The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 12:18 pm  

Can't help getting the feeling that the way we started to play yesterday, for the first few minutes at least, was how everyone wants Saints to play. We were offloading, and flinging the ball about. Unfortunately, Manu let go an offload too many, which started the swing to a team that we never managed to get back. Had it stuck, the game could have had a very different outcome. Saints, the entertainers, always had a blow out somewhere in the season. Usually, it coincided with having a full strength team, and being full of confidence. We had several of these under Millward.

If we want Saints to be the entertainers again, and that seems to be the general consenses, then we have to accept that days like yesterday will happen. Someone said before the game that they dont care about the result, but just want us to play to win, rather than not to lose. I don't think we would have seen yesterday's performance under Rush, or Anderson, or Potter. But equally, you wouldnt have seen the entertainers.
Bottom line is, be careful what you wish for, because it may just come true!

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:19 pm  

I guess you have to earn the right to play champagne rugby by winning the arm wrestle, Our forwards need to do their job before they start the fancy stuff. Not worried though and still think it'll be a good season

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:43 pm  

I thought the whole game was very entertaining.

But seriously it's about time ALL RL spectators realised that good defence is just as important as good attack. I got pilloried for mentioning that Manu had some of the worst defensive and error stats in Superleague, he reminds me very much of a small Solomana.

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:54 pm  

St.Dave wrote:

I guess you have to earn the right to play champagne rugby by winning the arm wrestle, Our forwards need to do their job before they start the fancy stuff. Not worried though and still think it'll be a good season

And that was the problem yesterday, we were fired up from the start to play entertaining rugby. On another day the passes would stick, and it will be saints who blow the opposition away.

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:57 pm  

Saints could become the Arsenal of rugby league, the team that plays the best football and brings through the best young players, even though every year gets further and further away from the last time they won a trophy.

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:04 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

Saints could become the Arsenal of rugby league, the team that plays the best football and brings through the best young players, even though every year gets further and further away from the last time they won a trophy.

If Saints played good football and had good yoof (compared to Leeds and Wigan) coming through, that might be true.

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:06 pm  

Gerry Mander wrote:

If Saints played good football and had good yoof (compared to Leeds and Wigan) coming through, that might be true.

Wigan's "good" youth tends to be more successful elsewhere, or shipped off to Widnes.

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:07 pm  

I didn't notice much of a difference to be honest apart from us offloading the ball a bit more (mainly due to Manu).

Our organisation, structure and ball movement seemed no better to me which is a concern. We'll need a few more weeks before we can fully judge because yesterday was woeful all round, but it was a very poor start.

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:19 pm  

The whole thing was a shambles. The only time we made any progress was around the ruck as it was under Royce, Rush and KC and we still have no cohesive structure or gameplan. Huddersfield looked so good because they executed well, but they got into those positions by following set structured play, controlled and led by Brough and Robinson. We just didn't seem to have any idea what we were meant to be doing in any given situation.

Manu brought his own level of chaos as he trying to show everyone how good he was and totally failed.

I'd be very interested in hearing Brown explain how they approached the conditioning side of the sport this pre-season. The players just seemed to have no power, they reminded me of athletes that have been doing nothing but fitness work. The likes of LMS, Wilkin and Laffranchi seemed painfully underweight and just got smashed about.

Re: The Entertainers : Sun Feb 03, 2013 8:10 pm  

I thought we looked very good in our first set of the match ...