Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:33 am  

Saddened! wrote:

It's Makinson at 1, Gaskell at 6 and Lomax at 7 that I want to see. Gaskell is our best attacking player and has the best kicking game at the club. Dropping him for Hohaia would be a monumental mistake.

Thats certainly a long term line up for you but for now I think it's clear Hohaia is going to play somewhere. To me his best position has always been fullback and with Gaskell offering a top kicking game you need him in the team.

Gaskell would be the first name i'd have down in the halves simply because of his kicking. I'd play Hohaia fullback or back up hooker or even move Lomax in to fullback before leaving that lad out.

If I was naming the backline i'd least like to face against us at the minute i'd go-

1- Hohaia 2- Makinson 3- Wheeler 4- Meli 5- Foster 6- Gaskell 7- Lomax

To use Gaskell as your bench back would be a sad waste.

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:43 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

Thats certainly a long term line up for you but for now I think it's clear Hohaia is going to play somewhere. To me his best position has always been fullback and with Gaskell offering a top kicking game you need him in the team.

Gaskell would be the first name i'd have down in the halves simply because of his kicking. I'd play Hohaia fullback or back up hooker or even move Lomax in to fullback before leaving that lad out.

If I was naming the backline i'd least like to face against us at the minute i'd go-

1- Hohaia 2- Makinson 3- Wheeler 4- Meli 5- Foster 6- Gaskell 7- Lomax

To use Gaskell as your bench back would be a sad waste.

Gaskell made a huge difference as soon as he came on tonight and until he did so Saints kicking game was utterly abysmal.

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:44 am  

Mixed bag for me.

The kicking game in the first half looked awful, however it must be said that Saints were kicking into a very strong wind.

I thought the pack were out muscled for quite a bit of the match by Widnes, only Perry and Clough showed the ability to make yards in heavy traffic.

Foster was all at sea for large parts of the match in defence. It was comical at times.

The players were not familiar were the touchlines were, and ran into touch on a number of occasions.

Lance is a fast elusive runner, but didnt create anything with the ball in hand. He is the type of player that at times will run up his own backside. Will frighten opposition defences though as teams wont know what he is doing. Problem is this also applies for Saints as well.

When Gaskell came on, the team moved the ball around the field far better. His try was good and the ball he gave for Dixons well taken try was superb

Makinson was outstanding. Started at fullback and was like a rock in defence and dangerous in attack. Excellent break then perfectly timed inside pass for Melis try. Also scored an excellent try.

Lafranchi was pretty anonymous.

Ashe looked dangerous when on the field. He seems to glide across the pitch and beat people without seemingly trying. Could be a breakthrough season for him.

Soliolas big hit. BOOOOOOOM!!!, he then goes and misses a number of tackles that he really should have made.

Wheeler didnt fall apart on contact with the opposition.

We got pinged for crossing a few times in the game which is a sign that the players are still not upto speed with the moves yet.

Defence was as porous as one of the Typhoo tea bags.

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:47 am  

Lance Hohaia cannot play at fullback as he cannot catch. He should be the back from the bench who gets 4 minutes at the end of matches. Gaskell's a better player.

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:48 am  

How did Widnes fair in this game ?

It will be nice to read an unbiased report..........

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:51 am  

Bomb Jack wrote:

How did Widnes fair in this game ?

They faired very well, although I think they had a few injuries. Hopefully nothing serious. Watt and Flynn were most noticeable. Troublesome players both.

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:59 am  

Bomb Jack wrote:

How did Widnes fair in this game ?

It will be nice to read an unbiased report..........

Very, very well. They were the more 'up for it' team and were pretty dominant early in the game. I'd say the Widnes attack was the more creative of the two and the more willing to attack from deep. Widnes scored a couple of really well constructed tries and looked to have a good balance of pace and power in the backline. I like the look of Hanbury and Paddy Flynn took his tries well.

Defensively Widnes' approach was borderline Wigan-esque. It would be a shame if they went down the negative Wigan route and tried to play anti-rugby next season. There were periods of deliberate holding down, attention on standing legs and getting unneccessary numbers into the tackle in order to slow the game down. Being a friendly it worked to a degree, although without the defensive discipline Wigan have it might not be so successful in a SL game. I think Widnes will be pleased with the showing, they won't be flogged every week like some teams have been in SL on that showing and there should be enough there to do quite well at home particularly. They were very creative and were clearly at a more advanced stage of preparation than Saints, who were very rusty. Two tries in 30 seconds towards the end made the score unrepresentative of the game itself IMO.

You have to take into account the fact that there were unlimited interchanges tonight, so there were a lot of changes on both sides at times.

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 1:02 am  

Bomb Jack wrote:

How did Widnes fair in this game ?

Better than us for most of it.

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 1:46 am  

Saddened! wrote:

Very, very well. They were the more 'up for it' team and were pretty dominant early in the game. I'd say the Widnes attack was the more creative of the two and the more willing to attack from deep. Widnes scored a couple of really well constructed tries and looked to have a good balance of pace and power in the backline. I like the look of Hanbury and Paddy Flynn took his tries well.

Defensively Widnes' approach was borderline Wigan-esque. It would be a shame if they went down the negative Wigan route and tried to play anti-rugby next season. There were periods of deliberate holding down, attention on standing legs and getting unneccessary numbers into the tackle in order to slow the game down. Being a friendly it worked to a degree, although without the defensive discipline Wigan have it might not be so successful in a SL game. I think Widnes will be pleased with the showing, they won't be flogged every week like some teams have been in SL on that showing and there should be enough there to do quite well at home particularly. They were very creative and were clearly at a more advanced stage of preparation than Saints, who were very rusty. Two tries in 30 seconds towards the end made the score unrepresentative of the game itself IMO.

You have to take into account the fact that there were unlimited interchanges tonight, so there were a lot of changes on both sides at times.

Paddy Flynn had a bet with my nephew that if he scored one try he would get his mates a pint each, score two and he would get them a pint and shots and score three (which he clearly didn't expect to do) he would get them a pint, shots and strip naked and run down Market Street.
The things you bet on and regret eh...........?

Re: Saints first home game v Widnes : Sat Jan 21, 2012 2:15 am  

Bomb Jack wrote:

How did Widnes fair in this game ?

It will be nice to read an unbiased report..........

Very well. Their forwards stuck up for themselves and Handbury and Watts were really impressive in the halves.