Will Hope Kill Us After A Good Week?

 

Can hope really kill you?  If it does then there might not be many of us Saints fans left breathing by the time the 2025 season comes to an end.

Nobody got too excited about the one sided victory over Salford a week previously.  Literally everyone beats Salford these days as the omnishambles that is their ownership situation rumbles on.  But it was felt that the visit of a rapidly improving Leeds Rhinos side would show us where we really are.  After all it isn’t that long since Saints were nonchalantly dismissed by table toppers and Challenge Cup winners Hull KR.  Could we really compete with the elite?

No, but it turned out we could compete with Leeds Rhinos.  All the good work done in the last few months by permanently unsettled head coach Brad Arthur became a distant memory as the Rhinos reverted to much of what we have seen from them since their last title win eight years ago.  There are very few other ways to say it other than to suggest that Arthur’s side were absolute rubbish on the night.  Truly terrible.  Sixteen errors terrible.  Five of them inside their own 20m area, gifting Saints numerous chances to capitalise on great field position.  And things are not so bad that Paul Wellens’ side can’t manage that on enough occasions should you keep offering it to them.

There had been worries beforehand not only because of some mightily underwhelming form but also because of a depressing injury list.  All of Jack Welsby, Mark Percival, Lewis Murphy, George Whitby, Curtis Sironen, James Batchelor and James Bell missed this one for one reason or another. 

All of which meant that with Kyle Feldt available again Tristan Sailor reverted to fullback from his brief stint emulating his father on the wing.  Owen Dagnall took Murphy’s spot on the other flank and in so doing appeared to hasten the impending exit of Jon Bennison.  His Saints career has taken a significant nosedive since he was substituted half an hour into Saints’ last meeting with the Rhinos at Newcastle in early May.  Off contract and off the team, Bennison is one of many who may be wearing different colours in 2026. 

Whitby’s absence might have offered Sailor a chance to operate in the halves alongside Jonny Lomax had it not been for Welsby’s injury woes.  The talismanic fullback is unlikely to play again this regular season.  Sailor’s presence required elsewhere, Wellens gave the nod at halfback to Moses Mbye.  

Mbye is one of the most criticised Saints players among the fan base.  He is thought to have slow distribution from his usual dummy half role.  Many think he should just get out of the way and let Daryl Clark play 80 minutes. Or else that he should be surpassed as the dummy half relief by either Jake Burns or some other as yet unsigned individual.

Yet at halfback Mbye brought arguably a more canny and accurate kicking game than can currently be offered by any of Sailor, Welsby, Lomax or Whitby.  

If he knows one thing it is how to turn the ball over in positions which are awkward for the opposition.  None of your Lewis Dodd straight down the throat hoiks.  Whatever happened to Lewis Dodd?  Anyway, Mbye was not spectacular and it wasn’t difficult to predict what he was going to do on the last tackle in the way that it might be with a Nathan Cleary or an Adam Reynolds.  But you don’t need Nathan Cleary or Adam Reynolds at halfback to beat Leeds in this form.  Or any form, really.

Given the impact he has made in the last two weeks it is going to be hard to leave Dagnall out once the likes of Percival and Murphy return.  Yet this is Saints, a place were no injury or accident is too unlikely.  With 12 regular season games remaining there will be further opportunities for the youngster to shine.  He is actually a centre which might be a fact which is giving Deon Cross the chills.  After all, he has only just got here after having to spend years exiled in Salford and already there is a youngster coming through who could threaten his place.  There are two if you count Harry Robertson who has been playing magnificently in the threequarters  but who I suspect will be deployed elsewhere in the longer term. 

It was Robertson who came up with one of the game’s standout moments.  With Saints holding on to a slender 4-0 lead through two Feldt penalty goals a tight encounter threatened to blow open as Ryan Hall intercepted a Sailor pass deep in Leeds territory.  Hall, 87, does not quite have the pace of old but it was still a monumental achievement for Robertson to sprint all the way over from the centre position on the other side of the field to drag Hall down just before he could ground the ball.  It would have stretched his record breaking Super League try tally to 261 but the effort of Robertson, closely followed by Dagnall and Clark was indicative of the performance on the whole.  Not exactly Melbourne Storm, but not for lack of effort. And comfortably better than Leeds on the night. 

Dagnall got over for a neat try himself to seal the win in the second half before Sailor crossed in the last minute. He now has 10 tries this season despite being shunted around the team by Wellens in the face of the usual level of overly harsh criticism from a fan base expecting every overseas signing to be Andrew Johns.  

For me Sailor’s raw pace is something that the team has been missing badly since the departures of the likes of Regan Grace and Kevin Naiqama.  He is worth persevering with and judging by his post match interview demeanour he seems absolutely committed to succeeding here. A degree of slack cutting is in order.

The win leaves Saints fifth in the table and is an unexpected boost to playoff hopes.  Before the game I looked at Saints fixtures and felt a bit queasy.  Thirty points were required to finish sixth and scrape into the playoffs last term.  To achieve that Saints needed seven more wins before the Rhinos game. I could only find four that I was reasonably confident about. But a result and performance like this proves that there are winnable games on the horizon.  

We have a gimme at home to Salford again this week and I get a sense that the two games we have against both Hull FC and Leigh could be huge.  And then there is the small matter of the Rhinos again in three weeks time as the fixture compilers continue to play their amusing games with the schedule. 

How have we faced both Leeds and Warrington twice this year – three if you count the Challenge Cup encounters against both – and yet have not been anywhere near Hull FC or Leigh?  It’s quite bonkers and if I find out that it has anything to do with the fact that certain other clubs are told when to play by their wealthier footballing landlords I am not going to be responsible for my actions. 

Keeping my moaning to a minimum in what has been a good week so far I will leave you to it for now.  See you next week if hope hasn’t butchered you to death by then.

A Week Off From Losing And Bad Optics

It’s a couple of weeks since our last engagement. Awkwardly, Saints didn’t reach the men’s Challenge Cup final which gave them at least a week without any prospect of losing again. We’ll see later that they found other ways to irritate the fan base. When Saints are losing nobody does it better when it comes to maddening PR.

As we know all great eras of sporting dominance come to an end. The men’s team have experienced this during their visible decline since the last of their celebrated four in a row. Now it’s the women’s turn to face the same inevitability. Saints had won four Challenge Cups in a row until they marched out at Wembley to face a new and improved Wigan outfit on June 7. 

There has been much sniping about money spent since Wigan’s dominant performance in winning 42-6 to prise Saints fingers from the trophy that was fast becoming their birthright. The Warriors have decided to invest in their women’s team and - on this evidence - have become grimly powerful. There were ex-Saints players in Dennis Betts’ lineup, following the money. 

Yet as much as our fans sneered at them for buying success it could also be argued that they are moving the women’s game on. If every club invested similarly we might have a more even competition but one of greater quality. Of course, the reality is that many clubs can’t or won’t match Wigan’s spending. 

As such the blowouts which fuel the narrative for the naysayers will likely continue. Some one-sided scorelines are indisputably bad for the game. Bad optics as they might have said on Succession. But is that reason enough for Wigan to rein it in and let everyone catch up? Probably not. Blowouts are an issue but so is the creation of a race to the bottom.

Back to the men’s team who weren’t afforded the whole time between the May 30 loss at Hull KR and the June 15 victory at Salford to sit around watching boxsets. Instead they were pressed into some quite outstandingly absurd action with an open training session held at (checks notes…) Church Square. 

Intentions were noble with the event forming part of a campaign to encourage people to let us know what they love about St Helens. All of which reminds me of an interview once given by former Beatle Ringo Starr in which - when asked what he missed about his home city of Liverpool - replied ‘nothing’. Now I work in Liverpool so I get the sentiment but it wasn’t going to go down all that well with the tourist board. 

As for the training session itself the concrete surface and inadequate space took me back to my childhood playing impromptu games of football using a soon to be irate neighbour’s driveway as a set of goalposts. It beat jumpers on Thatto Heath Council school playing field hands down. 

I’m all for Saints getting behind this but can we not think of something which registers a little lower on the cringeometer?  It was only matched by subsequent attempts to flog us a Saints shirt for £200, so priced because it contained the signatures of the players. Oh wait…no…it was only some of the players. The identities of these players was unclear from the associated blurb but it appeared to translate to ‘whichever players happened to be around at the time’. So not only are they asking for £200 for a shirt signed by one of the weakest Saints squads in Super League history but also it was potentially pot luck which players you ended up with. Mike Rush can talk about ‘noise’ but even he might privately accept that this offer - such as it is - is desperate optics…

The only good news comes last. Saints did manage a win at the latest incarnation of Salford Red Devils. Any time you beat a side 46-4 you have to be happy, especially with Jack Welsby, Mark Percival and Lewis Murphy all out injured. Kyle Feldt returned after three months out and scored four tries - matching Tristan Sailor’s achievement against the same opposition on opening night. Joe Batchelor also came back but swiftly left the scene with another injury. Like the Grandpa Simpson gif. Curtis Sironen also picked up a knock while George Whitby will miss this week’s visit from Leeds after failing an HIA. It never rains, does it?

Owen Dagnall made a first start and scored a maiden try. Yet he could have had more had Deon Cross not turned dummying to his winger into performance art. It all leaves Saints somehow still fifth in the table and in the playoff picture. Yet defeat to the Rhinos will leave Wellens’ men six points adrift of the third placed Yorkshire side. Another League Leaders Shield is not on the cards. 

The State Of Things

We are trying something new.  I don't know about you but I am bored shitless with the weekly humdrum of a game review.  If you wanted to read a decent match report you could get it pretty much anywhere except the pro-union Tory press and the Saints website.  

So instead we are going to move towards a regular look at the general state of things.  I’m not sure how regular. It will be shorter than those 3,000 word epics we’ve all been used to and will not involve me having to rewatch anything involving Huddersfield Giants. But it will hopefully be punchier and raise more points for debate.  

So what is going on this week?  Well, just minutes after it looked like our injury crisis was abating we are heading into an even worse crisis.  It was announced today (June 3) that Jack Welsby - talismanic best player in the league sometimes a bit too stroppy Jack - will be out of action for pretty much the rest of the regular season.  Welsby injured his knee in Saints' abject 34-4 loss to a Hull KR side with one eye on their impending Wembley appearance. Actually it was more like an eye-bulging hard stare at their meeting with never-their-year try hards Warrington Wolves next week.  Yet it was not distracting enough to give our brave boys the proverbial opportunity enjoyed by cats in Hell. 

Whether you judge players by stats or by the old fashioned eye test, whatever metric is used would suggest that Welsby is several levels above his Saints team mates in terms of his importance to the attack.  Everything goes through him at fullback, which is even more important when your halfback pairing is a green around the gills manchild and an ageing, almost bionic but demonstrably fading veteran star.  So to be without Welsby has to be considered A Bad Thing. Possibly terminal for Saints’ top six ambitions. 

Adding to that predicament is the loss of winger Lewis Murphy for eight weeks. Now that sounds familiar. Didn’t the ex-Wakefield man miss a similar period of time having played just one game for his new club at the start of the season? And that game was the 82-0 stroll against 17 (or was it only 16? Or fewer?) competition winners dressed in Salford Red Devils uniforms. Actually scratch that. However many were on deck for Paul Rowley’s side couldn’t have been competition winners. They were the losers. Drawn to be Tributes in The Hunger Games. 

Saints can probably cover the loss of Murphy although his second serious injury of 2025 does raise questions about whether he is made of biscuit. That’s something we will learn in the longer term. For now number one fan scapegoat Tristan Sailor has been given the opportunity to follow in his famous father’s footsteps on the wing. As a result the bafflingly still present Coach Wello has options there. The acquisition of Deon Cross from the Salford wreckage helps as does the suggestion that Kyle Feldt will return soon. 

Remember him? Signed from NRL outfit North Queensland Cowboys after a million years scoring tries and faultlessly diffusing bombs Feldt suffered a hand injury in just his fifth appearance in the red vee. For my money he’d made a reasonable start to the unenviable task of replacing club legend Tommy Makinson but you won’t have to search social media for very long to find someone expressing the view that the Australian is shit. Personally I think his return will help.

In other saving grace news Harry Robertson was in the 17 at Hull KR after a five-game injury absence. As we sit here today he is probably the preferred option to fill Welsby’s fullback role having already had first team experience there. Also, after the attempts of Sailor in the role and the ostracisation of Jon Bennison the alternatives are as meagre as Tom Burgess’ impact on Huddersfield Giants. 

With the Wembley dust up this weekend Saints don’t have a game for another 12 days. And even then it’s Salford. Lose there and everybody gets the sack and the club folds anyway. But the June 20 visit of Leeds Rhinos seems huge given that Brad Arthur’s side - or is it Steve McNamara’s? - are one of seven sides below KR and Wigan involved in what is becoming an increasingly undignified scrap for playoff spots. Leeds sit third having massively improved under Arthur but I’m still clinging on to the tired old trope that they have a disastrous performance in them. 

Not helping the mood of the fans is the fact that former Head Coach and inventor of the cringefest that was the Rushie Roll gave an interview to a certain podcast hosted by an ex-Saint in which he diverted blame in any direction he could find except towards himself. The CEO explained that everything is fine, recruitment has been good and the only negative is the ‘noise’ from outside. That’s you and me he’s referring to. People who have the temerity to believe that their continued support for the club entitles them to an opinion. Either way, if Rush thinks everything is fine and that recruitment has been good I’ll have what he’s having. 

I’ll be back to sneer some more at the latest Saints-related developments once there are any. I’m sure it won’t be long. 

Saints 40 Catalans Dragons 0 - Review

There, that’s better. Isn’t it?

After a run of three straight league defeats Saints ended the streak with a dominant 40-0 win over an admittedly out of sorts Catalans Dragons on Thursday night (May 15).

The much needed two points saw Paul Wellens’ side jump up a place from sixth to fifth in the Super League table while the French side are eighth following the weekend’s action. They would have gone above Saints into the playoff places with a win but in truth Steve McNamara’s side never looked like pulling it off. As a consequence of that and on the back of a run of three straight defeats the former Bradford Bulls boss has left his post today (May 20) with immediate effect.

Before the game there was a mix of trepidation and intrigue among many Saints fans. Trepidation at the possibility of a fourth loss in a row and a slide out of the top six but intrigue about Wellens’ team selection. The Saints Head Coach confounded everyone - not least of all Jon Bennison who suffered an early sacrifice as a result - by naming Jonny Lomax on the bench for the previous game against Leeds Rhinos at Newcastle. Would he do it again and face more accusations of muddled thinking from fans and scribes - both professional and amateur - alike?

Those of us wondering if he could fit four playmakers in Lomax, Jack Welsby, Tristan Sailor and George Whitby into his 17 were instead left to digest the ramifications of all four making it into the starting 13. Bennison was completely dispensed with as the club skipper started in the halves alongside Whitby. Sailor was shunted out to the vacant wing spot while Welsby - after a brief spell at stand-off - seems once again to be regarded as the automatic choice at fullback. His best position as Wellens has said. 

Given the result and the performance you would have to imagine that Jonny is Back For Good. Clearly Wellens is Sure that it’s sweet love he’s found in his new halfback combination leaving us to Pray that the team will really start to Shine leading to possibly the Greatest Day of our lives at Old Trafford in October. Could It Be Magic? We’ll need a little Patience to find out. Alright, I’ll stop now. 

Sailor’s move to the wing is interesting also. His father Wendell was one of the greats of his era in that position but is it really the best use of Tristan’s talents? He has pace off the mark and has shown already this year that he knows where the try line is. The seven four-pointers he has scored is more than any other Saint so far in 2025. But can we really see him fitting into the modern winger’s role - particularly at Saints where wide men tend to be used as battering rams early in the tackle count and deep in their own territory? But was Bennison ever suited to that? Is Lewis Murphy?

I’m fairly certain Sailor didn’t come to Saints to play on the wing so there has to be a question mark over whether he’d be happy playing there in the longer term. However, it could easily become a moot point. Kyle Feldt will be back from injury relatively soon and what happens then? Is there a place for Sailor? Is he a candidate to oust Deon Cross at centre?  Cross has made just two appearances for his home town club since joining from Salford Red Devils. And then there’s Harry Robertson to consider when he is fit again. From a situation where he was forced to use Matt Whitley and even Curtis Sironen at centre at one point Wellens could soon have rather more favourable options at his disposal. 

The Dragons - who had just five days to prepare following their Challenge Cup semi-final defeat by Hull KR - also needed to find personnel solutions. Already without part time star and part time Sky Sports pundit Sam Tomkins they also lost the services of Benjamin Garcia, Julian Bousquet and Elliot Whitehead for this one. Yet perhaps most notable was the fact that there was no homecoming for Saints great Tommy Makinson. He would have been given a great reception on what would have been his first return to the club her served so well for 14 years but sadly it was not to be.  The Dragons could have used him too given the way their performance panned out.  

It took Saints less than two minutes to signal their intentions for the evening.  Released by Welsby, Sailor made a break down the right before finding the supporting Whitby on his inside for the first of seven Saints tries on the night.  It was perhaps a breakout game for the 18 year-old halfback who has done well in previous outings without totally convincing that he is ready to take over the main playmaking responsibilities.  

He looked ready in this one, eventually ending with his first Super League hat-trick while also landing six out of seven goals for a personal points haul of 24.  It's too early to get carried away especially against what was truly woeful opposition at times but Whitby can certainly gain confidence from the way in which he handled himself.  He was involved in most of the good things that Saints did in attack.  Some will make the argument that he is helped by having the experience of Lomax alongside him.

Saints' fast start continued.  Within five minutes of Whitby's first score they were leading by double figures.  Next over was Alex Walmsley, crashing through tackles after receiving Morgan Knowles' flicked inside ball.  It was an easy conversion for Whitby and Saints led 12-0.  

Perhaps the only real disappointment of the night for Saints came when Whitley was forced off with a head injury.  The former Dragon had earlier collided with Nick Cotric as the ex-Canberra winger hunted down a low kick into the Saints in-goal.  Soon after, Whitley took another knock when attempting a tackle.  

He failed the subsequent head injury assessment and now will not feature in Friday night's trip to Huddersfield Giants (May 23).  That will end a run of 24 consecutive appearances for the back rower since returning from injury in a crushing defeat at Leigh last July.  He has been an ever present in 2025 featuring at second row, centre and off the bench.  Whitley isn't the flashiest player but he has proven himself a valuable, versatile operator.  Hopefully he will not be ruled out for any longer and can return in time for the rather more daunting visit to Hull KR on May 30.

Back to this one where Catalans repeatedly scuppered their own efforts to get back into the contest.  On no fewer than five occasions they were pinged by referee Liam Moore for playing the ball incorrectly.  Two of those were the responsibility of their own young starlet Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet at fullback.  The youngster endured a difficult night for perhaps the first time in what has been a very promising spell since he broke into the first team.  Yet along with some of his team mates he displayed a total inability to understand the concept of regaining his feet before playing the ball.  

In all the Dragons made a whopping 16 errors during the 80 minutes which is just not going to get the job done.  McNamara's now former side have committed 123 errors in their 11 league outings so far this term, more than any other side in Super League and at an average of over 11 per game.

By contrast Saints - who had been almost as culpable in each of their recent defeats to Warrington, Wigan and Leeds - showed a marked improvement in their discipline with the ball.  Wellens' men came up with only nine errors which - thanks to the bad run previously - is around their season's average.  Yet six other sides have made more than Saints' 107 on the season.  With out and out pace and flair in short supply among Wellens' squad keeping hold of the ball is absolutely paramount if Saints are going to remain in the playoff conversation.   They won't always be pretty, but if Saints can at least start to control the ball better they will at least have a chance of staying in the fight against teams who turn up with more in the arsenal than the Dragons had here.  

Just as Saints had started the game briskly they finished the first half with a quick-fire double.  A rare successful captain's challenge started the chain of events which led to Cross' try on his home debut.  A low kick was placed through towards the Saints line where Welsby covered up but was forced behind his own try line by Mathieu Laguerre.  However, Lomax opted to dispute the call and replays showed that the Dragons centre had been offside from the kick.  It was only Saints’ second successful challenge from seven attempts so far. 

A penalty and a set restart later the ball was shifted left - again with both Whitby and Welsby involved - to Cross who was able to breeze through some soaking wet bog roll defending from Laguerre on the right edge.  It wasn't a great couple of minutes for Laguerre but it kind of summed up the French outfit's lethargy overall.  Another Whitby conversion was added and the visitors found themselves 18-0 behind.   

It got worse for them before halftime as Whitby doubled his try tally.  This time it was Percival creating the havoc after Welsby's inside ball.  Cruising through the Dragons defence the former England centre found Whitby again who crossed untouched.  He converted his own try to send Saints in with an already unassailable looking 24-0 lead.  

As poor as they have been in attack at times this season Saints' defence has held up well enough to convince most observers at that point that the Dragons were not going to turn this around.  Not even the 376th Sky Sports reference to a certain Catalans comeback win over Saints at a Magic Weekend was going to have any influence on that this time.  Saints were a side growing in confidence while their opponents were ragged, leggy, possibly emotionally drained from their Challenge Cup exit and frankly looking a little disinterested.

Next to take advantage of that was Sailor.  He'd had little opportunity to get really involved since his early break created Whitby's first try but he was on the end of a slick move to cross for his seventh try of the season.  It was Percival again with the assist, flicking the ball right-handed, nonchalantly, to Sailor who walked in at the right corner.  The fact that his fifth conversion attempt of the night would be from the right touchline did nothing to faze Whitby who landed it effortlessly to give his side a 30-0 buffer.  

Over on the other wing was Murphy.  After returning from injury in April the former Wakefield man had not crossed for a try since the Good Friday defeat to Wigan, but was over for his fourth of the season here.  

Whitby's only miss of the evening with the boot followed Murphy's spectacular diving finish by the left hand corner flag.  It was the kind of finish made famous by the absent Makinson, created by a clever offload from Cross.  Despite Whitby's slight blemish with the goal-kicking the hosts now had a 34-0 lead and were strolling to a much needed, morale boosting win.  And whisper it, but Murphy's try was one of a few moments of genuine entertainment.  

This was more like what Saints fans come to see, notwithstanding the miserable resistance being offered by the opposition.  Old cliches about only being able to beat what is put in front of you apply.  There were players missing on both sides and yes Saints had a more favourable period to prepare but you have to perform well to be this dominant against a side which - when all is said and done - should be good enough to at least be in the argument about playoff places when the season reaches the sharp end so long as they get the appointment of McNamara’s successor right.  

The scoring was capped by the undisputed player of the match, off the back of receiving a slap around the head from former Wigan noggin botherer Romain Navarrete.  In the resultant set following the penalty Walmsley created a degree of bedlam in the Dragons defence before a nice looking one-handed scoop of an offload enabled Whitby to walk over to complete his treble.  

He booted his 23rd and 24th points of the night straight after and in so doing ensured that Saints had hit the 40 mark for the first time since the opening night farce that was the visit of Salford reserves back in February.  Before that Saints had not racked up a score of 40+ since rattling Hull FC 58-0 last April.  More than a year ago.  

The zero was equally important, and Wellens would have been proud of the way his troops defended some late Catalans attempts to break their duck.  They defended repeat sets within their own quarter as if the game hung in the balance.  Just as impressive was the way in which Walmsley - a giant of a prop not known for his pace or agility - chased down Laguerre just when it looked as though he might salvage something from the wreckage of his night.  

Yet Walmsley dragged him down from behind as if it were the most important tackle of his career.  Perhaps there will be those who will argue that it is easier to show good attitude in defence when you are guaranteed winning money and confidence is high, but it would have been even easier to let standards slip.  For an example, think back to when Saints took a 26-0 lead at home to Wakefield a month ago but conceded three last quarter tries.  They still won 26-14 but you came away from that game with a sense that the desire to be ruthless was still not apparent.  It returned here.  

Sailor embodied this spirit also when he worked hard to stop Cotric grabbing a late consolation.  As the pair chased a low kick into the in-goal the Saints man did enough to ensure that Cotric could only bounce the ball in his attempts to ground it.  That was the French side's last chance of any sort of consolation as Saints preserved their defensive shutout.  

In his last post-match interview as Dragons boss McNamara chose not to blame anyone else but himself and his players.  He admitted that his side were not close to the level required and accused his edge defenders of making 'horrible, horrible decisions'.  He also referred to their baffling play-the-ball problems and the only mitigation he could offer was the short turnaround and the difficulty involved in raising your game after the shattering disappointment of a cup semi-final loss.  

Dragons fans will remember him fondly for the 2018 Challenge Cup win and the 2021 League Leaders Shield triumph with Grand Final appearances both that year in 2023.  Yet in the current campaign he had seemed to go stale and has long been linked with the Leeds Rhinos coaching role if, as expected, Brad Arthur returns to Australia at the end of the year.  

As one Head Coach leaves his post another in Wellens might just have bought himself more time.  The calls for him to go which grew louder and louder during the losing run have quietened a little even if they won't have been totally silenced by this victory.  

The challenge now is to build on it not only in what should be a routine win at Huddersfield this week but also when Saints visit Rovers and then Salford either side of the blank weekend offered by the Challenge Cup final.  The next home game is against Leeds on June 20.  It seems unlikely that Arthur will make way for McNamara early but it is not impossible that the latter could be coaching back to back games at Saints.  If he does he will hope for better next time but following the manner of Saints' meek effort against the Rhinos at Magic Wellens too has every right to expect an improvement.  On this evidence he might just get it, particularly if one or two bodies are back fit by then.  

While we are on the subject, Saints last home game was five weeks before this one and the next one follows five weeks after it.  Whose idea was it to have home games every five weeks? As a season ticket holder - or member as the club pretentiously continues to refer to me - I find that this arrangement takes any sort of rhythm and routine out of the match going experience.

And don't get me started on the car parking experience.  It's like the old metaphor about pushing soup uphill with a fork.  I was chosen in a ballot for a parking space for this one but still ended up in a non-disabled bay helped only by the fact that it was on the end of a row. That afforded me enough space to get my wheelchair out of the car without receiving a bill for the body work on someone's Range Rover.  

I refuse to end on these sour notes, however.  I started by pointing out to you how much better this felt so let's hold on to that and look forward to some better times over the next few weeks.  Yes I know.  Hull KR.  But it's a week before the cup final so...you know....? 

Saints: Welsby, Sailor, Percival, Cross, Murphy, Lomax, Whitby, Walmsley, Clark, Lees, Curtis Sironen, Whitley, Knowles. Interchanges: Paasi, Wingfield, Delaney, Mbye

Catalans Dragons: Aispuro-Bichet, Yaha, Laguerre, Smith, Cotric, Keary, Fages, Satae, Da Costa, Navarrete, Seguier, Bayley Sironen, Partington. Interchanges: Pangai Junior, Sims, Romano, Dezaria

Referee: Liam Moore

Video Referee: Jack Smith