The secret to winning big games like that is not about playing brilliantly all the time but doing the basics right under the enhanced pressure of the situation.

Failure to do that is why we struggled. The following are observations and not criticisms as the individuals concerned have been great this year.

Robes - knock on and 3 bad passes all which turned over possession
Walsh - kicking on the full in to in goal releasing pressure several times
Swift - snoozing at the re start and letting the ball go dead
Lance - couple of poor defensive reads
Lomax - turned his back at POB leading to a try ( repeat of two previous v dragons and Wakey)
Mose - knock on at POB
Sia - pass into touch
Flanno - pushing at POB

In isolation they are part and parcel of game but add them all together and it explains why we put ourselves under pressure. Take Tommy Mak for instance - has had a totally error free season - which is just as important as the spectacular finishes and why he is being talked about as a possible international.

I thought we were pretty poor. Our intensity was a couple of notches down from the last few big games, which was evident from our slow line speed and lack of kick pressure. We were also having an off day in terms of execution, as Dad's Army points out. But with the huge front row we now have we are able to get forward even when we're getting 'out-enthused', which makes it so much easier to stay in games when we're out of sorts. There's no doubt we would have lost that last year.

The general points regarding a bit lethargic and some mistakes plus hot/cold kicking have been made.
Lots of points about individuals.

The one thing that stood out to me was that attack wise everything went down the right
and the left just didn't function at all bar the early try.

Strange when traditionally Saints struggle on the right.
Swift was pretty much redundant from an attack point of view.

Hohaia and Lomax and to a degree Walsh have attacked down the left with great effect all season.

Flanagan Jones didn't really provide much by way of target or option to the ball players.
They are both SR grafters.

Perhaps a chance to liven things up with the introduction of Percival/Dawson and Wilkin.

I have seen many occasions over the years were following a superstar performance, the team falls flat the following week.

Often I put it down to over confidence, leading to a lack of focus.

I think this happened to some extent on Sunday. We got a couple of early trys and looked comfortable. Then started throwing out slack lazy passes, particularly Roby. This gave Huddersfield field position and once they scored their first try they were dominant and we were looking somewhat shell shocked at something that wasn't supposed to be happening.


There were also possibly other factors at play, particularly fatigue from Roby and Hohoia. They both put in massive shifts against Leeds, but clearly struggled at times against Huddersfield. Roby in mental focus and Lance defensively.

It also looked at times like we were a scratch side just having been thrown together at the last minute. I suspect many players hadn't trained together all week, and instead merely passed a late fitness test and made it into the squad.

The encouraging thing though was that even when playing against a top class and determined Huddersfield team we could still hang on in there while out of form. The great 2006 season was characterised by Saints grinding out a lot of results without really hitting the heights.

Hopefully we will see this continue, and our losses will be close affairs whereby teams have to really fight hard to defeat us.

I also think that Flanagan playing down the left kills our attack down that side. He is a very good defensive player, but doesn't have the guile of Wilkin or Manu to attract defenders. I actually think Flanagan may be best utilised playing in the middle supporting the props with the defensive workload.

I just think it was a mix of players out of match practise and knackered. In terms of picking a side, maybe it was a mistake not to pick LMS. Everyone who came in where previously injured and so would not be running at 100% were as LMS was banned so still should have been training at full throttle.

Easy to say in hindsight. When the 19 was announced I agreed with him being dropped. Did not realize what the Leeds game had took out of us.

From Bolognese

LMS had an injury so wasn't risked

Bolognese??????

One of my sauces.

We were poor through most, although the opening and closing 10 mins were good.

Roby had a poor game, which sums it up, throwing a couple of bricks at Walmsley and the knock on at the PTB.

A lot of Walsh's attacking kicks were poor too, which seems like it wont happen too often.

Most of all, we let Huddersfield dictate the speed of the ruck throughout most of the game. It lead to a higher penalty count for them, but meant that through most of the game we were quite easy to read.

Following his dream game against Leeds, Hohaia has gone back to type. He's got one move which, to be fair, worked for our first try, but fails to bring much to the table. Although he did give us one lovely long kick which sat in the in goal.
I'd love to see Charnock given a run out.

I think if we'd have played LMS, that bit of X factor he has might have spurred us into action a bit quicker.

I'm more pleased with the whole attitude of Saints. We seem to have learnt again how to play badly and win.
We'll play well in most games, but every team will have an off day, like we did on Sunday. To do that and win against a quality side like Hudds, shows class

Agreed.

I'm with Nathan Brown on this one. We got lucky. Had Ferres not been sent off I don't think we would have won.

It concerns me that we saved our worst performance so far for the knock out game, the pressure game. If we repeat that against Leeds in the cup then I don't think we will get anywhere this season. However, I'm still hoping that it was just a one-off. Sure, we will lose games, but if we are going to hope for silverware this season then our players have to be capable of playing their best rugby in the pressure games, when it really counts.

You know what, I'm developing a bit of an affection for Lance. He's working really hard and is showing his class in attack.

Does he ever play the ball properly. he could/should have been penalised a couple of times for it. It's a BIG bugbear of mine in the game today. We are obsessed with the speed of the ptb so much so that it is done incorrectly on about 60 - 70% of the time. Either scrap the rule or enforce it.

It's not just Saints but every team, but Masoe is one of the worse culprits.

It's just lazy, he uses the ball to get up quick and it's only a matter of time before it seriously costs us a game.

Do you mean placing the ball before he's got to his feet? I noticed him doing it, but as you say, it seems quite common at the moment. Not only are you risking a penalty, but imo you're more likely to lose control.

It's the whole ptb. Rod Studd, I think it was, who mentioned it on Superleague backchat a week or so ago. It's a farce. As you know I posted a few years back that it was creeping into the game and now it's just the norm.

There should be no problem for a player to put the ball on the ground and THEN use his foot to play the ball. That IS the rule, NOT, attempt to play the ball with their foot. With the ten metre rule the attacking side has enough advantage without giving them more.

Just watch this Thursday night game as an example and see how many incorrect ptb's there are. I'll bet it'll be 60 - 70 % minimum.

While I'm on about it the other thing happening more at the ptb is walking of the mark. Either penalise the player or allow the defending team to take their defensive position from where the tackle / mark is made. That would shorten the 10 metres.

That really annoys me. Wow, I agree with Rogues on something.

I actually think Mose executes a quick PTB perfectly, what he does is completely legal and the technique is excellent (bar the knock on).

Although I completely agree that it's an area the game needs to look at, it's very sloppy at times.

It isn't. You have to regain your feet (stand up) before playing the ball. What Masoe does quite a few times is to push himself up using the ball still on the ground.

The ball has to be lifted off the ground, then replaced on it before playing it with the foot.

I don't have it recorded so can't check but as long as his knees aren't on the floor then it's fine. If you are on your feet (even if not fully standing) you can play the ball.

Having you been drinking meths?

Hi Ho was shocking, even Wello was better!

I couldn't believe he kept Lance on; he had clearly "gone" - when taking passes in the 2nd half, he just stood around indecisively like he didn't know what to do, but I optimistically put this down to fatigue.

But you have to pick the ball up from the floor before playing it with the foot.

Which he does, he tucks it under his arm usually before plonking it down.

Some of our defending on the fringes was terrible. Lost count of how many times Murphy seemed to scythe through on our left flank.