AS bad night's go Saints first defeat since the Wembley loss to Warrington in August and first nilling 2016 was a shocker.

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The manner of the defeat and overall performance came as a real shock to the system, with Warrington gifted plenty of early ball and field position on the back of some carelessness with the ball and plenty of ill-discipline with penalties.

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Even the disruption caused by the withdrawal of Alex Walmsley with a calf injury from the warm-up and the second half collar injury sustained by centre Mark Percival cannot be used in mitigation.

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Saints completed at a shocking 53 per cent in the first half which meant they were unable to build anything at all with the ball until the last quarter. By that time it was game over.

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The flip other side of that sloppiness with the ball meant that they were constantly under the cosh, but worryingly for Saints is the way the pack was marmalised by the Warrington six.

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Too much soft contact, with players bouncing off Sita Akaula and Ben Murdoch-Masila, was compounded by penalties conceded while trying to slow play down without earning that right.

Teams are always treading a thin line with this tactic - especially at a ground like the Halliwell Jones where the refs will get helped by by 8,000 assistants.

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Saints were busted open plenty of times up the middle, footage that will give the Saints big men a few sleepless nights and coach Kristian Woolf plenty to work on ahead of another huge physical challenge next week at Hull.

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There may have been mitigation in the absence of internationals Walmsley, Coote, Makinson, Walmsley, Amor, Knowles and Roby - but Woolf was not falling back on that. 

Plenty to work on this week.

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Warrington: Ashton; Charnley, Gelling, King, Lineham; Austin, Ratchford; Philbin, Clark, Cooper, Currie, Murdoch-Masila, J Clark. Subs: Akauala, Burrell, Davis, Walker.

 Saints: Welsby; Naiqama, Costello, Percival, Grace; Lomax, Fages; Walmsley, Bentley, Thompson, Taia, Peyroux, McCarth-Scarsbrook. Subs: Lees, Ashworth, Paulo, A Smith.

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