Thought the lad deserved a thread of his own. Asked to play an unfamiliar role and came up with an outstanding defensive effort along with the try that closed out the match.

A real two fingers to McBanana for leaving him out the four nations.

For McNamara to pick Charnley and Hall over Tommy is controversial. To pick Burgess over him as well is laughable. Tommy will enjoy a nice relaxing off season and will benefit for it next season.

Brilliant yesterday, as he has been all season. Take a bow.

How Makinson hasn't been picked is anyone's guess, far better than Charnley and Burgess.

He must have pushed robes for Harry Sunderland. A couple of try saving tackles and a try.

My thoughts exactly, I had him as my MOM followed closely by Thompson, Soliola and Roby.

At the game I thought Roby walked it with Thompson our 2nd best but when watched back I thought robes was still man of the match (I'm biased to robes) with Tommy running him close.

Sia, Manu, Thompson, Richards and Turner also put in good games.

Well should be in the England team, but from a Saints perspective, i'm very glad he's not.

What a game from him. My MOM definitely. But he wasn't alone.

That perfectly timed, crucial tackle in the corner on Liam Farrell just after we went 8-6 up really did save us 4-6 points. Maybe even a match winning tackle in the end.

That performance gives the new coach plenty to think about. IMO on that evidence he's a better fullback than Lomax is.

I disagree, he offered not very much at all in terms on chiming into the line. Then again, there was no halfbacks so it's unfair to judge. You'd have to play them both behind Walsh and Burns to truly find out who's the better full back. I think Lomax would come out on top though.

Not at all convinced about J-Lo. A classy player, but his conditioning worries me. It'll be interesting to see how he goes next year, particularly in terms of how many games he plays.

I think Swift could be a better FB than both Makinson and Lomax.

Absolutely outstanding display from Tommy on Saturday night, bordering on faultless actually. Both he and Sia definitely ran Robes close for MOTM.

I think so too, can beat a man easily and he has amazing pace from a standing start

Swift can become a better running full back than both.

Tommy can become a better defensive full back than both.

Jonny can become a better organising and play making full back than both.


All have pros and cons but I think the more rounded and better across all areas is Lomax.

Lomax is my preferred option at fullback but with us having Burns, Walsh and Wilkin who can ball play, we we now require lomax to be a different fullback than he's been?

He's played as a 2nd or 3rd pivot this year as we've very rarely had Wilkin, Walsh or lance on the field at the same time.

I thought the fact he played as a pivot was crucial to our game but that may not be needed so be interesting how we will use him.

It's always handy to have extra options. Keep certain moves in the bag for tight games.

Good point Pete.

This is what makes me nervous about the next coach. Will he be good enough to make these sorts of tactical decisions? Brown showed that he could make the decisions (even tho they were prob very obvious!) but he made them work in our system.

Lomax's role will be interesting. Hopefully we have a few games before the wcc to get the combinations going.

I would assume that Walsh will not be fit so lomax will prob play his normal 3rd pivot role alongside burns and hohaia?

But when Walsh comes back we will have to adapt. Which will be good. Evolution is good after a dominant season.

Hohaia will be out for the WCC as well. We'll have Burns and Flanagan at halves against Souths

Why?
The game is on the third week in February.
He will get a one or two game ban max. That will be served in friendly games by then.

Game/rules knowledge is sadly lacking South of Billinge.

We're just desperate to keep our grand final winning halfback, Flanaghan, in the halves - nothing to do with hohaia being banned

He did. Robes received 11 votes and T Mak received 9.

I think it's been said already but was a actually left out of the England team or is he having op or something.
On form, I'd have had him above everybody else.

Do you mean Makinson? Makinson was just not picked. But McBanana doesn't know his ass from his elbow.

Robes is nursing his ankles, with the possibility of an operation, so he withdrew.