St Helens v Wigan Warriors - Preview

The month of a January is not yet out but Super League is back in your life. And with something of a loud bang. Grand Final winners Wigan are the visitors to League Leaders Shield holders Saints as the 2019 season begins on Thursday night (January 31, kick-off 7.45pm).

Saints and Wigan will be the first two sides to experience Super League’s new rule amendments in a competitive match. From this season only eight interchanges will be allowed from your four substitutes instead of 10, while so-called ‘shot-clocks’ will be used to attempt to speed the game up by eliminating time-wasting at scrums and drop-outs. The absurd free play rule has been given the kick into touch it has been longing for for years now, while if the two local rivals are level at the end of 80 minutes we will see the first period of Golden Point extra-time in a regular season game. It could be a late one. A late, snowy one.

There have been several changes in the Saints squad during the off season and that is reflected in coach Justin Holbrook’s first 19-man selection of the new campaign. Lachlan Coote, Kevin Naiqama and Joseph Paulo are all included and look set to make their Super League debuts for Saints. Coote replaces Ben Barba after he predictably cut short his stay at a Saints, taking the 2018 Steve Prescott Man Of Steel Award with him as he returned to the NRL with North Queensland Cowboys. Paulo looks a direct replacement for former skipper Jon Wilkin who has joined Toronto Wolfpack, while Naiqama will slot in at right centre ahead of Ryan Morgan who will spend this year on loan with newly-promoted London Broncos.

Ahead of Coote and alongside Naiqama the three-quarter line has a more home-grown feel to it. Tommy Makinson was linked with a move to the NRL after winning the Golden Boot for his outstanding performances in the autumn test series with New Zealand. The winger has thankfully agreed to delay fulfilling his NRL ambitions and remains. He will link up with a Naiqama on the right edge to try and offer the side more balance in attack. Mark Percival and Regan Grace have their moments of miss-communication but are a formidable prospect on the opposite side.

So far, so samey then. Yet in a recent interview building up to the derby clash Holbrook declared it ‘likely’ that Theo Fages will start at scrum half ahead of Danny Richardson. This represented the kind of u-turn that would look far fetched in Westminster given that Fages was left out of the 17 regularly towards the end of last season. When he did play it was not in the halves but as a relief option at hooker for the ageing but still brilliant James Roby. With Aaron Smith also emerging it seemed that Fages could be on his way out of the club, yet the Frenchman now seems set to be the one charged with guiding the team around the park alongside Jonny Lomax.

A pre-season groin injury suffered by Richardson appears to have guided Holbrook in this direction but Fages will be desperate to show that he can be trusted to keep the shirt. Richardson is now fit and also makes the squad. If he’s not selected it will be interesting to see how he responds having seemingly made the role his own last term. Holbrook may be playing mind games with his young half. He may be reacting purely to the fact that Richardson has been hampered by injury. Or the coach may be implementing the first steps towards a real change in the role. It’s an intriguing situation going into the first game of the season, especially given the identity of the opponents.

Alex Walmsley isn’t a new signing but his presence will feel like one for a while. The ex-Batley man missed almost the whole of last season with a neck injury suffered at Warrington in March. In his absence Luke Thompson emerged as the premier front rower in the country, making his England debut and sweeping all before him at the club’s annual awards bash. The prospect of both Walmsley and Thompson in the front row alongside Roby is a frightening one for other Super League clubs, although we should probably expect Walmsley to start on the bench with either Matty Lees or Jack Ashworth getting the run-on now that Luke Douglas is on loan at Leigh Centurions for a month. With Paulo to lock the scrum Morgan Knowles still has to bide his time, while Zeb Taia and Dominique Peyroux are a dynamic pair of second rowers even if they are advancing in years.

Knowles looks set to start on the bench alongside Walmsley and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, leaving Holbrook to decide whether to fill the remaining slot with either Ashworth, Lees or Kyle Amor from the pack options or else go with the extra back in Richardson. The latter is something that Holbrook went away from towards the end of last season despite then having Matty Smith on the payroll. With some apocalyptically awful weather forecast it might not be the night for returning to that philosophy.

Change has been a theme at Wigan too. Shaun Wane surprisingly announced his departure before the end of last season to take up a role in Scottish rugby union, a move which may or may not have been influenced by the club’s decision to let Sam Tomkins head for Catalans Dragons to spend more time with Mickey McIlorum. Or was the arrival of ticking time-bomb Zak Hardaker at the DW Stadium the straw that broke coach Wane’s silver back? Either way he’s out, with former half Adrian Lam keeping the hot-seat.....er.......hot before the planned arrival of Shaun Edwards in 2020. It’s a risk by the Wigan hierarchy who must hope that if things get tough the players stay on message with Lam rather than electing to kill time before he is replaced. Lam could become a bit of a lame duck.

Meanwhile Hardaker could take Barba’s role as the league’s best fullback but for a limited time only in all likelihood. The former Leeds and Castleford man had not yet returned from his drugs ban before he found himself answering awkward questions from people in uniform about drink-driving. Yet this being early in the season he’s expected to behave himself long enough to give Saints significant problems, though it could yet be at centre rather than the fullback role we are used to seeing him fill. Dom Manfredi made a triumphant return to action to score twice in the Grand Final victory over Warrington in 2018 but looks set to miss the opener with fluid on his knee. That will allow Liam Marshall another opportunity on the wing opposite Tom Davies, with Oliver Gildart at centre alongside Hardaker or maybe Dan Sarginson or Willie Isa.

In the halves the loss of Tomkins could offer an opportunity to Morgan Escare. The Frenchman can also operate at fullback which would leave George Williams to partner one of Sam Powell or Thomas Leuleua in the scheming room. New signing Jarrod Sammutt is not in contention having picked up a two-game ban for getting a bit handsy with the referee in a recent friendly with Salford Red Devils.

Wigan’s pack will be missing the niggly, pest-like awfulness of John Bateman after he joined Canberra Raiders at the end of last term. He’s joined there by the rather less longed for Ryan Sutton and with Joel Tomkins having taken his pub banter to Kingston-Upon-Hull it could be up to veterans Liam Farrrell and Sean O’Loughlin along with former Saint Joe Greenwood to provide a spark in the back row. Tony Clubb and Ben Flower will be their despicable selves in the front row with perhaps Powell at hooker. Gabe Hamlin, Taulima Tautai, Romain Navarrette and new signing Joe Bullock complete Lam’s first Super League squad selection.

It’s always so hard to predict the outcome of a derby but the degree of difficulty goes up when it’s the opening game of a new season. Both sides will have key personnel to bed in and consequently some adaptations to make before they hit full tilt. Ideally you wouldn’t schedule the league’s marquee fixture on the opening day when both teams are likely to be a little under done. You can see the thinking behind it, and some of the promotion around the new season has been more noticeable with this match, the Hull derby and Warrington versus Leeds all on the first weekend. Yet I can’t help but feel we will get lower quality versions of these match-ups than we might see when they meet later in the season. Saints v Wigan will be intense, but expect a high error count especially if the forecasted wintry conditions materialise.

All that said I can’t possibly start the season by suggesting a home loss in a derby so I’m going for Saints to edge it by six. Hopefully without the need for a Golden Point. There’s nothing wrong with a draw and anyway, it’s absolutely blue out there.

Squads;

St Helens;

Jonny Lomax, Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Mark Percival, Regan Grace, Theo Fages, Danny Richardson, Alex Walmsley, James Roby, Luke Thompson, Zeb Taia, Joseph Paulo, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Morgan Knowles, Dominique Peyroux, Matty Lees, Jack Ashworth, Lachlan Coote.

Wigan Warriors;

Joe Bullock, Tony Clubb, Tom Davies, Morgan Escare, Liam Farrell, Ben Flower, Oliver Gildart, Joe Greenwood, Gabe Hamlin, Zak Hardaker, Willie Isa, Thomas Leuleuai, Liam Marshall, Romain Navarrete, Sean O’Loughlin, Sam Powell, Dan Sarginson, Talima Tautai, George Williams.

Referee: Robert Hicks