I’d go the other way. Knowles causes me far greater concern than Zeb ever has. Cracking player Knowles.

Knowles is a good player no doubt. I feel he’ll be a bit of a Lockers and not get the credit he deserves from people who don’t watch him week in week out until he’s later in to his career. I certainly wouldn’t swap a full fit Greenwood for Taia but he’s rarely stayed clear of knocks this season.

Sky choosing to air the Leeds/KR game over us ffs.

Guess I’ll have to settle for one angled, no commentary highlights 2 hours after.

You get to watch this great game tonight though. Thrilling stuff.

You're right - playing the game tonight was the mystery for me. Could understand wanting to screen Leeds v Hull KR, although with hindsight its looking like London might fall away badly.

Was hoping for a dry day to give us more chance of trying to bring our backs into the game more hopefully come game time we will see drier conditions.

I'm going tonight expecting a whooping so anything better than that will be great fully received. I'm expecting that Clubb will not play but hope that Byrne will bring a more physical game.

My main worry is that Saints score quite a few barge over tries a la Cas earlier in the season.

Pretty stupid to risk Clubb, we're light enough in the forwards as it is.
If he breaks down in his first stint and we're left with sixteen men for 75 mins then it could turn into a very long night.
Play someone who's fit.

Agree. We have Wakey next week at home and then a week off. Let the likes of Clubb get themselves fit ready for a big 6 or 7 weeks towards the playoffs.

Aye, and when Greenwood comes back lets hope that he has the sense to start wearing some head protection

Why?

Been out for a couple of weeks at a time three times tis season.

Makes me worry about a player when that happens.

It's the reason Darrel Goulding had to retire.

Well that’s us back down to Earth with a bump - a result and performance I feared.

Did more to back my opinion that Lam isn’t the one for Wigan than to back up the clubs decision to hand him a new deal. We were negative, dull and predictable with the only spark being Hardakers try which was excellent.

I can’t quite believe the gulf in class and the drop we’ve had from last season to this.

Utter rubbish. Is it Lam’s fault we lost Hamlin, Tautai, Flower, Clubb, Greenwood and Lockers from the squad at the start of the season? No it isn’t. What about Davies and Manfredi? No it isn’t.
Saints are clearly the best side in the competition and beat us fair and square but it has to be taken in context. None of that is down to Lam.
It was always going to be a transitional season and we’ll definitely be in the play offs. When we are, nobody will want to play us. Partington and Smithies are great prospects but tonight was reminiscent of Cas away. Young lads beaten by top forwards. That wouldn’t happen if Flower, Clubb and Lockers has played.
We might not have won tonight but our forwards would have given us a bit more resilience. Young lads can’t win the big games on their own and need the support of experienced players around them.
We’ll beat Wakey next week and go on another run.

Give over.

Stop excusing a poor performance, a far cry from last weeks words when you’d have thought we were world beaters. Our attack collapsed, defence poor, predictable and negative. That you can lay at Lam’s door; as per it was prior to our run, which as good as it was let’s be fair and say we beat teams we should be beating anyway.

I’ll have we were weak in our forwards, no one can say we weren’t but that still does not excuse the performance given. Talk about a “Good Friday” debacle, it’s a “Bad Friday” debacle tonight.

Dress it up how you like if it makes you feel any better but that was nothing short of shambolic.

It was always going to be a bridge too far tonight minus 4 props from the start of the season plus Lockers and Greenwood. I wouldn’t start pointing fingers at Lam but I would question the teams decisions tonight. I thought going for the two points at 0-0 and then 6-2 was just throwing much needed field position away and giving their front row and their defensive line speed an easy way of keeping us pinned in our half. We’d troubled them in the first 5-10 mins as well but then had to do too much defending.

Totally agree. Our pack was steamrollered again and when that happens we have no decient field position and no ball because we give penalties away to try and slow them down. It’s a stark reality that we’re desperate for reinforcements up front.

I thought Partington and Smithies were outstanding in their two spells . When they were off the field we struggled to defend . Two great prospects there for Canberra Raiders
Nice to see Jack Wells back in tonight’s squad

Never had much of a chance looking at the packs tonight but for god's sake there's no need to keep gifting this Saints team points.
Surely they should realise when Saints set up that shift play to the right Makinson is never more than two feet off the touchline because he knows that's where the ball is going.
Why Burgess keeps coming in is beyond me, he stank the place out tonight and if any of the U'19's wingers are in form they should play next week, he's gone from our No.1 to No.4 IMO.

As I said at the start of the week it was a case of taking the inevitable hit and moving on. A 20 point loss is about what I thought it would be.

The Wakefield was the bigger game even before tonight - if we can sneak a win there we have over 2 weeks to regroup and hopefully get a few forwards back. The concern is there are more injuries from tonight and we now have literally no senior prop forwards.

He won't be available for a while anyway - he's done his shoulder.

I’ve questioned the attitude of Burgess before and after a flying comeback this year, he’s gone backwards since the new deal was signed and I can’t say I’m surprised. He’s so so talented but he just doesn’t look to have the desire to be the best player he can be.

Frustrating

We seem to be in a perpetual 'transitional season' over recent years.

We won it last year.

So who will replace Burgess next week?
Hankinson to centre and Sarginson to wing with Marshall going to 5?

And ?

Every season there is a coming and going of players....mainly going, especially any class. Tonight showed us where we are ........you might have enjoyed that. But I certainly didn't.