Player ratings : Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:52 pm
Awesome start to the season really. Too early to get too excited and I think tonight emphasises how important keeping 16 of those 17 on the field is going to be.1 - Lomax 7 Did well, lots of ugly but important work done tonight and solid on the few occasions he had to defend
2 - Swift 8 Excellent. Moves like silk and made a couple of absolutely brilliant calls tonight when exposed by Percival
3 - Percival 6 Looks exciting with the ball and gives us the balance with Turner on the other side that gives us the option to go wide early, which we've not had in years. But he's suspect defensively. We perhaps need to look at the options in the back row to protect him out there?
4 - Turner 9 My motivational posts are working. He went well tonight and his side looked rock solid, brilliant move to get on the outside and pop the pass to Makinson.
5 - Makinson 8 Classy
6 - Wheeler 9 He's a fat, useless waste of space who shouldn't have a contrac...... no hang on, that was last week. He's got the moves, looked very dangerous running with the ball and defended really well, throwing himself in front of the truck a few times to try tries. Fingers crossed he can stay fit and get into good physical condition (A stone overweight at the moment?)
7 - Walsh 10 Couldn't have asked for a better debut, bar the couple of funny air passes. Kicking was good, the 40:20 was fantastic, and how good is it to score 6 point tries instead of 4? It felt like cheating tonight when the score kept ticking up in 6s rather than 4s.
8 - Amor 9 Wow. Love him already. He has it all, hard working, aggressive and has that all important factor, an iconic appearance. Oscar the grouch could quickly become a legend at Saints.
9 - Roby 8 Ultra important we keep him fit.
10 - Walmsley 8 Ran the ball brilliantly, making Waterhouse and Westwood eat grass through their bum cheeks several times and tackled really well. But has to focus on playing the ball properly. It's so frustrating to see him coughing up field position by not putting enough effort into playing it correctly, eyes on the ball rather than the collision too young man.
11 - Manu 7 Worked hard and was unlucky to not get a penalty for an obvious steal early doors
12 - Wilkin 6 Strangely it was the stuff he did so well last season that hampered him tonight, throwing wild passes about at times and coughed up a couple of penalties.
13 - LMS 8 Looked superb, playing with the aggression and enthusiasm he played with at times last season, but didn't seen to play many minutes, not sure if that's a strategy or injury?
14 - Jones 6 Solid
15 - Laffranchi 6 Hard to tell, I didn't notice him at all bar his try. I'd like to see his stats?
16 - Soliola 6 Struggled at times, but is coming back from an injury so is probably a week or two behind the rest. Still worked hard with good enthusiasm to get off the line but could well be sitting next week out if he's not lucky
17 - Wellens 5 Tonight just adds to the head scratching. 63/64 minutes gone and game over when he made an appearance? We won that game with 16 players, would it not make more sense to have Flanagan or Beaumont in that spot? I felt for Wello when he ran lead the team out, the slunk away to the side and tried to back slap the first few players, none of whom noticed him, then he moved nervously to the bench, like a geek with no social skills at a party no one wants him to be at.
