AS heartbreaking as it is, Saints won’t have much time to mope about falling at the final Wembley hurdle with the Super 8s starting this weekend.

The next seven games require a new focus – and for all bar Leeds that will be a single-minded goal for the top teams.

Saints have been handed an awkward one to start with the trip to Catalans kicking off their final stretch of the league programme.

The last couple of visits to the south of France have not gone great, but this time they will need to go there to make a statement of intent going into the start of the extended phase of the new-style competition.

Given the cushion they have, a good start in the Super 8s could see Keiron Cunningham’s men sew up qualification for the straightforward 1 v4, 2 v 3 semi final knockout at the end of the year.

Given how tight is currently is between places 1to 3 there is a good chance that Saints’ final two games – at home to Wigan and Warrington – will see them needing to win to gain a home semi-final.

Given Wigan and Leeds’ home league form this term that could be crucial in deciding who gets to Old Trafford.

Although the way the draw has worked meant Saints would have had to have travelled to France one weekend and there is a school of thought that says it is best to get it out of the way, results wise it would have probably been more beneficial to have been going to Perpignan later in the piece.

Without being to disrespectful to Saturday’s opponents, the very fact that they are currently eight points and a substantial points difference off the top four semi-final qualification spot means that in two or three weeks their season could effectively be over.

The way the system is set up is going to lead to this sort of issue – If the top four continue winning the bottom four will become disinterested parties to this phase of the process.

But that is a necessary feature of the way this system has been set up.

In weeks to come there may well be some who will argue that the competition should have a scratch start, like the Middle 8s, but that would be wrong as it would render the opening 23 games as a glorified battle for poll.

A dead rubber for a couple of teams is a price worth paying for the overall integrity of the competition.

And let’s face it, that is no difference to what used to happen in the old top five play-offs.

This system is much fairer, even if it will often mean that the teams in seventh and eighth find themselves in a sort of no-man’s land, making up the numbers but being nonetheless thankful to have avoided the battle for survival and a potential relegation dogfight in the middle eights.

The comp is not perfect, there will always be gripes about who has got an easier run, but on the whole we should look forward to a better, more meaningful business end than the last few years.