S.T.I.D.

Agree completely if the Cas player hadn't stepped and Welsby went maliiciously to the head that would have been a red card all day long. I think the disciplinary are looking at things differently this season, players ducking down or stepping away from a committed tackler given a bit more tolerance especially if its not done with excessive force. For example the Knowles tackle on Evalds had excessive force and could have gone wrong luckily he wrapped his arms on the top of the shoulders.

I think it around 6 games in that SKY actally quoted the standard of rugby was poor, seem to remember Leeds and Warrington were being shown nearly every week and they were riding at the bottom of the league with some dull as dishwater rugby. We then had players faking injury every week in epidemic proportions and it felt as though it was in some clubs coaching manuals to get an unfair advantage instead of rugby skill. Referees were inconsistent as ever and we have a shortage of officials this season. THe RFL disciplinary was eventually deemed not fit for purpose and the RFL seemed to have their head in the sand about it. Salford was the shining light towards the end of the season with entertaining rugby but overall many clubs were very inconsistent. Standards of coaching were poor, Hull-Warrington-Catalans-Wakefield were pretty abysmal.

I,m thinking the opposite especially in Superleague very little evidence of improving standards, excluding Saints you might get 1 or 2 clubs doing well like Huddersfield and Salford over the last 2 seasons but overall still poor standard. SKY recognised that and valued the product accordingly, the only postive is the Channel4 games have been more entertaining than the SKY ones and the commentary have given the game a better profile. We,ve lost Toulouse and Catalan are not looking a stronger oufit than the past, Leeds, Wigan and Hull are looking fairly average but it does look like Warrington have the right balance for "this is our year" at long last.

I very much doubt it, first and foremost Saints RLFC are a very well run rugby club and in reality have cut their cloth to meet the restrictions of the Salary Cap. They have done this by having a very good Academy set up and are very astute in recognising talent in the lower leagues to develop in the clubs structure. We see so many clubs with a large turnaround of players season after season which is costly and at times a waste of salary cap, this only produces instability and reduces the standard of product. The RFL has to take some blame, dumbing down our game dragging down the top clubs to the lower clubs instead of the other way around, "framing of the future" model ended up as a farce and has created apathy. You could say the "Best Rugby Team in the World" at the moment is probably not far off as the "Best Run Rugby League Club in the World" as well, its not a rich club but its a template for other clubs to emulate to raise standards. Raise standards and the product has more value and the salary cap will grow in worth.

Blows a bit hot and cold for us, its a big problem for Lussick him knowing that Roby does everything much better. Needs to step up next season.

Saints still nowhere near full strength, missing Grace, Percival, Dodd, Sironen, Matautia and Knowles could be a clunky first half for them and to score most of the points in the second half after a spirited display by Rovers.

Most of the time its given as a knock on when the player over runs the ball, we see that quite a lot. But Lomax is near enough static with one foot planted ready for the drop kick. Don't like the golden point, a drae would be a fair result even then you could say Saints would have nicked 1 point.

You will be waiting a long time for an apology, ball goes over his shoulder and is bouncing behind his legs, Lomax spins round and picks the ball up facing his own posts. You are seeing what you want to see.

You are probably talking about the East Stand where you don't see any Yorkshire Fans, the away support is shocking usually between 80 to 180 fans but gets full with Warrington and Wigan fans.

Yes just replayed the game this morning, Fages moves injured Lussick to loosen the ball then Trout moves injured Lussick to pick up the ball. Not allowed to do that, if they apply the letter of the law both those players should receive bans.

I was quite suprised Watson didn't change the game plan when Matautia was sent off, to beat the Saints you need a good defence backed up with a clever kicking game. With 13 men Saints weakness is on the edges so with 12 men it was weaker yesterday but Watson had the Giants team barging up the middle were Saints are strongest. He didn't change anything at half time and that made Saints comfortable in defending, for me in big games that matter I can see a bit of dumb coaching in his approach.

One of the best examples of how defence wins games. Ian watson is not a tactical coach just can't win big games where it really matters, couldn't manage his team to score any points against 11 men.. Giants missed 43 tackles and Saints missed 18 tackles, you could say Woolf has put Watson back in his box for a spell. Welsby and one armed Lomax ran the show last night on the back of some ruthless forward power.

I believe Its over 20+ years since someone has been sin binned in a Challenge Cup final maybe the ref was under instruction to not give yellow cards out unless its a serious offence. So following that instruction a usual yellow would be deferred and would be picked up by the disciplinary at a later date.