I think that we played okay and that the scoreline flattered Saints a little but you have to credit their defence, which was very good.

I thought we blobbed the first half and Alibert had a very big 10m first half for both sides that Saints made better use of. Second half his 10m was skinnier and we upped our game a bit but couldn't make use of our supremacy by turning it into points.

Saints were more clinical, they got a chance and converted it. We didn't.

One thing I did notice about Halibut (sp.) was his lack of clear signals to show what the decisions were. Or maybe he wasn't sure.
Sure Saints got away with a fair bit but so did we. Where we fail is we don't push to the limits that such as Saints do.
Shabby performance for a full time ref yet probably no worse than most.

Also, Tony Puletua, what a strong guy he is.

I apologoise RIGSBY; it was clearly a canter for Saints. That's why the tries at the death had the Saints players celebrating like their bums hadn't dropped out in the Grand Final.... again.

And another thing, I think we copped a few grapple and head tackles today. Lawrence was all over the shop and the BBC picture is indicative of what I mean...

The try that settled it, Saints were over the moon. They knew they had a major battle today, as did a couple of Saints lads I spoke to on the walk out.

The score did flatter saints. It was a pretty poor game overall imo and it was only the last 10 mins that we really came good

Thought the Saints defence was immense and at 12-6 it almost gave way, used their experience to run the clock down and when they scored with 5 mins to go it was game over. Fartown were just waiting for the whistle and Saints made the scoreline look more one sided than the game was.

Having said that I thought we gave them a good game and a little bit of luck and we may have knicked it.

We'll take your coaches opinion over yours, which is clearly tripe! Clueless is a word that springs to mind.

Edited original post now - it was meant to say it did flatter saints

In which case I take it back myself, you know your stuff!

Danril,

In reply to your post about Lawrence being all over the place - that was caused when he and another Giants player were tackling Sean Long to stop him scoring in the first half. The 2 Giants players clashed heads with Lawrence coming off worse. To be honest, I think both teams were guilty of a couple of grapple tackles today and this is becoming a trend as the Sky matches have had examples of this too.

I hope Lawrence is OK as he looked in a bad way.

As for the rest of the match, well played the Giants. I came across today thinking we would lose but only a teriffic defensive performance stopped you lot from winning.

Good luck for the rest of the season

As I predicted earlier in the week it was an almighty arm-wrestle for 75 minutes. We were under the cosh for most of the second half but our goal line defence was awesome.
We got a sniff on 75 mins and it was game over.
The final scoreline did flatter us and longy's drop goal was just taking the proverbial.
Does anyone know when his kicking boots come back from 'tcobblers?

Aye, you're probably right about some of the tackles. Also thought there were a fair few forward passes from both sides but at least Alibert was consistent.

Aye Consistently garbage

That picture must of been taken in the 1st set, he clashed heads with aspinwall & went off very unstable.. He wobbled straight in front of me.... I thought it was Ryan Babel the dutch whimp from Liverpool

Overall the best team won today, purely because they took their chances and we didnt, simple as that.

The ref was second rate, I wonder if he couldnt see what the saints players were doing because they were camoflaged in their green strips.

He certainly didnt see them lying on, grapple tackling or passing forward.

Ah well, any other team we would have taken to the cleaners, and the final score is just an insult to the tightness of the game.

That is certainly spot on, and if you can keep that sort of performance up all season I think you will certainly be safely into the play off positions.

Which isn't a problem with a level playing field, Saints spoiling all game with offsides and holding down, penalties given to Hudds when in OUR OWN 20, Penalties given to Saints when IN HUDDS 20 not their own?

3 Tries Dissallowed, need to see these again before make comment.

The RFL have introduced the salary cap to try get the competition on a more level playing field like Australia now, much more interesting to watch.

Then they have refs that lean towards the so called Bigger teams "Saints today, Leeds at HKR ect.

You wanna try putting up with it every week then you might understand all we ask for is a neutral ref, but you wouldn't want this would you due to the risk you may lose a few!!

The referees this season are allowing teams a lot more time to get off tackles. Its therefore not a case of the ref not penalising players, merely a change of interpretation from the RFL which puts us more in line with whats allowed in the NRL.

FWIW i thought the ref had a very good game today. He tried to keep the game flowing but penalised obvious foul play. He was far better than the aussie ref in the Wire v Catalans match who was shockingly bad.

Thought the ref was pretty fair in his decision making. Saints were lying on but we were offside a fair bit so it evened itself out.On another day we could have won but i have got to say Saints goal line defence was awsome and thats why they won ,not because of the ref's performance

The ref made a few mistakes, but on the whole he did pretty well. Our defeat had nothing to do with him and more to do with our playmakers not making enough play IMO. I thought, to a man we tackled well and ran the ball up well, our field kicking was also very good, we just lacked that bit of creativity, hopefully this will come as the team gels.

thought the ref was poor today for both teams a lot of things missed some blatant. Also a couple otf times Tj flagged and he did not follow their advice.

However saints were the better team today and that little bit of extra class told. they scored their chances and we did not. to be fair i was pretty impressed with saints they look better defensively than they normally do and they worked overtime to keep us out.

the only thing that concerns me is the slower PTB which seems to be an RFL directive. in the pre season our PTB was quick and we took teams apart. If it is going to be slower then we have to adapt. If the game is going to be more like the Australian game then it will not be half as exciting as it was.

we need to think more about plays to break down the better defences

We weren't quick enough with our distribution today IMO and coupled with Saints' excellent defence it meant we only scored the one try.

To be fair though we were much better second half compared to the first.

Saints defended really well though.