With most of the plaudits going to Jammer/Lomax/Gaskell I thought I'd mention Cloughy and Sia.

Soliola for me was absolutely outstanding. Everywhere in defence and making his presence felt in the tackle as always.

Cloughy did what Cloughy does - great in defence and makes some really hard yards for his team. Brilliant to have him back as I think we are a far, far tougher team to beat with him in the fold.

Shenton also ran himself into the ground - very determined performance from him.

Finally, I hope that yesterday will shut up those "weak squad" muppets up for a couple of weeks, and save us the whining about our cataclysmic freefall. 7 out (including 5 rep players) - some weak squad that is.

still not sold on Soliola. he had at least 2 Meliesque brain trumps yesterday that could have cost us dear.

Not bad from a lad with a lip hanging off.

I'm a huge Cloughie fan and I think next year, without Jammer, he's going to be the player that really racks up the yards.
Not the quickest on the floor, but he gains precious extra yards with his leg drives and is a rock in defence. Good engine on him too.

I ty clough was very quite but thats to be expected due to not much game time.

Sia was awesome in the first 20 mins. He really stuck to them

agreed .His knock on and needless penalty put us under massive pressure.He needs to cut these errors out of his game

Anybody else think Andrew Dixon ha an excellent game in defence? Took Tomkins down a couple of times one on one on our line and put a really solid effort in I thought.

I think a lot of people forget how young Soliola is. He was still a youngster for a forward when we signed him (23) and he had already missed a a lot of rugby through injury. He is also relatively inexperienced as a second rower having played most of his career at centre. Whilst he does sometimes get too excited going in for big hits, I would much rather have him than not.

If you look at the likes of Ben Westwood five years ago as a comparison, he wasn't half the player he is now at 30. Sia is nowhere near the finished product and has the potential to be anything he wants to be.

Agreed


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Thought Dixon had a good game, excellent in defence, looked agressive.

I've got a feeling Royce will go with flannery and leave Dixon out of semi

Totally agree here, after next season if he continues to develop well he should be a shoe in for a new contract.

I'd give sia a new deal no probs. He's a good tough forward who is a worker. He does have few flaws but he's still young and learning what it takes to be backrow as he's a ex centre.

I don't think saints use him in the right place in attack, he's big, strong and pretty fast for 2nd row. I'd like to see us having him running short balls outside as I think he'll bust tackles. He been used most if this year like a prop.

And this is only his first 'proper' season. And he's a great guy off the pitch as well

I've spoke to sia few times and he is cool guy. He's huge. His neck and shoulders are massive.

Hope your wrong and Royce sticks with the team that got him to the semi's with perhaps Armstrong losing out to Pryce (if he's fit) - seen as he didn't get off the bench anyway.
Dixon played well, doesn't derserve to be dropped.

I have a friend who lives near him and they talk regularly, so I went to get him to sign my shirt but he was insistent on taking it into training to get everyone to sign it

The boys did really well as a team. Hard to pick a poor player. Maybe Armstrong lazy so and so.

It was not a perfect game from us. Which is good and there is still room for improvement from the players who were out the. But I see no reason to play flannery. Dixon has not had as good a year as last year. But his current form is better than what flannery has produced this year so for me has earned his spot.

If we cut out mistakes Wigan would have been on a hiding. Makinson running into touch on first tackle. Wilkin dropping the ball along with sia. Moore. LMS suicide pass. Wigan may look at the game and say we can play better but so can we.

I thoght we looked tired at the end but the coach does not seam to see that an extra forward would help this. Just puts it down to the players trying to defend the last 15.

For me at the end sia clough and TP all looked like they needed a rest.

Amazing performances by all especially considering we are doing it all with one player out all season.

Glad to see people coming around to my hate of having a back sat on the bench nearly all match while other players are out on their feet.

I called this after 3 rounds and got shot down for it.

Every team plays with 17 while we play with 16 and sometimes even 15 which means we must be at a disadvantage.

I agree! wonder sometimes if he is just clumsy and does not respond quickly at times. (I'm not saying he may be a genuine nice guy, and signs shirts)

I thought Soliola was outstanding for Saints, especially early doors with some thundering tackles.

The way Saints started so physically reminded me of Leeds in the play-off game at KR in 2007. Leeds lost narrowly that day but battered Saints so much that they were unable to put up much resistance in the GF. Wigan weren't tired, they were just completely out-muscled and out-enthused by the Saints pack, which Soliola played a big part in. I'd have him at Leeds in a heartbeat (sorry Weller).

Soliola's influence is overlooked. He smashes the hell out of people in the early stages, which you can guarantee puts the opposition players on the back foot. We were never bullied by wigan because, amongst other reasons Sia was busy bullying them

For me Soliola is my favourite player, he has been awesome and exciting to watch this season. He might miss the odd tackle in rushing in but he brings the fear factor to the opposition.
Just waiting for him to do a "big boom" tackle on Vomkins.

That's because they weren't tired (or at least no more tired than you would expect people to be after 80 minutes of high intensity RL!). I could see exactly what Simmons was on about. They went from taking the game to Wigan to defending the game from Wigan. That's a different attitude and when they started doing it, Wigan began to roll. Jammer was acutely aware of it, especially in the last 10 when he was like a maniac in defence. We'd drifted from the game plan. We can't afford to do that in the semi. But hopefully finally achieving the win will give all the lads the confidence and the desire to stick with it for the full 80 next time around.

Can we just agree that using 17 players makes it easier than with 16 players.