Ordinarily this would be a high-stakes, top of the table clash but although Saints have kept up their end of the bargain winning 16 of their 18 league outings so far the Rhinos have toiled. Still coach-less after the sacking of David Furner in early May Leeds have won just six times so far in 2019 and find themselves locked in a three-way tie at the bottom of the league with London Broncos and Hull KR ahead of the meeting between those two on Thursday night (June 20). With one club sure to go down to the Championship at the end of the season Leeds’ need is desperate.
Unfortunately for them Justin Holbrook’s side returned to form with a 38-2 dismissal of Huddersfield Giants last weekend. There had been a blip as an under-strength side went to London a week previously and left with a 23-22 Golden Point defeat, but all the signs from the Giants game were that with everyone back on deck Saints will be as formidable as they have been for most of the regular season so far. That London defeat was only their second of the year, the other coming in Perpignan in early April when they went down 18-10 to Catalans Dragons.
Holbrook has taken the opportunity that his side’s lead at the top of the Super League table affords him to rest a few players over recent weeks. Five players missed the trip to London while last week it was the turn of Regan Grace, Dominique Peyroux and Matty Lees to miss out along with the injured James Roby. The latter remains side-lined but Grace and Lees return to the 19-man squad for this one and Peyroux is expected to be restored to the starting line-up. That looks even more likely given that Joseph Paulo, who replaced Peyroux in the team last week, is one of those to be stood down for this week as Holbrook continues his rotation policy in a bid to keep everyone fresh for the real do or die games at the end of the season. Adam Swift also misses out after starting against both London and Huddersfield in his final year as a Saint before his move to Hull FC.
Lachlan Coote is the subject of much talk of a Great Britain call-up in the wake of Wayne Bennett’s gum-flapping about heritage players. The Scottish international is the best fullback in Super League this year and, along with the likes of Roby and Jonny Lomax is capable of transforming Saints into a different proposition altogether with his mere presence. Grace’s return and Swift’s omission should mean that the Welshman will start on the left wing outside of Mark Percival, with Kevin Naiqama and Tommy Makinson forming the centre-wing partnership on the right hand side.
There is no place in the squad for Danny Richardson for a second consecutive week so expect Lomax to start at stand-off and Theo Fages to continue at scrum-half. Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson have reignited their devastating front row combination since the return to fitness of the latter who has also been the subject of Bennett’s wisdom this week. Thompson was widely linked with a move to the NRL and in particular South Sydney Roosters where Bennett moonlights as the head coach when he is not picking John Bateman to play at centre in international rugby league. Bennett’s musings about the possibility of Thompson making it big down under did not go down very well with Saints Chairman Eamonn McManus, a man never short of a word or two on most rugby-league issues, who let it be known in no uncertain terms that he did not welcome any approaches for Thompson while he is still under contract to Saints. Thompson is tied to Saints until the end of next season after which you would not begrudge him the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of James Graham, Bateman and the Burgess brothers and test himself in the strongest competition there is at domestic level. But those who say that McManus is behaving childishly in complaining about the perceived ‘tapping up’ of Thompson are also those who do not watch him dominate games for their team on a weekly basis. Thompson is the real deal and any club chairman not doing everything in his power to retain his services is not doing his job properly. Perhaps we could have done without Super League big cheese Robert Elstone’s comments on the subject but on the other hand that bastion of all things wonderful the NRL takes the view that any players leaving its exalted boundaries does not get selected for Australia. Why should we not go that extra mile to keep our best players in our competition if it is at all possible?
With Roby out Aaron Smith should continue at hooker with Peyroux slotting into his usual second row berth alongside Zeb Taia. Behind them Morgan Knowles will tackle anything within a 100-mile radius at loose forward. The bench options are boosted by the news that Jack Ashworth’s one match ban for a Grade A offence in the Huddersfield game has been overturned on appeal, which if nothing else is one in the eye for the Facebook conspiracy theorists who insist that every disciplinary decision is made with the expressed intention of shafting Saints. Ashworth should make the bench and be joined by regular pine-dweller Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Lees and one of Kyle Amor, James Bentley or Matty Costello.
Leeds come in off the back of a 23-14 defeat to Wigan that was perhaps a little more encouraging in terms of the performance but still left them in dire straits in terms of the mathematics of the competition. You don't get anything for making a decent fist of it. Their major absentee for this one will be Tui Lolohea who is on international duty with Tonga. Jack Walker and Ash Handley are named in the 19 selected by interim coach Richard Agar but both have injury clouds hanging over them and could miss out. Kallum Watkins is included ahead of his planned move to Gold Coast Titans in July while others to watch out for are former Australian test forward Trent Merrin, hooking duo Matt Parcell and Brad Dwyer and blockbusting, battering ram Konrad Hurrell at left centre. Hurrell produced an explosive performance when Leeds visited Saints in February as the Rhinos took a 22-10 half-time lead. Neither he nor they could sustain that level in the second half as they eventually went down 27-22.
If Leeds’ three-quarter line which also features former England man Tom Briscoe is a match for most at this level then it is perhaps in the trenches where they will be found out. Props Adam Cuthbertson and Brad Singleton are capable but are not in the kind of form which should trouble their Saints counterparts, while Watkins and Liam Sutcliffe have been used at various times in the second row which is clearly not ideal. Stevie Ward appears to have more injury problems than Sean O’Loughlin and Daniel Sturridge combined and is again on the list of no-shows for Leeds.
That means the gaps will have to be filled by the more inexperienced men like Cameron Smith (not that one), Mikolaj Oledzki and recently imported Ava Seumanufagai. The latter played over 100 games in the NRL in a four-year spell at Wests Tigers but only mustered 13 in his two-year stint with Cronulla Sharks before joining the Rhinos. Wellington Albert is also included in the 19 along with young three-quarter Harry Newman who may start should Agar decide to continue to employ Watkins as a second row forward. Brett Ferres and Richard Myler offer experience to the Leeds outfit but there has to be serious questions about the kind of quality that either are providing at this stage of their careers. Myler may have an even more difficult time without Lolohea although Agar does have the option of deploying Sutcliffe in the halves should he be able to fill the gaps in the side elsewhere.
There are too many ifs and buts about the Leeds squad at the moment to really see them storming into St Helens and emerging with the two competition points. They have a decent record overall at Saints, the only team to win there during the regular season last year when Ben Barba was riding roughshod over everything in his path. Before that you only have to go back to 2015 for Leeds’ last win at the stadium formerly known as Langtree Park when they blitzed Keiron Cunningham’s side 41-16 on their way to a domestic treble that this season has seemed a world away for Rhinos fans. Yet even in defeat at Saints they have gone close in recent years, their last three defeats there coming by a combined total of 11 points. It could be a close one just because these fixtures often tend to be, but anything but a Saints win would qualify as a fairly sizeable shock.
Squads;
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 4. Mark Percival 5. Regan Grace 6. Theo Fages 8. Alex Walmsley 10. Luke Thompson 11. Zeb Taia 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook 15. Morgan Knowles 16. Kyle Amor 17. Dominique Peyroux 19. Matty Lees 20. Jack Ashworth 21. Aaron Smith 22. James Bentley 23. Lachlan Coote 24. Matty Costello
Leeds Rhinos;
Jack Walker, Tom Briscoe, Kallum Watkins, Konrad Hurrell, Ash Handley, Richie Myler, Adam Cuthbertson, Matt Parcell, Brad Singleton, Trent Merrin, Brad Dwyer, Liam Sutcliffe, Brett Ferres, Mikolaj Oledzki, Cameron Smith, James Donaldson, Harry Newman, Wellington Albert, Ava Seumanufagai.
Referee: Ben Thaler
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