5 Talking Points From Saints 48 Wakefield Trinity 10

Saints - Now Even Stronger

The way in which Saints dismissed Castleford Tigers in last week’ Magic Weekend clash at Anfield seemed to impress everybody. It was a clinical dismantling of Daryl Powell’s side which had everyone nodding in agreement at the notion that Justin Holbrook’s men are on a different level to the rest of Super League right now. It was hard to see how they could improve too much, and although there were numerous errors and scrappy periods in this 48-10 Coral Challenge Cup demolition of Wakefield Trinity there were also ominous signs for those sides trying to bridge the gap to Saints.

For the first time since the Easter weekend Holbrook was able to call on the services of England internationals Luke Thompson and Mark Percival. Neither was spectacular. Thompson was solid enough after missing the last six games in league and cup through injury, while seven matches have gone by since Percival last crabbed his way along an opposition defensive line at first team level. But imagine planning to face what is already the standout team in the country and then being tapped on the shoulder and told ‘oh, by the way....the best prop and centre in the competition are turning up this week to add to the mob that destroyed Cas last week’. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook also returned to the 17 to add further depth to Holbrook’s options. It was almost unfair.

It was always going to be a tough ask for a Trinity side missing David Fifita and still shorn of the talents of Bill Tupou, Tom Johnstone and Tinirau Arona, even if their first choice halfback pairing of Danny Brough and Jacob Miller were reunited. Brough was trying everything to haul his side into the game but was mithered to death by Morgan Knowles among others. Knowles was everywhere in the first half, perhaps enjoying his best game of the season so far. Twice Brough resorted to kicking on play one as Saints’ punishing defence took hold. Meanwhile on the other side of the ball enough breaks were made and enough passes stuck to give the score line a bit of gloss by the end.


Holbrook Holds His Horses

That extra strength in depth was something that Holbrook didn’t feel the need for in the first 40 minutes. Remarkably, it wasn’t until the start of the second half that McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Joseph Paulo and Matty Lees were introduced from the interchange bench. Alex Walmsley, Thompson and Knowles were the men to initially make way for a Saints side which had already built a 26-6 lead by then. Standard practice in this era of multiple interchanges is to introduce some fresh horses midway through the first half. Twenty minutes is generally considered to be the optimum time span for front rowers in particular to make an impact before their energy starts to wane. Critics of the modern game say that particular convention is coaching by numbers and that we are losing the art of reactive game management.

Now, it might just be that Holbrook forgot about his bench. Things were going reasonably well and coaches do have an awful lot to think about during a game. Especially during the first half when they are plotting which words of wisdom to impart on their troops at the break. However, my suspicion is that this was a deliberate blitz strategy by Holbrook. Throw your biggest guns onto the field and charge at the opposition, who remember are depleted, for 40 minutes and then take the opportunity to give them a more prolonged rest in the second half. Having not played for so long it was arguably a risk to test Thompson’s stamina with a stint of that length, but he seemed to come through it ok. He does need minutes after his lay-off so why not get them in fewer, longer spells? And why give the opposition a break from the absolute wrecking ball that is a Walmsley until you feel he absolutely needs the rest? It will be fascinating to see if this approach was specifically designed for a banged up Wakefield or whether it will become a regular feature of Holbrook’s management of games.

Taia Proves His Worth

It’s been a fairly busy week on the squad-building front for Saints with the futures of two first team members decided, albeit with vastly differing outcomes. First it was announced that Adam Swift would be leaving the club at the end of the year after signing a two-year contract with Hull FC. That was followed by the altogether happier news that Zeb Taia has agreed a new one-year deal which will keep him at the club until the end of 2020.

Taia isn’t everyone’s favourite. The grumbling has only recently died down from those who felt he was an inadequate replacement for Joe Greenwood when the latter decided to try his hand in the NRL with Gold Coast Titans. That he subsequently pitched up at Wigan only ramped up the ire even further. In the aftermath of Greenwood’s departure Taia has been branded lazy and a liability by some, while others have added a couple of years on to his actual age of 34 to serve as evidence that he should be moved on.

Yet here he was running the show against Chris Chester’s men in this one. He ran all over Trinity all afternoon, setting up tries for Regan Grace and Jonny Lomax and helping himself to another as he took Paulo’s pass to crash through the visitors’ defensive line and stroll over untouched. It was quite the cap to quite the performance.

The match day sponsors chose Lomax as Man Of The Match, something I couldn’t get on board with after he signalled 10 minutes to referee Chris Kendall before he had the chance to pull out the yellow card for Ryan Hampshire’s professional foul late in the first half. This is not how we conduct ourselves. It isn’t football, littered as The Beautiful Game now is with absurdly paid prima donnas waving imaginary cards at officials. Taia took the TV award and deservedly so. If this is the sort of form he is going to display then why wouldn’t we want him in our ranks for another 12 months at least?

While I’m perched atop the soapbox a word too on the classless treatment of Danny Kirmond who went off injured in the first half. Kirmond met with two mischiefs in the space of a few minutes, the first of which was a leg injury for which Kendall mistakenly stopped the game with Saints in a scoring position, believing the Wakefield man might be suffering from a head injury. After a long delay Kirmond began to hobble towards the sideline before deciding he might instead try to run it off. He jogged back into the defensive line whereupon the widespread booing which may have started in response to Kendall’s mis-diagnosis began again. It was accompanied with some wholly unnecessary abuse by those near me in the north stand which continued, sad to say, when Kirmond was forced from the field moments later.

Is this where we’re at now? Even if the initial reaction was to Kendall’s halting of play what are we booing that for? He’s not a doctor and he has no business taking chances with the health of the players.

Where Were You When We Were Good?

We’ve established what a joy it is to watch Saints at the moment. This game was no different as they ran in another eight tries shared out between eight different players. Taia was putting on a clinic while Lomax, Grace, Knowles, Lachlan Coote and Tommy Makinson also stood out. Holbrook’s outfit is a well oiled machine at the moment. One you’d pay good money to see.

Only many people who normally do, didn’t. Saints average around 10,000 for a home Super League game yet could muster only a paltry 6,453 for this one. Chief among the reasons given for the no-shows appears to be the pricing of tickets. I paid £22 to secure my regular spot which I consider an absolutely reasonable fee in comparison with the going rate for tickets to watch other sports or bloody Beyoncé gigs.

Yet many disagreed. Season ticket holders are aggrieved at having to pay full whack for cup games and feel that some sort of loyalty incentive or discount would be fairer. Others feel that cup tickets should just be cheaper across the board. I would fully support the former and the latter is maybe worth considering to help boost attendances but on the other hand why are these games considered less valuable? We spend every summer barfing on about how the playoffs reduce the regular season games to the level of glorified friendlies yet we’re not willing to pay the going rate for the few games we do have at home that are genuinely crucial knockout affairs. The cup has gone stale we moan, right before we get straight on to Facebook to ask when we can buy Wembley tickets and whether we can park on Tesco next week.

Some suggested also that the Champions League Final had an effect, and pointed the finger at the club for the clash. But the Saints fan base consists not only of Liverpool fans but also largely of Manchester United, Everton and....post Sheikh....Manchester City supporters. It is unlikely that a drop-off of 3,500 fans can be attributed to Liverpool’s success. The outcry from many Saints around the playing of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ at Magic last weekend would seem to suggest that actually there is fair amount of anti-Liverpool feeling among the fan base.

As far as the clash is concerned that is not likely to be the club’s doing. Television companies call the tune now and if they did not then we might very well be watching semi-pro players in our shiny stadium. And then people would complain about paying to watch a lower quality product.

Back To Bolton

Our win over Wakefield has taken us back to the Challenge Cup semi-finals, back to the double header at The University Of Bolton Stadium which lead-ballooned its way into our consciousness on its debut last year. I’m not going to remind you in any detail about our horrible capitulation to Catalans that day, nor bore you with any lazy revisionism about how it was all Ben Barba’s fault and how it will all be different this time because Lachlan Coote treats his wife better. Instead I shall focus on Halifax who it just so happens were paired with Saints in the last four after the artists formerly known as the Blue Sox held off Bradford Bulls 20-16 at Odsal.

We still owe Halifax one for me. My earliest Challenge Cup memory, long before the Yorkshire side had blue sox, is of the 1987 final at Wembley when Fax edged us out 19-18. Saints had two Mark Elia tries disallowed and my 11-year-old self was introduced to a culture of disappointment and bridesmaidism that wouldn’t change until the start of Super League in 1996. We’ll enter this one as the biggest racing certainty since sexist, God-chiselled businessman Anthony Joshua fought some fat lad called Ruiz. What? Oh.....

Favourites or not you have to respect the game and the opponent. It would probably take a couple of red cards and a fire drill to give Halifax any chance given the gulf in class, but we’re all surely too scarred by how twattish the Dragons made us look last year to start spouting about a first Wembley trip since 2008 just yet.