I agree with St Pete. It was a pleasing performance, but by no means perfect. If we hadn't started trying to play touch rugby after 55 mins I think we could have racked up a really humiliating scoreline. Warrington looked like we did last year - their kicking game was rancid.

Positives: seeing Saints play with a proper half back partnership and a bit of mongrel up front. Some really determined defence.

Negatives: not as ruthless as we could have been in the 2nd half. Percy has a habit of flying in which led to Warrington's first try and a break shortly after. Something for him to work on.

Maybe Walsh ain't the key for us this season, maybe it's keeping Wheeler fit.

Our discipline stank, as seems to be the norm under Brown unfortunately, and Soliola deserves a ban (we were very lucky he wasn't sent off), but apart from that I thought we looked like a team that had been set free and Luke Walsh was key to that. Granted, that freedom meant some of the stuff we tried didn't work, but some of it did. And it was a joy to watch Luke Walsh in action. I thought he was great for Penrith but he was fabulous for us because IMO he is just what we have been lacking.

Good Performance overall.

The "D" was great from start to finish.

A lot more attempts to be creative even if they went wrong at times.
The quality of passing at times was annoying but the desire to try and shift the ball was great.
The kicking of Walsh was a breath of fresh air.

Walsh and Amor were good. The pack was mean and the backs offered threat and pace.
Wheeler did well but still has a lot of making up to do, good start though.

Percival looked a bit vulnerable at times but coped. Walmsley was really destructive and
then on occasion become self destructive.

Wilkin was poor between bouts of loving himself and show-boating. Manu suffered from being on the right
and would be much better on the left, which compounds the irritation with Wilkin.

Wellens was, as expected , accommodated as he is Mr St Helens.

Saints were exciting and good to watch again. There is really something genuine to build on here.

We did what we had to to.

For me, we gave up too much ball and our discipline was atrocious again. But great to see all 13 players knowing their role. Walsh looks very good and Wheeler complimented him really well. Nice to see our pack totally dominate too, but I suppose that's largely because the wolfs pack was awful.

Question masks still around Percival IMO. That first try was embarrassing to watch. If the wolfs had started GOB I think they'd have taken advantage of that more than they did.

It's a great starting point for us to improve from. Maybe if we played a top 4 team we could have taken more away from the game.

What is it with Walmsley and the play the ball.

He's like Achilles. A great big man mountain with a dodgy little chink in his Armour.

Disagree about wello, offered nothing in attack granted but he seemed to make a lot of tackles (along with jones) - more importantly the entire team calmed down when he came on and we cut out (most of) the silly penalties and regain some composure we had lacked.

Whilst not enough against Flanaghan potentially, it makes him a better option than hohaia personally!

Where the bloody hell have you been?!

I agree with this. Although I personally wouldn't play him, there was a noticeable effect when he came on to 'steady the ship'. We was playing quite erratically from about 45-60 minutes and we seemed to settle when he came on.

Forgot Jones. He was huge, lots of tackles but lots of important carries.

Wellens filled in a little at the end, nothing special.

Re No17 Hohaia has pace but no heart. Wellens has heart but no pace, Flannagan is an Aldi model.

Jones as super sub for me, along with Sia , Mose and Beaumont if he pans out..

Didn't that scoreline coming.....Good Grief !

Seriously, have you seen our scorelines at Warrington????

lol.

No I gave us a 12 point lead. Did not expect Wire to be so bad.

I know it's only one game, but Warrington looked very clueless in attack. Could be a difficult season without Briers!

Always believed Wheeler had the ability and said so on this forum many times, in spite a lot of mockery.

I agree his ability to stay fit is yet to be proven by a long way, but I thought some of the abuse he got on here last year was a bit cruel to say the least, when he has been unlucky with injuries (a few years now, in fact more or less since he was assaulted a dirty Wigan player) without him being at fault.

Yes, if he can't keep his fitness we cannot afford the luxury or keeping any player who persistently picks up injuries unlucky or not.
Strange however, no one said much about Roby's injury absences.
The difference people don't seem to notice is when Wheeler recovers from an injury he has had to wait on the side-lines to even get into our starting 17 as he wasn't considered "established" - thus he appears to be missing even longer.
Then when he got fit Brown tried to slot him into centre where we are not short instead of 6 where we persisted with Wilkin for no good reason.(when he did get the chance (as centre) he didn't do badly at all).
GW's natural position has always been HB.

If he stays fit, everyone will forget that a lot of people wanted him shipped out and think that the sun shines out of his posterior.
He has the ability to become a top, top player.

Wheeler also didn't have the right attitude with regards to rehab and professionalism in his day to day approace, by all accounts that has now changed. Some elements are of course bad luck, some poor preparation. He's unbelievably talented and I hope he get s a good run of games under his belt.

Oooh, I do like a classical reference. Well played, sir.

An absolutely outstanding display in all departments. Incisive in attack, brutal in defence and an inspirational half back with the full range of organisational and kicking skills. In truth the scoreline should've been even better but no complaints from me! Luke Walsh ran the show and will be a huge player for us. Great to see Wheeler perform so well too, here's hoping both stay fit!!

Percival and swift wing started poorly in defence but got it together .
Walmesley for me did far too many minutes, this I assume will be sorted with Mosae back in the squad but Walmesley looked shattered at points
Walsh was everything I've dreamed he would be
Directed us from start to finish, can lick from anywhere and kick goals from either touchline, my 50-1 bet on him as MOS looks safe!
Wheeler lasted a game and looked the part
Makinson and turner partnership looked like they'd been at it for years . That pass from turner was simply sublime.
Sia , LMS, Amor, Walmesley were immense.
I dong need to mention Lomax or Roby as they were just they're usual selves!!!
I think that just about covers it!!

Just glad to see that the team element has returned. Past few years has been like a bunch of strangers turning up and giving it a go.

Impressed and positives outweigh the negatives. Individual players made mistake but the team covered for them and thats he pleasing thing.

Onwards and upwards!

WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!!

and if thats ot entertaining enough, look at the bottom of the league...


call end of season now, wire and wigan relegated!

Except I'm not sure he was feted for his 'man mountain'ess and of course, he wasn't protected by Armour.....but hey

Whilst they obvisouly missed Briers, I'm not convinced he would have saved the day from them, their pack took too much of a pounding.
Our aggression and line speed in defence was superb throughout most of the game.
For me we didn't link out wide as often as perhaps we could, but the power up front won us through. The fact Jones came on early and stayed on helped make up for the fact that we only took 1 prop on the bench, although I'm still not convinced by Wello being included.
Opening fixtures can be funny - no matter how much training and friendlies you do, it never quite prepares you for a full blooded match. It could be that Saints have just got into gear quickly and wire will take a week or so.

When I saw how weak/inexperienced the Wire bench was I fancied Saints strongly. Saints used their subs very well knowing what Wire had on the bench (four changes in the first 20 minutes)
If Wire had Wood, Monaghan, Harrison and Currie on the bench then I think it would have been a much closer game.

Percival is getting a bit of stick for that first try, but I think you'll find Wheeler is too far infield and there is no covering second rower. I'm not sure Percival could have done much else.

I wonder if Brown will comment on the high tackles.

The Wilkin one probably came off the shoulder, Turner was beaten by the step, but Soliolas was a bad tackle.
It'll be interesting to see what the review panel come up with.

Just on the first point Tony Smith has a lot to answer for. He has hardly given his young players any game time over the last couple of years.

The review panel set the standard last week with Matty Bowen. Sia has a good record, he's not a dirty player just like Matty Bowen.

The is a case that bowens was deliberate as he actually jumps up with the swinging arm. Sia went in hard and caught him.

Stuart Cummins doesn't agree with you.
Let's wait and see.