As a saints fan I'm happy with how we are shaping up.

But I can't see past Warrington this season. I think it's finally the year of the wolfs.

It all depends on who copes with there injurys better i'd like to think Saints are due a season without major injuries not like the last 3-4 yrs.

Wigun,Wire & Leeds will be there or about come play off time.

It's a pretty open competition. Catalan, Saints, Huddersfield, Cas, Leeds, Wigan, Warrington. With the new league set up meaning teams can't afford to throw games it will be interesting to see how that shapes up. In previous years you may have rested injured players one week more as 4th or 5th was no biggie.

Now one will want to miss the cut, so getting into the 8 is key, but once in the 8, you don't want the difference between you and the top 4 being too large to make up in the final 7 games.

A few key injuries here and there will knock some teams off their stride. Saints are fortunate that we have a balanced side this year for the first time in ages. The big talking point is about having 1 more pack player for Saints. But from 1-7 we are well covered and it's nice if there is an injury to have quality like Lance and Wellens as back up.

The pack is younger looking, no real old stagers, but injuries to Mose/Amor and Walmsley at the same time would be tricky to handle. We have the numbers but maybe a stretch too far for any team to lose 3 props in this competition.

The Jugganaught rolls on

Well, yeah, but Salford hardly offered any serious test ahead of the Rabbitohs, did they?

Saints were decent and did what they had to but Salford were awful, some of the worst goal line defence i have ever seen from a SL team.

While I agree about Salford (they should be embarrassed by themselves), I think you do a disservice to my team. We were opening them up in the middle long before their goal line defence was tested in the same way we opened up the Dragons in the middle. We appear to be doing something effective in the middle. And this is the second week we have conceded only one try, this time through an attacking error rather than a defensive lapse. I think both those elements say something to the ability of Saints rather than poor performance of the opposition.

Not intended to do down your efforts at all, if i was a Saints fan right now i would be delighted with the build up to the WC final next week. Just highlighting that even when it was obvious your lot had 'shut down' around the 55 minute mark for that match it was still embarrassingly easy to cross the whitewash and despite, like you say a couple of 10 minute spells at high intensity, you never got out 2nd gear, although didnt have to! Your forwards look strong by the way, Greenwood looks to have improved a hell of a lot and i liked the look of Thompson when he came on, a real handful. Adding these young lads to the other established forwards and you have quite a formidable looking pack with good depth. Good luck against Souths next week.

St Helens looked very solid against what was thrown at them. Admittedly, that wasn't much, but they didn't give Salford much to work with either.

I thought their defensive line speed in particular was very good.

Don't get overexcited. South's don't have Caton Brown playing for them who was an absolute turnstile.

I think you have to ask the question did the Saints team force this Salford team to play with little composure. The Saints pack is a formidable one on the moment and got the upperhand after 15 mins, this meant Rangi Chase was behind his beaten pack and was nothing more than a spectator on the pitch.
What I did notice was that the coach Harris was very twitchy on every play and is probably under loads of pressure from his doctor.
This Saints team has leaked in only 5 tries in the last 5 superleague wins, so its not only Salford who are not good enough.

When the rabbits hand saints their own backsides next weekend we we know just how good this sintellins team really is