5 Talking Points From Castleford Tigers 18 Saints 40

Jonny Be Very Good

Saints 2018 season has been dominated by talk of Ben Barba and his by now weekly miracles. He came up with another one here, scooping up a loose ball before tearing down the side-line and handing off Paul McShane with ridiculous ease on his way to another 90-metre effort. Yet apart from that one notable moment of genius this was a quiet outing for Barba who left the field with a knock 20 minutes from the end. By then the show had already been stolen by the man who many thought would find himself out in the cold when Barba arrived last year.

Jonny Lomax was outstanding in this 40-18 cruise past last year’s runaway League Leaders Shield winners. Whether at stand-off, or at fullback when Barba left the scene Lomax was a constant threat. He scored one try and laid on three others, making a whopping 11 tackle busts and three clean breaks. His jinking run in the build up to Ryan Morgan’s second try was majestic, leaving all of Grant Millington, Mike McMeeken and Matt Cook in his wake before throwing a delicious long ball from left to right for Morgan to walk over. This is one of the most difficult passes in the game for right-sided players but Lomax pulled it off with embarrassing ease. The whole thing bettered even Mark Percival’s dazzling effort which created a try for Morgan in the win over Widnes in Newcastle last weekend.

At this point Lomax had already broken out of two weak Castleford tackles to go over in the first half and served up an irresistible delayed pass for Dominique Peyroux to cross for his third try of the season. In a game that is now too often stale and robotic Lomax’s performance was something extraordinary. A symbol of the free-flowing, play-what-you-see philosophy instilled in the players by Justin Holbrook. The same players who looked less than average this time last year. If one of this mob doesn’t get you, another one will despite the desperation of Saints detractors to trot out the ‘one-man-team’ mantra.

Oh Daryl…..

In a now unimaginable era before the arrival of Holbrook, when Saints alternated between eking out underwhelming wins over poor sides and getting roundly flogged by decent ones, great swathes of the fan base queued up to offer the opinion that Tigers coach Daryl Powell was the man to restore Saints to former glories. At that time the side from the Mend-A-Hose Jungle were playing scintillating rugby league, using their impressive strike on the edges and the skill of their midfield schemers to undo all comers. All except Leeds Rhinos in the Grand Final, that is.

A year on, Powell’s side are no longer dominating and it is starting to get to the former Leeds and Great Britain star. In his post-match interview he took no more than around 12 seconds to point out that his side were not very good, that Saints were and are very good, and that he doesn’t ‘know what is going on with referees’. Well, let’s talk about that one, Daryl…

Chris Kendall was the man in charge and after an early dropped bollock when he neglected to review McMeeken’s try only to find that the England forward had failed to ground the ball, the whistle-blower got the majority of his decisions right. Those that he managed to get wrong or which were arguable were often to the benefit of the Tigers. The knock-on call against Kyle Amor was one I thought Kendall got right. Surely Paul McShane is entitled to try to block the attempted offload? But I’m not so sure about the decision to penalise Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook for a ball steal when it looked like the ball had come loose in the tackle. That call gave the Tigers a lucky escape as it would have handed Saints possession close to the Castleford line, but there was some joy in McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s reaction. The former London man roared like an over-excited lion only to find that the call had gone against him. Perhaps Kendall is another who isn’t a fan of the histrionics.

There was one call that Powell had a right to feel aggrieved with and it was not the one which led to Barba’s moment of length-of-the-field magic. A quick refresher for Castleford fans. If the ball is knocked backwards and then bounces forwards that does not constitute a knock-on. Are we clear on that? Good, we can crack on to ask why on Earth Ben Roberts was penalised for not standing up to play the ball in the build-up to Lomax’s try. He did stand up, and he did touch the ball with his foot which is more than can be said for 75% of play-the-balls in your average Super League game. It wasn’t a pretty execution of the skill but it complied with the rules. Yet one call does not represent the difference between winning and losing, not when you have had several others go your way and not when the final margin of victory is 22 points.


Fages Gives Saints A Second Wind


When Barba left the field Saints had a bit of a wobble. After Theo Fages sent Percival away and was on hand to take the pass from Regan Grace to put Saints into a 34-4 lead things got a bit sleepy. Saints could not get any possession or territory and managed to concede three tries in less than 10 minutes as Jy Hitchcox, Jake Trueman and Oliver Holmes all got over to reduce the arrears to 34-18.

The intensity of Holbrook's side seemed to visibly drop during this period but Fages helped kick the side back into gear. His was the last word as he exchanged passes with Lomax to score his second try and Saints eighth on the night. Fages is playing limited minutes at the moment, not quite convincing Holbrook that he is worth the start at any of stand-off, hooker or loose forward. You wouldn't argue with the coach on that one with Barba, Lomax and Jon Wilkin all performing crucial roles. Yet the fact that Fages can play all or any of these positions makes him one of the most valuable assets in the squad right now. There was a definite upsurge in the tempo and speed of the play whenever Fages was involved in the attack and he got through a not-so-shabby 10 tackles in defence despite only playing for the last quarter or so. Fages looks to have seen off Matty Smith for the position of utility man on the bench, so much so that the suggestion is that Smith will join Widnes Vikings on a two-year deal in the not too distant future.

There will be those who will lament the loss of Smith if he does leave the club for what would be the umpteenth time in his storied career. But if any of the halfback corps have to go then surely it should not be Fages who continues to give Saints an extra dimension and one that, crucially, not many of their rivals can emulate.


Ben And Kevin?


If someone has to go it might be down to salary cap issues. Saints made a statement off the field this week when they announced the capture of Fiji captain Kevin Naiqama on a three-year deal from Wests Tigers. At 29 Naiqama is a couple of years too young to be accused of coming over to England to top up his pension. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, has he tried to urinate in his own mouth, interfere with animals or any of the other multitude of misdemeanours which are normally a pre-requisite for NRL stars moving north. It's fantastic to see Saints again lead the way in showing that Super League can attract the top players, and this time without any baggage, but might there be a price to pay?

Two marquee players are currently allowed at any one Super League club. The mathematical implications of this are that £175,000 of the salary of those two players counts on the measly £1.8million cap, after which you can pay the players in question whatever you think you can afford. It's all speculation without the figures but if Barba stays it's reasonable to suggest that his and Naiqama's salaries would be among the highest at the club. It's also thought that Saints are currently using the marquee rule to enable them to bump up James Roby's money, though as a home grown player only £100,000 of that counts on the cap as opposed to the £175,000 in the case of non-home grown stars. Morgan plays in the same position as Naiqama and is a potential sacrifice that could be made, but whichever way you flip it there is some juggling to be done financially if we are to see Barba and Naiqama in the same side in 2019.

Opposing fans grow ever more confident that Barba will return to Australia at the end of the season. As opportunities to lord it over Saints fans for what is happening on the field get fewer and further between the cry of 'Barba's going home' has become the default and rather tragic go-to sledge of those of a Wigan, Warrington, Leeds or Cas persuasion. They might be right but what if they're not? What if both Barba and Naiqama can be accommodated and help Saints dominate next year? Will those clubs sit around and grumble about it or will it raise the bar in terms of ambition in Super League? Will we see more top stars arrive and stay in Super League and finally an end to the glass ceiling mentality of the last few years? Surely we'd all like to see that happen?


A Decisive Week In The LLS?


Winning the league used to be the be all and end all. I waited for the first 21 years of my life before one sunny August day it finally happened for Saints. A Bobbie Goulding-inspired routing of Warrington saw Saints edge Wigan to the 1996 title by a single point. It was the one and only time I would witness my team win the title on its own turf.

By 1998 the idea of handing the title to the side that finished top of the table was not considered marketable enough and the Super League Grand Final was born. It's a fantastic concept (particularly when you win) which is no doubt here to stay but it does lessen the impact of weekends like this one, when one of the sides in contention to finish top of the pile suffers a surprise defeat and hands the initiative to their rival. Wigan's 22-8 defeat at Hull KR would have had me in raptures if it had happened in 1996. Or better still in 1992-93 when Saints came up agonosingly short on points difference after a bruising, epic 8-8 draw with Wigan at Central Park which lacked nothing in drama despite not being played at a neutral 75,000 seater stadium with a pre-match performance from James or Razorlight. Yet all Wigan's loss at KCom Craven Park inspired in me was a brief snort of amusement, A mild sense of satisfaction where an unhinged level of excitement would once have resided. No more than say....watching a British athlete whose name you won't remember in a month winning a medal at an Olympic Games. You're glad, but if it hadn't happened your life would be no worse for it.

Saints now have a four-point advantage over Wigan and are in prime position to finish top at the end of August. Yet nobody will worry too much whether they do or don't. The season will be judged on who wins at Old Trafford and, to a lesser extent, at Wembley in the Challenge Cup final. The apathy towards the League Leaders Shield is seen in how even fans of those sides who win it regularly refer to it dismissively as the 'hub cap', and in how we sneered and sniggered at Castleford fans when they celebrated wildly after winning it last year.

But it should be celebrated and it should be valued. There will always be doubts about how results would have gone if all teams started the season with the principal aim of winning the league. If there were no Grand Final. But if you finish with more points than anyone else after 30 tough games you deserve some recognition for your level of consistency. Saints should comtinue to strive for it and, if it comes, enjoy it when it does.