Saints v Castleford Tigers - Preview

Two sides with rather more pressing engagements on their minds meet on Friday night (September 28, kick-off 7.45pm) as Saints host Castleford in the final Super 8s game.

The pair have long since guaranteed their places in next week’s semi-finals and at this stage their opponents for those games are also known. Saints will host Warrington, fresh from handing Steve Price’s side their backsides at the Haliwell Jones Stadium last time out. Meanwhile Castleford will attempt to do the whole of the western world a favour by knocking Wigan out of the running for what would be a reflex-gag-triggering third title in five years. They must be stopped.

First up though is what will no doubt be billed another phoney war as the Tigers come to town. Saints coach Justin Holbrook surprised everyone last week by sending his team out with a playoff mentality just as everyone was starting to think that both sides would trot through the motions. This week he has chosen to rest a few of his stars as the preparation for the rematch with Warrington continues.

Chief among these is Jonny Lomax. The headgear-adorning stand-off and some time fullback has been one of Saints best performers in a year which we should not forget has already yielded one piece of silverware. The League Leaders Shield was secured a fortnight ago even if you wouldn’t know it from the look on the players’ faces at the end of the Hull FC win which clinched it. It was Saints eighth League Leaders Shield since the wholly underwhelming circular gong was introduced. Though he featured in many of those successes it’s still somehow hard to believe that Lomax has been around long enough to qualify for a testimonial by the RFL but that’s exactly where we are. Having made his debut in 2009 next season will see local boy Lomax reach the not inconsiderate milestone of 10 years service with Saints. He’ll get the opportunity to celebrate that news with his feet up.

As will Luke Thompson who picked up the Player Of The Year, the Players’ Player Of The Year and the Fans Player Of The Year awards at the club’s annual shindig earlier this week. Thompson has been phenomenal for Saints this year particular since the injury to Alex Walmsley placed huge pressure on the 23-year-old’s shoulders. Despite their fairly serene journey to the top of the Super League table the Saints pack has been challenged at times and occasionally clobbered. Thompson is just about the only one alongside the robotic James Roby who has stood up on a consistent basis. He’ll be sorely missed this week but if the rest leaves him at full throttle for next week it will have been worth it. Thompson has gone from a player with potential to a key performer in a relatively short space of time.

Roby is in that category of player too. The players who at their best can take a game away from almost any opponent by not only their ability but their sheer endless will to get the job done. Unlike Thompson, Roby needs this game having been out of the side through injury since the defeat to Wigan at the end of August. This could be the warm-up he needs to be at his absolute maximum level when it will matter most. He will lead a pack that is likely to again feature Luke Douglas and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook with Jack Ashworth, Matty Lees and Kyle Amor all fighting for game time too. Behind them Jon Wilkin is left out but Dominique Peyroux’s return to action at Warrington was incredibly timely with the knockout games around the corner. James Bentley has been superb in his first two Super League appearances for Saints and deserves another chance to stake his claim for a semi-final spot. Zeb Taia and Morgan Knowles should feature and Jake Spedding is recalled after he was left out for the trip to Warrington.

With Lomax out Matty Costello is drafted back into the 19 and will compete for a centre spot alongside Mark Percival and Ryan Morgan. The latter should play if possible, having only recently returned from another head injury. He was outstanding at Warrington and should be given the chance to build on that form. His defensive qualities in particular will be needed when the heat is turned up over the next couple of weeks. Lomax’s starting six role will likely be filled by Theo Fages with Ben Barba lining up at one behind the centres and the wing pair of Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace. Danny Richardson has seen Matty Smith off now to the extent that the former Wigan man’s third departure from Saints was officially announced last week. It will be interesting to see if the Fages/Richardson partnership gets a chance to gel having helped Saints rack up plenty of points during the 2017 season before the arrival of Barba. Yet whatever they do, you get the sense that Lomax will be inserted straight back into the halves so long as Barba is fit to play fullback.

As for Barba, it was finally announced this week that the Australian star will join North Queensland Cowboys for the start of the 2019 season. At a fans forum on Wednesday Eamonn McManus reiterated what Holbrook has been telling us for a while, that Barba has been carrying injuries for around the last 10 weeks, hence the dip in his form. The fact that his hypnotic return to form arrived just after the finalising of his NRL deal may or may not be a coincidence. If contract negotiations have some kind of healing power I might try it myself. I’ll just pop in and ask the boss for a raise on Monday morning and see what happens. It has to be better than travelling to Lourdes, sitting in a freezing cold bath and jabbering away under your breath at an alleged virgin. However it came to pass, Barba’s resurgence against the Wolves was a joy to watch and the kind of display that, if he can replicate it a couple more times before he leaves, will bring home the goods.

Our visitors are no doubt equally keen to get this one out of the way. Avoiding injuries and maximising preparation for next week are the goals for all four sides left in now. Tigers boss Daryl Powell has made four changes to his squad with that in mind. Michael Shenton won’t play on the ground where he wore the red vee with varying degrees of success at the start of the decade, while try machine Greg Eden is left out along with England forward Mike McMeeken and Junior Moors. Joe Wardle, Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e, Lewis Peachey and another former Saint Jamie Ellis come in to the 19 which again includes England half Luke Gale as he continues his return to full fitness. His battle with Richardson should be an intriguing one. Richardson has scored points in Saints last 32 games, currently the longest scoring streak in Super League.

Without Eden Greg Minikin is the star turn on the wing, with James Clare, Jake Webster and Peter Mata’utia likely to feature along the backline. Gale could be joined in the halves by either Jake Trueman who has made great strides in 2018 or by the rather more mature presence of Ben Roberts, by turns brilliant and perplexing. Though McMeeken and Moors do not feature the pack still includes Paul McShane, one of the better number nines in Super League this year, as well as former Hull FC prop Liam Watts, Jesse Sene-Lefao, Grant Millington and Adam Milner. It's a mobile unit with good hands which has allowed Castleford to play some of the more attractive rugby league on show over the last two seasons.

Castleford have not won in the town of St.Helens since 1992 when they recorded a 12-8 victory at Knowsley Road in the Regal Trophy. For their last league win at Saints you have to go back to a 29-16 win in 1990. They have yet to win at the stadium I like to call Langtree Park since its opening in 2012, in which time they have suffered nine straight defeats. That run includes a 46-6 pummelling on the opening day of this season when the Tigers came in as League Leaders Shield winners from 2017. That was the first of three meetings between the sides so far in 2018. Saints won 40-18 at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle at the end of May, that after a 36-18 win at the same venue just 12 days earlier in the Challenge Cup.

So will this be the phoney war that last week’s visit to Warrington was going to be before Mike Cooper introduced Bentley’s head to his forearm? Or will Castleford adopt the same approach as both Saints and Warrington from a week ago and fly in knowing that this is exactly the right time to show the other contenders that you have hit form? Cas have lost just one of their Super 8s games in 2018 when they went down 24-22 to Wigan in their opener and have won eight out of their last 10 in Super League all told. They have ratcheted up their performance levels as we have got closer to the endgame which is what winning Grand Finals in a playoff system is all about. It will be interesting to see how much desire they have to keep that winning run going, and whether their squad goes as deep as Saints’ given the men that both coaches have chosen to do without.

I don’t think Saints can help themselves now. Even with star names out those who will come in will be desperate to show that they can be relied upon in the knockout games if needed. Their slightly greater depth allied to their home advantage should just about see them home.

Squads;

St Helens;

2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Ryan Morgan, 4. Mark Percival, 6. Theo Fages, 9. James Roby, 10. Kyle Amor, 11. Zeb Taia, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 14. Luke Douglas, 15. Morgan Knowles, 17. Dom Peyroux, 18. Danny Richardson, 19. Regan Grace, 20. Matty Lees, 21. Jack Ashworth, 22. Jake Spedding, 23. Ben Barba, 24. James Bentley, 30. Matty Costello.


Castleford Tigers;

1. Ben Roberts, 2. Greg Minikin, 3. Jake Webster, 6. Jamie Ellis, 7. Luke Gale, 9. Paul McShane, 10. Grant Millington, 11. Oliver Holmes, 13. Adam Milner, 14. Nathan Massey, 15. Jesse Sene-Lefao, 16. Joe Wardle, 21. Jake Trueman, 23. Mitch Clark, 25. Will Maher, 26. James Clare, 32. Liam Watts, 34. Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e, 36. Peter Mata’utia.

Referee: Scott Mikalauskas