You are not better than us just because you won a knockout game. However I will admit the gap is closing and closing quicker with all the disruption we have had this season to key players - Dodd season ender in April, Hopoate barely played, Makinson a month, Percival 3 months, Grace 4 months, Lomax playing through a bad injury, Matautia 2 months, LMS a month. The list goes on and that's without the suspensions. For us still to be 4 points clear at the top is a testament to our resilience and competitive nature.

If you split the 3 games we've played this season against you and split it into minutes, how many would you say of those that you were the better team? I'd give you 20 mins on Good Friday, 40 in the semi final and 30 at Magic. That's a lot of minutes where we were dominant across the 3 games. That's 150 mins for us and 90 mins for you.

Of course that's just my opinion.

Have Saints had injuries this season? Nobody mentioned it.

That Magic performance is the one that has encouraged me the most. We were really poor that day (I know you were missing key players, we were missing a few also), but still looked the much better team. Saints were pretty blunt with the amount of ball they had; I'd love to see the stats of the game in terms of territory and possession etc. Yes, Saints are rightly favourites for future meetings and the GF, which I am pretty sure, will be contested between the two sides, but the gap is closing at a fair old rate.

Great debate though, keep it coming!

You thought you were the better team at Magic? Interesting. I did feel you defended superbly in that first 20 mins to be fair, we had a lot of possession and didn't really look like scoring.

Our attack has looked blunt at times due to the constant changes. Missing Makinson and Percival has affected us more so on the kick returns and getting us on the front foot.

We are as good if not better as we have won the only trophy on offer.
Now, we have had missing this season,French,Cust,Tommy,Ellis,Powell,Thornley Singleton,etc etc etc .
If you split the 3 games -2 wins to Saints 1 win to Wigan on our way to winning the final ,you get 4 points we get a trophy-that is why we are better this season so far if you win the final you are rightly the best team this season if we win we would have won the double maybe the treble and rightly we would be the best team this season.
Of course this is my opinion but based on fact.

You have had a better season so far in that you have a trophy and we don't. That doesn't mean you have been the better team so far. There is a big difference there.

Quite shocked at this. I thought territorially we battered you personally and said this on here after the game. In terms of metres made on the day we were over 400m more than you for example (despite you scoring from two long range breaks from Field and french too). We also made more carries and you made more tackles. So in terms of both possession and territory we were on top. You were forever finishing sets in your own half. We were camped in your half for the start of the game but I don't recall us being under the pump on our line for long spells.

What you do have though is that "X-factor" that we don't have. In Field and French you have players who can literally score from anywhere on the field and they've proven that time and again (including at Magic).

I think games between the two sides will follow similar patterns for the time being. We will get on top in the middle and win the field position battle and try and pick off our chances when they come. Whereas Wigan will almost accept they will get less field position but they'll know they can burn us from anywhere on the field.

It's a real contrasting battle of styles and it could go either way when we meet up again.

Makinson has played more games than French
Dodd has played more games than Leuluai
Hopoate and Percival have played more games than Thornley
Matautia has played more games than Pearce-Paul

You know I respect you as a poster
Stu but that is utter garbage. The most Saints-centric post you ever put on here. You had a 10 minute spell in the semi. The rest of the game was either even or comfortably ours. Go and watch it again and take your RedVee specs off. Magic you only won because of the sending off. Don't point to you beating Huddersfield as some mitigation that wasn't the case as that's a completely different game. You were 2 minutes from losing that game and never lead throughout. Good Friday I'll give you.

I agree we have had a better season so far this must mean we are a better team so far,you won the first derby easily enough but you lost the first game game that really would mean anything then you won the last derby in the last seconds I would say we are better this season so far as you have agreed we are having a better season so far.