This Saints team is certainly not the best ever SL team as some people like to think they are.

They're miles better than anything this season though. Especially for sides like hull Cas and yourselves with 6+ players missing.

Maybe the tide might turn come August September October in terms of a shift in form and fitness ?

Maybe not be they are by far the best in this one.
They have hammered most teams this season.

Everyone is correct Saints are by far best team of season. Just over 24 hours agao people were also correct in saying Anthony Joshua is best heavyweight in the world.

Then an over weight no hoper who likes like clogger is his conditioner steps up from no where.

Things ca change very quickly in sport.

That accolade goes to the Saints Team 2006 all conquering version. Quality of Superleague is not a good standard these days. Warrington and Saints are fairly decent and more consistent in there attacking plays.

To be the best ever SL side, they actually have to win the title and then back up their achievement.
There is no doubt that Saints have an excellent squad but, everything is going their way.
Most clubs, apart from Leeds and London, with a fully fit squad, will put a serious challenge against the other sides and Saints have been "fully fit" all season and have had the luxury of rotating their squad.
As we move towards the business end of the season, more clubs will be getting closer to fielding their best 13/17 players and then we can truly judge who the best side is.
Despite their jeckyll and hyde performances, Hull look like they may do something in the cup.
Saints look nailed on for the LLS and the title is still up for grabs, with Catalan, despite their recent thrashing by Hull, going quietly about their business - I wonder if the RFL have a plan on how to fill Old Trafford if they (Catalan) make the final.

I,m not sure if Catalan will repeat there heroics of last season, we beat them putting 50 pts past them with 8 of our players missing, Hull bashed them by 50 pts last week as well. With respect to Bradford and Halifax I think Warrington, Hull and Saints are pretty evens in a one off cup game because we all know current form is not really a major factor.

We've not really had a fully fit 17 this season compared to last season, we have a decent depth of quality squad and not reliant on any particular player like Barba for example. Our big player in Roby has only played 12 super league games I think and has been subbed for a few games to manage his longevity.

All we can say at the moment is that Saints are consistently playing at a slightly higher level at the moment and because of that when they lose a bit of form they may scrape a few wins were last season they would have lost them.

For Wakey the squad depth is a bit more shallow but they are showing great team spirit and the rewards of that will be a top 5 place despite the injury setbacks .A win against Leeds next week would probably kill the rhinos off from having a sniff of that top 5 as well.

The team is hit by injuries...missing your 2 best props and your best half is just back on one hand.

How ever the season ends... this must surely be one of the best in a generation or 2 at least.
If you were offered this 2 years ago...you'd have sold the grandmother for it.

The team is NOT garbage...the hand dealt in this game was poor.
You'll be in good shape for that top 3 position push by summer.

I know that the Catalan results haven't been great at times, almost as bad as some of FC's performances but, I do believe they will finish in the top 5 and then it becomes a knockout competition for them and I firmly believe that although Saints and Wire are favourites to lift the title, the GF wont feature both clubs and it look as though it will be Wire or Saints vs Hull FC or Catalan.

Time will tell and Trinity fans hope that we will come again but, unfortunately, we have been too busted for too long and it would be an absolute miracle if we can get to the end of the regular season and have a fit enough squad to mount any serious challenge.

Your half right with other teams missing players, Think everybody needs to put it all into perspective who shall we start with

Castleford players that their were missing against Saints last week at Magic to my knowledge
M Shenton
L Gale
Holmes
J Moors
Jess Lefao
A Foster
J Ellis
Massy
Thats 8 Players missing from a Squad that could of potentially have played in that game.

Saints were missing 3 players from a Squad that could of potentially have played in that game.
Amor
Percival
L Scarsbrook
So it was no wonder the result was what it was given the absentee that Cas had.

Right
Wakefield players that were Missing from the Squad that could of potentially have played in the game yesterday or the previous weeks .
T. Johnstone
B Tupou
D Fifita
T Arona
C Huby
J Arundel
J Batchelor
M Jowitt
M Caton Brown
Junoir Sau (cup tied)
Pauli (Loaned out)
That's 9 players missing, Any team sport that would be missing that amount of players for selection would certainly struggle.

Now that's see how many Saints players were unavailable for those games against Wakefield yesterday.
Theo Fages
K Amor
2 Unavailable for selection.
So it was no wonder the result was what it was given our absentees yesterday people just need to realize that.

And finally lets just turn it around how do you think Saints would have gone on without lets say these players missing.

Roby
Makinson
Lomax
Walmsley
Coote
Grace

Would have been interesting, But there weren't missing those players so now there world beaters instead because in a space of 2 weeks there have played sides missing most of there players.


Up The Trin

To bring a touch of realism into it, to win we needed Saints to be a little off their game and us to be on ours. As it happens, Saints were on theirs, so whatever team we could have put out there we wouldn't have been in the hat for today.

It was frustrating at times, with I think three times when we kicked on the first tackle with no real prospect of it coming off. Saints were able to get through our middle too easily.

I felt a little cheated on the day, because at the ground it looked like Makinson's foot was in touch for their second try, but watching it back it wasn't.

I felt better for seeing some lads in fancy dress on St Helens Central station passing a grubby Steedens ball around, so they clearly got to keep it. I wouldn't normally condone pinching balls, but it was an amusing interlude in what was otherwise a disappointing afternoon.

I don't see how you can say we were missing Sau and MCB, as well as TJ & Tupou, as the first 2 are only here because Tj and Bill got injured in the first place!! In the last 3-4 weeks we have got back Ashurst, England, Miller, Randell & Brough, and have only beaten Widnes. The teams we put out against London & Catalans were good enough, but the performances weren't. Too many individuals are giving 4/10 performances, we just aren't playing well enough. Yesterday was always going to be tough, but Saints didn't even play that well for me, they made more errors than us, gave us chances to get into the game, and we didn't take them. Friday is a massive game, and we've got to start playing better, too many players are underperforming and have got to start upping their game, or else it's going to be a very disappointing season, injuries or not.

I can see how he says it because we got those 2 to replace Tom and Bill and they're not even available, so we have to put new players in and the team dynamics change again. Ateotd it's just a list of who could play, whether first choice or second choice but can't because of injury etc,

For me we've gone from sort of dealing with the injuries in the most part, to it catching up with us then the performances have dropped off and we've been all over the place the last few games, even during the course of 80 minutes. Saying that we should of/could of won against Catalans and that would have been the confidence boost we needed. Even with a few returning players, who seem to me to not be playing as good as they were pre-injury, we just look like a team the last 3 games or so playing short on confidence, that leads to errors, penalties etc. Also I might be wrong but some of those that have returned from injury, might in an ideal world have had an extra week or two. Brough certainly looked like he could have done with another week or so off, to maybe get some full contact training in after the pins were removed.

Another big thing for playing consistent RL is how often have we fielding the same team. From about a couple of months in we've seen so much chopping and changing through injuries etc it's been the craziest season I can remember in my time of watching Trinity. It's going to be hard to get any consistency imo with what we've been through this season so far and lack of consistency obviously brings lack of confidence.

Ateotd a team like Trinity on the finances we have just can't afford to lose Tupou, Johnstone, Arona, Ashurst, Brough, Miller, Huby, England etc and remain consistent, there's no team in SL that can have such an injury crisis and keep their standard of play fairly high week in week out. Hopefully when Fifita comes back and Ashurst, Brough, England etc get more game time into them we can produce a performance which will set up the rest of the season - then when Tupou returns that will also be a massive boast because it's been obvious we've missed his huge meters he contributes a game, which was I believe over 150 meters per game before injury, his tries and his deadly combination on the left with Tom.

Saying all that the performance against London was ridiculous first time, the second was even more so. That team we put out that day was easily good enough to get the business done, similarly at home against Hull KR. We've also developed this awful ability to not be switched on for the first 40, that seems to have got even worse of late. A team like ours that doesn't spend as much as others should be really focusing and perfecting all aspects of the game that doesn't come down to cash and intensity and controlled aggression is a big one.

we played how I thought it would go and the scoreline matched that

nothing else we could of done totally outclassed

Be interesting to see if Halifax give them a better game then we did..
Although Murrel is far from Super League quality he sure runs the show at Championship level for Fax. We really are lacking a leader like that.

yet they are only half way up in the league

Some players can lift their game when the rewards are there and it matters.



Surprised Kear didn't quite manage to get Bradford home.

Bradford will need a whole new team if they are to get back in super league

Are you suggesting that a "fit" Murrel is anywhere close to a "fit" Brough


Yes, he was running the game for Fax and they deserved their win but, assuming that Sainta dont get complacent and believe that they only have to turn up to win the game, they will put 50 points on Fax all day long.
We still get back to a full Saints side, in very good form, beat a busted, patched up Trinity side.
Much like the Warrington semi final a couple of seasons back, we had to play our most important Challenge Cup game of the season with a team that was nowhere near being close to the side that we may have wanted to field.
Time to move on and get ready for Leeds on Friday

Are you pretending that you actually read my post??

Certainly read it ok thanks
It was the "need a leader like that" comment which I was trying to reply to and as I suggested, a fit Brough is twice the leader and twice the player that Murrell is now (or has ever been).

Murrell would struggle to get in our touch Rugby team on a Monday night

There's no question about it...if Saints play the same team as they did against us they will score 60+.

I'm delighted Halifax got through and have their big day out...anyone who thinks they won't get absolutely thrashed though is watching a different sport to me...

Murrell wont be available for any touch rugby on 27th July though.



I'm sure the Fax fans and players are realistic about their chances v Saints. Similar to the majority of us when we were drawn out against Saints. Lets see if they can hold out longer than 2 minutes.

Monday the 29th we’ll be playing so could make it if we’re short