Let's be honest......Kyle Amor is miles past his best.

It’s a fair point and another point about how a ‘combined team’ is an impossible task to pick without a huge list of rules you’re basing it on. Are you picking a side for today? For the rest of the season? For the next 5 years? Are you including injured players, suspended players? And on and on. Fear the Vee is bagging Singletons inclusion based on him being a new signing for Wigan, well at least he’s available. Is the combined team for tonight?! If so Walmsley isn’t available. If you’re going on the flip side of looking at a team for a number of years then you’d start picking guys like Lees and Partington in front of Amor because they’re young and developing.

Ultimately a combined team means nowt and we all know Saints are a better ‘team’ than us. Forget individuals and who is man for man in better shape, we need to improve as a team. Saints are lucky they’ve had a World Class coach for two and a half years, who has improved players and but the blocks in place for them still to be a good team. We’re a developing side and I can see a nucleus of players forming who will be able to compete on all fronts but not under this coach.

I understand your point but as NK says, he is now a Wigan player so comes into the reckoning. For my own part, I always liked him at Leeds and thought him better than both Amor (who has never kicked on after a promising start imo) and LMS whilst there.

That's not really my point though. The best prop at either club this year has been Walmsley. After him I would put Bullock comfortably in 2nd. That's just opinion of course. However, the point I was making was that, no matter who you place in a combined team, someone else would be of a different opinion and I used your post to illustrate this as you mention Amor and LMS who wouldn't get anywhere near a combined team in my opinion to replace Singleton who wouldn't get near a combined one in yours.

same could have been said about Amor at Wakey or LMS at London...

You can kinda see the argument against Singleton on this. Yes I've been impressed with him, but you've also got to give some weighting to time served playing in a successful side.

It's the same argument that's been rumbling on for years on why (up until recently) Wigan players attracted more attention from the NRL. Was Sutton a better player than Thompson? Probably not, but he played for a team that was successful and NRL and that counted for him.

You can but then he’s not coming up against much competition, between both sides there is one top class prop and then it’s a group of solid pros, promising youngsters and guys well last their best.

If somebody says pick me a 4 prop rotation for a game next week then it would be totally different to picking one for a side I’d want in place for a couple of seasons to come and beyond.

How did that go for you?

In his defence, he said regular basis. I mean since we last beat them they have won 1 yrophy and we have won erm.......one trophy.

This period of dominance from the greatest ever super league side is starting to look a little underwhelming.

How long do we have to wait for the redvee instant fan reaction video? Usually really honest and neutral in their views those lads.

You'll not see him again for weeks, back under his rock that is Redvee.

Absolutely smashed Saints in that 2nd half, they were never in it.
They had two penalties to get into our twenty which ultimately came to nothing, I said to my lad with twenty to go that these men had gone and we had them. Had Hardaker been more accurate with the boot I think we would have put another couple of tries on them.

But over on social media its all about dirty Wigan and a forward pass.

Beltin'

I don’t want to gloat but I just want Saints fans to admit they’re an Alex Walmsley in front of us. They were Holbrook, Thompson and Walmsley in front but not anymore. Guys like Lees and Amor are average and had they been trying to hold up Wigan’s pack this season like Bullock and Partington have had to do for us, they wouldn’t have even been talked about in a combined team.

Just a bit of respect would be nice. They’re still a better side than us and they’re still favourites to win the comp but when idiots coming on taking about 3 Wiganers getting in a combined team, it’s just silly.

Fair play to them getting over for their try though, you can see why 14 of their players would walk into the Wigan 17.

Exactly.

Always found them to be the same. When they're winning they're the best the world has ever seen. I mean for years they claimed Ade Gardner was a world beater. My Gran would have scored tries outside Lyon and Gidley and she died before they even signed Gidley.

At least the 14

January

It would seem that Christian Woolf is being burned on this years St Helens municipal bonfire according to RedVee.

Get In !!



So looking forward to the Zoom meeting I've got with a southern-based cabbage munching Scouse next week - a bit of judicious paintshop editing coming on methinks.

Background? oh [ithat[/i background

There's been a lot of complaints on here about the lack of fitness of the squad. Tonight they looked very fit indeed. Saints probably edged the first half on the field and scoreboard but the second half was as dominant a Wigan performance as we'll see. That in a large part was due to the game plan but also due to a much higher level of fitness.

Well played Wigan with great credit to the coaching and fitness staff.

From redvee lol

Originally Posted by Webbo Again 

Our forwards were dominated largely because it's so easy to read who's going to receive the ball. We barely use dummy runners, we barely attack as a group/pack, we barely vary the distribution beyond either the DH or 1st receiver topping it onto the player that's going to drive it in, we barely offload, our half backs lack the skillset to make magic passes to pick out players running a great line.

We have the best 17 and best overall squad in the competition, yet were soundly beaten by a team containing Sam Powell, Willie Isa, Ben Flower, Tony Clubb, that failure Singleton and a handful of over-enthusiastic kids.

The stale, one-dimensional tactics are killing us.

I wouldn't be surprised if some players like Knowles and Bentkey are looking elsewhere, where they won't just be cannon fodder.

Although I have defended Club and Flower as great servants of the club, I do think that one them should make way on the bench for Harry Smith.

Far better to have the extra playmaker in the squad than two props on the bench, especially with Partington in the squad in addition to Bullock and Singleton.

Fully agree. The only other way of doing it would be to leave Smithies out instead because you can’t dump Greenwood after last night. We’ve also got to factor in that Lockers will be back and will be selected (rightly or wrongly), so if you want Smith in then 2 players need to make way. I can’t see Clubb making way, the players and coach love him. I saw Leuluai, Lam and Gildart all mention how brilliant he’d been last week. He did ok and I’ve said before when he’s got the right head on he can offer something but it was hardly brilliant.

There will be some interesting selection decisions over the next few weeks.

This is a good post:

The biggest worry for me is this. Walmsley injured his neck and the season peters out and Wire take us at home in a semi. Walmsley suspended tonight and that load of grubs take the ••••. Our bench looks to the sky, theirs are whooping. This lad needs to realise he is coaching the biggest club in Super Leagueand he isn't getting it. Greenwood and Singleton need to be targeted next time we play them.

Well I think we got the answer about the packs without Walmsley . . . very tight up front for the most part but Wigan's greater intensity certainly told in the end, with some really poor defensive efforts and errors from Saints. And boy did LMS have an absolute stinker, with Paulo awful but we already knew that.

Looking forward to (dreading?!) seeing the stats. Fair play Wigan - richly deserved, there's no arguing with 4 tries to 1.

If the teams meet again in the play-offs it will be a stonker.