The pieman wrote:
Agree with all of that, and i have posted on both forums, that this blip is all down to the WCC. Saints will probably be factoring into their season 3-4 losses by Easter / late April time, and will feel they are good enough to win the GF from 3,4 or 5th, but its just a little harder
the one thing they probably hadnt factored in, and is having an impact has been the bans picked up. Was chatting to one of my mates who is a Saints ST holder, and he said they look laboured / lethergic, especially in the last 20-30 mins of the games he's been to, and falling off tackles, so no doubt some of this is brought on by the fallout from the WCC. That then impacts on ability to rotate squad and try to keep them as fresh as possible.
Agree with you and your mate. We definitely aren't defending with anywhere near the same vigour as the last few seasons, we do seem to be falling off tackles and are missing way more than we normally would.
The Knowles/Sironen/Matautia ban bingo game has started in earnest, its Knowles's turn this week although to be fair he won't be as big of a loss as previously in my opinion, as he has started the season poorly. A week off may do him the world of good.
I also feel we may have under-estimated just how good Woolf was. He goes to the Dolphins (granted not as head coach) and they are 3 from 3 and smashing teams in defence.
I was very critical of us at the Hull game however in the cold light of day when I reflected, we had Batchelor, Hopoate, Hurrell and Matautia all missing and then lost Percival in the warm up. That then meant Makinson went to centre and Ritson came in. We then lost Davies in the first half who had been playing as centre so Sironen had to play there. The back line was decimated which was reflected in our clunky attack.
Also it was obvious that Hull were going to have a response after being smashed by Salford and played quite well.
At this stage in the season it was just good to get a win again. Worryingly though both Lomax and Walmsley are way below par.
