1. Thursday’s win at Wigan, combined with Hull’s mauling at Wakefield has confirmed Saints’ place in the Super League semi-final before the regular season has finished and the fixtures for the Super 8s have been formulated.

It shows how far saints have come in a year – this time last year they were having scrap and scrabble for every single point – a battle that went all the way down to the wire at Wakefield.

There may be a school of thought that suggests last year’s scrap got them good and battle hardened for the knockout end of the year (even if they were pipped in golden point.)

But this way Saints have such a cushion it will give them the luxury to rest half fit players and take the desperation and anxiety out of every game.

2. The other thing that the weekend’s results confirmed was Leeds being consigned to the Middle 8s for the second time in three years.

I am not sure what is most remarkable – a big club like Leeds finding themselves in this spot, or the fact that they won the Super League in between. What it does show is that losing, as much as winning, is a habit and once the momentum is one way it is hard to break it.

3. The fact that Saints have booked their spot and Warrington, Wigan and Castleford look highly likely to get the remaining top four places was probably not how the Super 8s were supposed to work.

How can there be a fanfare for the whole new ball game when much of the work has already been done and places sorted.

Sure, this happened in regular round in the days prior to this format, but it does make Super 8s pretty redundant as a competition.

Some had argued in the past that points should be wiped ahead of the 8s – but that is just ludicrous and would render the first part of the campaign pointless. I think Saints – and the other leading clubs – have just made the case for scrapping the 8s purely through performances.

4. Saints' win at Wigan was a tough old derby – and just showed that you don’t need a try-fest in rugby league for excitement and atmosphere. Saints fans kept singing throughout – with plenty of new tunes up there including ones that shows they have been studying anatomy.

But what was very noticeable at the end was the roar reserved for Justin Holbrook when he went over to applaud the fans.

Holbrook will be that last person getting ahead of himself here – and there are some huge games to come before he can go down as a trophy winning coach – but he has already made huge strides in making people really fall in love with this game again. There are a lot of people bouncing at Saints again and it is pleasing to see and hear.

5. In the game James Roby again showed what a tough, industrious, lead-by-example sort of skipper he is.

He never stops on the field, tackles everything above grass and then still has energy to pick the killer passes and make those darting runs from dummy half. It was re-assuring to hear Justin Holbrook talk about there being no sign of Roby’s playing career tailing off just yet.

6. And a last point about the physicality of the derby match. It was absolutely fantastic to see the energy and vigour that young packmen Jack Ashworth and Matty Lees brought to the game off the bench, to back up the effort of starting props Kyle Amor and Luke Thompson.

Ashworth’s performance was possibly more remarkable given that he has not donned the red vee since 2016.

When you throw in the strong performance of Morgan Knowles in the second row, it shows that Saints are growing a dynamic young pack who have an ability to combine skill, energy and aggression to give depth to the squad.

It was not that long ago that Saints’ pack was getting dusted by a more youthful Wigan six – and the Magic game at the Etihad springs to mind – so it is pleasing to see them now match fire with fire.