wellens is a real yard stick of how good the game is over here in terms of having a full skill set to get a game.



in the nrl he simply wouldnt get a game. they have 16 fullbacks better than him. and thats before you switch lockyer, ingles, hayne, gidley and perrit. over here he still looks like he could keep his international shirt!!





me and mi old man have just decided we are going to 2010 4 nations!! god help us if he's playing then

I think Gardner is the only one with good enough pace, although Gilmour seems quicker than Talau for me. Back in the day of Lyon, Albert, Sullivan, Quirk (ahem) we did have some pace but I agree with original poster that this is slowest in some time.



I remember a coupld of seasons back at Headingley when the game was close at half time (about 12-16?), but in the second half Leeds scored some fast long range tries (Lee Smith with two?) and despite him breaking the line near to his own twenty, we couldn't get near him.



My fear when playing Leeds in recent seasons is that you make a break and have too much pacy support (Burrow, McGuire, Senior, Smith) for us to catch all of them.

ok, forgetting the refs,which i would like to

lets look at tonight.



very little threat from the backs.

ablett is not, and will never be, a centre. the fact gibson was dropped and watkins on the wing means bluey doesn't rate them(with watkins it is at the moment, he will come good).



this begs the question why wasn't a centre signed? everyone could see we needed one except the people in charge it seems.



scruton was not replaced. i accept the club were innocent in the eastwood affair,but we are light in the forwards and it shows big time.



why did all the players have to lose weight. kylie has suffered big time. the power and strength have gone. other packs dominate us with ease.



our big strength has been pace in the backs. we rarely try to go wide,it is one man rugby or a diskin little pass inside.



we are predictale and easy to defend against,i don't know why so much was changed but it isn't working

Tonight again proved we have no plan B and at times not even a plan A.

We seem incapable of changing the tactics at any point in the game and end up playing panic rugby.

If the tactics don't change there wil be no Grand Final this year and again this proves all the s wrong who think we don't need new signings.

we needed signings. Letting Scruton go was a very bad move. Eastwood no one could have foreseen, but we need to accept they're not going to change their minds & sign someone.

Compare the current Saints wingers with Hunte, Sullivan, Albert etc.

Compare the current Saints centres with Newlove, Gibbs even Iro.



All the above could go the length of the field without much difficulty.



Currently, Saints' first team has only one player capable of that - Pryce.

You do know he was offered "top money" by bradford don't you??

He was alway's 3rd/4th choice and never a big earner in our structure so that was never gonna be the case that he stayed.

I didn't have a problem with him leaving. Its the fact that he doesn't seem to have been replaced. I know we signed Ambler but he's long way off the required standard. But then again most of the players are at the moment.

That's fair enough but we were never gonna match the deal bradford offered and even now he isn't worth it imo.

The team are lacking confidence and are suffering from the after effects of a second loss to Saints and out of 2 cups.



However I come back to the Style of play argument. Our style is now based around defence with little structured attacking plays and no plan B when things are not working. We are relying on Sinfield, Burrow, McGuire, Web or Senior to pull something out of the bag with individual flair and are leaving this until late in a game when it is too late.



We must return to a more positive attacking style with players looking to offload knowing there will be backed up on hand. Defence does not win matches. Without attack, the best defence can do is produce a draw. Saints are playing the best team rugby with great backing up and angles of running and most important quick play the balls. Our players take too long to play the ball with Peacock the worst offender.

Plus the fact most of the dummy runs and players running on to the ball with pace have been none existant thus far.

We have a decent squad but need a couple signings urgently. The preseason preparation does not look to have been good enough and the coaching seems to have been all on defence and none on attack. Early doors this 4 man tackling plan was working until we came up against saints but this plan has now tired out the whole team and we now have a defensive problem as well as no attack.



IMO attack is the best defence as you tire out the opposition and keep the points ticking over. We look devoid of any attacking moves and our game plan appears to be based on keeping the opposition from scoring and hope we get a penalty. Now plan that has obviously failed with 5 defeats out of 11 played not being good enough. There was a time when we could expect to outscore teams no matter how many they scored. Back to the drawing board Bluey