World Club Challenge Preview - Saints v Sydney Roosters

It’s been 12 years since Saints were crowned champions of the world. They will get another crack at it when they host Sydney Roosters in the World Club Challenge on Saturday night (February 22, kick-off 7.45pm).

Saints’ last attempt ended in a fair degree of ignominy as they were brushed aside 39-0 by a powerful South Sydney Rabbitohs team featuring Greg Inglis, Josh Reynolds, George Burgess and Isaac Luke in 2015. And some chap called Luke Keary who, as it turns out, will be lining up against Saints again after moving to the Roosters in 2017.

Yet that defeat came at the start of the Keiron Cunningham reign, when the most limited Saints team to ever win a Grand Final were about to enter a period of mundanity and mediocrity. The 2020 vintage has a parallel in that it has just lost its Grand Final winning coach and has to get used to a new man’s ideas on how best to get the job done, but there is a good deal more talent and flair across this Saints squad than in that 2014/15 vintage.

The fly in the ointment is the injury list. Lachlan Coote has not played since limping out of the opening day win over Salford Red Devils and will not feature here either. Tommy Makinson and Morgan Knowles have only just returned to the side, featuring in the win over Hull FC last week having missed the Salford win and the defeat by Warrington in Round 2 of Super League. James Roby has not played at all this season but is included in coach Kristian Woolf’s 21-man selection after recovering from a groin problem. It has to be questionable whether these three key players will be anywhere near their best after their respective lay-offs, but such is their quality it would be an ever tougher task to try and beat the NRL champions without them.

Also included is Mark Percival. It was announced last week that Percival would be out of action for several months. He requires shoulder surgery having damaged it during that loss at the Halliwell Jones Stadium but Woolf has assured us that the operation can be delayed without further risk to Percival’s long term fitness. There has been some objection to this from those who don’t buy the idea that a player can be ruled out for months and then deemed fit just a few days later. Yet there have been countless examples of players who require surgery delaying their visit to the operating theatre in order to finish a season or play in a major final. The only difference here is the time of year.

If Percival does play he will need a new wing partner. Regan Grace was another who took a knock in the win over Hull FC and misses out. The Welsh flyer has hardly missed a game since breaking into the Saints team on Good Friday 2017 and will be devastated to miss out on one of the biggest games that the club has played since. Yet at 23 he should have further opportunities before the book is closed on his career. Kevin Naiqama may move to the wing or else Matty Costello could again feature, fresh from a try-scoring appearance at the KCom Stadium. Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages will pull the strings in midfield, with the former now firmly established as the biggest key to everything that Saints do in attack. With Coote out Jack Welsby should continue his education at fullback.

It is perhaps up front where Saints will feel that they can match the Roosters or anyone else for that matter. We are all too aware of how Luke Thompson has caught the eye of the scouts on the other side of the world while Alex Walmsley and Roby join him in the game’s most formidable front three. It will be fascinating to see whether the second row pairing of Zeb Taia and Dominique Peyroux can step up this level at this stage of their careers. Both have NRL experience but will be challenged far more than they might expect to be on a weekly basis when coming up against other Super League sides. At loose forward we should have no concerns about Knowles who can mix it with anyone, a player whose ability to do the little things well would no doubt be highly cherished by clubs in the Australian game.

With Roby back James Bentley is likely to be released from hooking duties and may take a place on the bench where he can cover positions in the backs or the forwards. Aaron Smith should then be Roby’s understudy, or may even start the game should the veteran star be deemed better suited to an introduction from the bench against more tired opposition. Matty Lees and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook also look certain to be on the interchange bench with Kyle Amor and Joseph Paulo also in contention. Youngsters Lewis Dodd and Tom Nisbet have again made the 21-man squad and will benefit just from being around the first team in the build-up to a game this big, even if they do not get an opportunity to make the final 17.

The Roosters are back-to-back NRL Premiers and are littered with star names as you might expect. James Tedesco is one of the top fullbacks in world rugby league while the left edge partnership of Joseph Manu and former St George-Illawarra and Canterbury Bulldogs winger Brett Morris looks especially potent. Morris has played 18 times for Australia and Manu is a current New Zealand international. Keary is joined in the halves by youngster Kyle Flanagan while on the opposite edge to Manu and Morris you might find former Australian international Daniel Tupou and New South Wales State Of Origin man Angus Crichton.

The Roosters pack features another prominent Kiwi in the shape of Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Tongan powerhouse Sio Taukeiaho. Behind them in the second row is another Tongan international Sitili Tupouniua and veteran Mitch Aubusson who has been with the Roosters since 2007. The 21-year-old Victor Radley’s battle at loose forward with Knowles could be an exciting watch while on the bench for Trent Robinson’s side are the likes of Isaac Liu and Lachlan Lam, son of Wigan-coaching former Papua New Guinea superstar Adrian.

For all their dominance of Super League last season Saints go into this one as an underdog. The fact that the Roosters have not yet started their season and so have no competitive rugby behind them in 2020 is an advantage, as might the weather be with the recent windy and wet conditions that have battered the UK not likely to have improved dramatically by kick-off. But if Saints are to have any chance they have to improve on the performances we have seen from them in the last two weeks when they were shut out by Steve Price’s side and allowed a couple of soft-looking tries against the black and whites last time out. The kicking game has to be spot on too as field position is likely to be key. Fages and Lomax need to try to pin the Roosters back at the start of their sets while on the other side of the ball the returning of Makinson and probably Naiqama could be another big factor.

My head tells me that without Coote and Grace, and with big players just coming back from injury problems Saints are not quite where they need to be to match a team of this standing. Everything needs to go their way but the most likely outcome is that the Roosters will defend the title they won against Wigan a year ago. Staying competitive is essential not only for Saints but for the Super League and for the concept of the World Club Challenge going forward, and with that in mind I expect Saints to be in the game for the majority of it before perhaps falling away at the end. Roosters by 20.