St pete wrote:
Our pack looks soft.
What we thought was our strongest asset looks our worst. The props are unfit and basically impact props, the back row is lightweight and slow.
On a whole, the pack lacks aggression.
This is in danger of becoming a love-in, but this is right. I actually think that there's no real excuse for full-time professional athletes to be as knackered after 10 minutes as some of our props seem. Jamie Peacock is 36, for Christ's sake, and is usually running the same way after 70 minutes as he is after 7 minutes. The pack need to take a long hard look at themselves fitness-wise.
But by far the biggest problem is out lack of aggression. We just don't have any. None. Every team we play has a couple of players who are nasty, aggressive, and intimidatory. Today, for example, you've got Ablett and Delaney being toerags to the opposition in every collision. Wigan have SOL leading by example. We have nothing. We have plenty of size - Greenwood and Soliola are big second-rows by league standards. We have some very big props. But I saw more natural aggression in my girls' U15 school team than I can see in this Saints squad. One of the things which made James Graham so vital to us, was his aggression. Before him, Scully was nasty too. But now, we have nobody. Our pack are bigger than most, and more talented than most, but they are being put on their arses every week by smaller, less talented packs who know that they can bully our soft lads into submission.