Saints 4 Leeds Rhinos 36 - Bruised, Battered, But The Ordeal Still Isn't Over

Friday night's 34-6 home defeat by Leeds Rhinos was an unpleasant reminder of Saints' place in Super League's pecking order in 2026. 

It took time for the tries to come. Saints were in the game on the scoreboard when they trailed only 6-0 after half an hour. Yet even then it was evident that they were losing the ruck. The Leeds ball carriers were making metres much more easily than those of Saints. That allowed the Rhinos to win better field position and eventually capitalise. This was no hard luck story.

Two days before the game interim Head Coach Eamon O'Carroll surprised us with inclusion of Jonny Lomax in his 21-man squad. Lomax - who announced this week that he will retire from the game at the end of the season - had previously been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign after suffering a broken jaw in June. Courage has characterised his career but this seemed bold even by his standards. 

With Jackson Hastings out of the rest of the regular season through suspension and George Whitby beginning his recovery from an ACL injury Saints would have had no specialist halfback available had Lomax not put his hand up. But it was still a surprise and a slight concern to see him named in the starting lineup come game day.

Despite hanging on a little after Chris Hankinson's opening try there was evidence of the sort of grit Lomax is revered for in the early going. Even a 10-minute spell in the sin-bin for Daniel Suluka-Fifita didn't force Saints to concede again. The prop was sat down by referee Marcus Griffiths for a late hit on Presley Cassell. In fact it was Saints who went closest when Deon Cross made a sensational catch to go over in the corner but Tristan Sailor's pass was ruled forward.

If there is a moment where Leeds assumed total control it is probably Jake Connor's 20/40 kick. The stats section of the Super League website doesn't have a separate column for these rare events but what it does tell you is that Connor leads the way in 40/20 kicks with five. Nobody else in Super League has more than three. 

It was part of a pretty masterful performance from Connor whose high risk approach and on-field spikiness have routinely led to accusations that he is overrated. On this evidence he is very much in the conversation for a starting berth in the England side for the World Cup in the autumn. 

He ended with three assists - taking his league leading tally to 42 - and landed five of his seven attempts on goal. All but one of which were from difficult angles. One was a penalty from a long way out which he should probably have done better with than hitting the post. It was a rare blemish. Two of his assists were with the boot as he placed perfect kicks towards the Saints in-goal to allow Ash Handley and Brodie Croft to score. 

As good as Leeds were once they got into their stride Saints started to crumble. The defence offered for Cameron Smith's solo try which stretched the lead to 12-0 was barely worthy of the term. Suluka-Fifita was the first to miss the Wakefield-bound forward, before Jake Davies did so twice either side of the sort of Sailor effort which convinces many that he should not play at fullback. 

As an attacking strategy it works as it gives Sailor space to use his speed and skill. That's in keeping with the modern idea of a fullback. Yet they are still expected to be able to make a tackle when the line is broken. The question of what to do with the former Brisbane Broncos man is a conundrum that will be among the priorities for Kevin Walters when he takes over in 2027. The pair have worked together before when Walters was in charge at Brisbane so familiarity may help.

You have to credit Smith with a piece of inspiration, but it was an embarrassment from a Saints point of view. They made Smith look like prime Rob Burrow running away from us in the 2011 Grand Final. All three defenders have to be stronger there. Davies maybe gets a pass. A lot of smoke has been blown up his posterior since he broke into the first team but his efforts here were reserve grade stuff. It's a reminder that he is a player still in development, and of how heavily Saints have been forced to rely on players in that category amid the injury crisis.

It wasn't just that one play where defensive mishaps occurred. Saints right edge was particularly vulnerable all night. Nene Macdonald - an ex-Leeds man who appears to be unpopular with both sets of fans - was guilty of leaving his defensive post to try to stop Leeds all by himself on more than one occasion. He got close once, getting his fingers to a Croft pass but failing to reel it in. It cost him and the team as Connor and Handley exploited the space to put Harry Newman over. 

The biggest problem with Macdonald has been his lack of availability. He's never had a run in the team due to what appears to be a failing body. But he hardly endears himself to the fans when he tries to take short cuts defensively, especially when they don't pay off. He might have earned better reviews if he had secured the interception and taken it down the field. But even then it's doubtful he still possesses the pace to have gone the distance. 

He's already reportedly been offered to other clubs so it is unlikely he will be Walters' problem. Yet he's the latest in a chain of centres in recent years who hang around without doing very much of anything. Konrad Hurrell and Mark Percival are other recent examples of the genre. 

For a time there was a very real possibility that Saints could be held scoreless at home in the league again. That hadn't happened for 46 years until Toulouse came to town in July. Another occurrence would have been a catastrophe even allowing for the greater quality of the opposition this time. It was avoided when Jack Welsby - a rare positive at centre because the lad can play anywhere - ran around and away from Lachie Miller for a stunning long range try. It was helped by Lomax's magical inside ball. 

That got Saints off the mark to much relief. But if you're looking for other Saints highlights you're probably limited to Shane Wright's try saver on Tom Holroyd in the opening moments of the second half. It was given by Griffiths but overturned on review when it was evident that Wright had got underneath the Leeds man. 

But you know what? Your ordeal is not over. Despite this fiasco of a performance Saints are not yet completely out of the playoff race. Eleven defeats from 25 league outings signifies quite strongly that they aren't good enough, but the league is very accommodating to the mediocre. Leigh's loss to Huddersfield means that should Saints win their last two and the Giants beat Hull KR or Leigh lose to Wakefield, Saints could still sneak in. 

The other complication is that Saints' final pair of league fixtures are at Leigh this weekend and at home to Hull KR. They need to win both to have any chance. That seems vanishingly unlikely if the standard served up in this one is repeated. But then you think of the way Saints demolished Wakefield recently, or that first half pummelling of Castleford before Hastings' red card and the hope returns. 

Except that Hastings won't be involved and the evidence of the Castleford game after his exit and of this one against Brad Arthur's men suggests he's more pivotal than fans are comfortable giving him credit for. 

So we may well have been put in our place by one of the title favourites here, but it's still not impossible that our place may yet be good enough to rescue that record of having played in every Super League playoff series. 

It's not that we believe. Not really. We just refuse to turn the life support off.

Humble, Granite, Brilliant - Jonny Lomax Announces His Retirement

Seventeen years ago a knee injury to Paul Wellens introduced us to another local lad who would turn out to be one of the greats. The then 18 year-old Jonny Lomax stepped into the fullback role in a 42-18 win over Wakefield Trinity. 

It was the first of 388 appearances in the red vee for Lomax who on Tuesday announced he would be retiring at the end of this season. 

That appearance total may yet grow. Having been initially ruled out of this campaign after breaking his jaw in June Lomax - who had already overcome several knee injuries and a serious head injury before stepping on to the field with Saints for the first time - has raised his hand for inclusion in the 21-man squad to face Leeds Rhinos on Friday night.

This sort of toughness has come to characterise Lomax who had endured 19 operations by the time he was 26. Saints Chairman Eamonn McManus called him 'the bravest of the brave in the bravest of sports'. It's hard to think of anyone in rugby league who has been through more - including that serious head injury at just 14 years of age - and still achieved so much. 

We should not let the bravery stories detract from the fact that Lomax has had a stellar career. He has won four Super League Grand Finals, a Challenge Cup and a World Club Challenge. Throw in four League Leaders Shields too. And 15 international appearances. Eleven for England and four for Great Britain. He also won the Harry Sunderland Trophy for the man of the match in Saints' Grand Final victory over Leeds in 2022. 

For a chunk of time during Saints' four in a row period between 2019-22 he had a serious claim to the title of best player in Super League. Not that he would ever say so himself. All this has been achieved with great humility.

Following the retirement of James Roby at the end of 2023 Lomax was named captain of Saints. He had always led by example to others whether by directing operations in the halves or setting the defensive tone. He was never the biggest player but pound for pound he was always among the best defenders in some incredible Saints teams. He was adaptable too, debuting at fullback but playing every position except prop and second row during his magnificent career.

He held the role for only two seasons before erstwhile Head Coach and possible fever dream Paul Rowley appointed Matty Lees to the role. By that time injuries and age were finally catching up to Lomax who was no longer an automatic starter. But safe to say if it hadn't been for the consistency of Roby it might have been Lomax hoisting all of those trophies aloft.

Those injuries have ensured that Lomax won't quite reach the milestone of 400 Saints appearances even if he is restored to the lineup for the last three weeks of the regular season. That's entirely possible with Jackson Hastings suspended for the games against Leeds, Leigh and Hull KR following his brainless swipe at Tyler Dupree last weekend. But whatever figure he has achieved by the time he takes the boots off for the last time his legacy is assured.

In announcing his retirement Lomax said that he was 'grateful for the life the game has given me' and that despite all of the gruelling rehabilitations he has endured he still feels lucky. I am sure there is some luck involved in making it to the top of professional sport but talent, skill, toughness, sheer bloody mindedness and humility have also had a lot to do with Lomax's success. 

'For those that have supported me throughout it all… I hope I have been able to do you proud.' he commented finally. St Helens is proud. Not just the rugby league club or the fans but the whole community. Even rival fans revere and respect Jonny. 

He has inspired and delighted us all in equal measure for nearly two decades. And don't rule out the possibility of him conjuring up some more special moments if he does fill the void left by Hastings in the coming weeks. 

Many fans have expressed a desire to see him stay with the club in some capacity. Yeah. About that. Our record of employing great players of the recent past isn't brilliant. There is definitely scope for him to contribute on the medical side as he is qualified to do so. But if he does that he'll be busier than he was as a player with the state of our casualty list. 

Whatever he does next he will do it brilliantly, but quietly...

Saints 36 Castleford Tigers 12 - Saints Sizzle, Then Fizzle After Hasting Red

It started superbly.  It fell a bit flat after half-time.  But ultimately Saints can be happy with a 36-12 win over Castleford Tigers. 

It could have been so much more emphatic.  Saints led 30-0 at half-time against a side which – let’s not forget – had beaten us 30-10 at the OneBore Stadium in May.

Saints were sensational in the first half.  Interim coach Eamon O’Carroll – keeping the seat warm for incoming Australian Kangaroos Head Coach Kevin Walters – stuck with the positional change from the win at Wakefield which saw Tristan Sailor operate at fullback with Jack Welsby in the centres.  O’Carroll has hit upon something which is working well for now. 

Both Sailor and Welsby were outstanding in attack in that first 40 minutes, each racking up over 200 metres by the end of the game.  Welsby scored a scintillating interception try inside the first five minutes while Sailor also got his name on the list of try scorers a few minutes before the half-time turning point.  More on which later.  Others to cross in that period were the much maligned Shane Wright, young winger Jacob Douglas and deputy hooker Tom Humphreys. 

Castleford – who had Director Of Rugby Chris Chester in temporary charge after the departure this week of Head Coach Ryan Carr for ‘personal reasons’ - had no answers as they slumped to a 16^th defeat in 24 Super League outings,  It leaves them 10^th in the table with three games left to play.  All of which makes you wonder how Saints managed to lose to them but we are where we are.

About that turning point.  Events took a turn for the worst when Jackson Hastings was given a red card by referee Tom Grant just as the first half was about to end.  Grant made some strange decisions – including his failure to pick up on at least one and probably two forward passes which led to Castleford tries in the second half – but he had no option but to send Hastings packing. 

The Saints halfback got into a spat with another ex-Wigan man in Tyler Dupree on the other side of the field to where play was focused.  It all ended with Hastings landing a right cross on the visage of Dupree.  For his part, Dupree was sin-binned and was still not issued with a red despite his willingness to carry on the shenanigans on the sideline afterwards.  Meanwhile, the West Stand suffered an irony bypass in singing about Dupree’s Wigan past while ignoring that of Hastings.  On the field and in the stands, it was all very undignified.

The red card ruined the game.  Perhaps understandably, Saints were nowhere near as effective with 12 men as they had been with 13. The second half fizzled out into a bit of a non-event.  The highlight reel rugby disappeared while there was never any realistic chance of the Tigers working their way back into the game.  By the end, Saints had 10 men as both Alex Walmsley and Chris Matagi saw yellow inside the last 10 minutes.  Yes it was a slightly fraught performance from Grant but O’Carroll will not have been impressed by his side’s discipline.  These things kill you in closer games, which we have already seen at times this year.

Hastings has been handed a three-match ban which rules him out of the rest of the regular season.  It also causes O’Carroll a massive headache as he will have no fit specialist halfback to call on against Leeds, Leigh or Hull KR in the run-in.  Which is particularly frustrating because the last two wins against Trinity and Castleford, coupled with Hull KR’s late season wobbles, have opened up a slight opportunity to sneak into the top six.    

Optimism is increasing among the fans that Saints could pull it off.  But the fixture list is particularly unkind before you even consider the absence of Hastings or the injured George Whitby.  Hastings has been criticised by some and he certainly let the side down in this one, but he hasn’t been the total disaster that some would have you believe. 

He has 29 assists while operating in one of the most bang average Saints sides in living memory.  Only reigning Man Of Steel Jake Connor has more.  Imagine how many Hastings could have if he had been playing in a team which hadn’t been a bit of a basket case for most of the year. 

This is a team which has been all but ejected from playoff contention by a combination of their own lack of quality and their ludicrous injury situation. On that note, it feels like we get one player back only to lose another.  Deon Cross returned for this game but only because Lewis Murphy suffered a quad injury last week.

If Saints don’t qualify for the playoffs then it is possible that Hastings has played his last game for the club having joined on a one-year deal.  The thinking behind it from former Head Coach Paul Rowley was probably that he could act as a useful mentor to Whitby – some might say stop gap -  before the youngster is ready to take over the responsibility of leading the side around the field.  But Whitby’s ACL injury rules him out of a decent chunk of 2027 as well as the end of this campaign.  If Saints don’t retain Hastings they are going to need to recruit another 7.  And if Whitby is still their man then you are looking at another temporary fix.  Perhaps even a loan in keeping with our ‘identity’.

But maybe Whitby isn’t the man anyway.  Many fans have expressed doubts about whether he is the real deal.  His injuries – especially this latest and most serious episode – have instilled grave doubts.  The rumour regarding a return for Lewis Dodd persists, although that would be a little too regressive for my tastes.  We have seen that movie before.  He too is a halfback with historic injury concerns.  They are still casting a shadow over his development.  Some point to a limited kicking game also, although others blame his penchant for persistent bombing on former coach Paul Wellens.

Daniel Suluka-Fifita arrived to a few groans having failed to establish himself in the Canterbury Bulldogs first team at the start of the year.  However, he is now finding his best form and has been an integral part of these last two wins.  He again topped Saints metre-making charts among the forwards with 121.  That adds to the 163 he managed at Wakefield last week and shows that he is capable of getting the team down the field.  That is going to be crucial as Walmsley’s career winds down.  Next year will surely be his final year and with Matty Lees also leaving at that time Saints are going to need others to step up.  Noah Stephens is also going to be hugely important in that if he can stay injury free next term.

And so the season remains alive, albeit on life support going into the final three weeks.  It is perhaps testament to how well they have played in the last two weeks that there is even the merest sniff of a chance to make the six.  But if – as I suspect – we don’t make it then those defeats to York and Hull earlier this month take on a whole new level of frustration.  As poor as we have been at times this year, it didn’t need to be this way. 

The hope will probably kill us but there are just one or two signs – not least a spectacular coaching appointment for 2027 and beyond – that Saints are not going to be out of the picture for very long.

Kevin Walters - A Bold Statement

It’s bold, it’s audacious, it’s frankly quite stunning.  It’s the appointment of current Australian Test Head Coach Kevin Walters as Saints Head Coach from the start of the 2027 season. 

Walters has agreed a three-year deal to take over the reins after the troubled tenure of Paul Rowley and the current interim period under Eamon O’Carroll.  He will join at the end of the 2026 World Cup which takes place in Australia and Papua New Guinea in October and November.

When Rowley left and with recruitment having been at a distinctly Poundland level during his tenure there were concerns over Saints’ financial health.  Yet it is hard to imagine that a coach with such lofty status comes cheaply.  And on a three-year deal which is quite a commitment.  That bastion of truth Love Rugby League reports that the deal is worth £1million over the three years. 

Perhaps the prospect of a cash injection from the NRL has convinced the owners to dig deep in the belief that it will all work out swimmingly.  That deal with the world’s premier rugby league competition isn’t done yet so fingers crossed that the club isn’t being placed in financial peril in the meantime.  The contrast between this reportedly lavish spend and some of the recent recruitment would seem stark.

Assuming it is an expensive move and given his standing in the game there will be pressure on Walters to turn around our ailing ship.  General consensus among fans I have chatted to and tweeted with is that it will take around three years to put out the binfire that is the make up of our squad.  So anyone expecting Grand Final triumph in 2027 might have to hold their proverbial jets. 

A lot also rests on whether Walters will have full control over recruitment.  This has been the one area which Saints have made an absolute dog’s dinner of in recent seasons.  Rowley must have had some control judging by the number of ex-Salford players who arrived just before and just after his appointment.  On that basis – and if spending is now our thing – it is reasonable to expect Walters’ contacts book to provide one or two more encouraging additions.  Reece Walsh is probably already looking at properties in Fingerpost as I write.

Yet even a State Of Origin and Kangaroo coach can’t overhaul the squad as quickly as we would like.  Some of our less successful recruits have every right to be nervous, but whoever was appointed was always going to have to list pragmatism and patience among his qualities.  Many of our underperforming players are sitting on contracts which they won’t be willing to give up easily.  Walters’ success or otherwise should probably be judged on improvement year on year rather than on how many pots end up in the cupboard.  That will be seen as negativity from some, but it feels like that is just where we are at the moment. 

Walters has coached in Super League before.  After a long spell as an assistant at Brisbane Broncos under Wayne Bennett and two years as head coach of Ipswich Jets in the Queensland Cup he took over at Catalans Dragons in 2009.  He made the playoffs with the French outfit in the mediocrity rewarding days of a top eight playoff system, but won only six out of 27 games in his second and final season in Perpignan.  Objectively that is terrible, but it should be remembered that the Dragons had been a Super League entity for only three years before his arrival.  And few have managed to turn them into a force in the league.  Steve McNamara led them to a Challenge Cup victory in 2018 and the League Leaders Shield in 2021 but outside of that they have been a byword for underachievement. 

More time spent as an assistant – this time with Melbourne Storm – was followed by another stint working under Bennett at Newcastle Knights.  This is where it gets complicated.  His record as a head coach was pretty underwhelming at that point but it did not stop him from being appointed as the head coach of the Queensland State Of Origin team when Saints icon Mal Meninga left to coach the Australian national team in 2015.  Walters won a couple of series’ against the Blues of New South Wales in four attempts before being appointed head coach of the Broncos in 2020.

Star power seems to have been a huge help to Walters in terms of his coaching career.  He has close to 300 NRL/ARL appearances to his name as a player, featuring 20 times for Queensland and 11 times for Australia.  He even managed four games for Warrington, which is proof if you require it that his is a massive name.  Nobody likes a famous recruit more than the Wire.  He’s had success as a coach but it is fair to suggest that it hasn’t always been that which has landed him the huge jobs he has held. 

Before his appointment as the Kangaroos coach his last big achievement at club level was guiding the Broncos to the 2023 Grand Final.  But even that is tinged with tragicomedy.  Leading 24-8 going into the final quarter of the game the Broncos contrived to lose 26-24 to serial NRL winners Penrith Panthers.  A year after Walters departed the Broncos they won a Grand Final under architect of Wigan shithousery Michael Maguire.  But a quick glance at the current NRL table shows that Maguire’s champion team are above only hapless St George-Illawarra.  Successful coaches can oversee the odd abomination in the cutthroat environment of the NRL.

Walters is seemingly a players’ coach rather than laying claim to any level of tactical genius.  His previous experience working with Lee Briers is a fascinating dynamic.  Briers went up in all of our estimations by leaving Wigan for the Broncos in 2022 where he worked under Walters for three seasons.  

Briers’ reputation as an attack coach flourished, but has stalled back in his home town under Rowley and previously Paul Wellens.  Perhaps this is the appointment that Briers needs to finally bring his ideas to fruition.  But again, we keep coming back to it, he will need some better players and that will take time.

Positivity vacuums abound among the Saints fan base particularly on social media.  But even they should recognise that this is an ambitious, exciting appointment. Any new coach should be backed until they give you reason to do otherwise, but there seems more reason than usual to employ some cautious optimism around Walters.  Securing one of the biggest names in the game has arguably erased any doubts about how big a deal Saints are despite their whiffy league position. 

Things are looking up, aren’t they?

Wakefield 16 Saints 46 - Is This A Repeatable Action?

It's been a long time coming but we saw something resembling a Saints team in Saturday night's stirring win at Wakefield.

Not many of us went into this one with much confidence. Wakefield are a genuine playoff team in 2026 under Daryl Powell. Meanwhile Saints have veered from one shambles to another for much of this year. Coming in to this one they had lost three in a row, following defeat to Wigan with losses at York and at home to Hull FC. 

Yet after a tight first half which saw Trinity lead 16-12 at the break, Saints blew them away with a display of skill, commitment and quality. Despite the tedious claims of the Sky Sports pundits and commentators it doesn't get us back in the playoff race. But it does lead you to ask 'where has this been?'.

While Saints ran in eight tries the win was built on some much better go forward from the pack. Matty Lees, George Delaney, David Klemmer and Noah Stephens are all still out injured so the contributions of Alex Walmsley and Daniel Suluka-Fifita were key. The latter had arguably his best game for Saints with 163 metres while the 147 eaten up by Walmsley showed that his importance endures. These two helped set a platform that we need far more regularly.

The old adage is that the forwards decide who wins and the backs determine by how many. Tristan Sailor had a huge say in the latter. The former Brisbane man scored a hat-trick of tries, had a try assist and ran for just a few metres shy of 200. And it all came about after interim head coach Eamon O'Carroll kept faith with him after an enforced - initially temporary - positional change.

Jack Welsby started at fullback but was forced off for a head injury assessment midway through the first half. Saints were trailing 10-0 at that point so losing such a vital cog - even temporarily - was a setback. Sailor moved from centre to fullback to cover. When Welsby returned it was he who filled in at centre and Sailor stayed at one. O'Carroll explained later that he just felt the side found a bit more rhythm with Sailor at fullback. He persisted with it and it proved a shrewd decision. 

By the time Welsby returned Saints had taken the lead through Sailor's opening try and the first of a double for Lewis Murphy. So if it ain't broke. And it's not as if Welsby is totally alien to the centre role. He played there numerous times as a youngster while Lachlan Coote was occupying the fullback role. Including in the 2020 Grand Final win over Wigan when his late try won the trophy and began his Saints legacy. O'Carroll was quick to acknowledge Welsby's contribution. 

It will be interesting to see if he stays in the centres or reverts to fullback in the last four games of the year. Now that Harry Robertson is viewed as a stand-off there are fewer obvious centre options. Which is precisely how Sailor ended up there in the first place. 

The much maligned Nene Macdonald made a rare appearance and actually scrubbed up pretty well for his 121 metres. That tally included some useful carries in awkward field position. Yet Macdonald's frequent absences and his air of being rather too relaxed at times have made up the minds of most fans. And seemingly the club, with recent reports that he was being touted around other clubs. Meanwhile Mark Percival - a man recently described on these pages as more of an idea than a reality - remains so. 

Like Macdonald, Murphy has been linked with the exit. His two tries were typically well taken. Perhaps more pointedly he was error free. If he can keep the mistakes out of his game then maybe there is a player there. But he remains injury prone, again hobbling off and seen later with ice on a quad muscle. He's appeared 15 times this term but just 25 times across his first two seasons with the club. Sean O'Loughlin would blush at that record.

The Welsby/Sailor dynamic wasn't the only tactical success for O'Carroll. Shorn of Daryl Clark for the rest of 2026 we have been relying on youngster Tom Humphries as well as Jake Burns at the number nine position. This week we saw Joe Shorrocks move into the role which allowed Jacob Host to start at loose forward. 

Host is finding some form after a broken leg disrupted much of his first season with Saints. Meanwhile Shorrocks' job at dummy half is simpler than at 13 where there is too much emphasis on him as a ball handling link man. One game is a small sample size but it seemed to work better for both men and the team. 

Wakefield also helped matters by charitably deciding to be desperately poor. Their 13 handling errors is the same number made by Saints in what was viewed as a pathetic display against Hull FC last time out. Powell's side capitulated in the second half. A lot of that was down to what Saints did well, but a decent chunk of it was also due to a fairly horrific day at the office for a team previously in excellent form. They did not look like a team battling for a top-two spot. But nor were they allowed to.

Of course, this season highlight doesn't fix everything. Saints are still going to miss the playoffs irrespective of how many times Dave Woods and Jon Wells have us in 'must win' territory. Though the performance cheered us all up greatly it also asked us to consider what might have been. Wins over York and Hull FC before this one could have put us above Leigh Leopards going into the final four games.

Those are wins which this performance suggests we might have expected. But a glance at the fixture list shows that as well as Leigh we still have to face league leaders Leeds and reigning champions Hull KR in the run in. That shows that it was still a long shot even without the disappointing results of the last two weeks. But there would have been a sniff. And never write off the...anyway.

Whatever we go on to achieve we will have done it with a still implausible injury list. While we wait on Murphy we're also digesting the news that George Whitby picked up an ACL injury against Hull which has ended his season. It's probably trashed the first half of next season for him too. 

All of which raises questions about whether Jackson Hastings could be retained or could Lewis Dodd return from Catalans Dragons. I'm not crazy about either option. Hastings is not the player who won Man Of Steel in 2019 while going back to Dodd feels regressive. 

None of us were on the phone to the Samaritans when he left for South Sydney. We had spent a year criticising his inability or unwillingness to do anything except launch another bomb. The incoming coach  - who is thought not to be Shane Flanagan despite reports linking the much travelled 60 year-old - might get a tune out of Dodd but it all feels a bit too much like going back to an ex. That rarely solves the problems that were there before.

These are questions for another day. This column has dished out the criticism of the players when they've let us down as against York, Hull and the cataclysmic event that was Castleford away. Now let them take the plaudits for an impressive dismantling of a real contender. 

And let them show us it is repeatable.

Saints 18 Hull FC 32 - Reflections, Rowley And The Rebuild

Saints suffered another chastening but not exactly original experience with defeat to an undeniably poor Hull FC side. 

There's a good argument to suggest that Saints beat themselves to a certain extent. If you make the errors and miss the tackles they did, with the frequency they did, it's hard to beat even the lowliest Super League sides. But having already been nilled at home to Toulouse and edged out at York last week can we even be surprised?

The situation is sufficiently grave so as to be highly newsworthy from a Sky Sports rugby league perspective. The focus was really on as co-owner and chairman Eamonn McManus joined presenter Brian Carney and pundits Jon Wilkin and Sam Tomkins before the game. if McManus wanted to appease the Saints fans whispering and tweeting about a 'disconnect' between them and the club, I'm not totally convinced he pulled it off.

What he achieved was to take at least part ownership of the decision to relieve Paul Rowley of the coaching duties. 

"When things are not as they should be at a club of St Helens’ stature, they need to be changed. The environment needed to be changed." He said.

It's difficult to argue with him about things not being as they should be. But where I would question the decision making is in the timing. Not just because Rowley coached another game after the dismal Toulouse performance - a win over Catalans Dragons - before being jettisoned 48 hours before the derby at Wigan - but also because we were 19 league games in to the season. 

Remember it was Rowley's debut season with the club and that he inherited a pretty humdrum team from Paul Wellens. It was always going to take longer than Rowley was ultimately afforded. In taking the decision less than a year into Rowley's three-year deal there is more than a hint - unspoken though it is - that McManus thinks the appointment was a mistake all along. 

Certainly there was an element of pointing the finger at Rowley for the recruitment decisions that have been the major focus of fan criticism. McManus framed it as praise, suggesting that we would be worse off without the players he told us Rowley brought in. Would we really be any further from contention without the Billinge Taumololo Joe Shorrocks or Casualty extra Nene Macdonald? 

Does Jackson Hastings make us better than we would be with George Whitby at halfback? Probably not. Certainly not if there's a last gasp goal that needs landing to force extra time.  Bringing in an experienced halfback for a year while Whitby develops was not a terrible idea in itself. But accepting that they don't grow on trees I would question whether Hastings was the optimum choice as a mentor. Making him captain following Matty Lees' injury woes also seems like crossing a line. If Rowley was trying to channel Bobbie Goulding here he might just as well have WhatsApped Ellie. 

There are some recruitment howlers that Rowley can't be blamed for. Remember Shane Wright scoring one of the most famous tries in Saints' modern history at Leeds in September? He, along with Deon Cross are often lumped in with Rowley signings to strengthen the popular fan argument that he has been trying to put the Salford band back together. 

Like Wright, Cross - who is a perfectly serviceable backup centre/wing in any case - was signed on Wellens' watch. What is harder to support is the idea that Wright - Headingley miracle notwithstanding - should be anywhere near a Saints shirt. If Rowley is culpable it's for consistently selecting him.

McManus repeatedly said that lessons will be learned. Until then we have five Super League games to get through with not much to cheer us. We can stop concerning ourselves now with the question of whether we will continue our proud record of having made every playoff series in the Super League era. That distinction is leaving us. We face four of the current top six in the run in. If we win another game or two before the end of this wretched season we can get out the bunting. 

What direction we take in the remaining games is less interesting than it might have been because of the injuries. Whitby came off and went straight down the tunnel in the second half of the Hull defeat. If fit there is a compelling case for giving him at least some time at halfback at Wakefield next week. 

That doesn't mean leaving out Hastings altogether. I barely need to remind you that we don't have any fit, experienced hookers so Whitby may need to fill in there depending on the status of Jake Burns. But some time at the creative helm would aid Whitby further. Whether we would benefit from that in the long term depends on the plans of an as yet unidentified new coach. But it's still worth doing because it creates options.

While we wait for the end of this turbulent term there is plenty to improve on. Saints made 13 errors against the black and whites which is significantly higher than their average coming in of just over 10. Not to pick on anyone but Alex Walmsley's inability to reliably secure possession is becoming a problem given that he has a year left on his contract. He will surely be here next year to go out on his own terms. He deserves that, but it's also realistic with so many other personnel problems to fix.

Nobody gets Saints down the field as well as Walmsley and his legacy is assured regardless. But you can't make metres if you don't catch the ball or if you fumble around with it while trying to play it after being tackled. Tristan Sailor actually made more errors on the night but he plays more minutes and has his hands on the ball more often. 

When Saints held on to the ball the attack again looked dangerous with Harry Robertson at stand-off. His try was a piece of individual brilliance and the link between Whitby and Jack Welsby for the latter's try was also outstanding. But missed tackles was a consistent flaw and arguably the biggest contributor to Saints' undoing. 

As a team Saints missed an eye opening 48 tackles. That's 15 more than their average in the previous 21 league outings. And it's not like they were defensive masterclasses. Injuries don't fully account for it, although the youngsters filling the bench might be mitigated given the physical challenge presented to them by the step up to first team level. But mostly what we saw was some highly decorated professionals failing to execute a basic skill often enough. If you continually drop the ball and miss tackles you can steel yourself for a rendition of 'oh when the Saints get beat by Hull' from the taxi load of FC fans in attendance.

Ultimately we didn't learn a huge amount about our team in this one. We're not good enough and we know it. We've known it for a while. We have lost 10 out of 22 league matches and are in significant danger of losing more matches than we win by the end. That hasn't happened since 1988-89. It wasn't great then. In a league of today's fairly moderate quality it is an abomination. 

There is comfort in the idea that sport is cyclical. The reason Saints are - for now - the only team to qualify for every playoff series is that the salary cap system is designed to prevent domination by one club. In that context claiming four titles in a row between 2019-22 is as remarkable as the recent slide. 

Some might regard our problems as the first-world variety. But a return to the top isn't guaranteed. Ask fans of Widnes. The appointment of the new coach will be crucial. Get it right and it could be transformative. Justin Holbrook turned the toxicity at the end of Keiron Cunningham's reign and led us to within minutes of a Grand Final by the end of that season.

This rebuild will take longer. But that was the case on the day Rowley walked through the door.