Turned on today expecting the usual Radford out , although one or two questioned his decisions there was a lot of good constructive thoughts.I don't usually knock players even more so youngsters but it has to be said Masi for the huge unit he is, simply does not run his weight.He came on when Saints forwards had put a huge shift in and made no impact at all. Yes it was his first run out but how many games in the past has he run any different.Ellis is a freak ,what a player and all those who said he was past it there are not many better than him .Sao our best forward by a mile played really well .Conner well cannot say anything what's already been said.At one point i thought we were looking at a 50 + drubbing but the lads did dig in,they need to forget this and march on to next week

Buchanan and Patterson-Lund were in the 21 and both could have played back row

Yesterday was definitely a game of two halves. Thought 1st half both sides were going ok but 2nd half St's were still ok but we were just awful, St's really didn't have to do anything special at all to score. The loss of Ratu certainly made a difference as they targeted the edge with Fonua who had a poor game and just does not look in shape.
Thought the use of the interchanges was poor and like the bad old days when Ellis went off we crumbled. The pleasing aspect was we stopped the rot but that is tainted with the fact that in the small patches we looked interested in the 2nd half we scored but just didnt do anywhere near enough in the 80mins.
Not many players come out of that game with credit with Sao, Ellis and Tuimavave the only standouts in an otherwise pretty abject performance. Connor has played Kelly straight in to 6 for Wigan even without the possible injury to Tuimavave and he needs to control his. frustration when its not going his way.
The 2nd half we made more yardage going backwards than forwards and Sneyd having to kick from behind our own line when we started that set on our 40 summed up the 2nd half and our discipline yet again was an issue.
Disappointing but not the end of the world though concerning the number of injuries picked up already and particularly with Bowden.

At least Radford doesn't appear to be blaming it all on injuries which is a step in the right direction imo.

If I were trying to put a positive spin on it I would say that the humbling defeat against Widnes in 2016 was a turning point in the season. Now, like then, we have maybe been believing our own hype and needed knocking down a peg or two. The fact that we rolled our sleeves up and at least did our best in the last 20 is positive.

On the other hand, it's yet another game where we have folded at the first sign of adversity. Good teams just don't go from leading to conceding 4 tries in 10 minutes. At this level it should all be about slowly turning the screw until the other side finally cracks. Saints didn't have to work hard at all, it was way too easy. You can point to injuries and the disruption caused by them, but none of that is an excuse for such a sudden dramatic collapse.

All we can do is hope for a good response at Wigan. Hopefully at least a couple of the doubtful players will be fit enough.

I still think last season we would have been 20-0 at halftime.

Maybe so. Unfortunately you don't get anything for leading at HT.

Look at the stats, our 3 sub forwards made 9 carries between them, that's not good enough, we have to share the workload better, too much work for the other forwards meaning they tire 2nd half. Radford got his bench and subs wrong yesterday, only one sub used first half.

I agree Dave, Radders could have spelled Ellis, but he was playing so well. And Tag went off after around 30min, and it seemed ages before he returned in the second half. Massi was sent on when the game was up, about fifteen minutes from the end. Who’d be a coach. Three kicks I think created havoc, Carlos and Mahe isolated, and very poor in defence, Lomax or Woolf realised this and our goose was cooked.

No one banned this week

I just came on to post that, good news as Ligi Sao has been great so far this year.