Quote General Zod.="General Zod."Well considering Saints were only missing Soliola and Hicks gave them 16 penalties, to concede only one try from a pass (the second being from a kick), I'd have to say that was the best defensive display under Sandercock's reign - made more impressive by the fact we had 4 players pull out with illness yesterday morning so it proves Sanderock's defensive systems and structures are sound.
We could have scored more tries but sensibly took the penalty kicks that were on offer to close out the game though I'm sure once the dry weather returns we'll see more tries from CS's superb brand of attacking RL (unlike Gentle who's team are the 3rd worse attacking side in the league).
Will that do?'"
I'd go even further and say that it was the best defensive effort by any Rovers team in the Super League era.
The bar has never been set particularly high in that department of course but I was pleasantly surprised by the aggression shown in the tackle we were actually hurting them which is very unlike us.
It did result coincidently or not in a massive penalty count against us and Burns & Paea both spending 10 minutes in the bin but all the more remarkable that despite that Saints hardly ever looked like breaking us down.
This is not the Saints of old anyone can see that but with all their players back the bookies didn't give us much chance nor any of the 'experts' and Saints did rack up 50 points the previous game. I have to admit I had doubts myself because I thought the massive effort put in at Toulouse would have us struggling to back it up.
Earlier in the season people were writing off Jordan Cox as a defensive liability but on Friday night he was putting in some shuddering hits and he wasn't alone. Burns as we know is lighting things up on attack but he is even more impressive on defence he puts his body on the line and never gives up. He is probably the single most important factor in our run of good form plus Greg Eden there is always a chance of scoring tries with him around.
The intensity level has been high for a while now so there will be a dip sometime inevitably. We have 3 games normally classed as unwinnable Wigan, Wire & Leeds away (but Cas have shown anything is possible) we have 2 which look like bankers Salford & London home (but ditto Cas comment) and 2 which we will be slight favourites.
I think the placings 5-8 are up for grabs and we are in the mix - if we keep up our current defensive form it might even be at the higher end of that.