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Fri 28 May: SL: St Helens v Hull FC KO 19:45 (TV)


Who will win?  

27 members have voted

  1. 1. Who will win?

    • St Helens
      18
    • Hull FC
      9

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  • Poll closed on 28/05/21 at 19:15

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Sadly, another low scoring, bore fest on the cards with both teams content to just drive up the middle and put in a hail mary kick at the end and hope for a mistake.

Thats one area hull have an advantage with Sneyd's kicking (though he is pretty useless at everything else), we've just got Fages

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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Expecting a sluggish Hull FC on Friday and plenty of heavy legs, we may even see some fresh legs but Hodgson has refrained so far and we have no more fit forwards with the exception of Jack Brown!

Would also expect a response from Saints after defeat in Catalan but with a semi on the week after not expecting anything too flashy.

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1 hour ago, Saint Toppy said:

Sadly, another low scoring, bore fest on the cards with both teams content to just drive up the middle and put in a hail mary kick at the end and hope for a mistake.

Thats one area hull have an advantage with Sneyd's kicking (though he is pretty useless at everything else), we've just got Fages

That’s the problem with Saints they don’t do a massive hoof as they high as they can, it’s usually a farty little kick which is caught easily. We haven’t got anyone who can do a little grubber into the in-goal area, Roby is a kick and hope, hoping it rebound’s off an opponent so he can catch it and dive over the line. Coote & Lomax are not much better, while Fages is the worst of the lot(im hoping slating them backfires on me and their kicking is perfect). 

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18 minutes ago, Josef K said:

That’s the problem with Saints they don’t do a massive hoof as they high as they can, it’s usually a farty little kick which is caught easily. We haven’t got anyone who can do a little grubber into the in-goal area, Roby is a kick and hope, hoping it rebound’s off an opponent so he can catch it and dive over the line. Coote & Lomax are not much better, while Fages is the worst of the lot(im hoping slating them backfires on me and their kicking is perfect). 

We do have people though, and thats the problem.

Coote has shown over the last 2 years that he has a decent long kicking game, but every kick this year appear to go through Fages.

Dodd has an excellent kicking game, particularly his short kicks. Whether he can replicate what he's been doing in the junior grades at SL level remains to be seen, but Wolfe should at least give him more of a go, instead of just giving him 15mins at hooker every other week.

The last players I can think of we had with excellent kicking games were Martyn and Goulding. It doesn't seem to be a skill recent Saints coaches appear to put much emphasis on.

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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1 hour ago, Saint Toppy said:

We do have people though, and thats the problem.

Coote has shown over the last 2 years that he has a decent long kicking game, but every kick this year appear to go through Fages.

Dodd has an excellent kicking game, particularly his short kicks. Whether he can replicate what he's been doing in the junior grades at SL level remains to be seen, but Wolfe should at least give him more of a go, instead of just giving him 15mins at hooker every other week.

The last players I can think of we had with excellent kicking games were Martyn and Goulding. It doesn't seem to be a skill recent Saints coaches appear to put much emphasis on.

That’s the problem, Woolf doesn’t seem to want to give Dodd a full match, he’s quite happy as you say throwing him on at hooker for 15mins or so.
Fages will go berserk if Dodd replaces him and will go into a sulk. There will be no Grace on Friday so he’ll probably put Welsby in his place. He might put Knowles at centre because he has done it before. 

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38 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Reading Saints fans complaining about their side not being good enough after only one defeat this year and back-to-back SL trophies is rather amusing.

I am a Saints fan and slightly bemused by some of the comments. I’ll admit we aren’t the most extravagant and free flowing side at the moment. But we are still a very good side; back to back Champions.

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1 hour ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Reading Saints fans complaining about their side not being good enough after only one defeat this year and back-to-back SL trophies is rather amusing.

And Wigan fans are moaning about their team, despite winning 7 from 7. Good job these people don’t support the likes of Leigh, Salford and Wakey!

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19 hours ago, Davo5 said:

Last weeks loss to give Saints the impetus to put Hull to the sword.

I think Hull are too well drilled in defence to be "put to the sword" and Saints aren't the most exciting attacking side either. I think it will be a low scoring grind. Saints by 8.

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11 hours ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Reading Saints fans complaining about their side not being good enough after only one defeat this year and back-to-back SL trophies is rather amusing.

Its not so much the loss against Catalans, a loss has been coming for a while, most Saints fans complaints are around the style of rugby the team now plays.

Cunningham had us playing this style and within a couple of seasons we went from Champions to mid to lower table, scraping wins against bottom of the table teams. Holbrook changed all that and brought back some attacking flair. Sadly Woolf is reverting the team back to the Cunningham style where its all about defence and grinding teams down in the middle. Its dull and painful to watch and certainly not what most Saints fans want.

Its other little aspects too, for the last 2 years Coote has been the main last play kicker, particularly for long kicks (and he was pretty good at it). Now it appears that role has been taken off him and given to Fages, who lets face it isn't a great kicker at all (which is why fans are calling for Dodd to start in the halves who is a good kicker). For every good kick Fages puts in there's 10 poor ones, often resulting in the opposition getting good field position to start their sets or a 7 tackle set. 

Our plays have also become predictable and if we as fans know whats coming so do the opposition, and thats why our attack has been so poor this year - they're reading us like a book. Almost every set is an up the middle drive, followed by another middle drive, then 2 drop off plays, another drive, and finally a Fages kick - Repeat !! 

The attacking flair the team had under Holbrook was still there in some games last year, but this season it now seems to have been completely coached out of them. I, along with many other Saints fans hope Woolf goes at the end of the season regardless of whether we win another trophy this year or not, before any lasting damage is done to the team. It took Holbrook 2 1/2 years to get the team to the top again and eliminate the Cunningham style, hopefully the next coach can turn it around quicker if we only have Woolf for 2 seasons. 

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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12 hours ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Reading Saints fans complaining about their side not being good enough after only one defeat this year and back-to-back SL trophies is rather amusing.

Depends on what you're used to.

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13 hours ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Reading Saints fans complaining about their side not being good enough after only one defeat this year and back-to-back SL trophies is rather amusing.

I don’t think they’re just moaning about Saints. From the people I speak to and what I read elsewhere, people are pretty bored at the style of play across the board, not just at Saints, where it might not be pretty but effective. 

 

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Gary McKee spoke very well and I still can't get my head around running 110 marathons in as many days. Unbelievable. 

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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8 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Gary McKee spoke very well and I still can't get my head around running 110 marathons in as many days. Unbelievable. 

I could maybe  eat 110 marathons in as many days ( one of the old uns there )

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Not the best start for Sneyd...

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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St Helens score almost immediately, with a try to...

eltonwelsby.jpg

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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