28 Jun: SL: Warrington Wolves v St Helens KO 7.45pm (TV)

[CiderWire]

Having had a night to sleep on things and re-live the nightmare inducing scenarios over and over, I awoke early this morning bathed in the cold sweat brought about by not only the French sun but the memories of last nights game. However, the hot light of day has helped to bring focus on the causes of my melancholy. 

The better team won, without a doubt, but they only became the better team with 15 mins remaining. Wire switched off, Saints switched on. Warringtons pack worked hard and made good meteres after contact, however, they were denied by good defense from making quick play the ball and, importantly, prevented from off-loading ( Coopers stock-in-trade). Fage and Lomax were creative and put doubt in the minds of the Wire defensive line. Makinson was always threatening when bringing the ball out. Wire never offered creativity or options in attack (Ratchfords influence and link up play with BA and DC being missed?) And played a one dimensional game which was easy to read and nullify. Silly and naive penalties aren't going to help any team and, for the sake of our game, the standard and pace of officiating has got to change in order to keep up with the standard and pace of the game. The RFL can not concentrate on the former without consideration of the latter

Still, a great game, great atmosphere and not the end of the world. Although I am looking forward to Ratchfords return, Burrells debut and Widdops arrival. 

Allez les loups

[Denton Rovers RLFC]

21 hours ago, MyMrsWouldPreferSinfield said:

Saints living a charmed life this year!

Wire were dominant and, even without the rub, should have won at a canter.

Tense entertainment. Wire should have backed themselves more and would have won. They didn't.

Wire COULD have won if they backed themselves but they didn't really look like scoring in the red zone honestly, IF they had 'backed themselves' they could have ended with no points on the board in the same vein as they could have scored a try. You cannot predict that they would have won, you can't predict they would have scored (tries) especially since they never looked like scoring in that first half.

[Saintslass]

Late to the party on this as couldn't watch the game live but have just enjoyed watching it now.  Needless to say I enjoyed it because we won!  It was a bit of a nail biter for a Saints fan as although we played a decent game throughout, we were just a bit off in the first half and had Warrington not opted for penalties that could have been too much of an uphill struggle.  Having said that, our defence seemed pretty sound so maybe they were right to take the pens when the opportunities arose.

Shame about the forward pass for our first try as I hate it when we get lucky like that.  I prefer to win by legal skill rather than fluke but obviously them's the breaks and I'll take them regardless!

I'm glad we won but I'll be more impressed if we beat Wire in a semi or a final given what happened last year so I'm not busting out the bubbly just yet.