Chris22

Thought we were in control until Percival's red card. I don't see that as an excuse though, I would expect us to be good enough to win even with 12 men when we had a 14 point lead. We made some mistakes and Salford were good enough to execute and finish those chances. Sneyd was excellent and I thought Salford's expansive tactics worked very well against us and I expect Leeds will use a similar approach next week. From our perspective, Dodd has had a really strong start to the season which has been great to see.

A home match against Salford is one we should be winning. I've been impressed by Salford so far. It won't be anything like the pre season friendly, but I think we'll win by about 16 points.

Two teams with identical records makes it hard to call. I don't know what to make of Warrington yet, they have won the games you would expect. They did ok against Catalans but will have seen it as a missed opportunity playing against 12 men for 40 minutes. I liked what I saw of Hull KR in weeks 1 and 2 but they were quite error-ridden last week. I'd back Hull KR but with limited confidence!

Where it is easy to criticise, we should praise where players they do the opposite. Take Ricky Leutele for example. Hurrell and Leutele clashed heads on Friday (Hurrell being the defender). I don't think there was any malice at all on Hurrell's part but he didn't bend his back either. It happened very quickly and was hard to spot until a replay. If Leutele stayed down, it would have been reviewed and Hurrell may have been sin binned or sent off. He got up and the game continued. Although the job of players is to win. When a rule gets puts in place, they will try and get around it. Always have, always will.

I'd be a little worried if Mbye was used as a half back in the long term, whilst not ideal, I'd prefer to move Welsby and shift Bennison to full back. From what I've heard, the club is supposed to be quite excited about Robertson. Hopefully we don't have that worry this year anyway!

I think Hurrell is fine as a back up but agree that he wouldn't be first choice anymore. For centres, we have Percival, Blake, Hurrell, Davies and Vaughan (who seems highly rated) and for wingers we have Makinson, Bennison and Ritson (and Blake can play there). My main worry is we get an injury to Lomax or Dodd as we don't have a back up that wouldn't involve moving Welsby.

Saw a stat of Twitter that said Wigan had 21 play the balls inside Penrith's half for the entire match. One point which hasn't been picked up on too much is how clinical Wigan were, when they got inside Penrith's half, they tended to score. Part of the credit must go to go attacking play but Penrith will be disappointed with their defence. By contrast, Penrith had the majority of the territory but couldn't convert. Again, credit should go to excellent Wigan defence and Penrith will be annoyed at their lack of cutting edge and overly-cautious last tackle plays. If a game is played where territory is dominated so much by one team, Penrith in this case, they would win on the vast majority of occasions. The fact they didn't is what made the match so absorbing. I didn't have any issue with the Penrith no try at the end and thought it was an example of where the on-field call works well. There was no angle where you could track the ball, so going with the on-field referees judgement seemed reasonable. It was the combination of that and the Wardle try that made it contentious. I struggle to see how that was awarded. I'd almost like to see a reversal of the on field call. I wouldn't burden the referee with it at first but in examples like the Penrith no try at the end, the referee is asked for his view where the video referee has no angles available to him to make anything beyond a guess.

Lots to pleased with last night. Dodd is looking a lot sharper this year. I noticed Wellens' comments about allowing him more freedom with his kicking game (suggesting Dodd's predictable kicks last year were playing to the tactics given to him). Early days, but Clark looks a step up on the 2023 version of Roby and Whitley has made a great start too. Four points conceded across two games is outstanding and our attack looked more fluent too. Most pleasing of all is that our discipline was very good, something that was terrible last year and arguably cost us in two semi finals. A very encouraging start!

I'm surprised by the criticism of the BBC running this story. A player died as a result of taking a toxic level of tramadol. The player's family described him as impressionable and keen to fit in, and on record quotes from players saying how ingrained taking dangerous levels of these drugs at least was in the sport. Yet we criticise the BBC for reporting it? We seem to want to sweep the avoidable death of a teenage player under the carpet. Only the BBC and Total RL have reported on this story. No other rugby league media has as far as I can see it. Why? Because it's uncomfortable perhaps As a sport, we have banned the use of tramadol this year. I don't know enough about it to say whether this a proportionate and appropriate step but it's clear that the authorities are concerned.

Pleased with our debutants especially tonight, good to see both Whitley and Clark get over for their first tries. It did have a bit of a pre season friendly feel to it, with us never really having to get out of second gear. London tried hard but it was always going to be a tough night. Feel a bit sorry for them because their opening few fixtures are not kind.

Think we gave away around 2,000 tickets or so. We've tended to this against Catalans in recent years, usually for Home Bargains employees. I don't have a problem with it as a one-off over the course of a season, better than an empty stand as it otherwise would have been against London. Probably about 12,000 paying customers, which is still good.

I think it's that they've signed Tom Burgess!

Huddersfield teasing big news is on it's way at 3.30, being announced on Sky Sports News. Eorl Crabtree has said it's one of the biggest news stories in the club's Super League history. Let's see! Edit: Huddersfield have signed Tom Burgess from Souths!

I believe the gradings will only be announced after the season ends. So we will know the make up of Super League and the Championship later than we do now. With the grades being reviewed annually, this process will repeat year-on-year, making it very difficult (in my view) for many grade b clubs to plan, with them not knowing whether they will be in Super League even later than now. This seems like a recipe to widen the gap between the top of Super League and the rest, in my view.

I expect a swap between London and Wakefield, but based on the indicative gradings, it is highly likely that Toulouse will replace Leigh, even if Leigh achieve a mid table finish. Leigh are likely to lose points unless they retain the Challenge Cup. It could be that a side that finishes 5th and wins the Challenge Cup in 2023 and performs respectably in 2024 will be relegated.

I do have some sympathy with London. It's all well and good saying they should improve, get a better score and get back in Super League. But how do they do that? They will always lose out on the TV viewers metric compared to Super League clubs (as will every Championship club). That's one point down already. They will always lose out on 1.25 points for lack of primacy of tenure and utilisation of their stadium. There is nothing at all they can do to improve their catchment score, which is lower than several heartland clubs. Their attendances are poor and with no prospect of returning to Super League, no matter how they perform on the field, that task becomes harder still. And with those lack of prospects, who could blame David Hughes if he said he's had enough?

It's all well and good saying we should stagger fixtures but that is really difficult. The number of clubs who share grounds with football, rugby union and even cricket clubs (and some who have long periods without a home game in the summer whilst the pitch is maintained) makes that almost impossible. I wonder if the idea is showing the first two rounds in full as a taster and then from March onwards, it will move to a streaming service or the red button? Regardless, more choice is rarely a bad thing!

Based on what is reported, I cannot see any downside. A better kick off slot, a free to air broadcast partner paying to show matches, on a channel that tends to attract greater number of viewers, an increase from 10 matches shown FTA to 12.

A hint that live Super League may be coming to the BBC?

The international game is the form of the sport that attracts the most television viewers, most media coverage and publicity and is the most attractive to non-heartland viewers. It's not as straightforward as simply prioritising and growing the international game. I'm sorry to say that no matter how much you push our players, Super League etc, a lot of our clubs simply do not have an appeal to the majority of the country. England (or GB, if you would rather) is an entity that everyone can invest in.

For anyone who is interested, it is on Saints TV meaning that you will have to pay to see it. The cheapest option would be a £1.99 day pass.

In the press release, it said there would be details of a streaming platform announced in the New Year. Rugby League Live reported BBC and Channel 4 are interested in FTA rights. I may be reading too much into this but here is a link to Sky's fixture page. I suspect that the games showing an earlier 'on air' time will be shown on TV and the ones five minutes before kick off will be streamed only. That's just a guess though.

I agree that he looks to be better suited to stand off than full back but I think we will keep him at full back. As was shown last year, the more that he has his hands on the ball, the better and I think he could organise well from stand off. I suppose it depends what the coach at the time wants, that may still be Wellens but not guaranteed with his contract up at the end of this season.

I never said he needed to crack the NRL. Welsby has two flaws in his game. The first is that he can sometimes be too ambitious with a long, cut-out pass and throws an avoidable intercept. The second is that he has a habit of advancing into the defensive line when the opponents attack is around 30 or 40 metres away and has, on a few occasions, been caught out by a chip kick (and on others, he has been able to recover due to his pace, an underrated aspect of his game). Aside from that, he is certainly amongst the best in this country. His reading of the game is excellent, he is very quick, his organisation and leadership skills are rapidly improving and appears to have a lot of strength too. I have no doubt he would have had many NRL clubs wanting to sign him. I listened to the podcast with James Graham and commented on another thread that he doesn't come across as an individual wishing to leave. And I certainly don't criticise him for that. It's a massive lifestyle change and a personal decision. As a Saints fan, I'm delighted that he has chosen to stay. He has already won every domestic trophy in the sport in the UK and over the course of the next four year has the opportunity to do it again. That's probably his ambition and if he can achieve that, would likely go down as one of our all time greats. He then, if he chooses to, may wish to try something new. And if he does, then he will go to the NRL probably as he approaches his peak. Equally, if Saints can keep a player as good as Welsby for his whole career, I'd be ecstatic!