Saints v Castleford Tigers - Preview

Time to get up off the floor, put the sulky face away and get behind Saints as they host Castleford Tigers on Friday night (August 30, kick-off 7.45).

Look, I know it’s too soon. You’re still smarting from the shattering loss at Wembley at the weekend. You’re still blaming the ref, wondering about the team selection and you haven’t even fully snapped out of the ludicrous mindset that Justin Holbrook and this team aren’t any good. But it’s just bloody well tough. There’s a game going on and if you are the die-hard you purport to be all over various social media outrage generators then you will have the wherewithal to focus not only on the visit of Daryl Powell’s side but also on winning the one big prize that remains.

On the subject of prizes, there is one scheduled to be handed out at this game as Saints pick up the League Leaders Shield. It seems like several years ago that Saints beat Wakefield and then saw Warrington go down in that nasty encounter in Perpignan 24 hours later to seal the deal. Holbrook’s side are 16 points clear at the top of Super League and, despite the trauma of Wembley, go into the playoff series as most people’s favourites to win the Grand Final. The pressure to do so is arguably ramped up even further by another defeat in a big knockout game, but those of you sitting around moping and banging on about how it is not worth winning now have some serious head wobbling to do. The Grand Final wouldn’t be my choice of ending to a season, not my way of crowning a champion team, but it is what it is and so we have to win it if we are to underline our status as the best team in Super League. And we are still that. One bad performance against a well-drilled Warrington side executing a conservative game-plan to perfection does not change that irrespective of what utter drivel is spewed out of the mouth of Josh Charnley through a megaphone on an open top bus. We must quieten the detractors and you don't do that by curling up and dying.

Thankfully Holbrook has pledged to go with strong sides between now and the Old Trafford showpiece. He clearly wants to rebuild the momentum we had before the cup final defeat. We need to do that to make a statement to others that we are still there. Our defeat at Wembley will have heartened not only Warrington but others such as Wigan, Hull FC and maybe even Salford, Catalans and Castleford all of whom retain an interest in the race for the top five. In an attempt to reassert our authority Holbrook has selected the strongest possible 19-man squad for this one, with only Lachlan Coote and Dominique Peyroux unavailable from the party which travelled to the capital.

Coote’s performance at the national stadium was the one subjected to the most scrutiny. He had not played for six weeks and it showed. He lacked his usual zip, made uncharacteristic handling errors and even fluffed a conversion from virtually in front of the posts. His bad day was compounded by a head injury he suffered which is keeping him out of this one. Peyroux has caught James Roby’s disease – the minor niggle – and will also miss out. Matty Lees is unlikely to play again this season after the full horrific details of his injury were revealed this week. The prop missed out on a cup final place after having to undergo bowel surgery and spending the best part of a week in hospital. It’s a sad end to what has been a very positive season overall for Lees. Best wishes to him for a speedy recovery and hopes are high that he will return even stronger for the start of 2020.

Everyone else is back on deck, with Jack Welsby drafted in to replace Coote and Matty Costello taking Peyroux’s place in the 19. Welsby may slot back into the fullback role or else Holbrook could move Jonny Lomax back there and offer an opportunity to Danny Richardson. Reading from the Big Book Of Over Simplified Solutions In Rugby League scores of fans suggested that Richardson would have made all the difference at Wembley because he would not have missed the conversion that Coote somehow managed to botch. Of course we all know what my aunty would be if she had male genitalia, and in any case the halfback role is far more complicated than potting over a goal or two. If there is a reason for Richardson to get a shot it is the unconvincing nature of Theo Fages’ display against Warrington and the failure of he and Jonny Lomax to really inspire as a pair when the heat was turned up both metaphorically and literally in London. Fages was defensively his usual busy self but he seems to lack that real burst of pace and guile that can open up a defence and turn a game. Richardson perhaps has a bit more of that about him, but he is to tackling what Steve Dale is to football club ownership. Choosing between the two is quite often a simple of question of which attribute do you value the most in a halfback, craft and cockiness or the ability to stop rampaging forwards dead in their tracks. Both Richardson and Fages would play in a scenario where Lomax moves to fullback, but Welsby has a compelling case given the need for fresh enthusiasm and the quality of his own displays before being left out of the Wembley party.

The front row is weakened without Lees but Roby, Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson remain the most formidable starting trio anywhere. Backing them up are the interminably contracted Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, side-stepping LFC enthusiast Kyle Amor and Jack Ashworth. The latter needs to have more of an impact when he gets an opportunity. He was fairly anonymous in the cup final and we can ill afford that from one of our prop options given the absence of Lees. Peyroux’s second row berth may be taken by either Morgan Knowles or Joseph Paulo although McCarthy-Scarsbrook can operate there in an emergency. And I mean emergency. There would need to be a screeching fire alarm, police sirens and a fully operational hose on the go before I would turn to him in that position but he’s there if he’s needed. My preference would be for James Bentley to be given another run out. It was a surprise and a slight disappointment to see the former Bradford Bull not make the cup final squad but he is someone who can still have a very significant impact between now and when the last gong is handed out in Manchester in October. There appear to be very few reasons why he should not sneak in now ahead of McCarthy-Scarsbrook or Paulo. However, Bentley may also be needed for a spell at hooker as Aaron Smith serves the second of a two-match ban for dangerous contact in the win at Leeds on August 16.

If this game feels a bit ‘meh’ for Saints fans trying to get over a crushing disappointment then it is one fraught with tension for Castleford Tigers fans. They simply have to have it. Daryl Powell’s men are running out of games, with just three left between now and the end of the regular season to haul themselves one place higher than their current sixth position and so make the playoffs. Defeat would see them fall potentially four points behind both Wigan and Hull FC and maybe even leave them two points adrift of Salford as the race hots up. Catalans Dragons cannot be discounted either at this stage, so Powell will know that his side needs to scrap for every point it can get between now and Round 29.

With that in mind he will be happy about the return of prop forward Liam Watts to the fold. The former Hull FC man is one of the few around the league who can mix it with the likes of Walmsley and Thompson and is going to be vital to the Tigers' hopes of getting anything from this one. He comes back in to the 19-man squad alongside Calum Turner in the only two changes to the squad which won 24-0 at lowly Huddersfield last time out. Cory Aston and London-bound Touyo Egodo are the men to make way.

Several of this squad were involved when Castleford ‘did a Saints’ and ran over everything before them in 2017. Before losing the one that mattered the most, of course. The likes of Mike McMeeken, Paul McShane, Nathan Massey, Grant Millington, Adam Milner, Greg Minikin and Jesse Sene-Lefao all have that type of experience. What the team has lacked all season is the guidance given to them by Luke Gale who has missed the entire campaign through injury. In his stead Peter Mata’utia, Aston and Jake Trueman have been an erratic presence in the creativity department while fullback Jordan Rankin has also shone at times without ever threatening to be Zak Hardaker. For which he and everyone else should probably be thankful.

Jamie Ellis and Oliver Holmes recently returned to fitness and will add their considerable quality and experience to the effort. It has been an unconvincing season so far for Castleford but the time for talking is done. They need to show right now that they have what it takes to contend for a place at Old Trafford. No more excuses, possibly no second chances depending on other results. A bruised and battered Saints - emotionally drained into the bargain - should be facing a desperate outfit on Friday night and will need all of their quality and resilience to come through.

This is the third meeting of the season between the two teams thanks to the inglorious concept that is Magic Weekend. Saints beat Castleford 36-16 at Anfield in late May after cruising to a 42-12 success at the Jungle at the end of March. It is always difficult to tell what kind of a performance you are going to get from a team immediately after a cup final whether they have won it or not. For that reason and because of Castleford’s greater mathematical need doubts persist about whether Saints will get back into the winners enclosure this weekend. Yet I started by telling everyone to stop moping around and get a little bit of positivity back in your lives so I am going to take my own advice and tip Saints to get home by 18.

Squads;

St Helens;

1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 7. Danny Richardson, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 13. LMS, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 20. Jack Ashworth, 22. James Bentley, 24. Matty Costello, 29. Jack Welsby.

Castleford Tigers;

1. Peter Mata’utia 2. James Clare 3. Greg Minikin 6. Jake Trueman 8. Liam Watts 9. Paul McShane 10. Grant Millington 11. Oliver Holmes 12. Mike McMeeken 13. Adam Milner 14. Nathan Massey 15. Jesse Sene-Lefao 20. Jamie Ellis 23. Will Maher 27. Calum Turner 29. Jacques O’Neill 32. Jordan Rankin. 34. Daniel Smith 35. Cheyse Blair

Referee: James Child