Wolves tamed by


rampant Saints

by Paul Walker

STANDING pitchside and listening to the chorus of boos ringing out for the second week in a row, Paul Cullen must have been wondering just how much longer it would be before he joins Karl Harrison and becomes the latest head coach to feel the finely honed steel of the axeman's blade.
To be fair to Mr Cullen the Wolves started out looking the better side, hungry and full of running they had the Saints rattled early on and a classy piece of footwork from Vinnie Anderson gave Wolves the opening try. An easy conversion for Briers gave the Wolves a 6-0 lead.
Indecision in the Wolves defence led to Jon Wilkin scoring a short while later and the successful conversion had the game tied at 6-6. The Wolves continued to press hard with some determined, agressive play.
Wainwright and Fa'asavalu were shown yellow cards for fighting, and the restultant gap in the Saints defensive line enabled Fa'afili to take a superb catch from a perfectly weighted Briers kick and score in the corner.
Briers converted giving the home side a 12- 6 lead which they took into the half time interval, although there were signs towards the end of the half of what was to follow, with some of the players starting to look tired and out of sorts.
Three unanswered tries early in the second half saw Saints take control.
A Matty Smith effort from 60 metres out started the rot and Leon Pryce then went over for the first of his three tries.
A Wilkin interception from a Martin Gleeson pass gave Pryce his second and missed tackles led to his third and even more appalling defence led to Fa'asavalu adding Saints seventh try in a totally miserable afternoon's rugby for Wolves players and fans alike.
After a disastrous start to the season and the last two horrendous performances fans are left wondering where the inspiration is going to come from to stave off what is looking more and more likely to be an end of season relegation dog fight than the pre-season promised play-offs.