I said HALFBACK. I didn't say SCRUM HALF!

His kicking game is inconsistent but so is Roby's. Is Roby not a hooker?

Against Salford we scored a beauty of a try from a great chip over the top from Lomax. Lomax scored today by chasing his own grubber.

You really do talk out of your backside sometimes.

Wilkin seems to look good when you are winning, but never seems to drag you from the losing to the winning position.

Conceding only 17 is a step forward though, get it down to 10 or 12 and you are in business

What Jonny Lomax and Saints need is better coaching. Sean Long is the man we need and he should have been handed a contract as soon as he retired. He is already working wonders with Salford. He could get Lomax playing well and also get the team motivated.

Sure. I'm a big fan of Lomax's, and he has had some great games at 7, but given the amount of options we currently have in the pivotal roles I don't think his position is quite set in stone yet.

One issue we certainly have is that we only have one decent kicker in the side. Every time the ball goes to anyone other than Gaskell on the last tackle the chances are the result will be poor. Bringing Wheeler into the halves would add a second kicking game to the side, would give us some variety and would take some pressure off Gaskell. I think if we had that combination, with Lomax joining the line from fullback, we'd immediately have a much more dangerous and far less predictable back line.

Muppet - Swift has never played 7 for either Blackbrook, our 18s or 20s

If Salford finish in the top 8 I think the club should seriously looking at bringing him in as assistant coach, he was always rated as the one who would make a good coach endorsed by Daniel Anderson.

Ask him does he fancy playing

Your half backs are OK, just got marked out of it today,Lomax was having to run side to side.

There's some knee jerkers on here, alright.

A couple of bad weeks doesn't all of a sudden make the players that came runners up last year "not up to it".
Whilst Lomax's ultimate position may not be #7, he's had plenty of games when he's performed there against top opposition.

What you have is a team that's playing badly. Against Catalan, it was mainly the defensive line. Apparently that was a lot better this week,but we lacked in other areas.
IMO I'm afraid in times like this the blame lies mainly with the coaching staff.

We started poorly last year and seem to have done the same. We pulled it around in the end, so maybe we'll do it again. Let's not all panic at once.

I'm not sure we are playing poorly, I think unfortunately this is where the squad should be. Our front row is pathetic and won't make the metres to give the half backs the chance to shine. Our outside backs and fullback are probably one of the worst in. Super League.

perhaps hudds are a better side than people give them credit for?

Thats just stupid talk.

Nah, that's just stupid talk

Don't be ridiculous, they'll not finish anywhere near the top 4 just like they haven't for the last few years.

In regard to some of the comments about Lomax. He's a runner at the moment, and that's it. However, so was Long for the first few years with us. People forget that it was only really 2004 when he started to control a game, after having a few years of doing little else. Our problem is that we have two inexperienced half backs. A move of Hohaia to half back to partner Gaskell will give us some experience in the half back position but allow us to have someone there with a kicking game. I'd then move Lomax to full back, this would allow him to still be a creative fulcrum of the team, but would take the pressure off and make him harder to pick up by the opposition defence (it sounds like he was targeted yesterday, get used to it, everyone will be doing it now).

Nail on the head as far as I'm concerned.

All that crap in 9 pages,wait till we get our 3 international forwards back LOD,Fallogo,and Mace the ace.

They would be the international forwards who didn't play against Australia and New Zealand last year?

Chin up boys and girls, easy game on Friday. Providing you can score 16 points you will beat us

Yep thats em kid great players, you were beaten by a pack of forwads that were backs apart from Crabtree.

Er, we were beaten by a drop goal from Brough, actually.

Ye but are pack of backs laid the platform.

The truth hurts my freind ,the truth hurts.

Most young halves burst onto the scene because they are quick and posses a good support game and a decent running game. They then either move to full back or given time, develop a good kicking and passing game. Imo the situation saints have found themselves in is having two similar players and no quality kicking game.

If you take leeds as an example they had 2 young quality halves in burrow and mcguire but they didnt start that much together at a young age for the 1st team but when they did we always had sinfield as a main kicker. They have both since developed better kicking games, especially mcguire.

A quality kicking game is something Saints have missed since Long was still playing well for you and you had Sculthorpe to compliment him.

Well Lance is talking like a leader, with experience, while Roby is injured should he be pushed as 2nd Captain? Maybe he can get their head is the right state of mind.
[urlhttp://www.loverugbyleague.com/news_8372-saints-need-to-get-over-grand-final-loss.html[/url

Well, Jonny was very poor tonight. One of the worst games I've seen from him. TBH, I think the kid is being crushed by the responsibility of having to direct the team - especially the forward pack. He's a free spirit and should play as such. Overloading him with the burden he's currently carrying is killing the lad.