They may be strong, they may fast in defence, they may throw a few offloads around but my god Saints can be bloody boring to watch. Would love to know how many tries they have scored in opposition twenty, bet its 70%+. They rarely do full lengthers anymore. They used to be referred to as 'The Entertainers' but you can't say that about them anymore.

Same again tonight, our tries absolute peed all over anything they could bring tonight. Same as the semi and also at Magic (apart from one good move at the death).

Harry Smith's defensive effort absolutely outstanding with the Saints pack targeting him all night, add on 5/5, 3 from the touchline and he's becoming essential, no way does Tommy replace him at 7 when he's back

Agreed, his defence was outstanding tonight.

Cust needs to look at Smith for inspiration in terms of defensive improvement. He was like George Williams in defence tonight was Harry Smith and he controlled Sironen extremely well. Cust on the other hand continues to fall off too many tackles for me and has work to do on that front.

The Saints fans want Cust banned for the rest of the season for tackling Simm and hurting him. How dare he tackle the opposition. He should have asked him to fall over so he could lay on him. All the Saints young lads look just that. Boys in a mans world. And all crap.

Was that the one where Simm lied down praying the Video Ref would take pity on him?

Only way the players will learn is by them being told to get up and get on with it. I was so pleased a penalty wasn’t given.

Which is why I don't think Cust is a natural 9 as some have suggested. He's a half, and doesn't really have good enough defence to be a dummy-half. Plus, to be fair, like Lomax, he doesn't seem to be fully fit. Anyway, a fantastic match, and French's try on the final whistle just put the icing on the cake. Great try from Marshy, and for all people talk about defence, defence, defence, it's often being able to take those chances in attack when you do get the opportunity that wins matches. And with a back three like ours... Saints were poor in attack tonight. And I don't think Lussick's try would have been scored if Powell was playing.

Harsh in my opinion. Smith dropped off a few tonight. Cust did too however because Smith has improved improved in defence that should not be reflected on Cust.

Cust came up with a few big plays in defence tonight.

Neither side won anything tonight.

I wanted to see how we handled a few things tonight and we handled them pretty well. Still a few things to look at, but still pretty confident of doing the double.

Yeah them limped and then went on the wing for a minute to try and make it look real.

I don’t think it’s harsh at all. He falls off too many tackles and has work to do. I simply put Smiths improvements in that area down because it shows what can be done. Smith I thought nailed the vast majority of his tackles and when he didn’t make them first time, he’d be there to make a second attempt. Cust gets bumped off and left behind too often and is taken on his outside and beaten or very nearly beaten too often also IMO. I think his elbow might be hindering him a little but it’s been an issue from the first night at HKR. I like him and I’m really happy with how he’s gone this season in the main but it’s an area that needs work going forward.

I forgot about him mate.

Get a grip, it’s a man’s game you pussy.

Interesting that Peet says the following in his post match:


Saints were clearly the team that won the arm wrestle but there’s more to a game than that.”

Speaking on the intensity of the game, he said: “I think it prepares you for the kind of games that are coming, the intensity and the 80-minute nature of it. We probably got a lot of our goal-line defence practice in tonight.

“Any team that plays St Helens has to come through that, they put you in difficult positions, they build pressure well and you’ve got to be comfortable in those positions. You’re not going to have a game where you dominate field position but it doesn’t mean that you can’t post points.”


When I said similar a few weeks ago I was apparently wrong.

Over to you Stu

KPP should have lined up against Hurrell.

I agree.

Tommy replaces Cust for me and Havard in for Mago.

Put Lomax in our team and we win in a canter. We need to find a way of closing him down as everything revolves around him.

I’m with you Nicky, I thought Cust was poor tonight. He doesn’t have the skills or pace to play stand off for me. If it is a choice between him and Tommy it is Tommy every time as his defence is far better.

Special mention for Liam Byrne. He’s a real handful now and doesn’t half put a shift in. Other than Harry Smith, probably our most improved player over the last 18 months or so.

Great atmosphere last night, nice to see a healthy crowd on, and also experience a bustling Fan Village with coffers going into our pot instead of that of the football club.

Roby showed his age in that game. Was hanging off tackles and left on the floor most of the time. Hung on a bit to long and tried to prevent the play the ball at one point. Great news he’s signed 1 more year

Congrats Wigan.

Some tremendous defence and took your chances well when they arrived.

We played with our usual effort, I was actually pretty proud of how we kept plugging away, but we simply didn’t have the bite to break you down. Wigan could focus on targeting Lomax and Welsby in the knowledge that nobody else was likely to do anything. And Wigan did that very well indeed.

Fair play to Peet again. Until next time!

On the ball I’m happy enough with him and I think he’s had a good first season but defensively he has work to do. I would go with Tommy and Smith in the halves though and play Cust from the bench if all 3 are available against Catalans and moving forward.

We saw plenty of hype around his signing, maybe too much when you look at his initial MOS odds.

In reality he's a 6 still learning his trade. According to wiki he played 27 games for Manly over a couple of years. I can imagine a high % of them would have been from the bench, plus some at 9 too. That's a player who's in and out of the side. One week he's a 6, next he's a 9 and then he's out of the side for a few weeks etc.

Game wise at HB, he's a way behind Harry Smith in regards to mins played, but is probably seen as the senior of the two. Maybe it's that NRL rub i.e. he's been brought over from Aus, so he's gotta be a superstar and in the running for MOS.

He's here for another year and then there's a third year that can be activated (not sure by who). I'm sure that we'll see a marked improvements from the lad in each of those seasons. He'll be a pretty experienced 6 by the end of 2024 and I'm sure that was his/our plan all along.

Early days, but I'm happy with both Cust and Smith. If we could get another 4 or 5 years of them as pair, then I'd be chuffed to bits.

I think that’s a good summary. I’m really happy with the lad but I can’t lie and say he’s not got plenty to work on. That’s totally understandable as you point out and it’ll take time. If I scored his season I’d give him a 7/10 but I’m confident he can get that up to 8’s and 9’s in time. I think the MOS point is a very valid one. It made zero sense why he was favourite and expectation comes with that. He’s not been at that level but why would such an inexperienced player be expected to be so. This season has been a solid base to build from.