Riiiight.

Saints had their game of the year when they managed to beat us and their celebrations showed that. We had a dreadful game, and as others have rightly stated, we lost by eight points only. Next Saturdays game will be a whole different matter.
Just hope Cummings and Ganson are nowhere in sight ~ they seem determined to make Saints champs to boost the new stadium opening.

Correct.

6 interchanges in the first half suggests our defence was brutal.

Mate, you know I respect you as a poster but those two comments simply aren't true. Check the scoreline after 20 odd minutes and even at half time it was only 12-0 (until we scored on the hooter, of course!) with Les Cats having had 2 tries disallowed!

OK, I give up. Catalans weren't poor. Huddersfield weren't poor. Hull KR weren't poor.

The respective opposition were just god like.

I guess you'll be saying Wigan weren't at all poor last week and were only as good as the incredible, dominant Saints allowed them to be. No? Thought not.

Catalans were very poor on Sunday.

Why do you assume it will be different on Saturday - have you got a crystal ball? You were 'dreadful' because thats how Saints allowed you to be. Mr Maguire has his work cut out, trying to sort out the problems that have seen Wire and Saints give Wigan a slapping in the last few weeks.

11 pages? Dearie me, this could have saved you all quite a bit of time

Who needs a crystal ball when that was the worst game we had played all year? Mr Maguire knows exactly how to take Saints apart ~ its been done this season a number of times. Just because Saints finally managed to beat us does not a great team make.

We shall see on Saturday. May the best team win.

Dear me Mr Biscuit. Only eight inches????

No mate, Huddersfield were poor against against Wire. Wigan were poor last week but Saints were equally as good as Wigan were poor. Several teams have been bad against us this season but what I'm saying is that's not ALWAYS the case. It's not a one-stance 'catch all' that a team wins only because the opposition is poor. Sometimes the team that wins does so because they played well as was the case in this instance. Catalans weren't at their best by any means but that's because Wigan absolutely beasted them in defence. Check out Henderson's post match interview. How often do you hear a player/coach/team say 'we simply couldn't live with them' (sic)? He was given the ready made excuse that Catalan weren't perhaps at their best, didn't get the rub of the green and there was an 'r' in the month but he refused to take them. He knew they'd been outplayed. It really was that simple.

I can't work out if you're trolling or believe your own bull, but surely even you can't claim Saints win because they make the opposition play badly but Wigan win because the opposition play badly of their own accord!

It's OK fella I get it.

Wigan lose and they were not outplayed, they were just poor. Wigan win and the opposition was not poor, they were just outplayed.

It's very simple

I like the fact that some saints fans think they just need to turn up. Lets hope their players think the same. I very much doubt it though.

And I'm not writing Leeds off either. Whoever wins at OT will deserve it. Best 4 teams up there again and all in form - although ours has been the worst recently leading up to the semis. But looks like Madge has sorted our last bit of weak defence out. Bring 'em on.

What a staggering assessment of this thread!

Unfortunately for us, you aren't planning Saints tactics for next week.

Ah..putting words in my mouth. The last refuge of the beaten.

I think you'll find I said Saints were as good as Wigan were poor. You outplayed us and absolutely killed us at the play the ball. What you didn't do was make us drop the ball, miss one on one tackles and have a lack of discipline. That's were we were poor. I'm not sure what part of the argument you're struggling with. And let's be honest here...it's you who's taking the stance you posted above.

Jeez, I'll make it simple for you.

There are a large number of posters here who cannot accept Wigan sometimes get beated because they did not perform as well as the other team !

'We were tired, the ref hates Wigan, the RFL hates Wigan, they pick on Sam' - sometimes the excuses just don't work, and the other team were better. As Saints comfortably were a couple of weeks back !

....And then there's you who does exactly the same the other way. So which is it?

So you'd agree that Catalans were poor, given that they also dropped the ball, missed one on one tackles, fumbled kicks, made nonsensical reads in defence etc?

Or did Wigan force that by being better in the forwards? If so, why did Saints not force the same by being better in the forwards last week? Why was idown to Wigan being poor, rather than Saints making them make mistakes?

Is it because Wigan players can't be forced to make mistakes by the opposition, they have to make them all on their own through being poor?

You were simply better than us last week, thats plain to see, BUT Im 100% that this season we are a better side than you, the league table doesnt lie, and I think we underperformed although you were superb. If a lower team beats a team that has been consistently better than them all season, the higher team surely must have underperformed in some way to be beaten.

Only when you're around Sheels.

xx

Are you seriously posting this after yesterday's deluge of nonsense from people just like you ...

"Catalan lost 44-0 because the officials are corrupt!" "Catalan lost 44-0 because they had injuries!" "Catalan lost 44-0 because they were tired (awww)!"

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in your house yesterday. I bet your face grew longer and longer and longer as Wigan systematically - without playing anywhere near as well as they can - took apart the team you had banked on to put us out.

Wigan finished 6 points ahead of Saints this year. That's a missed Millenium Magic conversion and a last minute Liam Farrell try away from finishing behind Saints. Despite all the injuries and off field problems Saints had all year.

People talk as if there is some sort of gaping chasm between the sides which would require a horrible Wigan performance for Saints to have a sniff. It's not the case as evidenced by all but one of the games played this year.

If anything it's Saints who have underperformed in most of those games with chopping and changing and inexperience in the halves leading to dominance not being capitalised upon.

But you didn't do that to us in defence last week and you weren't better in the forwards in the way we were last night so, again, I'm not sure what your argument is? You seem to be trying to shoehorn a 'one argument fits all' approach to every single game. That's simply not the case. Each game is different. last week you beat us, in the main, with your speed at the play the ball. You certainly weren't brutal in defence by any stretch of the imagination so, no, that argument doesn't fit that particular game. That's not to say you weren't better than us or only won because we were poor. Again, that's simply not the case and, despite you trying to put words in my mouth, not something I have ever claimed. In fact feel free to point out where I have rather than making things up.

I did say that Catalans weren't at their best, but there was good reason. They were shot by the hour mark and that was largely down the way Wigan targetted them in defence. Unless you'd care to point out all the other other examples of games recently were Catalans have been shot by the hour mark. I'd be interested to see that.

Would prefer Stains at Old Trafford, but whatever. Despite what I feel about scousers and their teams, they do provide entertaining opposition, especially given the dross onesidedness we have seen so far in the play offs. After watching the NRL play-offs, lot better format, the gap between the top 8 clubs in the UK and the top 8 in the NRL is huge.
Lets hope Leeds can make a competative game of it at the team who have waited 58 years to be disappointed again.
And that Wigan and Stains provide another classic.