how different could this game have been if it wasn't on live tv? several decisions influenced or overturned by the video refs now (and there's no doubt tim roby was 'informed' of the shoulder charge). we need video refs in ALL games or NO games to have a level and fair field

The touch judge had a better view of that than any camera so I'll give him benefit of the doubt, but that was bloody close.

Has Lomax lost his pace? Seemed a bit slow getting caught by Oldfield then.

better from saints second half, sorted the discipline out, only questionable decision would be the shoulder charge by escare, no tv game that isnt a penalty and saints dont score!

He's just carrying on the tradition

A disappointing game in the end, very stop-start. Catalans looked terrible in attack, and were very one dimensional, but Saints' line speed was excellent. I hope for there sake they don't have to rely on Thomas Bosc in too many games this season, he's a poorer version of Matty Smith, and offers nothing.
Saints looked like Saints. When they were good they were almost unplayable, but they'll always give you a spell or 2 where they lose their discipline and make too many errors. The 2 Polynesians in particular look very dodgy to me, and the key for Saints will keeping Amor, and Walmsley fit and on the field for as long as possible.

Funny that, sure looked like him sat in the stands next to Tonga. Why pretend to know where somebody is & who they are with?

Saints will be a good side once they get Walsh back on the park.Catalans did a good job of hanging in cosidering the setbacks before and during the game.if carney had been out there tonight it could very well have been a different story.still,dont think Cats will get near top 4 though,the coach is simply not good enough imo.

I agree. LF seems very similar to Brian McDermott to me. Catalans are very 1 dimensional.

Not pretending at all. Just reading Todd's tweets of 2 days ago and assuming that they were full of truth about his visitors. France was where Todd was yesterday. Obviously he was compelled to fly to England with the team, even though he was not playing. Todd will be back home in France with house guest Bryce Gibbs tomorrow I am sure.

With star halves Todd Carney and Scottt Dureau fit, as well as Villiami Sione Tonga back on the field unconcussed, Catalans attack is sure to be much more potent. I expect Carney and Dureau to lift the side massively, and to give Morgan Escare lots of try scoring opportunities.

Catalans will be in the top four. Let's watch them at home next weekend against Castleford -- hopefully with Scott Dureau and Todd Carney playing -- and see how they perform.

Some of our plays we looked unplayable imo. Fast and long passing putting our centres in plenty of space. We bombed a couple of tries e.g. Swift and Percival and it was probably the most ill disciplined performance from us with or without the ball that i have seen for a very long time. That for me is down to Wilkin he should be playing for a lesser team like Hull or Hull KR now.

You're wrong more often than me......and that's some going

I am not wrong, I am right. My prediction that this would be the best match was conditional upon Todd Carney playing. He didn't play. So as I pointed out St Helens vs Catalans would be replaced by another game --- perhaps Hull KR vs Leeds -- as the best match.

You need to put down the whiskey bottle and read carefully everything that I posted on this subject. Then you won't make so many embarrassingly wrong statements.

Nope. As usual you opened with a big claim and then backtracked incessantly in the hope of not looking a ........you wasted your time btw!

Catalan were awful. Looked like they hadn't played a game for 5 years. So slow and narrow. How can a team have so much ball in such good position and only score one try and a drop goal? It's a good job we dropped the ball a lot and conceded a ridiculous amount of penalties.

This Carney best be good to improve that lot Jean!

Catalans were lucky it was first game of the season. Saints blew plenty of chances that once they get going, they won't.

If that game was Round 12 or summat, they'd have racked up a cricket score.

To be fair Saints looked no better than Catalans
Home advantage saw Saints through.

Saints & Catalan will get better.

SL isn't won in round one, however much every minute may matter.

To be fair they did score 2 tries, it's the incompetence of the referee's why the score was so low on Catalans behalf.

Catalans were missing not only a possible future Man of Steel, Todd Carney, but also a past contender for Man of Steel and a 2012 Dream Team selection, in one Scott Dureau. Those two should have been the halves who would have directed the team around the park.

Add to that the very early loss of the attacking talents of centre Villiami Sione Tonga, and you can see why the Catalans attack was not very potent.

I am hopeful that Carney's calf injury is not very serious, that Dureau's groin is going to mend soon, and that we will soon see those two, along with Tonga, playing havoc with opposition defences.

Meanwhile let's look forward to seeing Terence Campese and Albert Kelly setting off brilliant attacks by Hull KR against Leeds this weekend.

Saints were missing potential man of steel Luke Walsh, so what? You can't really call Dureau a miss for the Dragons last night because he didn't play all last season so they are well used to being without him and Bosc is no mug (and is a halfback).

There were a number of injury stoppages - one or two I doubt were injuries at all tbh - and too many penalty stoppages. Bentham got carried away before halftime. Every team that plays rugby league is usuall offside on the line in defence but for some reason he decided to repeatedly pull Saints up for it during that spell before halftime. He was in error to do that. If he had taken the same approach throughout the match we would have still been at Langtree Park now.

Please do clarify.

I always thought that the players scored tries or missed them or dropped the ball, especially if no one is there to tackle them, not match officials but then it's never too late to learn.

I will admit though that a good defence prevents teams scoring tries, but I've never seen a match official tackle a player so far.

You help would be appreciated

If a player scores & the ref/VR come up with a baffling 'tackled in the air' decision that to me counts as the officials stopping a perfectly good try. What would you say?

There was contact but I wouldn't have called it tackled, not by any stretch. I thought they had turned it down for a knock on in the air by the Dragons that appeared in a video angle we couldn't see from the West Stand (which equates to most video angles since the screen is so small!). When I watched the match back I was surprised by the reason given.

However, was Swift in touch for the try he was disallowed? The one where he ran along the touchline I mean, not the one where he tried to ground the kick. From behind he was very very close but he didn't look to be in touch. The ref didn't go to the screen at all for that as the touch judge stuck his flag up.

I'd say evens on the wrongly disallowed tries, both could have gone either way. Both were disallowed as it happens.

Erm I have to agree with most of that.

Your bit on the offside is accurate too. I would challenge anyone to find a set of 6 in RL where there was ever an incidence when all the players where onside.


I'm starting to worry. I don't often agree with you this much.