What was the Saints team of 2006 that won the double & how would they compare to today's Warrington team? I know it is hard to compare like for like particularly from another era, but who were your 1st choice 17 back in 06 & how do you think they would compare against todays Warrington team? Also who was your Coach back then?

Our current 1st choice 17 are:
1 Hodgson
2 Riley
3 Ratchford
4 Atkins
5 Monas J
6 Briers
7 Myler
8 Moz
9 Monas M
10 Carvell
11 Westwood
12 Waterhouse
13 Ben Harrison

14 Mickey Higham
15 Woody
16 Hill
17 Grix

Coach: Tony Smith

Wellens
Gardner
Lyon
Talau
Meli
Pryce
Long
Cayless
Cunningham
Anderson P
Wilkin
Gilmour
Sculthorpe

Graham
Roby
Fa'asavalu
Hooper

Coach: Daniel Anderson

No contest. Jog on Wolfs!!!

I reckon of the current Wolfs squad Atkins, J Monaghan, Carvell, Morley & Westwood would have made Saints' 2006 squad. A sad sign of the decline in the standard of SL in just 6 years I think.

St Rabban..... Calm Down, Calm Down or you will crease your shell suit.

1 Hodgson Vs Wellens = Hodgson
2 Riley Vs Gardner = Riley
3 Ratchford Vs Lyons = Lyons
4 Atkins Vs Talau = Ryan
5 Monas J Vs Meli = Joel
6 Briers Vs Pryce = Lee (and you know it)
7 Myler Vs Long = Long ( but Richie is only 22)
8 Moz Vs Cayless = Moz
9 Monas M Vs Cunningham = Cunningham (but only just)
10 Carvell Vs Anderson P = Carvell
11 Westwood Vs Wilkin = Benny all day long
12 Waterhouse Vs Gilmour = Trent
13 Ben Harrison Vs Scully = Scully (legend)

14 Mickey Higham Vs Roby = Mickey (as with Richie I have compared the 2006 Sts team with our team today, so it Mickey)
15 Woody Vs Graham = Graham
16 Hill Vs Fa'asavalu = Hilly
17 Grix Vs Hooper = Hooper

Coach: Tony Smith Vs Daniel Anderson = Tony Smith

Out of the 18 comparisons I make it Warrington taking 12 wins.
So Saint Rabban its you that needs to JOG ON.

You are a one-eyed numpty who has never even remotely been on the same planet as a clue if you could genuinely believe that utter crock of horse leavings. Mr. Rabban's advice to jog on is about right.

Do you want another go, with some sense of reality this time. At the very best I can call 2 wire players, I,ll give you a clue one of them his surname begins with a W.

Nope don't want another go thanks. Job done 1st time round.

It was a fairly convincing bit of fishing until you put that. Let yourself down there.

This Warrington team is a brilliant one and must surely be the best Wire team in their history. But (and this is from a St Helens hating Wigan fan) the Saints team from 06 has been the best team for the best part of two decades. I think they had a genuine case for claiming to be the best club side in the world back then. I'd say the only other two sides who you could mention in the same breath would be the recent Leeds team and the Bradford side from the early 2000's (in the SL era of course)!

What a hilariously poor attempt at trolling.

So the wire team that has never made a gf and will finish 2nd is better than the saints team that won everything in sight?

Even our awful team whipped wire this year.

Ooooookaaaaay.

Your previously strongly suspected status as preposterous troll is finally revealed and proved incontrovertibly. You are worthy of naught but derision and pity. Consider yourself derided and pitied.

The current Wire squad is leagues ahead of any other team at the moment, but in the SL era overall can in no way shape or form be seriously compared to Saints '96, '00 or '06, or to many of the Bradford sides of the early '00s, or some of the Wigan sides around the turn of the '00s, or even probably to Leeds '07 or '09. Any reasonable and knowledgeable Wire fan (I'm sure there must be some out there

) would recognise and acknowlede this simple fact. Only a one-eyed clueless fool could argue otherwise.

...and that has only ever won 1 playoff game [uever[/u remember

2 if you want to be pedantic

Hooper was our Loose Forward that year as Sculthorpe hardly played if at all.....

Disappointed at so many for biting!

The 2006 Saints were the best team since Wigan's invincibles and every team in Super League is currently a mile away from their standard.

Comparing Wire of 2012 to Saints of 2006 is very unfair. Firstly Saints won the league in 2006, maybe Saints in 2007 would be a bit better. Actually it isn't fair as Saints finish top that year (rather than second).

What have Warrington done differently this year to any of the last 5, 10, 20, 30 seasons that makes the Wire posters think they can even make the Grand Final no matter win it.

To be honest why are people biting on this??? Every season is different and you cant compare teams that are 6 years apart for christ sakes. Ridiculous attempt at trolling and more fool the people who have risen to it...

I would suggest that Warrington supporters can be very proud of winning three Challenge Cups in the past four years and also to have been in the top two positions in 2011 and 2012.

However, with just two play-off wins in their history they will need to at least compete in a Grand Final before asking for comparisons to be made with genuine Champions.

My view is that they will have this year and perhaps next year if they are lucky before the squad fragments. After all the nucleus of their squad are aged over 30 with eleven players from their starting seventeen being included such as Hodgson, J Monaghan, Briers, Morley, M Monaghan, Carvell, Waterhouse, Westwood, Higham, Wood and Solomona.

Should they secure a title or two they can legitimately claim comparison.

But there is no doubt in my mind that the St Helens team in their prime with the likes of Cunningham, Sculthorpe, Long, Lyon, Roby, Graham and Pryce would have done anything other than steam roll this ageing side.

The sides that used to come down to my club London used to play us off the park on our borrowed Union ground rather than simply target the weaker club trained players and were amazing ball players. Warrington have never played anything like that standard at the Stoop.

And what, as a Mod, have you done about it?

Now then it's time for part two.

Firstly you need to know that I am comparing the 2012 Warrington team against the 2006 Saints team. A lot of you became apoplectic when I said that 2012 Mickey Higham is better than the 2006 James Roby. Before you get your shell suits all creased up again read, remember I have compared this years 2012 Warrington team against the Saints team of 2006 & not today's team.

So here it is again.

1 Hodgson Vs Wellens = Hodgson
2 Riley Vs Gardner = Riley
3 Ratchford Vs Lyons = Lyons
4 Atkins Vs Talau = Ryan
5 Monas J Vs Meli = Joel
6 Briers Vs Pryce = Lee (and you know it)
7 Myler Vs Long = Long ( but Richie is only 22)
8 Moz Vs Cayless = Moz
9 Monas M Vs Cunningham = Cunningham (but only just)
10 Carvell Vs Anderson P = Carvell
11 Westwood Vs Wilkin = Benny all day long
12 Waterhouse Vs Gilmour = Trent
13 Ben Harrison Vs Scully = Scully (legend)

14 Mickey Higham Vs Roby = Mickey (as with Richie I have compared the 2006 Sts team with our team today, so it Mickey)
15 Woody Vs Graham = Graham
16 Hill Vs Fa'asavalu = Hilly
17 Grix Vs Hooper = Hooper

Coach: Tony Smith Vs Daniel Anderson = Tony Smith

Out of the 18 comparisons I make it Warrington taking 12 wins.

Ok, so given that logic, your first selection is -



Right. Remind me, who won Man of Steel in 2006?

As someone else said, jog on.

So am I (more fool me I know, but I'm bored).

Saints 2006 won the regular season by a clear eight points. The vastly superior Warrington team of 2012 finished second, one point behind Wigan.

Saints 2006 lost four competitive games throughout that season: By three points to Huddersfield away (first away defeat in eleven months, without Lyon and Long and with Pryce on the bench and a pair of 18 year old half-backs), by one point to Hull FC (H) and two points to Bradford (A) in consecutive weeks, and finally by four points to Catalans the week before the CC Final with a team that had an [url=http://www.saints.org.uk/saints.org.uk/home/viewpage.php?page_id=7average age of 19.[/url

Despite playing a regular season round less than Saints 2006 (27 compared to 2icon_cool.gif, Warrington 2012 lost six and drew one of their regular season games (conceding 48 points at Salford and 62 points at London) and also had an additional (comprehensive) defeat in the play-offs.

Saints 2006 scored 30 more points than Warrington 2012 in the regular season, understandable given the extra game. However, the Warrington 2012 team managed to concede 109 more points (539) than Saints 2006 (430) despite playing a game less.

The Saints team of 2006 won the CC, League Leaders Shield, Grand Final & BBC Team of the Year. Individually we won SL Coach of Year, Young Player of Year, MOS and BBC Coach of Year. We won 32 out of 36 games, and the negative points difference of the 4 games we lost was only 10 points combined.

The Saints of 2006 was the best club side SL has seen, and by far still remains the best club side since the Wigan invincibles, anybody with half an ounce of rugby league knowledge would be able to recognise that.

As for the joker making comparisons, Mick Higham was allowed to leave Saints at the end of 2005 because he wasnt good enough to keep KC or Roby out of our team at 9, so how you can say he is better than Roby is beyond me.

To say Tony Smith is better than DA is also a brave call, seeing as Smith came to SL as a coach in 2000 and has coached SL for 11 seasons (1 where Giants were relegated) and in that time has won 3 Challenge Cups, 2 Grand Finals, 1 WCC and 2 League Leaders Shields (a total of 8 trophies). DA was in SL for 3 and a half years, and managed to win 3 Challenge Cups, 4 League Leaders Shields, 1 Grand Final and 1 WCC(a total of 9 trophies).

Overall, the Saints team of 2006 won 3 trophies in that year alone, Warrington have managed 4 trophies in 16 years of SL...therefore to me there isnt really a comparison to be made.