Strange how people view games in a totally different way.

I thought it was pretty uninspiring stuff - Wire seemed to bring a negative game plan, with too much focus on roughing up the Saints players and slowing down the ruck; they didn't capitalise on their dominance though and as a result, the scoreline flattered Saints.

I did enjoy Briers chalking off his own try though, the cheeky scamp.

I thought if anything it was Saints trying to slow down Wire, because Wire were playing at such a high pace.

I though Wire were dominant throughout but its to Saints credit they hung in, a weaker team would have collapsed.

The teams that come top of SL are the ones that best slow their opponents down, while not being slowed themselves - Saints were past masters at it, Wire are now.

Wire slowed Saints down with consummate ease all night, and were allowed to by the ref. Difference is, Saints actually couldn't slow Wire down enough.

The thing that saved Saints from a proper beating was Wire being too eager to score on every play, and they were more interested in niggling and complaining than playing - though nothing compares to the arm waiving of a Saints team on the back foot

Both sides were really poor, there was no atmosphere and it was a really dour game. Warrington played a very professional knock and kept to the gameplan they'd obviously been set by Smith. They focused on getting numbers into the tackle and shutting Roby down completely. Beyond that this Saints side don't have anything else to offer. With such an unbelievably weak refereeing performance again (Holding down wasn't penalised, walking off the mark when playing the ball wasn't either, all the forward pass calls wrong), Wire had a free pass to slow it right down. Wire dominated the game off the back of this, but were very conservative on the whole and messed up whenever they did try to be more expansive. Lee Briers was the difference between the sides, he bossed the game whilst Saints' halves donned their chicken suits and did their headless chicken routine.

I guess it was just a case of Warrington doing enough to win the game and not being pushed enough to have to respond. They'll have to find another gear to beat Wigan or Leeds in their upcoming games. Westwood must really infuriate Smith, he's developing into a wonderful player in SL, SL's equivalent to Paul Gallen, but he is utterly brain dead. At 10-0 and cruising, Wire were one score away from winning it early and going on to destroy Saints. But Westwood comes up with some stupid penalties and almost single handidly drags Saints back into the game. The game highlighted just how rudderless Saints are. We're hamstrung by Wellens' continued presence at fullback, by having no organising halfbacks and no kicking game and from having no leader on the field. James Graham is not missed that much in terms of the pack, but his leadership and spirit means his departure has meant we're a soulless side, devoid of any will to win and unable to respond when challenged.

The Warrington 'no try' that would've put them 16-0 up has gotta be up there with the worst ever video ref calls?

Dunno, I think the Catalans one the other week was worse.

did westwood give away any of those penalties?????

myler - high tackle
grix - high tackle
ratchford - ball steal
morley - high tackle
myler again i think

Having not watched the replay what did they disallow it for? We theorised it was either:

-tackled in the air, i.e Meli had caught it and stealing it off him constituted tackling him
-Meli had somehow defused it, maybe by his feet touching the floor whilst in contact with the ball
-or Monaghan knocked it on, either against Meli or the floor

Was very surprised it wasn't given.

I've no plans to watch it again, but I had him down as being responsible for the high shot penalty that resulted in Saints' try?

I don't really agree that Wire were allowed to slow down Saints. I think they got numbers into the tackle and slowed them legally whereas Saints struggled to contain Wire's hard running forwards (especially Morley & Waterhouse) who were getting their nose through the line and so getting quicker ptb's. I don't think it had anything to do with the ref and in fact I think Saints were lucky not to be penalised for holding down/interference more. I thought, barring the bizarre forward pass calls, the ref was pretty good.
I think Wire lacked a little bit of composure but as I said Saints deserve a lot of credit for hanging in there and I think the Saints of a few years ago containing Long & Cunningham could have nicked it at the end.

As for the video ref call, I thought it was spot on. Meli definitely jumped from within the in-goal and from what I could see still had his hands on the ball as his feet touched the ground.

i think it was grix????? or morley with hill at same time can't remember but thought westwood had a clean game.




they said it was for diffusing as he had caught it in goal but he didn't really have that much control but hey ho

i think Sky are kicking themselves now, As Good as It Gets. Not really a good advertisement for RL was it.

I watched a few minutes and saw about 50 dummy runs from Roby, Higham and Monaghan then got bored.

You saw 50 play-the-balls in a 'few minutes'?

I was there and by Monday night standards, I thought it was a pretty good atmosphere. And you criticise Wellens, despite him being the only member of the Saints backline who could catch a high ball all night? You also question leadership - I assume you didn't see LMS firing the team up early in the second half after Wire bombed a try. The way Saints held on tonight contradicts your comments that Saints are soulless. Bare in mind they are only the second team to beat the Saints since Rush took charge...

I stopped reading after the opening line of " both teams were really poor"

Let's be honest it wasn't the most entertaining game ever witnessed. There were times of outright boredom..
Still, extremely professional performance, job done, bring on Wigan on saturday; i'll be first with an excuse in.. We traditionally perform badly backing up on a short turnaround, must be the whole old man squad thing

tony smith filling up your squad with pensioners is not a valid excuse

It was horrible. I was at the game and I didn't even watch the last 20 minutes. I thought we were absolutely dire and predictable, not helped by both wingers having a nightmare. Didn't think wire were too great themselves though, made a lot of errors and gave away a lot of penalties. Will need to improve if they don't want Wigan to do them on Saturday.

Tony Smith has only ever signed three over 30's in his time at the club, one of which signed for half a season and only played 4 times. The other two would walk into every team in Super League. HTH

more significantly, he has allowed your other veterans to grow old while not even thinking about ever replacing them.

I must be in the minority here....I thought it was a really good atmosphere and a decent game.
Warrington were dominant and had 5 or six chances to score where they blew it or it was dissallowed. 10 good scoring chances is enough to entertain most fans.
Decent stadium too!
Veteran replacement....its all in hand
Hodgson....Ratchford
Morley...Hill
Monaghan...Dwyer + a possible signing
Solomona....has not played this year but the club is awash with 2nd rows
Briers.....Wait and see (1 more year first)
Waterhouse....Currie/McCarthy + possible signing

Some of the older folk are the bigger earners so there will be space under the cap...

As good as Tony Smith is, i think he would be hard pushed to prevent ageing in humans. Also, how do you know what he thinks about?

A bit like yourself making a post when you have no knowledge whatsoever of the subject you are talking about. Have a look at what we've got coming through.

Not a lot judging by friday