Another stroll in the park, another 60 points and another performance from Ben Barba for which I am currently struggling for superlatives. Much as our Wigan friends don’t like it the Saints fullback is head and shoulders above any other Super League player right now. The Steve Prescott Man Of Steel award is becoming a procession and in this mood the gap between Barba and the rest of the league is only going to grow.
Barba crossed for his first hat-trick in a Saints shirt, which is a somewhat surprising statistic given that he has been routinely waltzing through defences throughout 2018. His second was the highlight, pouncing on a loose Salford offload near to the Saints try-line before scooting almost the full length of the field to touch down. By the end of that run he looked more like he had just finished the London Marathon than sprinted 90 metres but the effort was well worth it. He never looked in any serious danger of being caught.
He also added another three try assists to take his tallies for the season to 15 tries and 17 try assists, more than any other player in Super League in both categories. Yet here comes the but. And as they say in a famous film about lost fish it is a pretty big but. As Barba looked set to carve another gaping hole in the Red Devils defence he was dragged down by a Salford defender. As he fell he tried to snake out an arm to offload the ball to the supporting Regan Grace but in doing so fell awkwardly and began writhing in agony. It was all highly unnerving and became even more so when after a lengthy delay he was placed on a stretcher with a brace around his neck.
Now this is not a one man team by any stretch of the imagination. Justin Holbrook has improved every single player in his squad since arriving in the early part of last summer and Saints could, if forced to do so, manage without their star man. After all, this is a team that has been piling misery on unsuspecting opponents for the last two weeks without both James Roby and Alex Walmsley, two England internationals who would walk into any other Super League side and most NRL teams. Yet it would be barmy to suggest that the team would not be at all affected by the loss of Barba for any length of time.
Regardless of whether we can win or not without him, every Saints fan in the AJ Bell Stadium and watching on television at home knows that Barba is here for a good time and not a long time. It would be a major surprise if he was to see out his entire two and a half year contract without being snapped up by a cash rich NRL outfit. So if he is only going to be here for this season we would rather not lose him for a large portion of it thanks all the same. An entire fan base held its breath.
The good news is that, according to the club’s official Twitter account, Barba has been cleared of what they describe as any ‘serious injury’. So it is not a season-ender, hopefully a matter of weeks rather than months. They have promised to release more information later today (Friday). In the meantime, whether he is fit or not, it might be an idea to stand him down for next week’s home game against Catalans Dragons. Saints should beat Steve McNamara’s side handily, even if Holbrook selects you or me to replace Barba at fullback. If there is any chance of getting Barba fit for the Challenge Cup trip to Castleford in a fortnight that should be the priority.
It was a red card.
There has been a lot of whining and ear-steaming about referees and other officials in Super League this year. That noise has been added to by the late first half dismissal of Matty Lees for clouting Niall Evalds around his head. At first I along with most other Saints fans was screaming for a try to be given. Returning a kick deep in his own territory, Evalds had evaded the first challenger but then slipped to the ground. To ensure that the tackle was complete Lees went to ground before needlessly and recklessly introducing his forearm to Evalds’ head. Understandably as it turned out the impact of the hit caused Evalds to lose possession of the ball which was scooped up by Zeb Taia who went over untouched.
It wouldn’t be Super League on a Thursday night without a review, so referee Chris Kendall took what is now the obligatory precaution of passing it upstairs, whereupon it became clear that Lees had clocked the prostrate Evalds in the head. The Salford fullback did not return which is not particularly relevant. Offences should never be judged by the extent of the injury to the victim. However, with so much evidence now surrounding potential brain injuries in contact sports we have to protect the players and to do that forearms to the head of players lying on the ground and therefore defenceless have to be red card offences. Lees was clumsy rather than malicious, but then so was Morgan Knowles in flipping over an opponent in Perpignan a couple of months ago. That lack of intent did not stop Knowles from copping a four-game ban and it will likely not save Lees from a suspension either. It will be a good lesson for the young prop who has otherwise impressed since breaking into the first team.
S’au could have also seen red
While we are on the subject of referees, and while it is fashionable to have a pop at them, I’d question why the card handed to Junior S’au for his flop on Ryan Morgan was a different colour to the one issued to Lees. Like Evalds Morgan lay on the ground defenceless having just been tackled, at which point S’au needlessly and rather more maliciously dropped down arm-first on to the head of the Saints centre.
The contact with the head was not as clear and did not cause as much damage, but I’ll reiterate the point about the extent of injury having nothing to do with the appropriate punishment. S’au’s action was that of a frustrated player on a well beaten side but it smacked of a lack of professionalism on his part. Clearly Kendall saw the offence and issued the yellow card, but it is not quite clear why that is deemed worthy of a 10-minute sit down only, while Lees was banished for the entire game. Two wrongs don’t make a right, so there is no argument here that if S’au gets yellow then Lees should have got yellow. That’s the illogical conclusion you come to when you allow yourself to get overly emotional about the game. The truth is that both Lees and S’au should have seen red and the only reason that springs to mind as to why S’au did not is the good old fashioned sympathy vote. Had the Red Devils been forced to play most of the second half at 12-a-side rather than just 10 minutes of it then there is a fair chance that Saints would have topped the 66 points they racked up against the Giants last week. But that is not a prospect which should be entering the thought process of a referee. Just a thought.
Right edge no longer a weakness in attack
Not long ago, under a certain legendary former player who turned out to be somewhat less magnificent as a coach, no more than a 12-seater mini-bus if truth be told, Saints attack was woefully unbalanced. It had strike on the left side with Taia, Grace and Mark Percival but it was over-reliant on those three. Over on the other side no less a talent than Tommy Makinson was pretty much a spectator in grave danger of being asked to pay to get in, while Morgan looked ordinary outside of a second rower which seemed to alternate every week between Jon Wilkin, Dominique Peyroux and Morgan Knowles.
Fast forward to the present day and the right hand edge of Saints attack is arguably as strong as the left. Morgan is growing in confidence with four tries in his last two games and five in his last four, while Makinson has been reborn as an attacking force. Once famed for his acrobatic finishes and eye for the line the winger had regressed in the system to something of a water-carrier, a yardage man relied on only to get out us out of our own territory while the heavy boys took yet another breather. The key to the improvement is Peyroux. Vilified and mocked with some justification throughout his first season with Saints the 29 year old New Zealand-born man has nailed down that right hand second row spot and is starting to shine with some regularity. He ate up 126 metres on 16 carries against Ian Watson’s side, putting in 21 tackles and busting out of five tackles. The error count is low too, with only one transgression and only one penalty conceded. All of which has helped reignite Morgan and Makinson and with Barba linking in with them regularly also there is now much more for an opposing defence to think about than at this time last year.
Wakefield loss pokes the nest
Saints are in rare form. Their performances over the last two weeks against the Giants and this one against Salford have evoked memories of some of the great Saints sides of the Super League era. This display could have been the handy work of either Ian Millward or Daniel Anderson in their red vee pomp early of the early 2000s. At a time when fast, open flowing rugby is becoming something of an endangered species as dinosaurs like Terry O’Connor continue to roar about getting into the arm-wrestle and completing sets, this Saints side is flouting all of that perceived wisdom and beginning to carve teams open just for the sheer heck of it.
But a quick glance at the top of the table will show you that it has not always been that way this term. A nervy, Roby-less Saints turned in a display which could only aspire to average when they visited Wakefield a fortnight ago and came home on the end of a 24-20 defeat. They can be got at for sure, but it seems that something about that defeat to Trinity has stirred Saints. It is as if Chris Chester’s side has poked the nest and angered the sleeping, vicious reptile within. Holbrook’s side are still going berserk, affronted at the absolute impertinence of a side still in the lower half of the table having the temerity to actually beat them.
Barba or no Barba you have to worry about the Dragons going to Saints on Thursday night (May 3). The French side have been fairly hapless all year and though they have recruited Josh Drinkwater to cover for the unfortunate retirement of former Saints man Luke Walsh they do not look equipped to deal with this white hot version of Saints, particularly on its own patch. I’m not suggesting that you should bring your calculators with you on Thursday night, or that there will be a third successive 60-point score-line to enjoy, but there won’t be many people taking the Dragons in that one even if the bookmakers offer a generous handicap.