Castleford Tigers 28 Saints 14 - Review

I’m writing this 24 hours on from Saints’ 28-14 defeat at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle. A couple of hours ago it was announced that Super League has been suspended until at least April 3 because of the coronavirus. It has decimated the sporting calendar, leaving governing bodies with the unenviable task of working out what to do with the remainder of their competitions once it is deemed safe to resume activities. Given the rate of infection so far and the experiences of other countries that were hit by the virus before the UK, the actual suspension could be months rather than weeks.

All of which serves at least to take much of the attention away from Kristian Woolf. Seven competitive games into his reign at Saints things are not going well for the new man. This was Saints’ third league defeat of 2020, matching their total for the whole of last year. It was perhaps the most abject. Saints were never in the game, dominated by a very useful Castleford Tigers side but not one likely to have troubled the Saints vintage of 2019. So, is the big, bad Woolf blowing our house down?

Changes were made from the side which went down 12-10 at home to Huddersfield Giants last time out. Lachlan Coote returned at fullback for the first time since the opening day win over Salford, while Aaron Smith was back from a one-game ban. Coote’s return added to the injuries to Mark Percival and James Bentley meant that Jack Welsby was asked to switch to left centre. It’s not outlandishly unfair to suggest that the youngster didn’t make the smoothest transition. Welsby was targeted defensively by the likes of Peter Mata’utia, Cheyse Blair and two-try Derrell Olpherts on the Tigers’ right edge. Welsby managed to miss five tackles on a fraught afternoon that seemed to further support the idea that he could use some time with the reserves. He has been catapulted into the first team spotlight which was all very well in the slick, confident side lead by Holbrook. When a team starts to struggle as Saints have in recent weeks then the rawness of young talent can be exposed.

But if we are taking a wider view the fault certainly does not lie with Welsby. Tactically Saints have become stale and predictable. Holbrook’s side was not exactly flamboyant but it looked flashy when compared to the stilted, robotic approach that is Woolfball so far. Three-quarters are an endangered species under the Tongan national coach so far, in part due to the absentees but also due to what appears to be a reluctance to put any air in the ball and use the width of the field. Tommy Makinson’s try was his first of the season while on the opposite wing Regan Grace is yet to cross the whitewash. Tellingly, front rower Luke Thompson is Saints’ leading try-scorer with three, including another one here when the game was way out of reach.

It’s early but it is difficult to shake the feeling that the future under Woolf - whenever it restarts - is a more conservative, forward-orientated game based on the kind of risk-averse philosophies which cost Keiron Cunningham his job. And he had credit in the bank from his monumental playing career. It will not take half as long - notwithstanding the current delay in proceedings - for this fan base to turn on Woolf.

While it is too early to judge Woolf it is perhaps instructive to take a look at Holbrook’s first seven competitive games in charge. If we assume the 45-0 Magic Weekend drubbing of Hull FC was the work of others the two coaches have similar win-loss records. Saints won four of the next seven after that Hull FC game but suffered losses to Castleford, Huddersfield (sound familiar?) and Leeds Rhinos. Saints’ next game would have been at Leeds before the intervention of Covid-19. There is time for Woolf to turn this ship around but the problems are manyfold.

One of the great paradoxes of the Woolf style so far is that although there is a tendency to stick it up the jumper in the forwards, Saints’ world class front row pairing of Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson feels under used. At Castleford the pair had just 15 carries between them. No Saints player had more than the 13 carries managed by Morgan Knowles and no Saints forward broke through the 100-metre barrier. This was largely due to the 13 errors in possession they made which made it difficult to get any field position and helped save the Tigers’ energy in defence. Yet it was also down to the reduced minutes afforded to Saints’ powerhouse props as the game slipped further and further away from them. If you are going adopt an ugly style you need your biggest, ugliest soldiers on the field as much as possible.

It’s also difficult to beat a team of Castleford’s quality if you haven’t got your full compliment of 13 players out on the pitch. Saints’ discipline was poor all day with referee Liam Moore pinging them for infringements on nine occasions but it was the yellow cards shown to Matty Lees and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook in fairly quick succession which inflicted the most damage. Lees was first to go for a high shot on Jordan Rankin as the Tigers fullback fell to the ground in possession. Lees was unfortunate and like McCarthy-Scarsbrook has escaped a ban following the disciplinary panel’s review of the weekend’s games. Yet it is not the first time his recklessness, euphemistically labelled enthusiasm by his fans, has got him and his team in trouble.

Lees is still only 22 and has time to learn. There is less mitigation for McCarthy-Scarsbrook who is over a decade older. The Londoner was given a short rest by Moore after clumsily making contact with the head of Danny Richardson. McCarthy-Scarsbrook was late and the Cas halfback - who seemed on a mission to show his former employers what they will be missing - made the very most of the incident. Yet if you put yourself in a position whereby you give a referee a decision to make don’t be surprised if you find yourself walking off.

Much has been made of Richardson’s performance versus that of Theo Fages, the man who pushed Richardson to the fringes and then the exit at Saints. Yet in many ways it is an unfair comparison at present. Richardson is being allowed to express himself in an exciting halfback combination with Jake Trueman while Fages appears bogged down by structure. He was never the dominant half under Holbrook but now seems to have disappeared completely into his shell, the effect of which is to place more pressure to create on Jonny Lomax alongside him.

With an extended break now likely Woolf has plenty of time to reflect on what has gone wrong these last two weeks in particular. The resumption of the season - whenever that may be - needs to be a fresh start for Woolf if he is not to follow in the footsteps of Cunningham the coach and have his tenure end prematurely.