Wakefield Trinity v Saints - Preview

Stumbling Saints will hope to avoid a third successive defeat in all competitions when they travel to Wakefield Trinity for their second Super 8s outing on Thursday night (August 16, kick-off 7.45pm).

The wheels are, if not falling off, then certainly squirming ever looser for Justin Holbrook’s side after the cup hammering by Catalans at Bolton was followed by a fairly miserable home defeat by Huddersfield Giants last time out. The only good thing about the loss to the Dragons was that it has earned Saints a much needed week off on cup final weekend, but before then they need to steel themselves for one more push at the home of Chris Chester’s side.

They’ll have to do it without Luke Thompson. He’s been Saints best prop this year, carrying much of the burden in the absence of long-term injury victim Alex Walmsley, but Thompson misses out here after picking up a one-game ban for ‘other contrary behaviour’. Namely, that means throwing the ball in celebration at scoring a try that might have got Saints back into the game against Simon Woolford’s Giants. Unfortunately, the ball hit the in-goal judge, hence the charge and subsequent one game ban. Saints have decided against challenging the decision for fear of having the ban increased should the appeals panel deem the challenge frivolous. Whether Thompson meant to do it or not Saints have previous in this field, with Mark Percival sitting out a game after a similar incident against Salford last season.

It’s a small loss of discipline but very much in keeping with the rest of the things that are going wrong for Saints currently. The pack is in desperate need of a rest as Holbrook alluded to in his post-match comments but with Thompson out there is arguably now even more pressure on the others that remain. Jack Ashworth has been drafted back into the squad and is joined by reserve hooker Aaron Smith who had a spell on loan at Hull KR earlier in the season but is yet to make his Saints Super League debut. Kyle Amor, Matty Lees, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Luke Douglas and maybe Ashworth have a massive job on their hands to match up to a Wakefield pack that may not be the last word in stamina, but has some massive impact players in the likes of David Fifita and Pauli Pauli.

Dominique Peyroux remains out with a broken arm so Jon Wilkin, Morgan Knowles and Zeb Taia are likely to continue in the back three. James Roby is ever more important at hooker and will be backed up either by Smith, Theo Fages or another Smith in former Wigan man Matty.

In the backs all the waffle on social media has been about what day of the week might be best to send Ben Barba home. This genius of a player, a man who has been at pains to make himself accessible to the community since the day he arrived, is unbelievably the subject of the fans ire after a few injury-hit and underwhelming displays. Yet Holbrook has again chosen to include Barba despite rib and leg problems, exposing him once again to the kind of puerile abuse not seen since Jack Owens wore the red vee. Except Barba is no Owens and will, once fit, shove those badly mashed out words down the throats of those responsible at the back end of this season irrespective of whether he agrees to stay for the remainder of his contract. There are those who have made their minds up that he will not stay and who cannot accept that, despite the fact that anyone with a modicum of rationality thought it most likely that Barba would only play one full season at Saints once the NRL clubs were convinced of his return to form.

So it will be Barba at fullback but what to do about the centre position? Matty Costello came in last week and is in the 19 again and with Adam Swift out that might mean that Tommy Makinson is unable to fill in there in the continued absence of Ryan Morgan. Regan Grace missed last week’s defeat with a dead leg but is included and should take Swift’s place on the left wing, with Percival inside him at centre. In the halves Jonny Lomax should start at six but there is a genuine case for resting Danny Richardson and allowing Matty Smith to earn a rare start at halfback. Richardson has looked just as uncomfortable as Barba in recent weeks without drawing a tenth of the criticism. That’s mostly because he’s younger and less likely to be playing for an Australian club any time soon, but none of that lessens the case for resting the young half who has been extremely erratic of late.

Wakefield’s pack is led as mentioned by Pauli Pauli and Fifita, while in the backs they have the pace of Tom Johnstone, Bill Tupou, Reece Lyne and Ben Jones-Bishop to call on. Fullback Scott Grix has know-how but also previous at making a hash of things against Saints. It was his miss-kick that allowed Jonny Lomax to score and earn Saints the win at Wakefield in last season’s Super 8s that sealed a semi-final spot for Holbrook’s men. A similar gift would be gratefully accepted as Saints look for the few wins still required to complete the job of winning the League Leaders Shield.

Absentees for Wakefield include Danny Kirmond, Keegan Hirst and Jordan Baldwinson, while Liam Finn and Mason Caton-Brown have left for Widnes and Toronto respectively since Saints were beaten 22-14 at Trinity back in April. That was Saints last defeat until the double whammy of Catalans and Huddersfield slapped them around the chops in the last two weeks, and may still be on their minds as they go in search of a little revenge.

With Wigan rocking up to Saints in the week after the Challenge Cup final Saints can ill afford to go into that one on the back of three defeats. Should they do so, and assuming Wigan can get over the top of Wembley-bound Catalans this weekend a defeat to Wigan would then cut the gap between the two old rivals to just four points, with still four Super 8 games to play. It’s an unthinkable proposition but if you are nervous about the outcome you have every right to be. Much as I wouldn’t like to see it I can see a home win by something in the region of 10 points as things get worse before they get better for Saints.

Squads;

Wakefield Trinity;

1. Scott Grix, 2. Tom Johnstone, 3. Bill Tupou, 4. Reece Lyne, 5. Ben Jones-Bishop, 6. Jacob Miller, 8. David Fifita, 9. Kyle Wood, 10. Anthony England, 11. Matty Ashurst, 13. Tyler Randell, 14. Justin Horo, 15. Pauli Pauli, 16. Tinirau Arona, 17. Craig Huby, 19. James Batchelor, 21. Max Jowitt, 23. Chris Annakin, 25. Ryan Hampshire.

St Helens;

1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 4. Mark Percival, 6. Theo Fages, 7. Matty Smith, 9. James Roby, 10. Kyle Amor, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Jon Wilkin, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 14. Luke Douglas, 15. Morgan Knowles, 18. Danny Richardson, 19. Regan Grace, 20. Matty Lees, 21. Jack Ashworth, 23. Ben Barba, 25. Aaron Smith, 30. Matty Costello.


Referee: Liam Moore