Saint Toppy

I thought Penrith's stadium had started to be demolished ?

Thats Woolf's major flaw as a coach, his reluctance to drop certain players who aren't performing. Luckily it didn't come back to bite Saints in the GF by him picking Hopoate, but it certainly did yesterday for Tonga. Though he wasn't the main reason they lost, their halves have been awful all tournament. That said even with sicknote Hopoate and 2 gash halves they still only lost by 2 points to Samoa. While it wont be another 60 point mauling I still think England will win by plenty. Some of these so called 'NRL Superstars' just haven't performed have been shown to be so overhyped. At least we can all laugh at gobby Gould choking on his Kangaroo burger as many of his beloved NRL stars have been getting smashed

The Library was one of my regular haunts when I used to work in Upper St along with the Famous #### on the corner nest to the tube station. Does the Library still do real ale's or has it gone all commercialised now ?

I agree with the change but I don't think Cooper was necessarily poor, more that he didn't really bring that much. Lees came on and while he didn't bring much in terms of metre making his defence was outstanding, time after time leading the defensive line and throwing everything he had into every tackle. Similar with Knowles, smashed every PNG player in sight all afternoon and completely stifled their go forward even when they had a fair amount of possession in England's half. For me Thompson would give that extra bit of go forward that England need when Burges & Hill go off without sacrificing any defensive capabilities of the pack. So for me, same starting 13 then with Thompson for Cooper on the bench.

Well if Saints do sign up to participate in this and the WCC then Cas will be getting their annual game of playing a Saints Reserves again . I seriously doubt Saints will fly back from Aus and then field a full strength side away at Cas the next weekend when they will be playing their first home game of the year 5 days later against Leeds. Also, depending on what happens with the CC with Saints & Hudds the 'free weekend' for internationals will probably be used by Saints to play their round 1 game against Hudds.

I agree. Thompson is probably the 3rd best English Prop behind Burgess & Walmsley. Can only think he's carrying a knock as to why he's not been picked this week.

I think thats irrelevant when you compare him to the others. Walmsley, Burgess and probably Thompson were pretty much nailed on as 3 of the front rowers if they were all fit. Hill's form has been exceptional this year for the Giants and he probably offers a lot more than Oledski does at this time. That then leaves Lees & Cooper. Wane has long said he's a big admirer of Matty Lees, especially after the last England Knights tour where he was voted England's player of the tour where Lees completely outplayed the PNG forwards that day. Lees has just started to get back to that kind of form again this year (after the cheap shot from fatty Ferres put him in hospital a few seasons ago), so its understandable why Wane has Lees in his squad again now. As for Cooper, while Wire have been awful he was one of the few who was playing well and the fact that Wane wanted him at Wigan tells you all you need to know about what he thinks about him as a player. So going back to my earlier comment - if everyone was fit its highly likely that Oledski would have been the one who would have missed out on Wane's squad if Walmsley was available. No matter how much of a great player you think Oledski is, I don't think Wane rates him anywhere near as highly as the others he's picked.

Not sure Oledski would have even made the England squad had Walmsley been fit

Sneyd & KPP to miss out for me of that 19 Tomkins, Makinson, Watkins, Farnworth, Young, Welsby, Williams, Hill, McIlorum, Burgess, Whitehead, Bateman, Radley - Knowles, McMeeken, Cooper, Lees. PNG's game is based around getting dominance with their forwards so i suspect Wane will go with 4 forwards on the bench, particularly as its going to be a wet weather game.

Don't think its a case of 'upsetting' him, more the case Wane doesn't think he's as good as the forwards he's picked

Dodd & Walmsley will be playing. Walmsley's foot injury was a 2month lay-off according to the club, though they did also take the opportunity to fix a long standing arm injury as well during that time, but he'll be back in full training by Christmas. Dodd was back in 'light training' before the end of the season and barring any re-occurance of the injury he'll get a full pre-season of training in. Percival should also be fit, his pulling out of the WC squad was more precautionary, so another 3 months of healing time for his hamstring should see him fit for the WCC. I think the only unknown at this stage is Lomax as I haven't seen anything from the club on how is recovery is going. I'll already assume Hopoate won't be fit, he'll probably stub his toes in training and be out for a month

I spoke to someone at the club yesterday and Saints have agreed a date of weekend of 18/19 Feb as the date (or earlier)

In SL transfer fees have nothing to do with a clubs SC. It doesn't matter who they sell or buy in, or for how much, their total SC doesn't change.

If the FFR want more French players to choose from who play at the top level then maybe they should first look at the French clubs and get them to play more French players instead of packing their team with Brits & Antipodean's

Can Sneyd do it under pressure though ? The last 'big pressure' game he played in was the SF against Saints and he crumbled. Saints had quick line speed pressured Sneyd all night long and he put in some shocking kicks under that pressure. Lomax completely played him off the field and controlled that game. He may be able to put in some decent kicks if picked but that still doesn't take away from the fact he's defensively weak compared to Welsby & Williams and has nowhere near the running game ability of either of them. I don't think PNG will put up a massive contest for England but the following weeks games will against Tonga (and then hopefully Aus / NZ in the final). The time for experimenting is gone and you go with your strongest team that you want to take you all the way to the final. Meaning Sneyd may get away with a bit more time & space against PNG but he certainly wont against Tonga or Aus / NZ. Neither Williams or Wesby have brilliant long kicking games but both are massively superior to Sneyd in every other facet of the game, pace, support play, tacking, creativity, tackle busting ability.

Lees isn't your typical big meter making front rower like a Burgess, Walmsley or Hill but there's a reason coaches rate him so highly, its all the other little effort areas that make him stand out (the 1% efforts that Jammer constantly refers to). When you get tiring forward hookers look to try and exploit the ruck catching out the bigger & less mobile, similarly on kick returns FB & Wingers will look for the staggered defensive line with a tiring forward who can't get up there. These are the area where Lees excels, leading the defensive line, working really hard from marker. Bringing on a prop like him means there's still that high intensity from the front men. Over the last few years Kristian Woolf commented several times that the teams Saints play against "may have bigger forwards, faster backs or even better individuals, but they'll never out-work us" and players like Lees, Knowles & Batchelor typify this.

I gotta agree with the comments made by Peacock & Graham on this one, Sneyd is just a back-up and shouldn't be picked ahead of Williams or Welsby as a starting half back. He wont get the same amount of freedom & time on the ball against the good teams like he did against Greece & France and doesn't pose the same attacking threat as the other 2 players or is as defensively strong.

When the last declared Marquee list was released last year don't remember Saints having any players on that list

Why ?? Thompson would come back as a Marquee player and would only cost £75K on Saints SC. Releasing Bell and not replacing Grace would easily cover that.

Thats why they've left the No25 shirt free in the 2023 Squad !!!

Thats my point, clubs like Hull are quick to throw money at players from outside rather than give their own lads a chance to try and cement themselves a place in the team.

Yep, Salford have asked about Bell but Saints will only release him if they can bring in a replacement. They're trying to bring Thompson back from the NRL, so I guess if they manage that then they'll release Bell.

From what i've seen Ben McNamara looks a fairly decent prospect and he certainly played better than their overpaid flops like Gale & Reynolds when he was given his chance. Personally I think Hull should have given local lad McNamara his chance before throwing money at an average Aussie like Clifford.

Jeeze do Hull never learn !!! Clifford is just about as average as a player gets. He's got a decent boot on him but thats about it. No real pace or much of a running game, not much of an attacking threat at all. They're going to be massively reliant on Trueman to be the creator and thats not really his game either, especially coming off the back of such a pretty poor season at Cas.

Greater Manchester is classed as a County these days. So while Wakey may be a metropolitan borough its still in the County of West Yorkshire just like Leeds, Bradford & Huddersfield are. Swinton are never going to be a big club again. Even Salford who are named after the city they play in can't attract decent crowds so a small town within the same city has no chance.