It was right before the stroke half time. There were loads of smart s that had nipped to the bar early to miss the queue - fools!

Inga was just massive and quick, if he'd have been up against full time players playing at professional clubs I'm not sure he would have had the same impact.

Do you no remeber the disaster he had in the cup game in '97?
I think he'd struggled to get his weight down when he first signed for Wigan, but he spent the previous off season with Bath and was caught on camera blowing horrendously in defence. Very good player, but not in the same league as some that we've mentioned. Scott Gibbs never minded marking him either.

Scott Gibbs was a monster and a better centre than many people think. He made a lot of trys for Arnold.

I still say newlove was a better centre than Lyon purely because he did it for Saints for many more years.

Lyon was a better 'player' though!

He was. Despite his size, he could get on the outside of his man quite well and his presence made the winger panic easily. Obviously he was pretty hard to pull down aswell and you'll remeber how hard he could tackle.

It has been said his positional defence wasn't great, but I don't really remember that. It was shame he didn't stay longer, but with every door that closes, another opens and Huntey's form in the centre during the '97 season was outstanding, allowing us to flog him to hull for loads of money and then go out and buy Scully!

Quote ="No1 Saint"Inga was just massive and quick, if he'd have been up against full time players playing at professional clubs I'm not sure he would have had the same impact.'" He was and he did. He was also very skilfull, great hands.That try at KR when Connolly broke and gave Inga the inside ball was class. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc3yfpi9qIQ Then if you get a chance watch his tries for Wigan v Australia in that same (1994 season)

Quote ="No1 Saint"Inga was just massive and quick, if he'd have been up against full time players playing at professional clubs I'm not sure he would have had the same impact.'" He was and he did. He was also very skilfull, great hands.That try at KR when Connolly broke and gave Inga the inside ball was class. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc3yfpi9qIQ Then if you get a chance watch his tries for Wigan v Australia in that same (1994 season)

Scott Gibbs certainly wins the prize for the centre most likely to break someone.

His own fingers in one try scoring movement against London Broncos at The Valley in '96.

Newlove is the best centre I've seen live watching Saints. Lyon a close second, with Simon Booth a close third.

Forget Lyon, newlove, Gibbs, talau, gidley etc because booth was all class!

Didn't he play most of his rugby in the backrow?

As great as Lyon was (and for two seasons he was the best centre to play for a team over here since Meninga or Danny Moore), Iro was unstoppable when he was on the top of his game and he did it for much longer than Lyon too. Similar with Newlove in that he was awesome when given the chance, however Connolly pretty much kept him quiet most of the time when they played against each other. Tuigamala was great but he was only in the game for a couple of years and so he'll always be a bit overlooked because he has no real period of longevity to assess.

Sully came over as very articulate and I also thought he gave a very honest appraisal of his own game.

He was definately a confidence player. On his day electryfying to watch and blisteringly fast and he scored some memorable tries. In other spells he was very erratic and lacked concentration and was very frustrating and he seemed to fully appreciate that himself.

Its an excellent programme and I do like Brian Carney's style.

That's Greg inglis isn't it?

GC was very fast over 100m. I recall him chasing Dean hanger and hanger having a 20 meter start on him, he chased him down and got him just before our try line.

Moving GC from fullback to centre was a master stroke, he was to slow at picking the ball up on kicks at fullback, it used to take him ages to pick it up, then he'd just trott up to the defensive line.

When he moved to centre, he gave his side great defence and was very good with the ball as he was quick and very very strong.

Saints have had some great centres over the years, lockers, Gibbs, newlove, iro, Lyon, talau and gidley but IMO it's a close contest between Lyon and newy.

Connolly was also one of these players who were naturally fit. I remember seeing him leaving the gound about an hour after a Wigan v Saints game at Central Park (he was still at Saints then) Connolly could hardly walk as he was leaving the ground, and looked in a lot of pain, and I thought that's him out for a few weeks.

Needless to say he was in the side for Saints the week after. He was a very strong and durable player.

The amount of beer he used to get through it's amazing he could play at the level he did.

SLSM was a good watch and just confirmed what I already knew, Gary was forced into the arms of the enemy by our short sighted board of the time.

I thought Connolly came across as insincere. If he wanted to stay with Saints, why did he go to Canterbury? Why was he willing to play for Wigan for free but whined about the offer Saints made? And why is he 'telling the truth' now but not then? There aren't as many holes in a teabag as there were in Connolly's story.

To be fair to Gary, he is thick as a bulls d*ck

Come on Saints fan cut him a break. He was going to Canterbury and was sold to Wigan. He asked not to go and wanted 3k more to stay at Saints. Board said no and he went to Wigan for double his wage.

He may have planned to go to Canterbury, but that's no worse than Graham. Could you imagine the constanation if the board told Graham no, but we've sold you to Wigan for 400k.

Interesting, though, that when people were speculating over what Eastmond might be wanting, people were thinking that maybe Eastmond was putting too high a value on himself? I think that might have been Connolly's problem also. We weren't in the same financial league as Wigan. And, as Connolly also said, how could anyone turn down playing for Wigan when they had all those great players (who they had doubled the wages of from other clubs no doubt!)?

I don't have to give him a break. He got all the money and glory he craved. I'm quite sure the rest of the Saints team of that time would have liked Wigan sized wages too but Saints were not in a position to pay. To me it all sounded like a fair deal: Connolly wanted out (first to Canterbury then to Wigan), Saints needed money. Fair dinkum.

He is, isn't he? He looked really gormless to! Suited Wigan down to the ground actually.

I was only a kid when he played as a young lad at Wembley. After the game, a pie eater put me on his shoulders and took mecon the Wembley pitch. I recall giving Gary a hug and he was crying his eyes out.

I like the way you did that just to see who was paying attention

At the time I was devastated when judas left, but the fact that his transfer fee brought in newlove was a great bit of business, much as binning Gleeson enabled us to get Lyon. Worst thing about judas was his habit of scoring against us in big games. To**er

He wanted the going rate for a quality player and theres nothing wrong with that,he actually would of taken less from Saints than Canterbury would pay him.He didnt crave money and glory.He would of loved to of stayed at Saints but Saints wanted to pay him peanuts,he didnt want to play for our rivals but was sold and didnt have a choice in it.And you mention why would he play for Wigan for free ? look at the stage of his career he was at,it was his last few games of a great career you cant compare that to the stuff that went on at Saints at the begining of his career.For the sake of £3000 the board let him go.

Maybe im biased being an ex Blackbrook player and been coached by his father in law,but Gary is a very nice fella who over the years has taken a ton of crap for something that was never his fault.