5 Talking Points From Saints 26 Halifax 2

Laying The Ghosts Of ‘87

My first experience of Wembley still traumatises me a little. I arrived at the then iconic national stadium - none of this arch business - a wide-eyed and awe-struck 11-year-old. I had been released from hospital just that week. Indeed there is a certain symmetry there. I have had three hospital appointments in five days leading up to this week’s semi-final at Bolton. Thankfully that is where the similarities end as the Saints 2019 vintage produced a much different result to the one we endured under the twin towers 32 years ago.

On that occasion two disallowed Mark Elia tries left Andy Platt in tears as well as a certain 11-year-old boy. I would get used to disappointment, not seeing Saints win the Challenge Cup for another nine years. Despite the years of success that followed under Shaun McRae, Ellery Hanley, Ian Millward and Daniel Anderson it has been even longer than that since Saints last visited Wembley for a Challenge Cup Final. When victory over Hull FC brought a third Challenge Cup triumph in a row few of us imagined that it would be a further 11 years - the whole of my lifetime at time of the Halifax loss - before Saints would return to the capital. So, expected as it was that we would beat Scott Grix’s side, now a mid-table Championship side as opposed to the defending league champions of 1987, the over-riding emotion from this otherwise fairly routine win was relief that the Wembley drought had finally come to an end. It also ended a run of six consecutive defeats in major semi-finals in the two major competitions that dominate modern rugby league in the northern hemisphere.

Defence Held The Key

Saints were not spectacular in attack. Far from it. They toiled for most of the day with ball in hand, trying to go around their part-time opponents without first earning the right by doing the hard yards up front. You have to give Halifax a lot of credit for that, but even with the score line at 8-2 at the break you never really got a sense that Saints were in any serious danger. For all their guts and endeavour Grix’s side never looked like breaking down a Saints defence that was shorn of one of Britain’s best defensive players in the injured Morgan Knowles.

Even the enforced switch to fullback for Jonny Lomax to cover the absence of Lachlan Coote didn’t weaken the rearguard too much, though it did take a little bit away from the fluency of attack. There would have been those who would have worried that the inclusion of Danny Richardson would make Saints a little more brittle. Barely a day goes by without someone on social media pointing out that Richardson cannot tackle the proverbial fish supper. Yet the young half stood up to the challenge in that department, as did Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Joseph Paulo who had to adapt to starting roles having played much of their rugby this year from the interchange bench.

Holbrook’s Last Hurrah?

As I write this several news sources have reported that Saints coach Justin Holbrook has agreed a deal to take over at Gold Coast Titans in the NRL from the start of 2020. It doesn’t seem like just over two years since Holbrook breezed into the club to find a team and a fan base desperately damaged by the limitations and subsequent departure of a club legend. When Kieron Cunningham left the building it was felt that it would take more than a quick fix to put the club back where it wanted to be.

It is testament to the job that he has done at Saints that Holbrook has been sought by NRL clubs so quickly. Within a few months of his arrival he had restored the club’s confidence, first by attracting Ben Barba for a memorable but all-too-brief spell, and then guiding pretty much the same group of players that had failed under Cunningham to within a golden-point of the 2017 Grand Final. A year later, with Barba an integral part of the side Holbrook raised Saints to such a level that they rode roughshod over the competition, only losing twice in 23 regular season games en route to the League Leaders Shield. Holbrook copped a fair bit of flak from those outside the club when Saints contrived to lose in both major semi-finals and the Barba situation blew up spectacularly, but even they had to admit that he had transformed his new side from one of a handful of playoff contenders into the most consistent and dominant team in the competition.

Just as he is beginning to learn the lessons of 2018, now regularly resting his stars at various times during the campaign when he had chosen not to do so that year, Holbrook is about to depart. It feels, even if Saints go on to fulfil what many fans see as their destiny by winning at Wembley and in the Old Trafford Grand Final in October, like a mission incomplete. Holbrook is such a powerful motivating force, such a prolific improver of rugby league players, that he could easily have built a dynasty at Saints. If Eamonn McManus and company make the right appointment to replace him that may still happen, but it will be a good deal more difficult without Holbrook at the helm. The lure of the NRL is great for someone like Holbrook both personally and professionally. He was born and raised there and it is home to him. Yet the curtailing of his tenure at Saints is a lost opportunity to build a lasting legacy.

How Will The Ship Sail Before The Big Day?

It’s been a strange old time for Saints. Against the backdrop of the speculation about Holbrook’s future this flat if ultimately fruitful performance came on the back of the much talked about defeat in London in which Saints rested 10 players and slumped to a 32-12 defeat. Neither of these performances have done Saints any tangible harm in terms of their prospects of winning major honours this term. They maintain a 10-point lead at the top of the Super League table and now have safe passage to the Wembley showpiece. Yet form cannot be turned on and off like a tap. Holbrook faces a difficult balancing act over the next few weeks to ensure that his players are physically and mentally ready for August 24.

That means not over-working his players but there is an argument too that he should be wary of letting them become under-cooked. How many star names will be asked to back up from the semi-final in this week’s home game with a Wakefield side that has lost nine out of its last 10 and is free-falling towards a real relegation scrap? A week later Saints travel to Warrington for a Thursday night game. Will either Holbrook or Steve Price want to show the other their full hand just a fortnight before the biggest game of the season to date? Before you know it it is then time to visit a desperate Leeds side on August 16 and the same questions remain. Will a full side be risked? Holbrook has more to think about than just which Australian city he would like to live and work in next year.

A New....Old Foe

When Saints walk out at Wembley in August 24 they will be introduced to a new experience. Incredibly, despite over 100 years of almost sibling rivalry to match anything the Gallagher brothers can offer, Saints and Warrington have never met in a Challenge Cup Final. That is all going to change after Price’s side edged Hull FC 22-14 in the day’s first semi-final at the University Of Bolton Stadium.

It’s an enticing prospect. There should be none of the fears about poor attendance which dogged the build-up to last year’s final when the Wolves were beaten by Catalans Dragons, surprise conquerors of Saints in the semi-final. This final is arguably happening a year later than most people expected it might, but when you have waited since the competition’s first final in 1897, a time when Jacob Rees-Mogg’s views would have appeared current, what’s another year? Critics may shudder at the prospect of another final contested by two teams separated by just a couple of junctions of the M62, but both clubs will bring the numbers and the noise which should ensure a vintage Challenge Cup atmosphere.

The presence of Widnes Vikings and Sheffield Eagles for the 1895 Cup Final should add to that, though it is a slight bug-bear that it has been decided that they will face each other following the main event rather than as a curtain raiser. The RFL’s obsession with double and triple header events continues, but anyone expecting the majority of Saints or Wire fans to stay on after their fate has been decided is likely to be disappointed. Win or lose both sets of fans face a long trip back up north following the final. Even the considerably shorter journey home from Bolton after the semi-final was motivation for most Hull FC and Warrington fans to disappear sharpish after their game ended at the weekend. The case against playing the 1895 Cup Final first is the commendable need to stick with tradition and stage the under-11s schoolboy final as a pre-cursor. But would an earlier start for that game and the Saints-Warrington clash have messed with tradition too much? If you think so, then perhaps you also might consider that the 1895 Cup Final should be scheduled for a different date entirely.