We said that a fair bit in the last third of last season! The trouble is, they never came off. Much like tonight really. While I know it was a friendly and we had umpteen variations out on the pitch, I wasn't that impressed. There was a bit of air given to the ball in the early part of the first half but given that we spent most of the second half on the defensive, I'm not getting my hopes up yet. I think we'll all get a better idea of how the land lies when we play Hull.

I was impressed by some of Halifax's attack. They have some nifty ball players in their side. And one of their players has real pace. I wouldn't mind us nicking him for the wing!

I was impressed by Wheeler, but then I was anyway. It is lovely to see a real sidestep in motion. I thought Maurie was feisty, which was encouraging. Wello played a good one. Jammer excellent as ever. Kyle's kicking was good on the whole, just one nothing in-field kick and a miss from the touchline (but he can't seem to get those). I got confused more than once as to who was on the pitch so I can't really comment on anyone else. Soliola did ok for a first outing and he scored a try, which was good for him (and us). However, he doesn't look to have much in the way of pace so I just can't see him as a centre. Unless we want a slow centre and two slow wingers!

I thought Mike Bennett converting his first from out wide was really funny, especially when he missed his second under the sticks! He had a very dainty kicking style!

Paul White i think you must be on about. he is a quick player. strange thing is he might not get in the team every week with the options we have on the wing.

one wing position is already covered because we need to accomodate our kicker extrodinare

lee Patterson in the side on the wing. then we have Rob Worricey and Paul White fighting for the other wing and frankly i couldnt say which one of them is quicker tbh.

plus the attack, we still have our best 7 to come back and one of our best 9's to come back into the side plus a full back and a winger, so that wasnt even our best attack.

if you want some entertainment on a thursday night tune into sky sports when were on.

It was a good hit out.

Dont believe Halifax should get away with taking 5 minutes to kick each drop out. Just kick the ball FFS.

Good points for Saints....

Gary Wheeler
Sia Soliola
James Graham
Maurie Faasavalu

Maurie was M.O.M by a distance imo.

For me the impressive points were Kyles kicking game, very accurate and consistant. Leon seemed to combine well with him as well, and had some of his spark back. Maurie was awesome tonight, back to his best. Also this was the first time i've seem Magennis in action, looked very strong and quick, more like a 2nd row/ centre than a straight 2nd row to me.
Overall very impressed given it was the first hit out for most of the lads

I don't think Saints should be allowed to get away with forward passes but hey ho

and knock on's and holding down in the tackle

Soliola is the player I feel Saints have been missing IMO. I'll be backing you lot this season.

I agree to a degree but oddly we looked far slicker against widnes in the first 20 than we did all nights against Fax. I was very impressed the Ellis in that game and with Wheeler at 6 and think they will be very ale deputies.

All in all last night I think the game provided what we needed and I too was happy to see that we tried to play a little more expansivily again.

I watched every Thursday night game on Sky last season. I'll be honest in saying that quite often I enjoyed those matches more than Superleague (including, in the final third of the season, watching Saints). You guys didn't suffer the slow PTB issue that hit SL, making most of the matches a pretty dire experience. The Thursday nights also revealed some good old fashioned skills that just weren't being utilised at SL. So I'm a fan of the Thursday night matches already and will be looking forward to watching them again this season.

Maybe we should just field our Under 20s this season?

I wasn't that impressed by Saints last night. A handful stood out. But some for the wrong reasons (Gardner, for instance, was terrible ...) I was more impressed by some of Halifax's attacking moves. We should adopt them.

Gardner has started where he left off last season (terrible)

Must admit i was shocked at how poor he was last night. Didnt seem to have any pace or power. Patterson for us handled him very easily in that first half, which given the ammount of time Gardner was given by the players inside him by the quick passing, was quite suprising.

I couldn't make it to the game.

Did Soliola play centre or second row ?

Impressed with Kyles kicking in general play. But he has got to take the line on a bit more and start ordering the forwards into the posistions he want them in.
Im sure that will come with time but its obviousley not something that comes naturaly to him. Pity he wasnt a bit more like Myler In that respect(mouth) but the lads a rare talent.

Cant disagree with the Gardner comment I was saying it at the game too he just doesnt offer anything to the team at all. He's a bit more reliable in defence than Meli but not even in the same league as him in attack. Were suffering at the moment from having 2 very poor (for different reasons) wingers and a slow fullback.

Against Widnes Lomax was excellent chiming into the line in a way Wello just cant do anymore , it created space for others and gave Ellis and Wheeler more options. Against Fax I thought Wheeler looked better out wide than Gardner and he doesnt seem to have the frailties in defence that Meli does.

I've mentioned it on a few posts now but I honestly think we have a very Good player in Ellis, inbetween all the masturbating about how good Eastmond is I think he might be a viable option for us in the future especially if Eastmond picks up a knock or has a bad run of form. From what I've seen he doesnt have the running game Eastmond has but he already seems to have the vision , kicking game and great hands.

He played in the Centres.

Only played the first half though.

I think Gardeners night was summed up when Gleeson up ended him.

I think last night showed how much Gardner has gone backwards in the last season or two. Multiple times he had the ball in space only to either have to cut inside, or be caught. It really highlighted our lack of pace in the team.

Our props played pretty well. Graham looked to win the collison more than last year, Fozzard played well and Maurie was our MoM I think. Soliola set up a try with a nice offload, aswell as scoring one of his own. Wheeler impressed me playing out of position. Eastmond's playkicking was excellent, forced a couple of drop outs and split the winger and fullback almost every time.

fax were missing their three first choice props, plus 3 other first choice players so seems they did well.

He may be slow but man he was everywhere last night. He has a brilliant rugby brain and we need him.


I agree with you about Ellis. I hope he continues to improve and grow as a player as he certainly has potential.

We should adopt you guys ! Thanks for the compliments, but if we'd had the possession that you enjoyed, we'd have been closer in the score.

for me its pace we lack both our halfbacks are faster than our centres and wings

If Saints hadent made around 50 substitutions in the 2nd half then the score would of been a landside

You're correct mate,we would have hammered you with our squad of 19 inclusive of around 4 debutants and 3 teenagers.

Can we do landslides these days? I haven't seen a Saints landslide since we played Castleford in the early part of last season. We ended last season unable to score more than 20 points in a match.