I guess it's a question of making hay while the Brough shines eh?

Well done on breaking the hoodoo by the way! I think you were the only team with a hoodoo left to break. Some impressive play from your team tonight.

I could have crowned him last season, and not in the royal sense of the word either.

Very true the same donkeys were guilty again except for Flannery who has his best game in living memory not one tackle missed and had his usual game in attack!!!



I have to say I thought it was our pack. Perry and Laffranchi are just not physical enough for starting props. We looked good in preseason with some of the big kids like Greenwood and Walmsley but we went back to a small, weak pack in the first game. Hard to understand.



It may have been 3 or 4 but who is counting. Wello showed his true colours tonight even the most biased Wello fan couldn't defend him tonight. If Wello was my dog I would take him to the vets and get him put down. We are just making him suffer, he is never going to retire. We need to put him out of his misery while he still has some of his dignity left.

Wello put in more effort and commitment than the rest of them out together tonight, and if the rest cared half as much as he did, we would be a far better team. He was under so much pressure tonight it was ridiculous, and although he was poor, he was certainly not our worst out their tonight.

I dont subscribe to that, if i played for Saints i'd put in all the effort and commitment but i'd still be rubbish, the difference is i know im past it and rubbish, Wello doesnt

Disagree. I don't think he put in any more or less effort than anyone else and he was just as rubbish as everyone else. He was a great last line of defence. How many tries did they score again? I don't think he was anywhere near the attackers for any of them was he?

We didn't have a leader on the park. This doesn't need to be the caprain but obvuously this helps. Its in reality someone who stands proud, rallies those around them and as necessary uses their last breath to make things happen. There was too many players left that field tis evening with fuel keft in the tank, each one of those could have been the leader. Every one of thise players with a breath left in theiir lungs should be thiroughly ashamed if themselves.

Did I miss somethimg?

Fwiw Brough was outstanding all last season and was criminally overlooked for england

but when you get Sinfield getting the golden boot there is no chance....

You have a problem with so called club 'greats' influencing far too much. They got rid of Millward and Simmons and Purtill. Get rid before it kills you.

Far too early for the predictable knee-jerking, gents.

Huddersfield won their cup final and we were caught cold - it happens. It's going to take time for the halves to shake of the Rusht (did you see what I did there?

) and for the rest of our young backs to find their feet together, and time is something we have plenty of. As always I'll start getting a bit worried if we're still misfiring in June, not before.

I think the majority know it's just one game, but after having expectations so heavily dashed , there is bound to be as passionate a response from fans as there was a lack of physical effort from the players.

You don't fork out over £200 and then see that and think about what will happen in September, you worry that you have just burned up £200.

There was an element of complacency from the start and our forwards expected an easy game given what happened in the friendly. That is criminal for a professional team.

The half-backs were not the main problem, but they did not help matters with poor ball options time and time again. Lomax kept hitting that x ball when really he should be putting it out the back and giving our 3/4s more of a chance. Gaskell did not touch the ball in the first half except for when he was kicking.

Defence was appalling - not sure why after two solid defensive efforts in the friendlies. A lot of players were getting the basics wrong - i.e. grabbing and not using their shoulders, not moving up and meeting the ball carrier etc: BASICS

I'm not overly worried tbh, it was one game were everything that could have gone wrong did so. Give credit to the Giants, they played superb.

I really cannot see us playing the same way next week as the players need a good rollicking and hopefully they get one. It was a player issue tonight, rather than a coaching one.

Did you notice are forwards was getting in at 1st receiver at times and ball handling ?

Not something that stood out? Not watched it back for obvious reasons!

I did. That concerned me. We aren't Canterbury. Only James Graham could pull that off and he was also prepared to put the hard yards in, something not one of our forwards was prepared to do last night.

Very complacent performance up front, with the perfect storm of great hudds performance and some bad luck.

Unpleasant and uncomfortable to watch, but I feel the timely reminder that league is a game that rewards hard work and aggression will serve us well.

No talismanic from me yet,

Very complacent performance up front, with the perfect storm of great hudds performance and some bad luck.

Unpleasant and uncomfortable to watch, but I feel the timely reminder that league is a game that rewards hard work and aggression will serve us well.

No panic from me yet, but wello, Wilkin and manu would be sitting out the Widnes game if I were in charge.

It concerned me as well. Its a nice effective idea if it works but we ain't got the players good enough to do that.

It takes Perry all his effort to catch the ball, never mind passing.

TP is to lazy to pass the ball but believe me, he'd pass all night if he could, he looked afraid of the giants last night.

Laffranchi is small enough to play in the halves but he can't even master the prop postion so he's no chance at being a ball player.

What a load of tosh.

Being a Saints fan you naturally watched him week in week out?

As much as it was a terrible start to the season, a lot of posts on here are showing we have fans who know very little in terms of RL.

Firstly, last season began with Gaskell & Lomax in the halves and we looked clueless, very similar to last night. The reason being, neither one of them is experienced enough or knows how to organise a team properly. Whilst hohaia is not the best half back in the world, he can organise a line which is why rush used him there last season.

Secondly, Paul Wellens. 20+ tries last season, always gives his all and is usually safe as houses. People are judging full backs now on what likes of Tomkins, Slater etc can do and Wello has never been that style of player. He still gives his all every game and still capable of doing a job for us. Perhaps if our defensive line did what it's paid to do and made tackles Wello wouldn't be in the spotlight as much.

Don't know how anybody can try to single Meli out last night either. Granted 1-17 were poor but Meli is our main strike player who we gave 1 pass to all game yesterday. Sadly the finger of blame points at the half backs not being organised enough to distribute the ball out wide.

The one player who does need dropping is Perry. I have never seen a player go from state of origin enforcer to pudding like he has. Whether on attack or defence he never wins a collision and sadly the only thing he will be remembered for his time at saints is being arrested for his naked run on mad Monday - bet that was easiest arrest police ever made and managed to drive him 10 yards back up the street before cuffing him!! Clough has to return and we have Greenwood and Walmsley who have impressed pre season and show heart when they play, time to give them a chance!!

Rant over, 1 game doesn't make a season. IIRC Huddersfield went away to Wigan in round 1 last season and beat them 38-12 (there or there abouts) and look at how the season panned out for the 2 teams. After a possible complacent start after 2 friendly wins this could be the kick up the backside we need to fulfil our potential this year. Maybe we should get behind the team instead of writing them off and see how we go in next few games.

Keep the faith...COYS

What a difference a day makes, this time yesterday it was all talk about which coach would get sacked first and that the new Salford Reds owner would want a refund! perhaps some would want a refund for that performance! totally unexpected and on live TV!

And you say others have little knowledge of Rugby League.

Last night had absolutely nothing to do with the Half-Backs, they were playing behind a beaten pack from the first minute until the last, and ended up kicking from the own 20-30 meter line for the majority of the game. It had nothing to do with their ability to control the game, the fact of the matter is they were on the back foot all the time, and as a Half-Back, to control the side on the back off that is practically impossible.

The blame lies with the forwards, and they deserve all the stick that's coming to them.

I fully agree the forwards were awful but 1-17 were awful. We got ourselves into some attacking positions though and when we did our halfbacks looked clueless, they are as much to blame as anybody else last night. My point around them is not them struggling to play behind a poor pack, but they can't organise a prayer in a mosque and that isn't the fault of mike rush, lance hohaia or anybody else that's being blamed for "ruining the partnership".

Don't get me wrong, I fully believe Lomax and Gaskell will develop into a brilliant pairing for saints over the next few years, but from evidence last season and last night they aren't ready to lead a super league team just yet