It’s been like that for 3-4 seasons now, must be tactical, which I really don’t get.

Getting off the line quickly and being aggressive takes its toll, its very hard to sustain for any prolonged period. Despite what has been said on here even Saints don't do it all the time. I think what they are good at is sensing weakness and being able to turn the screw with a few big sets here and there when their opponents are struggling.

A passive defence can work fine so long as you don't lose your defensive shape. It relys on guys not jumping the line or making bad decisions.

With our big forwards we probably just aren't fit enough to be too aggressive in defence too often.

Watch the WCC match between Roosters and Saints - Saints were nilled and decimated by Roosters line Defence which inc A Morley.

I made a copy of the match and gave all my Youth team a copy - under 12s. I advised that we wanted to defend like that. The line speed never changed the whole game.

It's an amazing display of aggression and fitness for those interested. Sure it's on YouTube. You need only watch 10 mins.

Completely disagree, saints played like it for 90% of last season, hence them destroying super league, 90% of nrl games are played with similar intensity, hence so many competitive games between top and bottom teams

PS


A passive defence is ridiculous

You're wrong. saints do it plenty of the time. A passive defence puts you on the back foot. saints win games because of strong defence giving them the upper hand and good field position

It’s the 2000 WCC at Bolton
You tube that fooker and then see what you think

The problem we have is you have interchange your forwards, LR seems to have little idea how to use his bench. Two players never entered the fray till 20 minutes left of the game. The week before he had Fonua on the bench and played him for seven minutes.
If you want to keep them big men playing with intensity they need to be spelled. Playing Gareth Ellis at 39 for a full half when you have young lads on the bench seems silly. When some of them forwards walked off at halftime they looked done and it showed in the second half.

Agreed. Saints tactic of a rush defence would tire the opposition quicker than it would Saints. When they defend, the players who were making the most tackles in that set, be it Knowles, or Walmsley, then don't take a drive the next set, typically. This allows them to recover. As an attacking side, if you get hit hard by one of Saints players rushing out, and then you have players like Grace, Percival, Makinson etc. running at you, there is no wonder you don't get a dominant contact in defence, and they play on the back of that