Same old predictability, no positive set plays, if Mick Potter is incapable tactically to make changes, what adjustments would you make, who would you drop, what style of play would be on the agenda.
For example would you use this season as another transition one make Eastmond/Wheeler the first choice half backs, stick the "uninterested or de coached" Leon Pyrce at full back, putting Wellens at loose forward and dropping Flannery. Do we really need Scott Moore this season, making James Roby even more a bit part player.

Potter has had all pre season to work out some new set moves, yet, we still used the same one as every team in the league had sussed out last season so the ball receiver gets hammered.

Awful.

To start i'd move wheeler to centre with sia going to 2nd row adding beef and power to our small weak pack.

I'd also play tony p at prop as he's a prop and not a 2nd row. With tony p at prop he gives us good go forward.

For sometime i've been saying i'd like to see pryce at fullback but the big problem then is who plays stand off ? Wheller for me is a good attacking centre.

I'd like to see:

wello
gardner
gidley
wheeler
meli
pryce
eastmond
foz/tony p
cunningham
jammer
wilkin
sia
roby

tony p/foz
maurie
roby
flannery

By putting roby at 13 he will add some attack.

Are the players (and coach) intelligent enough to adjust tactics? It may be worth swapping Pryce and Eastmond at times as when it does come to Pryce he either get's hit straight away or he steps back inside. It has become a really obviously play of ours. If Eastmond was at 2nd receiver he may be able to attack outwide and get the ball to the likes of Gidley where we can do some damage.

For a start, it would be good to shake off the tactic that was developed last season - not realizing it's the final tackle when the referee puts his hand up and screams 'LAST!!!'.

The moves and plays were there, its just they lacked the proper execution, and were therefore slow and predictable.

it was good to see the old traditional, Pryce run around and pass to Wellens move, being used. That move stopped working 2 years ago. Even Paul Cullen spotted it.

Were they? ? ?

Which ones were they then? ? ?

I thought Saints played reasonably well for the first twenty minutes, but the final pass execution was miss timed, something that happens a lot during the opening matches. Your lack of pace is a major problem and I don't know how you sort that out without buying in players.

For Briscoe to run 80 metres with only one boot on and not get caught shouldn't happen. As I said on the other thread you've replaced your fastest forward with a slow defensive player. I feel sorry for Eastmond in that he's expected to be that leader in his first full season, which was always going to be difficult.

I feel you're going to be in much the same position Wigan were in when they lost Lam, Smith, O'Connor, Farrell, Cassidy etc and then expected the likes of Robinson, Brown, Wild, Hodgson etc to settle in straight away and produce the goods.

I really don't see the need to play Roby, Moore and Cunningham in the same team, surely it would have been better to have another prop on the bench

Div makes some very good points above re success. It does not last forever, sometimes when times get hard you have to grin and bear it.

I say bring Millward back.

The plays were slow and predictable because we ARE slow and predictable! Pretty bright start we made tbh but once we get into a decent attacking position there is no pace or any kind of originality in our attacking play. The only surprise is that we actually scored, awful performance.

I've seen us win enough trophies to last me a lifetime. The thing that annoys me most is the way we play. We're really dull and it's like I'm watching another team at the moment, not a Saints team.

Mick Potter mentioned that word again "lateral" in our play. we were once known for intelligent play, complicated set plays, dummy runners etc. etc.
We definitley have come back to the pack with the absence of play makers, before it didn,t matter about lack of pace because we had so many attacking options. Our position in the play offs will be in the bottom end not based on this one game lost but on the basis on the direction we have been going since August last year.

amen to that, spot on

We need to have our dummy runners flatter with the first and second receiver. They aren't there providing the option for the passer, so the defence knows that it's going round the back to the second phase runner. We need more ruck plays, rather than just taking two or three drives on the opponents line before going to the spread play. It's predictable, and we're suffering for it. Not only this, our strength is our pack, so we have to use it to our advantage as well as we can.

This would be my team:
1. Lomax
2. Gardner
3. Gidley
4. Pryce
5. Meli
6. Wheeler
7. Eastmond
8. Graham
9. Cunningham
10. Fozzard
11. Soliola
12. Flannery
13. Wilkin

14. Moore/Roby
15. Clough
16. Fa'asavulu
17. Puletua

The three hookers would rotate throughout the season. Cunningham is probably the worst out of all three of our hookers right now, but in my team we would need leadership. Wellens' lack of pace is causing us to struggle, as our support play is faltering because of it. Our main pivots, scrum half, stand off and fullback, are inexperienced, but they're all talented players. Not only that, they have pace, something that causes hesistancy in the defence. Sides don't care about giving us the outside anymore, they know we aren't fast enough to take advantage.

That is very important for us to understand this season. Kyle is not a first grade experienced scrum half and we must remember that and remember that it is rare for any British scrum half to come through and have an organised gameplan. In fact, look at the players that have played for GB in this position and remember their early years e.g. Deacon, Sheridan, Tony Smith, Long, Burrow. Of those I can only think of Long who had something about him with the ball and it certainly wasn't his organising skills.

Kyle has a full season to get acclimatised to this competition and if he can stay free from injuries he'll do good because he's got too much about him for him not to.