12 Jul: SL: St Helens v Wigan Warriors 7.45pm

[Exiled Wiganer]

29 minutes ago, hullste said:

Sorry but if both teams play to their potential Saint's win.. Simple. 

Your only hope is that Saints underperform.

Well, looking at the number of times our juniors have tasted victory over Saints and the hard currency of the respective team’s Grand Final wins, we simply need  to play to our potential. You are of course entitled to your opinion; it is lovely to have so many saints posters on here in these better times for the club. 

[Moove]

39 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

Well, looking at the number of times our juniors have tasted victory over Saints and the hard currency of the respective team’s Grand Final wins, we simply need  to play to our potential. You are of course entitled to your opinion; it is lovely to have so many saints posters on here in these better times for the club. 

You know it's the first team playing tonight not the juniors?

Anyway I see it's a confirmed sell out now. Saints had a few extra to shift this afternoon after Wigan sent some back. The 18th man must be staying at home to watch Leeds

[hullste]

1 hour ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

Well, looking at the number of times our juniors have tasted victory over Saints and the hard currency of the respective team’s Grand Final wins, we simply need  to play to our potential. You are of course entitled to your opinion; it is lovely to have so many saints posters on here in these better times for the club. 

What has the Juniors or past Super League trophies got to do with it. 

You win a couple of games and suddenly your the best team in the league? 

How many points are we ahead of you the table doesn't lie. 

If Saints have an off day you have a chance end of. 

[Exiled Wiganer]

25 minutes ago, hullste said:

What has the Juniors or past Super League trophies got to do with it. 

You win a couple of games and suddenly your the best team in the league? 

How many points are we ahead of you the table doesn't lie. 

If Saints have an off day you have a chance end of. 

It has been a while since I saw a sentence end “end of” lol.

Took a long time to shift 18k tickets but it goes to show if you build a ground the right size, with a fair wind (indeed enough fair weather for the fans) it can be full. Great to see (or not, from Greece, even with Sky Go).

[Moove]

36 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

It has been a while since I saw a sentence end “end of” lol.

Took a long time to shift 18k tickets but it goes to show if you build a ground the right size, with a fair wind (indeed enough fair weather for the fans) it can be full. Great to see (or not, from Greece, even with Sky Go).

Always good to see forward thinking clubs like Saints and Wigan Athletic able to build modern stadia to showcase their respective sports and rake in the cash on days like this. Even better if you can get someone to pay you rent as well but admittedly the Latics have one over us on that.

[GeordieSaint]

26-4 Saints so far.

[snapski]

Aaron Bower says the walk has started at 57 minutes.

[GeordieSaint]

Not surprised - now 32-4.

[GeordieSaint]

32-10 FT.

[Aidan Putt]

Great win for Saints. Hard to see anyone other than an in form Wire stopping them.

[hullste]

4 hours ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

It has been a while since I saw a sentence end “end of” lol.

Took a long time to shift 18k tickets but it goes to show if you build a ground the right size, with a fair wind (indeed enough fair weather for the fans) it can be full. Great to see (or not, from Greece, even with Sky Go).

Never mind, at least you can still continue to believe you are the better team

[Davcas1]

On 10 July 2019 at 22:14, Davcas1 said:

Should be a cracking game, pity it is not on TV but I can understand why it is not.

Wigan hitting form at right time of season again.

It's official, I know nothing.

[Manx RL]

1 minute ago, hullste said:

Never mind, at least you can still continue to believe you are the better team

A Shaun Wane moral victory.

[snapski]

Sky picked the better game. 

[Rupert Prince]

36 minutes ago, Aidan Putt said:

Great win for Saints. Hard to see anyone other than an in form Wire stopping them.

Wire lose at home to Salford... No it's no contest for saints. 

As for this game... just look at who was in the pack, or more to the point who was not in it.   3 'middles' out and 1 second rower.  Plus even then the 1st choice pack is not good enough and is in need of a top class 9.   So frankly I would not expect tonight's Wigan side to be give much a game against Saints who are an excellent team.

(having said that I think even a weakened Wigan side could beat Warrington... given their form against Salford!)

[Rupert Prince]

28 minutes ago, Davcas1 said:

It's official, I know nothing.

As I suggest in another post... Wigans pack is missing 4 1st choices out.  Form helps but players help too.  But given we hammered Hull KR and they now have hammered Leeds,  how bad are Leeds? 

[snapski]

Saints wont win the grand final. Don’t get me wrong they’re the best team. Don’t have your bad games at he wrong times.

[EagleEyePie]

As mentioned above, the packs were the difference. Saints have a better pack to begin with, but take some key players out of the Wigan side (and crucially, the most experienced ones) and it was always likely to be one sided. Saints had Thompson and Walmsley starting against Navarrete and Partington. On the bench Bullock is hit and miss and not quite Super League ready, Byrne is 19 and not quite good enough yet. When they are coming up against two props who are good enough to play on the world stage and backed up by players like McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Amor then the odds are never looking good. Add to that Bullock and Navarrete picking up injuries during the game and the team is down to the bare bones in the front row.

Next week against Wakefield is going to be one hell of a tough game for us. Their big pack causes us problems most times we face them and with Lockers, Flower, Clubb, Greenwood, Bullock and Navarrete possibly missing and Tautai and Hamlin having gone we're a bit screwed right now.

[Aidan Putt]

19 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Wire lose at home to Salford... No it's no contest for saints. 

As for this game... just look at who was in the pack, or more to the point who was not in it.   3 'middles' out and 1 second rower.  Plus even then the 1st choice pack is not good enough and is in need of a top class 9.   So frankly I would not expect tonight's Wigan side to be give much a game against Saints who are an excellent team.

(having said that I think even a weakened Wigan side could beat Warrington... given their form against Salford!)

I wouldn’t judge Warrington on one game - only 2 weeks ago saints had to dig it out late to get past Wire. 

Whilst Wire aren’t near their early season form, losing to Salford at home doesn’t mean anyone else is nearer to stopping Saints from getting to and winning a grand final.

Agree it’s a very patched up Wigan pack.

[Rupert Prince]

7 minutes ago, Aidan Putt said:

I wouldn’t judge Warrington on one game - only 2 weeks ago saints had to dig it out late to get past Wire. 

Whilst Wire aren’t near their early season form, losing to Salford at home doesn’t mean anyone else is nearer to stopping Saints from getting to and winning a grand final.

Agree it’s a very patched up Wigan pack.

The evidence suggests that  Saints really do walk on water and everyone else is stuck in the mud.   But I still think there are doubts.  But even then raising such doubts have a dash of wishful thinking in them.

[corvusxiii]

7 hours ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

Well, looking at the number of times our juniors have tasted victory over Saints and the hard currency of the respective team’s Grand Final wins, we simply need  to play to our potential. You are of course entitled to your opinion; it is lovely to have so many saints posters on here in these better times for the club. 

Astonishing.

[Manx RL]

7 minutes ago, corvusxiii said:

Astonishing.

Stella Artois

[Moove]

41 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

The evidence suggests that  Saints really do walk on water and everyone else is stuck in the mud.   But I still think there are doubts.  But even then raising such doubts have a dash of wishful thinking in them.

To be fair, given how many semi finals we've stuffed up in recent years, I reckon I'd still have doubts up until a final whistle at Wembley or Old Trafford.

That said, our first choice front row is pretty special and gets us on the front foot early on most games. I actually don't think we played too well tonight, threw a couple balls into touch, forced passes that weren't on, unforced errors etc, but very dominant in the forwards even when Walmsley and Thompson went off for half an hour. 

[Loiner]

Normal service resumed by Wigan. After defeating some dross in recent weeks they come up against a good team and fall flat on there a**e.

[Mushy]

11 hours ago, Saint 1 said:

Wigan's points came from 2 penalties and a charge down despite plenty of field position. I knew we would win when they were 6-2 down and chose to take a second penalty at goal, how negative can you get? Too many players from the Wane school of rugby i.e. wrestling and gang tackling over everything else. 

Good win for Saints despite not playing particularly well. The lack of Roby, Paulo and Knowles playing at 2nd row makes our ball movement a bit clunky, and taking Coote off with 20 to go exacerbated that. Lomax is head and shoulders the best ballplayer in Super League this year.

No sure you can attribute Wane to Wigan’s loss - Lam’s just got a contract extension on the back of losing to pretty much every team in the top half of the table. There’s a decent team in that Wigan squad that you see glimpses of but they’re still some way off the top. 

Agree Lomax has been excellent this year, I rate him higher than Austin. And Walmsley and Thompson would scare anyone. 

Long way until the grand final though!