some home truth's.
I've rated Wheeler from one 30 minute spell, but this constant run shows that it's not something he can do on a regular basis. Lance can't say he's not been given any chance at half back, until he got a run it could have been a case of us not playing well but thinking that maybe lance could change it all if he got a run at half back.

Wellens the mind is willing but the body just cannot do it and he is being asked to do more than ever to make up for failings elsewhere in the team, but has been ghosted past by too many players for it to be a one off.

I was an advocate of getting rid of Royce when we did and, to be honest, I stand by it. My mood, which mirrored that of most after the Hull and Bradford was at an all time low. We lost to those two sides without them doing very much, to be honest (save a bit of magic from Turner).
I genuinely think those performances were going to have a severe detrimental effect on next years ST sales if they were allowed to continue, which I think would have been at the forefront of McManus's mind.
What he did by sacking Royce was to partially nullify any lack of performance for the rest of this season, knowing that it could be attributed to a temporary coaching staff and that people would be looking forward to a shiney new dawn under a new coach.
I'm not sure what went on with Royce but I don't think we're were going to see a turn around like we did last year under him, I think things had gone too far.
Whilst the Wigan results have been very hard to stomach, we have beaten every body else we've come up against. I'd be wary of playing Wire again, but apart from that I'm reasonably confident about our pack grinding out a win.
Is it also worth pointing out that I reckon Wigan look better this year than last?

Most of us have vented our frustration that Gaskell hasn't been brought back in. We all think its obvious that he'll improve us. Rush, however, seems intent on keeping the same 17 every week. Its possible that he thinks that that side will win every 4 out of 5 games and finish a resepctable position - not a bad stint for a caretaker manager.

Whilst I can understand that point of veiw, I find it curious that a coach who's made his name developing young players is so reluctant to experiment with players and indeed, put some faith in a young lad that is at least partially proven.

I don't particulary like Rush when he's interviewed, the flippant and sarcastic answers grate on me a little.
As they said to Shaun McCrae when he was given the coaching role - "You've got two jobs as Sants coach. One - win a trophy. Two - beat Wigan."
Unless you're doing one of them at least occasionally, you can't be smug.

True Dat!
Guilty of It myself,If they dont shift Hoahia its gona seriously p1ss me off.
Lance has nothing to offer at s/off.sort it out.

I think we can safely say that's true. McManus has staked the crown jewels on the future success of the stadium and there was simply no way he'd tolerate a fall-off in season ticket sales when he's doing everything in his power to increase them.

But with or without Royce he's facing trouble. This year is the first I've brought my two kids on season tickets. So far they've enjoyed the Wigan game in the league, Leeds and bits of the others. But on numerous occasions they have been bored out of their minds. No atmosphere. No performance. No entertainment. Which is certainly NOT what I expected early in the year.

Now, I'll more than likely renew and I'm sure the kids will enjoy the game more as they gather an understanding. But I'm also sure there will be many others who will simply drift away.

It's all well and good for McManus and Rush to be thinking of picking experienced players over rookies to win this game and that. But if we're out of the competition anyway the only thing winning alone guarantees is a few extra quid at the end of the season. The missing element here is ENTERTAINMENT.

If we can't win the competition what would you prefer - wins or good rugby (I'm not saying these terms are mutually exclusive, btw)?

The '[isix days before the Wigan game we were the best thing since sliced bread[/i' comment is ridiculous.

Who actually thought this? I'd take a guess at not many...

These were my thoughts straight after the game




So glad i wrote might

He hasnt done himself any favours with that comment.
He already comes accross a smug without patronising the fans.

You don't even get that - the team finishing 9th makes more money out of the league than anyone else does...

Logic would normally dictate that the season is now over and we might as well throw some kids in and try some different tactics and formations and see what happens. Thing is that under the current playoff system we only need to win 3 more games to be "champions" - Wigan look as though they're peaking way too early this season again and could be burnt out come the playoffs, Warrington always manage to do a Warrington at the end of the season, and Leeds might not even make the playoffs at all (not likely but possible). Rush' and KC's thinking might just be that grinding it through the middle, and getting the same senior players well entrenched into the mindset of doing so might end up being enough to win it all, so why bother changing anything... I would suffer immense mixed feelings if we did end up winning at O/T this season of all seasons...

lol

I would not worry your feelings too much, we ain't going to make it this year.

Almost certainly not, but most people thought exactly the same thing with exactly the same level of despondency at this point last season if you recall... It's only 3 or 4 games and a whole world of things can happen between then and now...

Last time I looked we were sixth in the table, five points behind Cats in third and have a stretch of games which could help us to get up to fourth if we win them all (especially with Cats and the Giants game straight after them). Given that we've only lost to Wigoon (comfortably admittedly) I think there's a degree of panic among those who appear to have some sort of inferiority complex about the pies.

Of course there are some problems that need to be addressed i.e. defence, but all this talk of apocalypse is naughty and bad form. We may not win anything this season but after Simmons leaving pretty much all of us had written off this season anyway and now, because of those two wins at the start of their reign, people are going mad and losing their cool. There's too many Joffreys in here and not enough Tyrions.

One thing that, i always feel, boost the feeling of satisfaction amongst fans is young players getting their chance. We've established we've got a solid pack to work with, we've established Rush and KC aren't under pressure to deliver a trophy, or even finish top 4 - so why not use the exciting set of young backs!?
Gaskell, Jones, Makinson (not on the wing), Swift, Foster and Ashe aswell as Lomax and Wheeler can help make a very able back line.

I think he's probably under pressure from McManus who at the start of the season unequivocally stated this team is a title contender.

Only if someone else knocks Wigan out of the playoffs.

I'm not panicing, I also thought we had a good chance of winning the GF last year and I reckon we will still squeeze inside the top 4. I think compared to the rest of SL, we are playing effective, if not thrilling RL at the moment, but that is because we are focusing pretty much everything through the pack.

I actually think the defense is generally very good, but when we have come up against the pies this year there has been an unfathomable collapse of that defense.

We have IMO improved since Royce left, and like I say I still think we'll make the top 4, but even when we played Leeds last week and won convincingly, the halves and outside backs where still the main issue.

So it depends on the question asked.

Are KC & MR doing a better job than Royce? Yes
Could Saints perform even better this year? Yes
Will Saints win the GF? No
Should Lance be playing half? No
Should we look at certain positions for next year? Yes
Will Saints be a force again for Trophies? Yes
Are Saints playing effective Rugby? Yes
Are Saints playing entertaining Rugby? -----
Do we need Cladding??

Nice quote, but Tyrion wasn't looking too clever at the end of Monday's episode.
Am I the only one that thinks he has a look of Brian Carney about him?

He does indeed.

He wasn't looking too clever but he's got some big balls for a little guy, unlike Joffrey the wet lettuce.

That wildfire bomb ship tactic was genius.

I'm loving it.

Does any one else watch is with their missus?
"Who's he? Who's she?"
"They're brother and sister, he was lovers with Stannis's little brother but she actually married him. That was before the shadow demon killed him, you know, the one the witch gave birth to."
".................. What!? "

Thankfully not, I couldn't be dealing with the questions.

Plus I'd have to pick my jaw up everytime Daenerys Targaryen comes onto the screen, as it is now, I can leave it hanging.