We’re all supposed to be miles behind St Helens but so far on tv we’ve heard;

1. Whitley is the signing of the season - he’s nowhere ruddy near Fitzgibbon.

2. Bennison is that good that he’s keeping Tee Ritson out of the side (tee hee)

3. James Bell is their most influential player…..James Bell….these are the Entertainers apparently.

4. Clark has been brillliant….looked bog average.

Their defence is brilliant to be fair, but attacking wise they look worse than a steve price coached Warrington team! This is a catalans team missing 4 players from last week(plus abdull and Johnstone have gone off)and they struggle to create much against them.

They’re to be rightfully respected but the nonsense that they’re miles ahead of us or HKR is grating. They are very unthreatening as an attacking force with some ordinary players.

Let's keep our counsel until we have played them next week. But we definitely shouldn't be going into that game terrified; we've got a fighting chance.

They may not have a massive attacking threat but their intensity in defence will need to be matched next week that is for sure.

Agreed and I’m not saying they’re not better than us but they’re certainly not the Saints of old and not capable of blowing a team away (famous last words).

Delaney might be in trouble on Monday, but it is St Helens....
Really enjoyable game though with the right result.

Not saying Wire will win next weekend against Saints, but this current Saints team looks abit average compared to years gone by.. The attack is flat and no flair is there, the defence is very quick off the mark but Saints have always had that line speed albeit slightly offside on most defensive sets.. Wellens seems to be robotic in his coaching role and it shows on how this team plays.. The media and fans are bigging Saints up on past reputations, I don’t see much improvement in them from last season

In only 7 days
They just beat a 30 minute 12 man Wigan.
They are suddenly miles ahead of Wire and the best team in SL.
Then today their internet connection on the Red Vee is suddenly shutdown.

Their defence is still the far and away the best in Super League. Playing them away in the cup when they will be out to put things right after a defeat, will be a true test of how far we've come. I don't expect to win, but I would like to see us pressure them for the full 80 and not get blown away. If we can prove we can compete then there is no reason that we can't steadily get better over the season and have a real chance in the playoffs.

It's been off all week, been gutted as is the best comedy site on the interweb.

However it does serve as a metaphor for the Saints team it has methods which are outdated in the modern world. Elements that are old and slow and should have been replaced years ago, unwilling to make any investment and is completely out of touch with the majority of people.

The Clark thing made me chuckle, Walker scored a textbook 'Roby' style try on Fri and Wilkin said it was poor and lazy from Leeds' defence. I bet if Clark did the same it'd be "oh that's textbook number 9 play just like the great James Roby" but we do it and it's just because Leeds are poop.

Was thinking the same when it happened, but yeh suspect nothing will come from it.

The Hurrell tackle on Johnstone looked like a shoulder charge to me.

There was no contact by Hurrell using his arms, and he just barged Tom Johnstone over the touch-line with his shoulder.

That would make it a penalty try.

Yes.

I only remember seeing it from behind, where it looked like a shoulder charge, but then seeing Hurrell's arms out in front of him. I assume he was trying to target Johnstone's arm to knock the ball out ( a la Goodwin on Makinson in the Cup Final 2019).

Until we beat them they are better than us simple as.

Not afraid of them it will be a good test for us. However, our defence could be better! - bring them on!

Which you can do. Nothing wrong with that. He's just denied him the space and forced him out. You'll only get penalised for that if you come in perpendicular to the player, like a fullback coming across and using the shoulder. A player running parrallel won't be, it happens a lot.

I'm not even sure what the Delaney incident was you wanted him banned for, but doesn't look like he's been charged with anything. There wasn't anything in our game worth banning, bar Sims' ridiculous dive and his reckless head clash with Tom Johnstone.

I never mentioned Delaney.

Sorry, not replying to you specifially there. There were a few mentions of him being banned earlier in the thread.

But I thought your whole thesis was based on Saints players didn’t have to do anything wrong to get banned? The MRP could have banned Hurrell if they were as biased as you claim.

The MRP treated Saints more harshly than other clubs for a long time after the Knowles appeal, and still are, because we embarrassed them and showed them up for the incompetent fools they are. I'm not suggesting this is a deliberate, coordinated move, I think they just don't like us. With the RFL's ridiculous policy of not rotating the panel to ensure personal issues and clear conflicts of interests don't cloud it, my theory is they don't like Saints and probably Mike Rush on a personal level.

They can't just make bans up however as they would just be thrown out on appeal as it's looked at by different people.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to tell you something your friend(s) should have a long time ago.
You are deluded, there is and never has been a conspiracy against Saints.