I'd be surprised if it's anything other than a straightforward 2 points for you. From where Saints were 2 years ago to the utter rubbish we have become under Wellens is off the scale. He makes Cunningham look like a good coach. From the outside looking in Arthur has got you organised.

Just head over to some of the Wire forums to remind yourselves what a state we were in 18 months ago.


And it shows that it doesn't actually take a lot to turn things around.
Right person in charge, couple of additions, clear some dead wood, change in attitude and things can look very different.

The word “attitude” has been used a lot on this thread but I don’t think that’s anything to do with why we lost. If it was anything to do with a poor team or individual attitude I can’t understand why Brad Arthur would go unscathed on the forum. He instills  the attitude, he prepared and travelled with the team, and he had chance to address a “poor attitude” at half time if that was the case. I think we were beaten in all aspects of the game on Friday, physically, technically, the dark arts, structure, decision making and any other areas we competed in. It might have just been a bad day, they happen, or it might be a truer indication of where we are compared to our rivals. We currently sit 1-2 down against Saints this season, if we get turned over in a few weeks time then it’s pretty unequivocal for me where we are quality wise compared to Saints. Beat them and it’s 2 apiece, sweet revenge and  it hopefully means this was just a bad day at the office after a pretty good run.

I took his references to attitude being attitude to the basics. Holding onto the ball, being clean in defence (he was particularly irked by this as he made a point about it being a focus in training). Both lead to a loss of possession/field position. Then not having the right attitude in dealing with this, so instead of patience, building pressure and getting back into the game, looking for the miracle offload, trying to score from every set. Then , when that doesn't come off (it seldom does in RL), back to attitude to the basics, more dropped ball, more pens etc. And round and round we go. 

It's contagious and not easy to break within 80 mins. But then so is starting on the right foot and doing the basics well from the start. 


I'm sure we'll see the latter on Friday night. 

I'll judge where we are versus Saints on where we finish in the table rather than on the head to head results.

One thing we do need to get sorted for Friday is our right edge. We are conceding tries where the opposing 2nd row or centre crosses almost untouched with Newman typically way up field having shot out of the line. Don't know if this is just a Harry error or whether it's something more systemic. Either way it needs sorting. That Leigh left edge is arguably the best in the game and Lam & Armstrong are quite capable of running riot.