Toronto Wolfpack 0 Saints 32 - Review

The first ever meeting of Saints and Toronto Wolfpack might not live long in the memory, despite its historic significance. The champions eased to a 32-0 victory over Brian McDermott’s newly promoted side without ever really threatening to get anywhere near their best on a cold night in Warrington. The game has been switched to the Halliwell Jones Stadium after plans to hold it at the home of Saracens rugby union club hit the buffers when they ran into some problems with their salary cap.

Jonny Lomax was again a key figure for Saints, crossing for two first half tries as the Wolfpack goal-line defence wilted. Lomax was a handful all night, busting out of nine tackles and breaking the line twice as he ran for 72 metres on 17 carries. Toronto had no answer to the skill and industry of Lomax who continues to be one of the most effective players in Super League and a genuine contender even at this early stage of 2020 for the Steve Prescott Man Of Steel Award.

In many ways Toronto were masters of their own downfall. The much trumpeted Sonny Bill Williams - a man who apparently is reason enough for many to have stumped up the extortionate £31 that it cost to visit the Halliwell Jones Stadium for this one - gifted Saints a try when he chose to offload to nobody in particular deep in his own territory. We are certainly yet to see the best of Williams since his big money switch back to league from rugby union. Thirty-one tackles with three misses represents a reasonable defensive stint from the former All Black but if he is going to continue to be used in the second row then McDermott might reasonably expect more attacking productivity than the 79 metres on 14 carries that he mustered here.

Tony Gigot is another who has arrived to add some Super League quality to a threadbare squad but he also made a crucial error inside his own quarter which led to a Saints try. The Wolfpack came up with 19 errors and never really got going as an attacking force as a result. It was an epidemic of the dropsies for the Canadian side. When they had possession they were pinned back near their own line much of the time. This forced them to take risks in the wrong parts of the field which were punished by a Saints outfit in third gear throughout.

We are used to seeing Saints play with great width but in these conditions it was the middle of the field which brought the biggest dividends. All five of Saints tries were run in right under the posts making it an easy night for stand-in goal-kicker Tommy Makinson who was a perfect six from six with the boot. Time and again the Wolfpack rearguard crumbled in the middle, with Saints racking up seven clean breaks and a quite ridiculous 49 tackle busts. Along with Lomax’s try double there were meat pies for James Bentley, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Aaron Smith as Saints moved up to second in the table ahead of Sunday afternoon’s fixtures (March 1).

Bentley’s selection at centre had provoked a bit of head scratching in some quarters. Saints are without Mark Percival for what could be a lengthy period after he had surgery on a shoulder problem. Matty Costello has been the deputy to Percival of late but Regan Grace’s absence from the Roosters game last time out saw Costello moved out to the wing to allow Bentley to fill the left centre role. Grace returned for this one but Bentley kept his place in the three-quarters which left no room in the 17 for Costello. Just as he might have wondered what that selection decision meant for his prospects of first team football in the longer term Costello was perhaps thrown a lifeline as Bentley suffered an unfortunate ankle injury.

Coach Kristian Woolf has already said the problem will keep Bentley out for at least a couple of weeks. If Costello gets his chance at home to Huddersfield Giants on Friday night (March 6) he needs to grab it with both hands. He should get that opportunity. Woolf chose to move Morgan Knowles into the three-quarters after Bentley’s exit which would seem to suggest that he does not see either Dominique Peyroux or McCarthy-Scarsbrook operating in that position as they might have in past emergencies. And who could argue with that assessment having been subjected to the efforts of both there in recent years? Youngster Josh Simm is another option but if he were to get the nod it would probably leave Costello frantically calling his agent. Whatever the weather, Knowles is not the answer to the conundrum.

The game was over as a contest well before one of its major talking points emerged. Bodene Thompson was dismissed by referee Marcus Griffiths for a shoulder charge to the head of Matty Lees. It looked fairly innocuous from the wide TV angle but when you see the head on shot there is no doubt that there was direct contact with the head of Lees and no attempt by Thompson to wrap his arms around and complete a legal tackle. There were still 15 minutes left when Thompson trudged off and with the score already at 26-0 by then it was perhaps something of a surprise that Saints only added six more points to their tally. They came courtesy of Smith just two minutes after the dismissal. Saints all but declared at that point although they could have had another score in the final few minutes when Luke Thompson - mystifyingly reintroduced for the last five minutes when it might have been better to give him the rest of the night off - went over only for referee Griffiths and video referee Tom Grant to both rule that Hakim Miloudi had been obstructed by Lees in the build-up.

So after their second consecutive game against non-European opposition Saints can boast a record of three wins and one defeat in the league ahead of the visit from Simon Woolford’s men next weekend. Woolf will be particularly pleased with the fact that his side was able to keep the Wolfpack scoreless. There doesn’t seem too much wrong with Saints defensively even if we are yet to see the best of them as an attacking force so far this year. It was the first time that the Wolfpack has been nilled in what was their 93rd match since arriving on the scene in 2017. It was also a fifth successive defeat to start the season for McDermott’s men who are finding out very quickly what it takes to compete against the very best sides. And Saints are certainly that, even if on this night they were playing within themselves at times.