Saints started the season with Keiron Cunningham in his second season in charge. Leeds had knocked Saints out of the race to Old Trafford in 2015 at the semi-final stage. There was a score to settle, and not just for that defeat but perhaps for the four Grand Final losses handed out to Saints by Leeds between 2007 and 2011. It would turn out to be a small measure of revenge in another season which ended in defeat at the last four stage. At least this time it was Warrington, rather than Leeds, who brought about Saints downfall. If you put me in a room with Ben Thaler for an afternoon he would still fail to convince me that Warrington scored a single fair try that night. But it was different, and variety is the spice of life after all.
Saints had opened their season in 2016 with four wins from their first five league games, but it was Leeds who ended that run with a 30-18 win at Headingley in mid March. Saints then suffered the indignity of a Good Friday home loss to Wigan, going down 24-12. From four wins out of five in the league it was now three defeats from seven. Inconsistency plagued Saints thereafter, with a 20-12 success at Widnes followed by a one-point defeat at home to Hull FC thanks to Marc Sneyd’s drop-goal. Saints then went to Warrington and earned a 25-22 win in a pulsating contest but the joy was not to last, Catalans Dragons sweeping into town and leaving with a 30-12 win in mid April.
By the time the Rhinos arrived at Langtree Park on April 22 Saints had 6 wins from 11 league matches, the very definition of inconsistency. Questions were starting to be asked about Cunningham’s leadership but most of all about his tactical acumen. A conservative, one-out style of rugby that the legendary hooker lovingly referred to weekly as ‘The Grind’ was driving fans to distraction. It was one thing to be inconsistent, but to be so in a style that had fans murmuring about how it was just like watching union was something different. Saints fans had been brought up on a high-risk style of entertaining rugby which they demanded win or lose. The pressure was on Cunningham to deliver entertainment in addition to a win that would keep his side among the challengers for a top four play-off spot.
Lucky for him then that he had Lomax returning from injury. Having debuted in 2009 Lomax had been out of the side since a 20-16 win at Wakefield Trinity on March 6 2015. More than a year had passed then since he last wore the red vee thanks to a recurrence of the knee troubles that plagued the early years of his career. Ordinarily a fullback at the time, Lomax slotted into the centres for this one alongside Mark Percival with Jack Owens and a pre-Jones Matty Dawson on the wings. Jordan Turner had been shifted around from his centre position in what was turn out to be his final season at Saints but was out injured in any case. Dominique Peyroux was yet to develop into the fans favourite that Cunningham told you he would be but was also an injury absentee. Those who spend furious hours bashing their keyboard with gripes about the current team under Justin Holbrook might also like to reflect that as well as Owens and Dawson Cunningham selected Shannon McDonnell at fullback, Lama Tasi at prop and celebrity Millwall fan Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook in the second row. Greg Richards and Atelea Vea waited on the bench for an opportunity to provide their own unique brand of havoc. It’s less than three years ago, but these were different times.
It took just four minutes for Lomax to make his mark. James Roby made a trademark dart from dummy half and as he was about to be tackled he twisted to look for support. He found it in Lomax, who took Roby’s offload and cruised through the gap as if he and knee injuries were absolute strangers. Heading towards the south east corner of the ground he found Ashton Golding had the angle to cut him off. No problem, Lomax simply jinked inside the Leeds man as well as the then reigning Man Of Steel Zak Hardaker and trotted in unopposed by the side of the post. In that moment the atmosphere was probably the best it had been since the move to Langtree Park in 2012, even taking into account the League Leaders Shield and Grand Final double of 2014. A local lad making his return from a lengthy spell on the side-lines was just the spark the fans needed to raise the roof. Had there been one. For that joyful moment all misty-eyed talk of the Knowsley Road atmosphere was forgotten and Langtree Park became a cauldron of excitement.
Just two minutes later Saints added to their lead when Luke Walsh cut the Rhinos defence to bits on the left edge before handing on to some bloke called Greenwood for Saints second try. Nobody knows what happened to Greenwood. It is believed he fell down a dark hole and was never spoken of again. But on that night he was all potential and no shortage of skill on Saints’ left edge. His try had given Saint a 10-0 lead against a Rhinos side whose confidence was already brittle following a start to the season which had seen them manage just three league wins from 11 outings. It was to be a long year for the defending champions, who finished outside the top eight by the end and had to suffer the indignity of playing for their Super League survival in the now defunct 'Middle Eight' qualifiers.
Yet there wasn't too much wrong with Leeds' morale on this night. They answered Saints early scores when Rob Burrow made one of 1746 breaks he made against Saints in his career. The move was finished off by Golding who got on the end of Liam Sutcliffe’s crossfield kick after a good offload from Jamie Jones-Buchanan. Golding was involved again in the try which levelled the scores at 10-10, weaving his way out of tackles on the right before the ball was shifted to the left where Burrow had an easy run-in. Saints inconsistencies were becoming a problem again, a 10-point lead obliterated in just over 20 minutes of a frantic first half. Leeds were in front seven minutes from half-time when Jimmy Keinhorst, last seen breaking black and white hearts with a try four seconds from the end of the Hull derby in early February, strolled in after more good work from Sutcliffe.
Saints needed a boost before half-time, and they found it thanks to Lomax once again. Kyle Amor had been held up 10 metres short of the line and when the ball was subsequently switched from Roby to Walsh there was Lomax to gather in the latter’s exquisite kick to the in-goal area. Saints were back level at 16-16 at half-time and it had largely been down to Lomax’s individual brilliance and opportunism.
A different kind of brilliance and opportunism was on show for Saints next try. Amor careered into Harkaker as the England fullback tried to bring the ball away from his own-goal line. Uncharacteristically Hardaker spilled the ball back towards his own in-goal area and it was Amor who reacted first to claim the four-pointer. No doubt Hardaker would not have let it go had it been a pint of Guinness. Nevertheless Saints now led 20-16 with six minutes gone by in the second half. Again Leeds responded, Ash Handley going 60 metres unopposed for what would have been the try of most other matches had we not witnessed Lomax’s early contribution. McDonnell and Owens were left in Handley’s wake but it was Amor who had missed the original tackle on him in the defensive line. From the sublime to the ridiculous. Down by two points at 22-20 Saints struck again as that Greenwood fellow claimed his second try following Roby’s incisive inside ball 12 minutes into a second half that was turning out to be every bit as incident-packed as the first. Five minutes later it was Theo Fages’ turn to take a Roby pass all the way to what NFL fans call ‘the house’, the Frenchman ghosting inside the Leeds cover in the manner of an actual stand-off. This was most unlike Cunningham’s side but everybody seemed to be having a good time of it.
Yet Leeds would not go away despite their now 10-point deficit at 32-22 as Anthony Mullally crashed through some very ordinary tackles close to the Saints line. That brought Leeds back to within four points at 32-28 with 14 minutes on the clock. Fages showed his class once more just three minutes later, first forcing Mitch Garbutt to lose the ball in a thunderous challenge before holding off a couple of Leeds defenders to go over by the posts for the second of his brace. It was a move that also included some powerful running by Atelea Vea down the Saints right-hand channel. Saints were now keeping the ball alive in the traditional style and it was paying dividends with the score now 38-28 with just 10 minutes left. Leeds had the last word when Keinhorst claimed his second but Saints hung on for a memorable 38-34 win.
In many ways the match was a microcosm of the seasons of the teams taking part. One minute they were brilliant, the next woeful as they meandered along. This loss to Saints was the first of a run of seven consecutive defeats in all competitions for Leeds, who would not taste victory again until an 8-0 squeak past Salford Red Devils. They finished the season with three straight wins, seeing off both Hull clubs and Wigan during that run, but it wasn't enough to secure them a place in the Super 8s. Instead they took on the likes of Featherstone, Batley and London Broncos throughout August, a huge embarrassment for a club that has won everything in sight just 12 months earlier.
Saints too struggled to find any momentum before their somewhat unjust semi-final debacle at Warrington. They scraped into the playoffs in fourth place. They won at Castleford a week after this Leeds classic, but were humiliatingly dumped out of the Challenge Cup at home to Hull FC. The black and whites, on their way to the first of back-to-back cup wins, demolished Saints 47-16 on their own patch in what has to go down as one of the lowest moments of the Cunningham tenure. That was the second of four defeats on the bounce for Saints as they had already been thrashed 48-20 by Huddersfield Giants at the Magic Weekend in Newcastle. That match was memorable for Cunningham's decision to start Calvin Wellington in the centres and then hastily remove him after he made an unfortunate handling error that led to a Giants try. Wellington was not seen in the first team again.
Defeats to Hull FC (again), Warrington and Catalans Dragons followed for Saints before they somehow sparked back into life with five wins in a row. Hull KR, Wakefield, Widnes, Huddersfield and most pleasingly Wigan were all dismissed over the last five weeks of the season. They had momentum going into the playoffs but were halted by Warrington in that controversial semi-final. Perhaps it was a blessing. A team as inconsistent as Saints were in 2016 would have been at serious risk of a hammering by a Wigan side that was, as many of the top sides do, just beginning to find its form on its way to a fourth Grand Final win.
Cunningham lasted barely another year following on from the win over Leeds. Statue or not, he was sacked in April 2017 following a dismal home draw with Huddersfield that had seen Saints take a 14-0 half-time lead only to see it evaporate after the break under a hail of Danny Brough bombs, grubbers and goal-kicks. Meanwhile Lomax has gone from strength to strength under the guidance of Holbrook, developing into one of the premier stand-offs in Super League when many had written of his ability to play in the halves early in his career. The acquisition of Ben Barba forced Lomax back into the six role but since the departure of truck-driving anti-hero Barba the England man has kept the role and excelled in the early part of 2019 in which he is enjoying a well deserved testimonial. So much so that Lachlan Coote has been recruited to replace Barba, which should mean that we will be treated to more of Lomax's performances at stand-off in years to come providing he can stay fit.
Should he do so he might just look back on this night in April 2016 as the moment his career turned around.
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