...bad decision or a move in the right direction?

For me its a knee jerk reaction that will probably backfire....Saints have only been getting beat by small margins...not a lot in it....they also have a much weaker squad this year....not sure what a new coach is going to bring?....they will still have an average looking squad with average looking players.

Sculthorpe and Cunningham is the rumour from Stains fans at work

The guy took them to a grand final last year to sack him so soon in a season just shows how much in turmoil the whole Saints club is in on and off the pitch LMFAO LOVE IT :0)

I posted on the Saints board yesterday that to remove Royce from his job would be the wrong move. He has been replaced by Mike Rush and Keiron Cunningham. Who is Mike Rush????

Performance coach!

From a Wire point of view - hopefully Ian's brother

Mike Rush is Head of High Performance and former assistant coach under Daniel Anderson.

The bloke responsible for all our young guys coming through.

Bloody stupid by Saints this is.

Desperate measures sheer panic has set in. But its great seeing them lose week in week out

The advantage we have is that we dont play Saints this weekend. You know what they say about sides and new coaches.

Mike Rush and Keiron Cunningham (Remember him

) have been appointed as interim head coach and assistant respectively. It'll be interesting to see how Rush goes in that role.

The strongest rumour is that Nathan Brown from Huddersfield has accepted the job from the end of the season with Rush and Cunningham seeing this season out.

Another big rumour from the same sources as Simmons' sacking is that we've signed Jamie Lyon for next season and it will be announced shortly.

Keiron Cunningham ♥

If correct this will be fantastic both for Saints and English Rugby League.
Perhaps I am jumping ahead of myself but who is leaving to make room on the Cap which I have read Saints are spending up to to the Max.

I heard they're replacing perry for lyon in 2 or 3 years


On the simmons thing, it is a mistake. The problem at saints is no spine, aging players not performing, youngesters are tripe and lazy aussies (perry)

Royve was doing will in spite of a poor team for a while.

The theory behind Lyon moving could have legs IMO, but who knows if it's actually true. Cherry-Evans has kicked off over his deal and they need to cut some players to fit him in. Lyon has always said he wants to come back to play for Saints. We expected that to be in 2 years rather than next year, but I think this could be an acceptable solution to Manly's problems over signing their young talent up to new deals.

We are losing Flannery and Meli (And hopefully Wellens) this season, but as neither are on the quota, it looks like Soliola could be the one leaving. There have been people posting that he's off to Harlequins RU for next season. That would be a blow, but if we signed a prop as well we would be much stronger overall.

The current thinking is that we're a good contract short of the cap at the moment as we made bids for props that went to other clubs but haven't signed anyone since those offers.

Biggest panic decision ever, the guy has taken them to 2 Grand Finals. Its the loss of Graham and Cunningham that has cocked Saints up, not Simmons. If anyone is to blame its Mcmanus for not replacing them.

We are not at cap. We did not sign a prop when we missed out on Mills and Griffin. Also lets not forget the Tomkins deal. Which no club as far as I'm away have exploited apart from Wigan.

So the money may not be the issue. The quota is, but given our start and current events, it's not beyond imagination for a player to want out of their contract. In the end even if it's true. As a halfback Lyon would give the experience and guidance we need around the park, but we would still be 1 or 2 props short. Depending on who would make way for him.

But given the sacking I would not put this being beyond silly season rumours.

21-12 : 2 grand finals??????????

Also past performance is not an indication of future results. The here and now, did not indicate a return to form.

Nonsense. He's in the second season of a two year deal, so has only got us to 1 Grand Final. Saints last season were performing horribly for most of the year. Only a surge in form off the back of the young players got us into the league position we got and our run in the play offs was more to do with Wigan imploding than anything. Wigan, Wire and Huddersfield were all better than Saints last year.

Losing Graham and Cunningham should have an impact, but not the kind of impact that drops you from being competitive with the big teams to being beaten by a Bradford team missing 12 players (!) and leaving us 9th. The performances this season have been truly horrific and he had lost the dressing room. What benefit is there in keeping him on?

My mistake, for some reason I thought he was coaching you in 2010.

I thought Saints had re-newed the contracts of a few of the "golden generation" since the end of last season eg Gaskell, Foster, Lomax - this will not have come cheap to secure the services of such world class players.

What is the "Tomkins deal" you speak of? I hope you don't believe the myth of a "marquee player" that was being claimed by Wigan at the time of Tomkins' new contract.

lets be honest its james graham that saints are missing really. his go forward, unpredictable offloads, big defence and massive leadership was a HUGE HUGE part of that team.

i say its a bad decision to sack simmons. i don't think an ex star player and whoever the other guy is can do a better job than simmons. if saints buck up then it will be the teams response NOT these two!

If I was brown (the guy tipped for the future) I would run. Saints at the moment are toxic. They haven't got the resources to win trophies but the fans and the sky team won't accept that. Thet want to believe that saints are still the best thing since morning seconds.

Shame really. A few names will be ruined by getting involved.

Nope we had Lord Elrond of Rivendell in 2010.

It won't be Nathan Brown.

Hasty decision if no long term replacement (Brown) is not immediately available. Some good points made regarding Graham who was a massive player for Saints and without Roby the team looks beatable. Think they will have to go backwards before they go forwards and this might just write off their season.