It's only half time but Lance is again having a top game, fast, evasive and proving to be a real handful. Mention also for perry who worked hard plus had a hand in two of the tries, great long pas for the meli try.

Hohaia was good in the first half but quieter in the second. I thought Lomax struggled, nothing seemed to come off for him. Perry was good, Wilkin was a machine in defense and Flanagan was good. Roby was his usual brilliant self.

We saw a summary of Meli's career tonight, with some decent hard work, a good try and a bad mistake. Makinson finished his try really well but as ever didn't get involved enough.

Wello looked like he was struggling tonight. His inability to get to bombs is going to be costly for us next season if we're really serious about him staying at fullback. His contribution to the attacking line was horrendous, so many times he just died with the ball. He leapt well for Meli's try, but that was about his only notable contribution. I really fail to see what he brings to us at the moment.

Thought Perry had a very good game looking quite a handful now. I like the way Rush had him working out wide and operating at "half back."
Personally I thought Wello had a good busy game offensively, would probably give M.O.M. to wilkin, came up with some good plays and defense when the Giants had a good spell.

Jon Wilkin! Is this a serious post?

He was driving me nuts. He refused to pass the ball on to the centre each time he came to the line and every time bar the last one the ball died with him. He needs to stop doing that because I'm sure we are losing try scoring opportunities. He doesn't even look to see if the player is there.

He was good in defence though.


Wilkin was great in defence but bloody awful with ball in hand. And his kicks are woeful.

I don't personally think his defence was any better. He smashed a couple of fellas to bits in seperate tackles but we can't mistake that for good defence.

No real outstanding performances tonight for me but frankly none were really needed against appallingly poor opposition. Brough's kicking was all they had to offer frankly. It was good to see Hohaia actually causing a defence some problems in the first half though.

Thats the best we've played for weeks......you should have seen us before if you wanted appaling !!!

Christ. Whats your run in like? Just wondering if you think you can turn the slump around? Its amazing how quickly things can snowball out of control

Ouch! To me I just saw a team in disarray wanting the season to end as soon as possible. If that's an improvement on where you've been then you really are in trouble

i pity you actually.....you've got the reason we've been so bad coming to you next year



Cas put 52 past us and Wakefield 35 without breaking sweat - that shows you how bad we have been but the players put some effort in tonight which is more than the last few weeks.

I think the is problems that run much deeper than Nathan Brown.

I thought you looked very very poor and of that's an improvement I'm glad I didn't see you before. Hudds lack any sort of aggression and could see players heads going down pretty easy.

Crabtree was non effective as I've ever seen him and was not happy going off as he was mumbling to himself.

I thought Scott Grix was very good, very busy with the ball and looked dangerous, brough kicked well in parts but I think your on the slide now and will end up a bottom 4 side.

Wellos try at the end summed up Hudds problem to me. Far too soft.

Fairly imaginative going forward though and, had it not been for some good last ditch defence, could have easily posted some more tries.

I don't think we ever got out of third gear, if we didn't have that awful spell 10 mins before half time and 15 mins after half time then I think we'd have put 70 points on them.

We switched off after Meli's try and cruised the rest of the game no doubt about it - can't blame them when you're already got an insurmountable lead after 30 minutes against no opposition worth the name.

I think part of Saints problem is that we haven't got a higher gear. Most games this year, fortunately, we have been able to win in 3rd gear, but when we come up against Wigan, and look for the extra gear, it isn't there.

Agreed.

Under performed & been beaten up by Wigan but won every other game post Rush promotion. Both Leeds games, Wire & Cats away weve stepped up matched the top sides intensity & deserved to win the games. Think weve developed nicely since the magic weekend & defensively look alot stronger. Acid test monday night, but the above games show we can compete against the other top sides. Id argue Hohaia now looks settled & finally showing some form, Perry looks fit, big & aggressive again & id expect us to compete next time versus Wigan like we did at home this year which could of gone either way. Let down by some awful individual performances in the derbies this yr, Wheeler at the magic weekend springs to mind. Alot will depend on form & definietly injuries come the playoffs.

Good defence isn't just smashing players about. He was pretty much everywhere again, including at least three tackles which prevented breaks.

Wilkin is an area of must debate in my mind.
He makes 40+ tackles a week, which most certainly can't be sniffed at, but he does have a habit of letting forwards over the top of him which helps ease the pressure of the opp in certain situations.

Then there's going forward. Some times, he's just plain in the way of the half backs, not doubt. Plus, since he seems to now have the authority on long kicking, that takes him out of the forward work for a play a set, as you don't want him taking the tackle prior to the kicking play.
He seems to be busy and getting his hands on the ball a lot, but how much postive affect he's having I'm unsure. He's certainly not giving us a lot of go forward as a back row ought to.

So is he the glue that holds us together, or is he the wimpy kid who gets picked because he tries the hardest?

Wilkin is no Scully but personally I don,t like to criticiise him too much due to the amount of pressure on him or over work. He has one of the highest tackle counts, metres, tackle busts, kicks in general play, at the same time is expected to organise the team due to our lack of experience at half back.
Last night, I thought the Giants closed down Lomax a bit and the responsibilty was given to Wilkin, so a lot of plays go through his hands so he will be subject to errors. Quite often he is first one in to the tackle against the big blokes and will get steam rollered at times, yet his defensive workload is invaluable.
Maybe we should give Wilkin some slack or do you want a near 100% error free John Wilkin.