After last night I really do fear the worst for us on Good Friday, it seems as though Mossop is injured (again), Lauaki is banned which leaves us with Prescott and Lima. Meaning that Spencer may have to come in and Hock possibly might have to prop. I couldn't make the game last night but was getting regular text updates from people at the game and it seemed as though our defence was poor again. Saints looked brilliant last night, they played Warrington off the park, if they come out of the traps like they have done the last 2 weeks I fear we wont be able to live with them. I said a few weeks back that I had a feeling they would turn there season around in the 3 games against Leeds, Wire and Wigan and they certainly look transformed. For us to win the game we must control the game from the off and dominate the Saints pack, but with the injuries we seem to have picked up its going to be extremely difficult for us. The Saints performance last night was the best performance I have seen from any side this season, solid brutal defence and a fantastic brand of free flowing fast attacking rugby, I fear the worst, hope im wrong.

saints played a warrington side who were intent on self destruction.... as for the best performance of the year


when warrington got their act together they scored tries...

Then what was the best performance of the year? As for your second bit, they scored one try and a consolation in the dying seconds. Our goal line defence has been poor, Saints will punish us.

Last night was probably the dullest game I've ever witnessed

Been really impressed with the Saints forwards against Leeds and Warrington, Lefrachi and Perry are playing well and if you add Pulatua who didnt play last night to that then you have a formidable set of forwards.

There are two players who left last year who i think we are now starting to really miss - Hoffman and Coley.

Must admit i am worried!

Form goes out of the window for Good Friday games.

All players set there games up in all areas.

My main concern is players playing wih injuries next week. It was obvious Mossop was ready to come bk and Flower as been carrying injuries. We can't go down to 2 possible subs available next week

Leeds got caught cold thinking they just had to turn up to win the game and got blitzed.

Wire couldn't back up a big effort last week.

We won't get caught cold and we won't be blown away early IMO so mo I don't fear for us. We know what's coming and will give as good as we get. We could really do with Mossop fit though.

Wire seldom back up after a big game hence their playoff record.

Dont think we will win next week, our defense is terrible. Hope we do though. Big test for wane against another rookie coach!

Good performance tonight, we carried on with last week's attitude with a great approach to defence and a willingness to chance the pass in attack.

For next week we can bring in Wheeler for Josh Jones and TP in to run out wide in the back row so we'll have a very strong squad out.

Should be a great first derby at LP, it will be absolutely rocking!!

We played well against Leeds, since then we have been pretty average IMO. We are coming up against a transformed Saints side extremely high on confidence, I have no doubt we have the ability in our side to beat anyone, but on present form I cant see past a Saints win

I'm personally not worried at all. Last night we were without two of our big names in Lockers and Pat. I've always said Lockers is a player you don't really notice until he's not there. His effort in defence in outstanding and enough to make him arguably one of the best Loose Forwards in the league. We all know how much of a points machine Pat is; assuming any injury he's picked up is fine, I can see this being an absolute cracker.

We've conceded 20 against Salford, 30 against Broncos, 37 (?) against Widnes. What is a top team (no disrespect to the previous 3) going to do to us? Our D has been awful the last month.

Im shocked at how much our defense has deteriorated in the off season, after listening to Wane and his vision of the "wigan way" soft defense was the last thing I expected, to be fair I have only seen us against Huds (unprepared), Widnes (will never get over that!), london (rubbish), warrington (rubbish). Have a season ticket just been away for the other games, so I could be cursed lol!

I wouldn't say we were "rubbish" against Warrington, for large periods our forwards dominated and we controlled the game. But we are conceding far too many points, I cant really put my finger on why the defence has gone so bad in a short period of time, the finger must point to Wane, he's obviously changed the defensive pattern of the team.

we will lose against Saints, i predict Mr Hock will try to hard and make several massive brainfarts that cost us dearly, if we are low on props for the match and a lot of pressure is put on Hock then i can see him cracking, i also doubt we will win any silverware this season, Waney just ain't got it imo, we are lacking in that killer instinct again and our tedious game spoiling defense has disappeared, 4th position at best imo

That actually makes me feel better when it's written down because we've played top teams and conceded=

Huddersfield- 20 points

Leeds- 6 points

Catalans- 12 points

Warrington- 22 points

When I look at it like that it's quite obviously an attitude issue rather then a technical one and our attitude will be spot on at Saints. We will always be in games where we concede fewer then 22 points or so because our attack is very good.

We dont seem to have the same intensity and pride in defending our own line under Wane as we did with Maguire, we have the players, whether it is an attitude issue is up for debate, but there's definately something "missing" with us this season.

So what if Gaz makes a few errors? If he doesn't try his passes (btw his work for Sam's first try was brilliant) then nobody will. We have to accept that Gaz will make mistakes but what he does give us is a player who is capable of winning a match
As for Wane, I think he needs to learn when its appropriate to grind it out in the forwards and do less of the brilliant skills he keeps talking about. Tbh I thought with Wane as coach our defence would be superb, but its got significantly worse. We'll find out a lot about Wane and our chances of silverware on Friday. If w can stave of the inevitable fast start from Saints, I think we'll be ok but I can just as easily see us slipping 12/18-0 down and being out of it, just like the Noble days!

I am more than happy to go into the good Friday derby as underdogs.

We'll be reet. Neither side will be blown away and call it optimism if you will, but I've got a feeling we'll beat Saints.

I agree, but not I'm not overly worried by it because a quick glance at other teams records shows that there defence isn't sparkling either?



Yet conceded far less against the Top teams???



Correct IMO.

PLUS

I think teams are getting used to the new 10 substitute rule and I think that may be having an effect on intensity with players having to play in slightly longer spells?



Me too!
Saints are the best team in the world again, we've got no chance, how can anyone possibly live with their sparkling brilliance?

Good point about the 10 subs rule Juke.

Well we've had a bit of an up and down start to the year. But now it's time for the match we've been waiting nearly 2 years for.

Wigan won the last ever game at KR. It is beyond imagination to let them win the first one at Langtree park as well. I still think it was a mistake to pass over the chance to play Wigan at KR in the playoffs, I thought it would be better to try and handle Wigan on our own patch one last time than meeting you in the GF.

I think form goes out the window for this game. When we were riding high some years back now, and Wigan were pushing out kids for the derby they still managed to over turn us. I thought with or without Simmons, this is a stand alone game and it will not tell either team much about the season.

We do seem to be playing well against the top teams and keeping their points down. I think we will score plenty next friday. Defence will be the key.

Didn't go to Bradford in 2009 then. Good God that was boring.