5 Talking Points From Saints 27 Leeds Rhinos 22

Saints Caught Short At Centre



The problems started early in this squeaky-bum 27-22 win over Leeds Rhinos. Less than 90 seconds had gone by when new recruit Kevin Naiqama was struck by some friendly fire from Luke Thompson while assisting the England prop in the tackle. Naiqama was down with play held up for several minutes before he was escorted from the field never to return. Swelling around the Fijian’s eye suggested perhaps some vision problems but he also failed a concussion test.

A lack of vision was not just a problem for Naiqama. Saints coach Justin Holbrook had clearly reckoned without the possibility of an injury to one of his starting centres when he allowed first Ryan Morgan to go on loan to London Broncos and then Matty Costello to be selected by Leigh Centurions this week on dual registration. Even the most ardent supporters of Louie McCarthy- Scarsbrook must have felt their hearts sink when the former Bronco was the man spotted warming up to replace Naiqama. Echoes of Salford away a couple of years ago when Keiron Cunningham was rightly pummelled In this column for foisting McCarthy-Scarsbrook upon our three-quarter line. Now here was Holbrook committing the same sin. It was either that or move Dominique Peyroux to the centres from the second row. Advocates of this idea have clearly forgotten how Peyroux struggled in the role when he first joined Saints. Holbrook was stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place but in letting both Morgan and Costello play elsewhere had made his own bed.

A Half Of Two Halves

The enforced change didn’t seem to affect Saints early on as they raced into a 10-0 lead with tries from Theo Fages and Jonny Lomax. There was a touch of fortune about both. Fages could easily have been penalised for a double movement after he’d picked up a loose ball deep in Leeds territory and slid over. The video evidence seemed to show that Fages had not grounded the ball initially and only did so after a second movement with the arm. Crucially, referee Robert Hicks had sent the call up as a try leaving it arguable that there was insufficient evidence to change that decision. Soon after, Mark Percival’s desperate attempt to make up for his failure to find Lomax for what would have been a walk in was batted towards his own in-goal by a Leeds defender and the ball fell kindly for Lomax to touch down. That score was set up by a defence-splitting 50-metre break from Regan Grace and when Lomax had another try chalked off by the video referee Saints looked like they might post a big score.

That’s when the tide started to turn. Leeds dominated the second quarter of the match. Konrad Hurrell became unplayable against the beleaguered McCarthy-Scarsbrook and the rest of Saints right edge defence. Kallum Watkins had already got Leeds back into the game when Grace had gone for a walk out of the defensive line but it was Hurrell who put Saints in a half-time hole. The ex-Gold Coast man scored one try, made another for the scourge of Saints Ash Handley and was involved in two more which were disallowed for forward passes. Dazed and confused, Saints then allowed Mikolaj Oledzki to escape four men close to the line to give Leeds what looked a comfortable 22-10 advantage at the break.



Walmsley Casts A Spell And Answers The Bell



What can you do in four minutes and 24 seconds? Keeping your answers to that question clean you can add single-handedly turning around a rugby league game to your list. Alex Walmsley’s last contribution to the first half was a wild pass which flew into touch from around 30 metres away from the sideline. Like a lot of Saints handling in the first 40 minutes it was sloppy, careless, desperate and what cricketers describe as distinctly ‘village’.

Walmsley emerged from the dressing room with a determination to do something about it. In not much more time than it takes for your average video referee decision to be made the big prop crashed over for two tries to haul Saints back into contention. Before the 50-minute mark a 22-10 deficit had been cut to 22-20. Walmsley’s second try was particularly memorable, snatching a James Roby pass which looked bound for Morgan Knowles out of the air in routine fashion before crashing and spinning through several Leeds defenders to touch down. Four minutes and 24 seconds was all that had passed between the moment Walmsley touched down for his first try and the moment he plonked down his second. It was one of the more bewildering spells since David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear some time during the Cold War. It was also a remarkable effort from Walmsley, a man who spent 10 months out of action after fracturing a bone in his neck last March. Former NBA coach and now revered broadcaster Hubie Brown once spoke of Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas ‘answering the bell’. That is taking over a game when your team needs it most, as if answering some sort of alarm bell in your head telling you that it’s time to act. Here was Walmsley, just a few months on from questioning his entire career, answering the bell emphatically and decisively.



The Calls That Went Our Way



Despite Walmsley’s heroics Saints could only add one more try in the second half. Luke Thompson produced a fair impression of Tommy Martyn when he capped a fine 133-metre performance (Walmsley racked up 115) with dummies to both Roby and Lachlan Coote before ghosting through the Leeds line to score. Yet Saints were still living on their nerves throughout a tense second half and were reliant on a couple of key decisions going their way to cement the win.

From my position at the back of the North a Stand it looked very much like Tui Lolohea had snatched victory for Leeds as he crashed over by the posts. However Hicks was less convinced and sent the decision up for review as ‘no try’. He had seen what I and probably many others hadn’t, namely Percival’s magnificent effort in keeping the Rhinos new stand-off recruit from grounding the ball. The Saints man somehow managed to get every conceivable body part under Lolohea as he attempted to force the ball down. Still replays seemed to suggest that some part of the ball had to have touched the ground. Percival can only cover so much of the turf. Yet since Hicks’ original decision had been ‘no try’ the lack of any conclusive video evidence meant that the call could not be overturned.

If that call was the right one according to the video review process there was less to support Hicks’ failure to restart the tackle count when Leeds were pressing near the Saints line soon after. The ball was offloaded out of a tackle and clearly played at by Knowles. It was a touch that went unseen by Hicks as Leeds saw what turned out to be their last real chance to attack the Saints line slip away. With 54 tackles, 14 of them at marker perhaps the young Welshman had earned his slice of luck. Leeds can feel aggrieved but you have to credit a Saints defence which had been tormented in the first 40 minutes but which held the Rhinos scoreless after half-time. Even McCarthy-Scarsbrook fared better after the break as Hurrell seemed to run out of gas. Part of that was undoubtedly down to Saints controlling the ball better in the second half and so forcing David Furner’s men to use more energy in defence.



Kicking Concerns



There was much talk about Saints kicking game going into and during this one. With Danny Richardson still out of favour Percival struggled with the goal-kicking responsibilities, while in general play Fages still doesn’t offer the variety and quality that a top side needs. But then neither did Richardson. Percival made two and missed two with the boot while Coote missed his only attempt.

The argument that Saints would have won more more comfortably had this percentage been higher is overly simplistic. Leeds missed a goal of their own so if every goal-kicker in this game operates at 100% in terms of success rate the game ends 33-24 to Saints. Slightly more convincing but not exactly a walkover. In addition, most fans’ idea of a solution to the problem is to have Richardson in the team ahead of Fages. But if you do that then everything in the game is different. You’ve all seen Sliding Doors. Does Richardson go over for the albeit dubious try that Fages scored in the early minutes? Does he make the 27 tackles that Fages made? Does he miss more or less than the two that the French captain botched? The smart money suggests more. Richardson is out of the team due to his pre-season injury but also due to his poor last tackle decisions and his suspect defence. You can’t keep a player in the side only because he’s good at kicking goals. That’s why Jamie Foster didn’t play as many games for Saints as his early performances suggested he might. So many other aspects of a game can change when you use one player versus another that it can never be boiled down to just whether or not he would have kicked a few goals. This isn’t the NFL where kickers do not get involved in any other facet of the game. There’s nowhere to hide in rugby league.

Lastly today another player who might make a different decision on his kicking game if he had his time again is Roby. The England hooker dropped his first goal for Saints in the last minute. A first in over 400 appearances of a remarkable career. Yet as he admitted himself afterwards the decision to take the one-pointer was probably not the right call. It offered Leeds an opportunity to get the ball back from a short kick-off. A firm grubber behind the Leeds line might have been a better option. Make them go 90 metres to score to get back into it rather than a potential 40 from a short kick-off. Thankfully Leeds didn’t get the ball back from the restart and Saints hung on. And with two try-assists, 114 metres gained and 47 tackles made the skipper can be rightly proud of his efforts once more. Perhaps he’s entitled to a brief moment of self-indulgence. He continues to drag his team-mates along with him to new heights. Yet the perfectionist in him means we probably won’t see the second drop-goal of his career if he’s ever faced with the same situation again.