1. To rest or not to rest? Saints did cop a little bit of flak from supporters of clubs battling relegation by sending a depleted team to the capital yesterday.

The bottom line is that Saints have earned the right to select whatever side they seem fit.

They are 10 points clear and in the Challenge Cup semi-final next week. Those players that sat it out have endured three consecutive games against their fellow top four sides - on top of what they have accrued at the start of the year.

Surely, it is the smart thing to do to manage and reward players for pulling their tripe out for the past six months by affording them a break.

And anyhow, what difference would being 12 or 14 points clear of the second- placed side if they all burnt out by the time the prizes are handed out. That surely has to be a lesson learned from last year.

And as long as that side goes out and battles and tries to win - like it did yesterday - nobody can have any complaints.

After all, there were no widespread grumbles and gripes when Saints

rested eight against Catalans in April and still won.

St Helens Star:

2. The biggest moan - understandably comes from clubs at the bottom. It is not lost on those battling relegation that London have gained a quarter of their points from games against a weakened Saints.

London are level with Leeds and Hull KR and just two behind Huddersfield and Wakefield.

Those critics say Saints approach undermines the integrity of the competition.

This is not some conspiracy to relegate Leeds as pay back for four of those Grand Final defeats, the open end at Headingley and the South Stand drummer.

Nor is it anything to do with being kind to London as part of our missionary zeal or the fact that the trip is a good day out on the pop for the travellers.

It is simply that at the start of the year each club has their destiny in their own hands...If you win your games the league table reflects that. Clubs moaning should look at themselves.

St Helens Star:

3. The only people I do feel a little bit sorry for this year are the London or southern based Saints. I am talking about the fans who moved away to find work, set up home down south and rarely get chance to get up for Friday games.

But you never stop being a Saint - and many of those indoctrinate their kith and kin to don the red vee.

It would have been nice to allow those supporters, who would have possibly wanted to bring friends, workmates and kids, to have seen Saints in full flow.

Maybe they will have to settle for taking them to Wembley instead.

Read: Win tickets for Challenge Cup semi-final>

4. One of the upsides was seeing the new breed. It was not simply how they stepped up individually, but as the game went on the understandable lack of cohesion improved. It shows good systems are in place when this can happen - especially given the huge numbers of changes, particularly to the spine of the team.

Centre Josh Simm, who played 80 minutes, produced a solid display - and ran hard against his opposite number in the centre.

St Helens Star:

5. Ultimately it is about attitude. I think we can all recall the days when Ian Millward sent weak teams to Bradford, and I think we can also remember strongish on-paper teams going out and getting 70 points put on them. There was a logic to those - in terms of playing the percentage he was willing to completely sacrifice a game and think of a bigger picture. It usually worked although it did sidetrack them ahead of the Murrayfield defeat in 2002.

Daniel Anderson was different. When he sent a depleted team to Catalans in 2006 they went out ready to win - and very nearly did.

Holbrook's approach is like the latter. Let's just hope the results are similar.

St Helens Star:

6. And finally, Saints officially took about 520 fans to London, there were probably double that.

The downside of that is that there were only 1,000 home fans. am old enough to remember second division Fulham averaging bigger crowds than Saints in their first year.

Even at Brentford they had good gates.

It is great to see their performances on the pitch and the development work going on.

But supporter wise they have paid the price for flitting from Charlton, Stoop, Brentford, Stoop again, Barnet and Ealing.

Hopefully they can stay up and consolidate the 13-man code in the capital.