Alarming isn't the word.

1 of many problems sadly

also add

fullback whos at least 12 months past his use by date
lack of an experienced half back to help bring on the young lads
lack of a world class prop
lack of a decent coach

I have been saying it for ages that the biggest mistake that Saints have made in recent years is the
failure to replace Willie Talau with another recognised left centre.

We have had far too many stop gap players playing there at left centre with the club thinking we will get by and unfortunately until we bring someone in who is an experienced player in that position we wil continue to have defensive problems on that side.

I know I keep harping on about it but

Lack of JAMMER

I knew we would miss him, but this shows just how much he did for the team.
Losing one of the best props in the world, and having p1ss poor Perry as a kind of replacement.

Laffranchi actually looks decent to me but not a replacement for Graham.
I think everyone was expecting a fit Perry to fill the void. No chance of that unless he improves dramatically.

imagine if TP had gone too.

The worst part for me was the amount of times a prop like Perry ended up at first receiver, especially on the last tackle, as nobody else even seemed interested in standing there. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

We lack a scrum half to guide us around the pitch, we just look completely lost at times. I like lomax, he's a great player, but he's certainly not (currently at least) a scrum half. Having another kid at 6 also doesn't take any pressure off him.

If we had 1 experienced half we would be fine. Signing a utility type like Lance was never the answer unless we were intending him to replace the Snail at 1

Yet all the props are internationals, the great Anthony Laffranchi is supposed to be world class.

At last someone else has relised we've only had one centre since talau left. We've played anyone there over the past 4 seasons and I've never in all my time knew of a club which only has one centre on its books.

AGREED!


We have never replaced Talau


Id have him back now at 36!

I'm glad that two fellow supporters also recognise what the problem is with regards to a lack of a proper experienced left centre.



Why on earth the club hasn't recognised the same problem I will never know. Having said that I think Saints did orginally intend to sign Soliola to play at left centre hence him wearing number 4 jersey. Sadly its not worked as planned.

Playing sia centre was never the intention, he'd been playing backrow for the roosters for two seasons as it was common fact he's to slow to play centre.

Whilst I agree on the Talau thing, left centre was not the issue last night. There was one try that went down the left centre position, the rest of the match it was as tight as the rest of the line.

Last night was about our half backs, we did not use the position and the territory we had to any real effect. It took a barge from Ade and a show and go from TP to score.

We did not break the line to score at all. No bombs, no grubbers, no 2nd phase, no dummy runner, no feckin crossing for gods sake.

We had no cutting edge to break the Hull line.

I can think of several newspaper articles at the time of his signing which suggest otherwise.

He might have been playing second row at Sydney Roosters for a spell but the intention was for him to play at centre and its why he ended up wearing number 4. If you don't beleive me Google in "Saints sign New Zealand Centre Sia Soliola" and find the Guardian newspaper article about his signing and also read Eamonn McManus' comments about him being one of the best centres in the game at 22.!!!

It might not have been a issue last night but is been a issue for the past four seasons and the fact our club can't recognise that teams play with two centres is worrying.

It's been 4/5 years since we actually had two centre play together and we question why we can't win big games and finals.

I've said it for past god knows how many seasons that our recruitment is awful and the clubs "youngsters" is the way forward is a way hiding the fact we are doing it on the cheap again.

When you lose the likes of talau, gidley, long, scully, KC, pryce and graham and not replace them with players of near their ability as we can, the. We've got problems. I know the names mentioned IMO are not replaceable but we've not even gone close with the players we've brought in.

It might not have been a issue last night but is been a issue for the past four seasons and the fact our club can't recognise that teams play with two centres is worrying.

It's been 4/5 years since we actually had two centre play together and we question why we can't win big games and finals.

I've said it for past god knows how many seasons that our recruitment is awful and the clubs "youngsters" is the way forward is a way hiding the fact we are doing it on the cheap again.

When you lose the likes of talau, gidley, long, scully, KC, pryce and graham and not replace them with players of near their ability as we can, the. We've got problems. I know the names mentioned IMO are not replaceable but we've not even gone close with the players we've brought in.

If it's worth saying it's worth saying twice.

If saints thought he was the answer to the centre problem then whoever dies our recruitment is worse than I thought.

He was getting caught out as a 20yr old centre/winger with his lack of pace for a outside back and then add a couple of serious knee injuries.

Fully agreed. It was one of the reasons why we lost against Wigan in the Grand Final. Gleeson had a field day against Johnny Lomax at Old Trafford and at the time Potter was putting a different player in the left centre position week by week.

I've said it thousands of times over the years as you know.

I agree with you in that the recruitment in this regard has been bad and Soliola should never have been signed as a centre but he was!!! I was very suprised when he was signed as a replacement centre and many people at the time were saying the same thing as he had played most of his his recent rugby at second row and were questioning why and where he would infact play.

It's he in thing at saints at the moment. Laffranchci played backrow all his life and now been signed as prop.

Lance signed as a fullback and then been asked to play stand off.

Crazy recruitment but a idiot of a coach.

We are certainly not having as much luck in the recruitment stakes. We keep missing out on players such as Chris Hill, Waterhouse and Griffin and end up playing players out of position because we have to.

Although I do really like Lance Hohiah as a player I'm begining to think he was also a panic buy.

Back to the topic of the discussion though. The reality is that the left channel of defence does need improving as we are leaking too many tries on that side of the field and we need to look to bring in a proper left centre next season or the problems will remain.

Was I seeing things last night or did Shenton keep being used in the scrums.

I know exactly what your saying but with the current recruitment the club made, how do you suggest we find a centre?

We've tied lance down for four years and ain't got clue what postion he's been signed for and he's a quota player.

We signed boof on 2yr deal and he's playing out of postion and also a quota player.

We've got perry here for this season and next and also a quota player.

The overseas quota is full for the next three years at least so unless we can find a British centre off contract or splash the cash the we will have no centre arriving at the club.

We will also in the market for a prop(maybe twos), a halfback and a fullback so it's a tough ask for the next coach.

The solutions is there is no easy solution I'm afraid.

The reality is and I have said it on this forum and others who would you honestly sign?

The Super League is devoid of top class English players and the new Newlove, Connolly etc isn't out there to buy even if you could with the necessary cash available and salary cap constraints didn't apply.

In addition to the need for a recognised centre there remains the possibility that we need to strengthen in other areas too, certainly at prop forward.

With the NRL cap increasing it will soon get very difficult to lure any player thats half decent over from Down Under.