Wilkin is bloody awful at commentary. He thinks he's some kind of rugby league philosopher but in reality talks a load of rubbish.

I was really impressed with Catalan, they were very unlucky. They controlled the ruck against our big pack and attacked really well with their backs being extremely effective too.

They were the first team who’ve dealt comfortably with Paul Vaughan and to do that with such a weakened team really is a huge tick for them going forward. It’s so pleasing to see so many French players involved. It’s something that should always have been the case and realistically that number will drop when the overseas players are fit but the confidence the young French lads will get from these games is huge.

Speaking of Vaughan, could he be one of the players carrying a knock that Powell mentioned post game? His minutes seemed to be limited yesterday and after a freakish start to the season, he ran for less than 50 metres. Hoping he is fit for Friday because it’s a great test for our younger forwards like Byrne, Havard and Smithies to play against a player of that calibre.

Wilkin needs to remove the Red V glasses if he's commentating on them

Penalty just before the King try, Sione it was only a little bit late, nothing wrong with it, just a fraction late, and hes done that a few times this season. Clearly not learning from it then is he you f***ing idiot. If you keep getting penalised and banned for hitting late, then learn from it.

very little made of Sione, also hitting Wigan player around head when on the ground in 1st half (admittedly very little in it but penalty)

Singleton catches Hurrell who is going down, its a swinging arm, attack to the head, should be sent off etc etc. He'lll miss games for that one and its dangerous. Well Jon, ref IMO made the right decision, it was careless, and disciplinary saw that too, with no ban.

he also made a Phil Clarke type comment about Wigan slowing the ruck and happy to concede a penalty (although they never conceded one), just because we didnt let Saints dominate and do what they wanted. Jon shut the f*** up and stop whining

As and when Saints do stop dominating and stop winning things, listening to Wilkin crying will be worth the current pain.

Stick in there people.

Wilkin annoys me massively. However he's only as bad as Clarke. Quite how he has not been made to apologise for effectively calling Saints "cheats" is beyond me.

I'm disappointed at the club for not making an official complaint.

Has McManus not put it in his program notes? He usually does.

That's a great point to be fair I'll check at our next home game.

Not sure why you need to be so flippant every time I post something. Everyone else on here engages constructively with me even if we disagree.

The word cheat and the connotations it brings is inflammatory and for a presenter of a national broadcaster to level it at a club is real poor form.

I'm quite sure you would be outraged had it been levelled at Wigan

He called you out for the number of set restarts you were happy to give away to ensure you won the game. What would you call it?

He could have listed another two or three things IMO that you take to the very brink of what is considered within the laws. He could name them for every side too btw, but you were on TV at the time and did those things he was referring to.

I think you're the best Saints poster we've had on here for a while BTW but the build up and fallout from the derby took you to the same "Saints are great and everyone is against us" type posts we see from the idiots, that's all.

I know we push the rules to the limits. I also know there was a lot of complaints from other clubs last year that we got away with stuff. Perhaps that is why we seem to be scrutinised a bit more this season thats all. You can think its cheating but for someone in an official capacity on tv to say it isn't right in my opinion. If he had referenced your 2006 signing of Fielden as "cheating" would you have been happy?

I am in no way in the camp that I think Saints are great this season, far from it. However I merely pointed out the number of clean line breaks we made on Friday (far more than we've made in any game for a long time) As a Wigan fan that would concern me. And despite how well Wigan played that Knowles try if given would have made it a 4 or 2 point game with all the momentum with Saints. Its hardly beyond the realms of possibility that we could have gone on to win the game so its hardly like Wigan battered us. Had that game not been on tv the try would have been given as Moore gave the try as an on field decision.

NB just to show my thoughts, the below is what I have posted on Red Vee this morning word for word. Not really the thoughts of someone who thinks everything is rosy is it?

I want Wellens to succeed as much as anyone. However we have a really hard set of fixtures coming up and its not beyond the realms of possibility that we are 4 from 4 losses at the end of this set of matches.

We go to HKR on Friday and will be without Walmsley, Batchelor, Matuatia and Knowles. Thats going to be a hard game. With Norman injured we still don't really have any cover at prop so we are relying on a young lad like Delaney again or the likes of Wingfield playing front row for a time. His return is very timely (if indeed he is back for Friday)

Should we lose the next 3 I do feel there will be some pressure on Wellens. Depending on results we could find ourselves in 7th or 8th and that's a hell of a fall from grace for a team that's won 4 in a row and the WCC

Pretty sure we've had similar comments from Sky over the years. Eddie Hemmings used to practically cheer when we conceded a try.

Like most Wigan fans, I was quite happy with your appointment of Wellens. He could prove everybody wrong when the big games come around but it just smacked of Cunningham all over again for me.

I said a few weeks ago on here that the WCC was your Everest and hopefully it's now the downward spiral, but I still won't be writing you off for trophies until you're actually beaten when it matters.

To be honest i was just a little cheesed off with him as from a disciplinary perspective he only commented on the Wigan indiscretions. If he was more balanced i probably wouldnt have bothered as some of the other points he made were interesting coming from an ex player i.e. the extra efforts that win you games, as we sometimes may not see at the game

re the comment from Clarke i agree, and think sky have taken action by the looks of it, not sure if he is suspended pending disciplinary investigation, but he's not been on sky for the last couple of weeks. Wilkins probably wasnt as direct, but was around the same subject. The issue is that all clubs do it / try to do it. Every club is looking at ways of winning, whether that be a new attacking play or defensive pattern, slowing the play of the ball down etc etc. If giving a penalty / set restart away stops team x from scoring, how many players would do it, probably most in the league. On Friday he commented that Wigan werent letting Saints play by slowing the POB down, and as i put above what are we supposed to do, just jump off your players to let you play how you want

. The only time you got a good fast play of the ball in the 1st half led to the Makinson attempt in the corner

onto the disciplinary, and i dont think anything i saw in the game on Friday warranted a ban. I think the ref got the calls right i.e. Singleton hitting Hurrell (word on pitch), Sironen tipping Smithies (word on pitch), Matautia (late hit - penalty and swinging arm on floor - penalty), Powell high tackle - penalty. I have watched the game back twice over the last 2 days, and other than knowing exactly when Smithies and Knowles made their respective tackles, and then watching them back, didnt see anything in either of them. However, it appears that this type of tackle is the new cannonball / crusher in a sense that they are looking to clamp down on them if they see them in a game, and we are likely to see bans if a player is leaving the ground in the process of tackling

He was literally on on Friday

fair enough i dont have sky

and fast forwarded past all the pre and ht stuff on Warriors TV, so i could just watch the game. I only saw Barrie, Carney and Gleeson in front of me in the East Stand, oh and Offiah

He was at the Hull game.

They may keep him away from Saints games for a while but it's not as controversial as his rugby gods comment and he didn't get sacked for that.

I can’t speyk.

I still find it bewildering that Clarke's comments about Shaun Wane weren't challenged by any of the other commentators.

To refresh minds, he doubted that Wane was the man for the England job. No argument with him there. I personally rate Shaun Wane's coaching skills, but everyone can make their own mind up whether he's international standard or not. It was what followed that was outrageous. Carney contended that Wane had won several trophies while coaching Wigan, to which Clarke responded with the blatant lie that this was because Wigan had spent more money than anyone else.

I don't know whether they were all too gobsmacked to respond, but I literally remember no one tackling him for that. Remember, this was in the near-enough here and now, deep in the era of the Salary Cap.

How he could criticise one of the British game's most respected professionals, and then offer THAT as an explanation still beggars belief.

I was watching Bradford v Halifax last night on Viacom, and although I wouldn't say the commentary is brilliant (Leon Pryce and co), it's still streets ahead of Sky.

is viacom still a thing?

Wilkin talking s h I t e again

Wells was asking if Warrington could hang on a half time.

He must have taught Jake Connor about how to look at a scoreboard.

Literally could not care any less about anything that comes out of Wilkin's mouth. A car crash pundit.

To be fair I thought the rant about you guys slowing us down and being happy to concede a penalty etc was obviously just a dig at Clarke. He basically copied his rant word for word, without using the word cheating and instead replacing it with "just like any team in super league"

Agree he's largely e though. As is Clarke. Sky is just e all over the show, Pyke is one of the worst I've ever seen

On Pyke I’m staggered that someone who speaks like he has a bag of Werthers Originals in his mouth is allowed to commentate on National TV.

I thought that. He even looks at him as he says it.

Dunno about 'still', it's the renamed Freesports channel.

I don't mind Wilkin on other-than-Saints games. At least you can understand what he's saying.