Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:23 pm  

Deary me. 39-0 and I don't think there were many who I could criticise really. Mose wasn't great but the rest were okay. Just absolutely outclassed by a side who haven't had a competitive game yet. Put any Super League side against them mid season over here and there is a 50 point difference. Play it in Australia and you are talking 70. They were just sensational, Reynolds kicked us to death and they simply didn't make any mistakes. Can you imagine the score if they played Salford which is the equivalent of St George's involvement in the series?

Tonight was just men against boys, amateurs against true pros and the talk of us closing the gap are way off. It's as big as its ever been.


If there is a gripe to be had, it's the refereeing again. Scared to death of the Aussies and incapable of giving a 50:50 against them.

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:28 pm  

The Saints backs were exposed badly, and frankly looked mediocre to poor. Have Saints ever had a worse pair of centres? I know Percival is young but he should've scored both those chances, and had they been at the other end I'm sure Souths would've finished them. The back 3 looked slow and were out of position on numerous occasions.

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:29 pm  

Charlie Sheen wrote:

The Saints backs were exposed badly, and frankly looked mediocre to poor. Have Saints ever had a worse pair of centres? I know Percival is young but he should've scored both those chances, and had they been at the other end I'm sure Souths would've finished them. The back 3 looked slow and were out of position on numerous occasions.

Percival is quality. Turner isn't.

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:33 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

Deary me. 39-0 and I don't think there were many who I could criticise really. Mose wasn't great but the rest were okay. Just absolutely outclassed by a side who haven't had a competitive game yet. Put any Super League side against them mid season over here and there is a 50 point difference. Play it in Australia and you are talking 70. They were just sensational, Reynolds kicked us to death and they simply didn't make any mistakes. Can you imagine the score if they played Salford which is the equivalent of St George's involvement in the series?

Tonight was just men against boys, amateurs against true pros and the talk of us closing the gap are way off. It's as big as its ever been.


If there is a gripe to be had, it's the refereeing again. Scared to death of the Aussies and incapable of giving a 50:50 against them.

I thought the ref was actually quite good tonight. Which decisions did you think he got wrong?

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:37 pm  

FearTheVee wrote:

Percival is quality. Turner isn't.

He's a good prospect he was exposed physically and mentally tonight, but he wasn't alone in that this weekend.

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:38 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

Deary me. 39-0 and I don't think there were many who I could criticise really. Mose wasn't great but the rest were okay. Just absolutely outclassed by a side who haven't had a competitive game yet. Put any Super League side against them mid season over here and there is a 50 point difference. Play it in Australia and you are talking 70. They were just sensational, Reynolds kicked us to death and they simply didn't make any mistakes. Can you imagine the score if they played Salford which is the equivalent of St George's involvement in the series?

Tonight was just men against boys, amateurs against true pros and the talk of us closing the gap are way off. It's as big as its ever been.


If there is a gripe to be had, it's the refereeing again. Scared to death of the Aussies and incapable of giving a 50:50 against them.

Must admit I was a bit shocked by the scoreline.
The referee I think got 3 try or no try decisions wrong but apart from that was ok!
Your front row of Amour, Roby and Walmsley is good but you're back up after those 3 isn't.
The Souths ball retention under the conditions was unbelievable.
Souths would unfortunately have beaten any other SL by at least a similar scoreline.

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:45 pm  

Right. I wasn't going to post tonight, because calming down is always advised. But I have to say something.

To me, the facts are these. Saints are currently set up to take on anyone in SL. The small 3/4 line is fine against 99% of opposition in SL and even when they're not we have enough size in the pack to conteract those who can beat us in that area. However, the physicality in the outside backs, snuffed any space we were able to create. We came close to matching them in the pack (I wouldn't go so far to say we matched their pack, but we did at least as well as Bulldogs did in the GF imo, which is no shoddy thing looking at their pack!) Percival would have scored both against SL opposition and in 3 years will score similar chances.

It's very easy to throw the baby out of the pram in these situations. I'm sure in the coming days opposition fans will love to stick the boot in, but no one in this league would of done any better. They might not of scored through kicks like they did with us, but they'd of found a way, because Maguire is a very good coach. It wasn't a fun night, but it's important that we carry our heads high.

The advantage of Jones over Flanagan is obvious now we had LMS in the centres, and obviously Walsh coming back can't happen soon enough. Lomax is the one I'm closest to calling though. His positioning was poor today and was exposed. I thought Thompson showed up well, and actually won metres in the collision at times which was more than most, and Walmsley was our clear mom.

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:47 pm  

nohalfbacks wrote:

I thought the ref was actually quite good tonight. Which decisions did you think he got wrong?

A couple of early decisions, the charge down which led to the first try sticks out, and there was another 50:50 in the lead up to the penalty kick but I can't remember what. Doesn't excuse the way we reacted to them, but there were some harsh 50:50s early that we simply didn't recover from.

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:52 pm  

I'm not buying into the fact the Rabbitohs are un touchable. Im telling you now had that been Wigan tonight playing instead of Saints the scoreline would be extremely different.

Re: Reality check : Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:53 pm  

I have been a big fan of Lomax since he came on the scene and love his style of play but he didn't seem to get much right tonight.