I've just watched the Boots N All "The Tries" for this week, and three key weaknesses of St Helens stood out more blatantly than I've ever seen before and really do seem uncannily to match what we have done very well at the start of the season.



1) Susceptible to Kicks - A feature which I can't say Saints have really shown before, and Matt King seems to have a ferocious hunger for the kick to the wing at the moment. Surely more of a weapon with Briers in supply, but as seen also without.



2) Vulnerability around the Ruck - Yet again something i can't recall seeing in Saints, I think the Crusaders scored 2 tries in quick movement from dummy half, a feature we have been very strong in so far, Mickey Higham on Saturday a great example.



3) Weakness to Offloads - And my final point merely highlights that Saints really seemed to lack a scrambling defense which has made them so tough to beat. From watching the highlights it seemed that any Crusader offload resulted in a Try. And at Warrington - we have played some beautiful attacking rugby this season.



Anyway - merely 3 points I picked up from seeing the Saints highlights.



Thoughts?

It reads like everything that enabled Saints to win the past, is now their Achilles.

If you think were going to perform against you as we did against the Crusaders,you might be in for a shock.

The nature of time and space means nobody knows how either team is going to perform yet. Damn laws of the universe.



However I'm expecting to see the Saints of my nightmares. The only good thing about Saints continually ripping out our beating heart and showing it to us before we die is that you get used to it. Like that scene in Bond with the knotted rope - sure, it hurts, but you get used to it.



Absolutely no poignancy about our (possible) last visit to KR. Looking forward to the trips to widnes for the next couple of years.

In the world cup, Gardener was undone by the high ball everytime



I was surprised last season that he wasn't targetted more than he was



I am sure Atkins and Kingy will be breathing down his neck on Friday night

Perhaps the highlights didn't show any offloads that came to nothing?



We look like we might be close to full strength for the weekend, with Puletua and Wellens definitely back and Gidley/Soliola being monitored.



Young Lomax is out which is a blow, but at least Gardner is fit again to replace him.



If the bodies are back I'd like to see:



Wellens

Gardner

Gidley

Wheeler

Meli

Pryce

Eastmond

Graham

Cunningham

Hargreaves/Fozzard

Wilkin

Flannery

Roby



Moore

Faasavalu

Puletua

Soliola



If we can get that team out on the pitch, or one close to it, I feel the rumours of our demise may be a little premature.

Rather than the high kick to King I'd like to see a few grubbers in behind meli on the 4th.

The backs and the backrow are giving massive advantages to Wire. The front row is also weaker.

But you'll be stronger in the halves, especially if Briers is injured. Plus that almost all Samoan bench is pretty scary looking, in terms of the impact they could make.

If we can beat a team like that then we must have ALL trophies in the bag this season!