5 Talking Points From Saints 22 Wigan Warriors 12

The Fages-Richardson Debate

Many observers, including this one, were surprised when Saints coach Justin Holbrook announced in the days leading up to the start of the season that Theo Fages would be likely to get the nod at halfback ahead of Danny Richardson. The latter saw off competition from Matty Smith throughout last season and seemed to have made the position his own as Saints stormed the League Leaders Shield before running out of steam in the playoffs. Few were putting the semi-final defeat on Richardson's shoulders. He's young, he will learn from it and we will all be better off for it in the long run seemed to be the popular view.

By contrast Fages spent the business end of 2018 out in the cold. Almost as cold as it was at the game on Thursday night. Alright, not quite that cold. But his role as a back-up hooker to James Roby was dispensed with completely by Holbrook as the games got bigger last year which was arguably one of the key reasons why Saints didn't quite have enough when it really mattered. A pre-season groin injury has apparently been troubling Richardson and with Smith now in the south of France Fages was given the opportunity to stake a claim. A home win over our bitterest rivals, coupled with a stunning defensive display might suggest that the argument is now leaning heavily in Fages favour and that Richardson will do well to displace the Frenchman when he regains full fitness.

Yet closer inspection shows that not only did Fages miss six of his 24 attempted tackles, he also failed to convince with ball in hand. Too many wrong decisions still blight Fages’ game. He's a busy, industrious player as his defensive stats show. Not too many halfbacks attempt 24 tackles in a game. Luke Walsh would have been happy with that figure by the end of June. But Fages' ability to choose the right pass particularly close to the opponents line when the opportunity to score presents itself leaves a lot to be desired. The same is true of Richardson, who last season often turned himself inside out and tied himself in knots looking for an option on the last play without consistently coming up with a good one. Perhaps the truth is that both Saints halfbacks are still learning the position and neither can truly command a game of this magnitude at this stage of their careers. Saints play at Wakefield in a week’s time and if Richardson is fit it will be fascinating to see if Holbrook persists with Fages in the role. Only when Richardson is fully fit will we have any real clues as to whether the decision to opt for Fages is a sign of things to come or a sticking plaster.

Amor Appears To Have A Future At Saints

Another player defiantly clinging on to a spot in the line-up is Kyle Amor. All winter there have been suggestions that the former Leeds and Wakefield man would be on his way out of Saints, with Salford and London rumoured to have been offered a chance to sign him. To his credit Amor decided to stay and fight for his place, a task which did not look easy with Alex Walmsley back in the mould alongside England star Luke Thompson. That frightening pair is backed up by the emerging talents of Matty Lees and Jack Ashworth, and with Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook also able to operate in the middle things looked bleak for Amor. Yet Luke Douglas' loan move to Leigh Centurions took many by surprise and opened a door for Amor who was surprisingly named in the match day 17 for the derby.

His stat line is not amazing. Just five carries for 34 metres at a rate of 6.80 metres a carry. That is not going to have Wayne Bennett knocking on the door to enquire whether Amor might like to represent England instead of Ireland. But it wasn't a great night for individual metre-making in any case. Only Walmsley and Zeb Taia topped the 100-metre mark among Saints' pack men. The mere fact that Amor managed to fight through the off-season adversity to earn a place in the squad is a sign that his time at Saints might not be done just yet. Amor made 21 tackles, missing only two, playing his part in what was a huge defensive effort from Saints in the second half especially. Wigan had got back into the game at 12-12 just before half-time but they would not trouble the scorers again after the oranges. If Amor can bring that kind of defensive effort and stability to the party every week then he might well be able to delay the establishment of Lees and Jack Ashworth as regulars in the side. Which would represent a significant turnaround since Amor’s removal from the scene looked inevitable towards the end of 2018.

The New Boys

While familiar names were offered new beginnings Holbrook also introduced Saints three new signings for their Super League debuts. Kevin Naiqama didn’t take long to have an impact, opening his try-scoring account for Saints inside the first three minutes. The former Wests Tigers man looked a threat throughout, finally offering balance to the Saints attack. It has been somewhat left-sided in recent years as Saints have struggled to find a right-sided centre to match the strike power of Mark Percival on the other flank. They may have found one in Naiqama who, though well policed after his early score, certainly gave the Wigan defenders on that edge plenty to think about.

Many wondered whether fullback Lachlan Coote could really replace Ben Barba. The early signs are that he can, if not quite in the same way. Coote won’t go on too many 90-metre tears through the opposition defence but he has a fine passing game and what looks a pretty high rugby league IQ. Defensively he looks extremely confident and assured, sweeping up a lot of the danger with some excellent positional play. Where Barba’s speed and athleticism could help him defensively Coote looks to do much of the hard work in his head, anticipating what’s going to happen in enough time to get his body there to do something about it. The one blemish was the interception he threw which led to Liam Marshall’s try just before half-time. Yet this is Saints, a club where the taking of risks is celebrated and encouraged. We’d probably rather have that than a player who continually sticks the ball up his jumper so we can stay in The Grind. Coote’s pass was a fraction away from finding Naiqama in space and if it had then either the Fijian or Tommy Makinson outside of him would have strolled in and given Saints a double-digit lead at the break. That’s the gamble, as they used to say on Bullseye. There’s much more to come from Coote.

Perhaps the only slight disappointment among the trio was Joseph Paulo. The former Cronulla man came off the bench into the back row but was not as ubiquitous as Morgan Knowles who started the game. While the Welsh international racked up 39 tackles and carried the ball eight times Paulo had a more modest 25 tackles and only five carries. What is impressive about the former USA and Samoa man is that he didn’t miss any tackles. Paulo is seen as a direct replacement for Jon Wilkin so that defensive solidity is a vital part of the job description. Hopefully on warmer evenings than this we will see more of Paulo as a ball-playing forward too.

Shot-Clock...What Have We Learned?

Thursday night's game saw the first use of the new regulations brought in to Super League for 2019, chief among which is the introduction of a so-called 'shot-clock' at scrums and drop-outs. This has been in operation in the NRL for some time now and is aimed at preventing the tiresome time-wasting that goes on in these dead ball situations. For the last few years in particular Super League has been a place where any hint of a dead ball has been an instant cue for some opportunist player, feeling the pace a little after being under a bit of defensive pressure, to hit the deck and encourage some kind of treatment from the physio before the game restarts.

The ‘shot clock’ tag is a bit of a misnomer. In basketball teams have 24 seconds to get a shot off at their opponents basket otherwise they lose possession. There is no time limit on completing a possession in rugby league. It’s more like the ‘play clock’ used in the NFL whereby an offensive team has a set amount of time to restart the game at set plays or else face a penalty. The consensus is that rugby league’s version did help speed the game up. Both halves clocked in at under 45 minutes of real time whereas in the recent past it was not uncommon for halves in televised games to run on way past the 50-minute mark. Yet we should remember that there was only one occasion during the entire 80 minutes when the video referee was brought into play. This is an extraordinarily low mark compared with most games in recent seasons where you could expect five or six incidents to be reviewed. If, alongside the introduction of the ‘shot-clock’ referees are being encouraged to use technology less then we’ll be making some headway. If this game was the exception from what will continue to be the norm then don’t expect to get home early too often from the game if it is on TV.

No Way Back To Saints For Barba

Fans of schadenfreude will have smirked at the news that while Saints were busy winning this derby opener their former star Barba was blowing yet another chance at the NRL. Barba seemed to give the impression that he couldn’t get away from St Helens fast enough once North Queensland Cowboys showed their interest in him, yet before a ball has been kicked in the NRL in 2019 he has been sacked by the Cowboys following an incident at a Townsville casino. With the incident having been reported to the NRL’s integrity unit and legal proceedings possibly to follow it would seem that the only way for Barba to further his rugby league career might be a return to Super League.

Of course a prosecution could take that off the table but even in the best case scenario for Barba, a scenario in which he is cleared of the heinous acts he is alleged to have committed, he should not be bailed out again by Saints. Barba had no thought of playing for Saints until his drugs ban and very likely no thought of returning once he left. If he’s considering it now it’s far too late. Saints should not be here to rescue the careers of wayward stars who have talked the talk but demonstrably failed to walk the walk in terms of loyalty. Let’s remember that Barba didn’t even see fit to see out his contract at Saints despite the fact that he constantly wittered on about how happy and settled he was in England. I would stop short of rewriting history as some have, claiming that he stopped trying in July and was not a deserved winner of the Steve Prescott Man Of Steel Award. That title is based on what you do on the field. It isn’t the NFL’s Walter Payton Man Of The Year Award which takes into account off-field behaviour and community work. From that point of view Barba was the only choice in 2018. We can’t take that away from him just as we can’t take Zak Hardaker’s 2015 title away from him on account of his subsequent behaviour. But we can and should move on from Barba. Coote has been brought in as a replacement and looks a safer pair of hands in every respect. Let’s get behind him now and leave the memories of Barba in the past.