Thu 10th Feb: SL: St Helens v Catalans Dragons KO 20:00 SKY

[Jonty58]

Not a bad first game of the season.

The new signings failed to impress.

It will take a few weeks to shake out the form of each Club, early days.

[Saint Toppy]

52 minutes ago, JohnM said:

 

Glad to see him get smashed a few times last night. That's Saints in a nutshell: One rule for them, another for everyone else.

 

I make no apologies for what I said about May. If the act in the first place wasn't bad enough to then use social media to mock the whole incident is just despicable. He's a bang average player and an absolute piece of filth as a person. I doubt many people will shed a tear if they see him get all smashed up on the pitch.

[Saint Toppy]

57 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Did I just imagine that the RFL were introducing the 'Green Card' for injury stoppages ? 

Yes, I though that, too. Looks like it's as rare as a set restart.

Set re-starts are at the refs discretion so will always be contentious.

The 'Green Card' (if it actually exists because I can't find in the RFL site as actually being a written rule) would be an absolute rule the Refs must enforce. If a trainer / doctor asks the ref to stop the game (as they did with Dezaria) then that player must leave the field for 2mins or be substituted. There's no discretion from the Ref on this one.

I can only think that the RFL have decided not to bring this in at the last minute after announcing they were ??? Either that or last night's Ref completely forgot about the rule ??

[Liverpool Rover]

Catalans were poor in attack but I would put that more down to Saints defence being really good and making them playing poorly. Hopefully for Catalans this was a one off rathervhan then going back to their old ways of being a team that loses their cool.

Saints don’t look like they will miss Fages in the halves. 

[Saint Toppy]

39 minutes ago, Saint 1 said:

What rule would you suggest for a bloke sharing sex tapes recorded without consent on multiple occasion? And then, years later, still blaming the victim for any negative consequences?

I'm not suggesting any sort of rule in RL, (punishments are for the courts to decide), but I make no apology for it bringing a smile to my face when a person like him ends up getting all smashed up on the pitch 

[bromleybulldog]

31 minutes ago, Liverpool Rover said:

Catalans were poor in attack but I would put that more down to Saints defence being really good and making them playing poorly.

 

Saints seem to have perfected the "quick linespeed" aspect of their game. This as much as anything limited Catalans attack. The referee seemed uninterested in penalising Saints when Catalans held the ball in the scrum. Twice in the first half they tried this, the ref didn't call "out" and the Saints players were already at the back of the Catalan scrum. Not surprisingly Catalans  didn't try this tactic again. Not to say that both teams weren't equally guilty of offsides but the two scrum non-penalties were rather obvious. RL needs to either clarify the rules, get refs to apply the rules or change the rules.

[Moove]

1 hour ago, Saint Toppy said:

Set re-starts are at the refs discretion so will always be contentious.

The 'Green Card' (if it actually exists because I can't find in the RFL site as actually being a written rule) would be an absolute rule the Refs must enforce. If a trainer / doctor asks the ref to stop the game (as they did with Dezaria) then that player must leave the field for 2mins or be substituted. There's no discretion from the Ref on this one.

I can only think that the RFL have decided not to bring this in at the last minute after announcing they were ??? Either that or last night's Ref completely forgot about the rule ??

Ref still holds discretion as to whether they call time off instead of a green card. The green card also doesn't apply is the ref deems it unsafe to restart play.

That was in the rule from the initial press reports and Hicks's comments which went with it.

So essentially if a player goes down in the defensive line or near the point of the tackle then there won't be a green card shown. Which is why we didn't see one for the three stoppages when the physio came on in the second half last night.

The way I read it is that we'd only see it for those occassions where someone goes down in back play and the physio starts waving to the ref to call a stoppage.

[Simon Hall]

3 hours ago, DoubleD said:

As an aside, is Joe Batchelor the most improved player in SL? Could he make a late claim for international honours at the end of the season?

If he plays like that every week he'd be a shoe in for England. Outstanding performance.

[JohnM]

4 hours ago, Saint Toppy said:

I make no apologies for what I said about May. If the act in the first place wasn't bad enough to then use social media to mock the whole incident is just despicable. He's a bang average player and an absolute piece of filth as a person. I doubt many people will shed a tear if they see him get all smashed up on the pitch.

Understood. Foul play, rule-breaking, retaliation and revenge a St Helens staple, then?

[Josef K]

18 hours ago, George Watt said:

One  player in SL who plays the ball correctly every time is Welsby. Tonight Hopoate was also faultless in this area. One of these days I will see Walmsley at least attempt to touch the ball with his foot!

 

You are right George but i think you could go through both sides and most of them have trouble putting a foot on the ball and then rolling it backwards with their foot. Ganson could tell the official’s to start clamping down on any incorrect PTB, and then the players would soon learn. But i don’t think he’s got the time to tell them even though nobody knows what he does at the RFL, and he doesn’t know himself. 

[Josef K]

13 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I think Catalan looked good for 20 mins but I didn't see them do much after that.... though Saints defence was so quick to set and move that not sure many SL attacks would have been able to crack it

The ball steal from Pearce after they had a break says it all (Welsby?)

Interesting to see if a more unstructured on the fly approach will work against them

Makinson to take over the kicking?

Whoever scores for Saints can go for goal ?. 

[Josef K]

On 10/02/2022 at 20:33, Eddie said:

Looks/sounds like a decent crowd, more than the 8.8k some predicted on this forum. 

It’s the cardboard cutouts that each fan was asked to take with them that makes the attendance look bigger. If you take a closer a look in the stands there was a lot of Virgil Van Dijk’s. 

[Josef K]

23 hours ago, Loiner said:

So what have we learned from that game apart from it was garbage? Catalans cannot create anything  Pierce and Drinkwater were anonymous and if we can get a referee to get Saints onside other teams might have a chance.

I enjoyed it. 

[Josef K]

16 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

So have you changed your mind about Hurrell coming to Leigh, I suspect the poster who suggested that Saints should pay Leigh to take him maybe having second thoughts.

Nah im not having second thoughts after one game. This current Saints side would make Tommy Lee (ex hkr) look world class, and he wouldn’t be overawed by the occasion. 

[Josef K]

15 hours ago, Davo5 said:

I agree,writing the off after 1 game is crazy,as is the labelling of them as just dirty headhunters,yes Napa took it too far but it was a Grand Final rematch & there was plenty going on from both sides even though Saints fans take their usual we are angels stance.

Not all Saints fan’s Davo. But i have to agree that there are some Saints fans who think the side can do no wrong, i should know i stand with a load of them. But which club doesn’t have fans who are biased ?. 

[bobbruce]

8 hours ago, Josef K said:

Nah im not having second thoughts after one game. This current Saints side would make Tommy Lee (ex hkr) look world class, and he wouldn’t be overawed by the occasion. 

They jury is still out with Hurrell I thought he was in the top three attacking threats on Thursday.  With that he came up with quite a few defensive miss reads in the Walmsley testimonial game. I still think when everyone’s fit he’s back up. He’ll get plenty of games though. 

[Josef K]

One thing about the game on Thursday i didn’t realise that Knowles had been binned, in fact there was quite a few players who didn’t realise. I only found out on Friday. I can’t remember if the Ref showed Knowles a yellow card. I didn’t hear the PA saying Knowles was binned, if they didn’t they should do to keep the fans informed. Or even put it on the scoreboard.