Saddened! wrote:
I think Wigan's style of play is perfect anti-Saints methodology. Aggressive defense, numbers in the tackle, slow the play the ball to remove Roby from the game and do the basics well with the ball. Warrington can do that better than Wigan if they play it that way. Position is enough these days against Saints as we're not strong enough to defend the line as some of the farcical tries Wigan scored proved (Mossop, Lima and Finch).
But if there was a strong refereeing performance that cut out the obvious attempts to slow the play the ball down there is still enough quality to beat Warrington.
And ironically the slowing down of the play the ball was first perfected by Saints in the late 90s, early 00s, with the 123 1 player off, 123 another off etc which Referee's couldn't actually penalise. It was a perfect technique and Saints executed it phenomenally and gave the defensive line ample time to get set up.
As you said though Hudds, Wigan and Warrington now control the pace of the game well - a far cry from the Cullen era where teams used to snatch quick PTB's for fun.
I think we just need to start in a similar fashion to the game at the Stobart. A 10pt lead into halftime and I'd be very happy. And after Makinson and McCarthy-Scarsbrook's performances last night, they look the very weak links.
