No charges for either club by the looks of things. Hull KR have had Vete banned and Matty English from Huddersfield has been banned, so they’ll miss the other semi.

Right decision on Percival as well - the Salford player slipped turning upper body contact into head contact through no fault of the defender.

Just been reading that Lomax is out for a while and potentially the season.

If he plays he plays. One less excuse for the Red Vee conspiracy theory?

Really looking forward to the day and the match.

Lomax/Dodd out challenging but not terminal by any stretch. We’ll be clunky but our defence gives us a chance of winning any game - albeit part of that defence is domination of field position which has a lot to do with your halves and their decision making.

Should be a cracker - bring it on.

Agree, don't forget Wigan are without Leuluai and Powell, two of the best defenders in their "spine" positions, should be fun.



As in all games you go with what you've got and hope you can work a game plan around those players available.

Read the minutes re. Percival and rightly wasn't up for the tackle it was the coming together afterwards, fortunately for him/unfortunately for us it was just pushing and shoving, no punches thrown

Looking forward to this, looks like your pack, depending where Roby plays, is at full strength and that's obviously where you've had the better of us, I thought on GF we handled Walmsley as well as we've done for ages but Paasi absolutely mullered us when he came on.
If we can live with them especially around the interchanges then I reckon we've got the pace to really give you a contest.
Like you said should be a cracker

It’s good to see the disciplinary showing a bit more sense. There’s every chance that a month ago, Percival, Thornley and Cust could’ve been sitting out the semi final.

Famous last words but Walmsley hasn’t hit top gear yet this season. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still the best prop in the league by a mile but he’s not been at his marauding best. Spot on about Paasi as well. His spell really took us out of the game and we can’t let that happen again. I’d be holding Liam Byrne back and tasking him with getting off his line (as he’s been doing so well this season) to try and hunt Paasi down. It’s risky in some ways but we can’t let him dominate us as comfortably again.

On the plus side we have Ellis back so can go with a full compliment of forwards, and Thornley back in the side will add some extra drive coming off our line.

Down side we are weaker in defence without Powell and Tommy.

I trust Peet will have been working on tightening up the middle this week so hopefully a big improvement from recent weeks defence.

Another plus is we seem to be hitting far better line speed when taking the ball up from our own half, something we haven't done in recent years. The forwards, Thornley and Marshall.especially are coming into the ball at speed and with more variety so we have a much better chance of getting away from our line.

The extra proper prop in having Ellis should mean we can maintain our defence longer than the 25 mins we did on GF.

Should be a cracker.

On the plus side we have Ellis back so can go with a full compliment of forwards, and Thornley back in the side will add some extra drive coming off our line.

Down side we are weaker in defence without Powell and Tommy.

I trust Peet will have been working on tightening up the middle this week so hopefully a big improvement from recent weeks defence.

Another plus is we seem to be hitting far better line speed when taking the ball up from our own half, something we haven't done in recent years. The forwards, Thornley and Marshall.especially are coming into the ball at speed and with more variety so we have a much better chance of getting away from our line.

The extra proper prop in having Ellis should mean we can maintain our defence longer than the 25 mins we did on GF.

Should be a cracker.

Anyone know what’s going on with Isa?

Not fit or just not selected ?

No talk of him being injured, his effort is unmatched, but I can’t see what he’s bought to the team this year. I’m a big fan of him but he’s been pushed out by better players, can’t see who you’d drop for him. (unless we get an injury or suspension obviously)

Reasons we’ll be better than on good Friday

Marshall back - left edge much as has been all season so hopefully more comfortable defensively.

Thornely back - been surprisingly solid, Saints are a huge side so a big body will help, Bateman was in the centres last time.

Ellis back - again size back in the team improvement on Partington

French more match fit - looking sharper now

Hardaker situation now settled

Improved goal kicker - we need to score some tries though.

Second half turned into a mess with Powell yellow and Tommy limping off ( unfit french in the halves)

Saints missing at least one half back, might be a bit clunky in attack.

Neutral ground rather than Saints home game.


Reasons we’ll be worse.

O’Neill and Smith arguably offer slightly more in attack than Tommy and Powell but are drastically worse defensively. Big issue. Can see Saints big forwards getting “wins” over O’Neill in the middle of the field consistently.

Saints full choice back row returns and potentially Grace back too. Knowles only played 10 mins and is their top man.


All things considered hopefully it’ll be slightly closer, Brad O’Neill will need to game of his life.

Looking forward to it.

Lomax named in the Saints squad. Hopoate out, Sironen and Hurrell returning from bans and Grace named after being out injured.

Assuming all fit (they won't be) I would guess we'll go:

Welsby
Makinson
Hurrell
Percival
Grace
Lomax
Roby
Walmsley
Lussick
Lees
Batchelor
Sironen
Knowles

Matautia
Paasi
LMS
Wingfield

Isa is injured

Unbelievable!

There are pages and pages on the Red-V site worrying about Saint's 'injury crisis'.

Hearing that Simm will start for Saints, probably means they aren't risking Grace

I think Grace hasn’t played all year?

Would be a huge risk to throw him in her semi final.

Just Whitehaven in the cup I think.

Total guess but I see Lomax playing but not Grace.

I wish that you had a full team out.
Ive never known any set of supporters bleat as much over a few injuries/potential suspensions.

Compared to Good Friday your 17 will be stronger with the inclusion of Matautia offset by the loss of Dodds. So not a bad outcome and one could argue an even stronger pack for you to demolish a shoite Wigan pack as many of your clan describe our pack..
If you don't win by 30 points with your improved pack then I will only conclude that your lads played the worst that they have done since dear old Cunningham was still in charge.

For us to win we will have to play our best rugby (and better if that's possible) for a full 80 minutes and Saints will have to play well below their best. We haven't put in an 80 minute performance for the last 3 and half years bar one game so something pretty extraordinary will need to occur for us to do so on Saturday.
You guys just need to turn up and play to your high standard.
On paper this is now a gimme for your lads. No excuses.
I hope we win you guys know you will win.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if both Lomax and Grace missed out. Even if they do we still have a very good chance of course but it’s by no means the done deal some on here seem to think it is, you’d think we were playing with 15 v 13 on the pitch the way some bang on.

Getting our first choice back row back out there will be really helpful, albeit shifting Roby away from hooker is something that worries me. He really makes us tick from DH and Lussick isn’t in the same league as him.

I think we'll win. Just sayin'

Lomax or not St Helens pack will probably have too much for us.

The key for us is discipline, we need to respect the ball and not give away penalties, if they are lacking fire power we can’t give them cheap territory.