Sironen, Matautia and Knowles probably do get scrutinised more than most but there’s a reason for that. They keep making illegal challenges and have all been unable to stay on the right side of the rules this season. In the days of Maguire and at times Wane, Saints fans loved to call us grubs and they’re still doing so now, even though evidence suggests we’re a far far cleaner side. Now it’s a case that they’ve been harshly treated and are unlucky but we’re treated leniently.

It’s much the same with their hatred for Sam Tomkins in those days. A man who was the hero of a certain Jack Welsby and you can certainly tell that was the case. They didn’t have an issue with Welsby’s antics at Magic but they didn’t like Smith patting him on the head on Friday and we were the bullies. It’s one eyed support at its finest.

I can’t speak for all Saints fans obviously but that’s a side to Welsby I don’t like and I commented as such after Magic. He’s a young lad with a questionable temperament who will learn. He was awful on Friday and tried to do everything on his own and became more and more frustrated as the game went on and made subsequently more errors

However what I will say is that I don’t understand the love for what Smithies and Smith did. I was disappointed with our lads that they didn’t run in sooner and sort it.

From an England point of view we are in danger of creating hatred between the players like Saints and Leeds back in the day when they openly didn’t mix and their lack of mixing affected England. We aren’t far away from this now in my opinion.

Peet's had a word with Smith and Smithies about their reaction to Welsby, from a fans point of view he had it coming to him, but from a coaches point of view it's obviously unprofessional

Wasn't it at Magic Mr Notre dame did something similar to French???

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I’ve literally just said above that I didn’t agree with his antics at Magic. At least read my posts before you respond.

What I will say is that I hope we leave it at that now with Welsby. He has hopefully learned a lesson and realised going all Jake Connor won’t do him any favours and by the same token, we won’t benefit from keep getting distracted. I think there was an element of Smith and Smithies winding up a lad I presume is a mate. Those 3 will have played plenty of junior rugby together and in particular they had that England academy series together against the Aussies, so I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s a problem that could go really deep and start impacting the national side in future years. The characters in your side and ours seem more sensible than some of the guys in those Leeds and Saints teams (Bailey, Long, Graham, Senior etc were all a bit nuts).

Can we keep this to the thread title please, thanks.

There's a separate thread for all things either side of Billinge Hill.

Bibby, Pearce-Paul centres, Isa 2nd row, Leuluai on bench, Byrne is the prop who misses out, no idea if that's rest or injury or form

Workman like, but my god Mago was terrible.

Edit :- Our players all seemed to pay a lot of attention to Chan at the end, they seemed impressed. He looked good to be fair. Wonder if there is anything in it or they were just being respectable. Didn't seem to bother with any of their other players.

I’m not so sure about this. Smithies got absolutely walloped by Stephen Chichton in I think, the first test around 2018. There was a bit of argy bargy afterwards and no England players got involved but when Harry Newman got walloped they were all in

Well that was a tough watch - particularly with the Cust injury. You could argue that Tommy's defensive qualities make him our best bet for the playoffs though - just depends on whether he can get through the 80 minutes.

I hope Bateman doesn't get some pedantic ban for his high tackle.

That was pretty awful, only bright spot was Smith's kicking, if I had Sky I don't think I'd be watching it again

A very tough watch.

Catalans did well in the circumstances

Well it's job done. Some nice tries, but obviously a lack of intensity. Onwards and upwards, and only one play-off game to get past now.

Who will we most likely be playing?

We just never earned the right to play and wanted to score from every set. There wasn’t much to gain from the game but players had things to lose. Cust might have lost a semi final place to injury and Mago might have lost a place due to his horror showing. If there was a player that summed up the unwillingness to show patience and to respect the opposition it was him. I don’t see how Byrne doesn’t come in for him in two weeks.

I’m not one to moan about refs as I think they have a very difficult job however tonight I felt Childs basically encouraged very dangerous play by letting anything go in contact and in the wrestle on the floor…because basically he knew it was a no contest.

Very irresponsible from him tonight in my opinion.

I did enjoy seeing Tommy split Peter Crouch in two.

I thought Crouch was effective in the time he on, actually, I remember him from a previous game.

Probably when he did the robot in the World Cup

Maybe Mago wasn't as bad as appeared on the night, 16 carries 122m and 3 errors, personally I thought Bateman had a 'mare, ball seemed to die with him every time and he looked ready to explode at any minute.
He's probably sweating over the disciplinary as well, if we've picked up a suspension from a game like that it'll be a sickener

I noticed Mago’s stats and they were good in terms of ground made but it was just so frustrating. I’ve never really bagged him until last night. It bordered on disrespectful the way he played that game because it was against kids but you’d rather he did that last night and not in a big game. If he keeps a place for the semi, I hope we just tell him to calm it a bit and firstly concentrate on charging the ball in. You can’t force offloads in tight games and give up possession. We wanted more attacking rugby and it’s fantastic that we’ve got that but there is a balance, especially in big games.

I thought Mago was good. He does make errors but he also breaks up teams like no one else in our team. He was even stepping last night! The error he repeatedly makes when trying to play the ball too quickly needs eliminating though.

Mago played 50 mins last night 10 mins in first half and the whole of the second half a big improvement for him

At the game it felt like Mago made more than 3 errors. I’m torn on him for the semi, he can make a huge difference but needs to speak to KPP and learn when too offload and when to keep hold.