St Helens v Catalans Dragons - Preview

One hundred and forty days. Twenty weeks. Twenty long weeks. That is how long it will have been since we last saw Saints in action by the time they take on Catalans Dragons at Headingley on Sunday (August 2, kick-off 4.15pm). 

Things are going to look a bit different than they did at the time of Saints’ last outing, a 28-14 loss to Castleford Tigers at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle on March 15. Toronto Wolfpack won’t be around having controversially chosen to withdraw from the 2020 competition due to financial and visa issues. The 11 teams that remain in Super League this year will also find that the game itself has gone through a few changes during lockdown. Scrums have been sacrificed in a bid to further reduce the possibility of transmission of Covid-19, while Super League has also used the enforced break to introduce the ‘6 again’ set restart rule currently employed in the NRL. In many ways it is the teams who adapt to these changes most effectively that are likely to be the most successful. 

Change might not be a bad thing for Saints. They did not have the most sparkling of starts to 2020. It was taking new head coach Kristian Woolf a little bit of time to get his ideas across to a team used to achieving success the Justin Holbrook way over the last two years. Wins against Salford, Hull FC and Toronto provided hope but defeats at Warrington and Castleford as well as at home to Huddersfield were all disappointing in their own ways. With the Toronto result now expunged from the record following the Wolfpack’s withdrawal Saints sit a lowly eighth in the table. They need to make a fast restart if they want to push on towards the top four and a playoff berth at the end of the year. 

As is the convention in 2020 Woolf has named a 21-man squad ahead of the meeting with the French side. The headline is perhaps the inclusion of James Graham, back for a second stint at Saints after spending the last eight and a half seasons in the NRL with Canterbury Bulldogs and St George-Illawarra Dragons. It is 17 years since Graham’s first debut for Saints, a 26-10 victory over Castleford Tigers at Knowsley Road in August 2003. He is almost certain to make a second debut here, slotting into the front row to replace Luke Thompson after Saints accepted a fee to allow him to start his own NRL odyssey a little earlier than planned. 

Joseph Paulo is out with a minor muscular problem but otherwise Woolf has all of his pack options available. Alex Walmsley and James Roby are likely to join Graham in the front row with Dominique Peyroux and Zeb Taia behind them in the second row and Morgan Knowles at loose forward. Taia is in his final season with Saints before returning home to Australia but remains one of the side’s most creative forces. He arrived in 2017 amid a fair degree of scepticism from those who felt he was an inadequate replacement for Joe Greenwood. Yet Taia has been outstanding for Saints during 95 appearances in which he has helped Saints to two League Leaders Shields, a first Challenge Cup final appearance in 11 years and of course the Super League Grand Final win over Salford last October. 

James Batchelor and James Bentley may be hoping for more opportunities once Taia moves on and both are included in this initial selection. Aaron Smith is the alternative to Roby at hooker while Matty Lees, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor are the back-ups to Walmsley and Graham at prop. Lees has reportedly been interesting one or two NRL scouts despite missing the back end of last term with a perforated bowel and despite Saints’ inactivity since March. On the back of Thompson’s exit the loss of Lees is probably not something that Saints fans will want to contemplate at the moment. Jack Ashworth is not included and is another about whom there is persistent speculation. His future may lie somewhere other than St Helens. 

The back line will be massively boosted by the return to fitness of Mark Percival. The England centre has had time during lockdown to overcome a shoulder injury suffered in Saints’ embarrassing nilling by Warrington in February. He will provide more strike down Saints’ left edge inside the speedy Regan Grace, with Fiji skipper Kevin Naiqama and the prolific Tommy Makinson on the opposite flank. Lachlan Coote had only just returned from injury for that Tigers game when the season was suspended and so if selected will be making only his third appearance of 2020. Youngster Jack Welsby backs him up and provides cover in a number of other positions also. 

Lewis Dodd gains more experience around the first team as he is named in the squad but it would be a major surprise if he is deemed quite ready to break up the established halfback partnership of Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages. 

A mixture of some inclement early season weather and the refusal of Leeds Rhinos to travel to France as we approached the game’s inevitable hiatus has seen the Dragons play only four times in Super League in 2020 so far. They have managed wins over Castleford, Salford and Hull FC with the one blemish being a 32-12 home defeat by Huddersfield on February 1. Victory over Saints would lift Steve McNamara’s side level on points with the current top three of Wigan, Castleford and Huddersfield. Defeat could see them overhauled by Saints although they will still have a game in hand over Woolf’s men. 

The glaring absence from the Dragons squad is Sam Tomkins. The former Wigan fullback is suspended for a trip during his side’s win over Salford on March 7. Lewis Tierney had been deputising for Tomkins but with the ex-Wigan man also injured alongside David Mead it will be interesting to see who gets the nod from McNamara as the last line of defence. Samisoni Langi has proved versatile since joining from Leigh Centurions in 2018 while McNamara may also consider the controversial ex Australian rugby union international Israel Folau. Tom Davies could return to action for the first time since breaking his leg while playing for Wigan against Saints in last year’s Good Friday derby, while Fouad Yaha is a powerful if unpredictable presence on the wing also. 

James Maloney’s arrival from Penrith Panthers was a source of great excitement across the whole league ahead of the 2020 season. The Australian international who has 14 State Of Origin appearances to his name will be the key creative influence for Catalans alongside the wily former Hull KR man Josh Drinkwater. 

In the pack the veteran Remi Casty continues to lead while the explosive if a little indisciplined Sam Moa could give Saints’ front row a difficult time. Hooker Micky McIlorum is another ex-Wigan man who will relish the battle against his old rivals, in particular his personal duel with Roby. Matt Whitley is a talented back rower and along with Benjamin Garcia can provide a spark. Julian Bousquet, Jason Baitieri and Sam Kasiano offer further problems for the Saints side to solve if they are to win the struggle up front. 

It was already incredibly hard to predict Saints’ results early in 2020. Four months of inactivity hasn’t done anything to make that task any easier. The need of Woolf’s men is perhaps greater due to those three early losses and the neutral territory of Leeds - while not ideal for what would be a Saints home game in a world without Covid - may not suit a Dragons side that has traditionally toiled on the road. Those factors, and the optimism that comes with any fresh start, are enough to persuade me that Saints will take this one by 16. 

Squads; St Helens; Lachlan Coote 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 4. Mark Percival 5. Regan Grace 6. Jonny Lomax 7. Theo Fages 8. Alex Walmsley 9. James Roby 11. Zeb Taia 12. Dominique Peyroux 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook 14. Morgan Knowles 15. Matty Lees 16. Kyle Amor 19. Aaron Smith 20. James Bentley 22. Jack Welsby 23. Joe Batchelor 27. Lewis Dodd 32. James Graham 

Catalans Dragons 

3. Samisoni Langi 4. Israel Folau 5. Fouad Yaha 6. James Maloney 7. Josh Drinkwater 8. Remi Casty 9. Micky McIlorum 10. Sam Moa 11. Matt Whitley 12. Joel Tomkins 13. Benjamin Garcia 14. Julian Bousquet 16. Tom Davies 17. Benjamin Julien 18. Alrix Da Costa 20. Lucas Albert 22. Arthur Romano 23. Antoni Maria 24. Jason Baitieri 25. Arthur Mourgue 26. Sam Kasiano 

Referee: Ben Thaler

RLWC 2021 Fixtures - Some Good RL News

Let’s have some good news in rugby league, shall we? Toronto Wolfpack’s withdrawal from Super League for 2020 which was announced on Monday (July 20) wasn’t so much a car crash as a motorway pile-up. We needed something to raise the spirits.

Apparently it is complete coincidence that the fixtures for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup were due to be released the very next day. It was always the plan, whereas Toronto’s announcement...well...wasn’t. The Wolfpack situation is now beyond farce and so defies further comment for now. We are 11 days away from the restart of the 2020 Super League season. What we should be talking about is what will be happening on the field. So that is what we will do for the time it takes you to read this guide to the who, what, where and when of Rugby League World Cup 2021.

There overall event sees three tournaments taking place in England in the autumn of 2021. The Men’s World Cup will run alongside the Women’s World Cup and the Wheelchair World Cup. Just a small gripe before we start. You can’t name your tournaments ‘Men’s’, ‘Women’s’ and ‘Wheelchair’. I don’t think it is overly ‘woke’ of me to point out that we are not a third gender. It is likely that the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup is open to both men and women which may go some way to explaining the reference only to ‘wheelchair’, but for me ‘Men’s & Women’s Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup’ might have been a better phrase. There ends your diversity lesson for today.

Purely because this is a column about men’s rugby league and owing to my shameful lack of knowledge of the other two categories I am going to focus on the men’s event. We know that England open the tournament against Samoa at Newcastle United’s St James Park on October 23. Beyond that how will it work? Who will play where, and when? Who has a genuine chance to win? And will it, when all is said and done, be any good?

There are 16 teams involved in the tournament. This might seem like an ambitiously high number for those who worry about what might happen to Italy when they take on Australia at St Helens on November 6, for example. No sport fears lopsided score lines quite like rugby league does. Yet it is generally the nature of World Cups in all sports that relative minnows might take a hiding from an established power. Rugby Union doesn’t worry about blowout scores. It distracts you from the All Blacks’ latest 70-point mauling of Georgia with nationalistic songs and flag-waving. Besides, you only need to kick two drop-goals to score 70 points in rugby union. Or something like that anyway. Cricket and basketball are two other examples of globally successful sports which don’t lose sleep worrying whether Holland will be all out for 12 against the Aussies or whether the Dream Team beat New Zealand by 50 points. We shouldn’t worry either.

Sixteen is a good number because it enables a more simple format. In previous World Cups the group stages have been lopsided and contrived to avoid those big scores. While we all want to see more competitive matches it doesn’t serve the game well if you have a tournament format that is hard to follow. In the 2021 format the teams will be very simply split into four groups of four, with each playing the others in their group once and the top two in each group progressing to the quarter-finals. As well as Samoa, England will face France and Greece in that initial group phase.

If that doesn’t sound all that tough it is because the draw is seeded. It is one thing to include lesser teams, it would be quite another to lump all the top teams in together in the early stages. Seedings should ensure that the best teams progress to the latter stages and that those knockout fixtures should be among the most competitive and high quality of the tournament. There is an established ‘big 4’ in international rugby league right now following Tonga’s performances in the 2017 World Cup and their astonishing victory over the Kangaroos in November. It makes sense to keep those four apart initially.

Heading up Group A England follow that Samoan opener with a meeting with France at Bolton on October 30 before taking on Greece at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane on November 6. France will meet Greece at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium on October 25, and Samoa at the Halliwell Jones in Warrington on November 7. Samoa face Greece at Doncaster on October 31. All things being equal Shaun Wane’s England side should make it through as group winners to a last eight match with the runner-up in Group D at Anfield. That could be Wales if they can get out of a group expected to be won by Tonga but which also features Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands. Welsh coach John Kear was recently reportedly trying to convince Newcastle Knights teenage centre sensation Bradman Best to take advantage of some Welsh heritage which would certainly help looking at some of Best’s performances in the NRL this year.

Group D features matches at St Helens, which might be useful for you to know if you’re planning to get along to any matches without having to travel very far. Two of Tonga’s matches will take place in these parts as Kear’s Wales outfit and Papua New Guinea also roll into town on October 26 and November 1 respectively. The other local offering is over in Group B where the world champions Australia will take on that Italian challenge I mentioned earlier. Italian hopes of seeing James Tedesco wearing blue rather than green and gold that day seem slim, but if you can get along there on November 6 you have a realistic shot of seeing him in the flesh irrespective of what colour he is wearing.

Joining the Australians and Italy in Group B are Fiji and Scotland. The Scots take on Italy and Fiji at Newcastle Falcons’ Kingston Park on October 24 and November 1 respectively but in between those two they must flit down to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena to take on Australia on October 29. Fiji will be the likely favourites to join Australia in the last eight. They get their toughest group game out of the way early when they take on the green and gold at the KCom Stadium in Hull on October 23. They then move over to Newcastle to take on Italy on October 30 and Scotland on November 6.

Whoever qualifies from that group will meet a team from Group C in the quarter-finals. The strong favourite and the team everyone expects to top this group is still New Zealand. This is despite the fact that Kiwis were humbled 4-2 by Fiji in the last eight of the 2017 World Cup, with Penrith Panthers hooker Api Koroisau kicking a crucial penalty goal for the Bati on that day. Maybe we have a ‘Big 5’. Yet with the Fijians safely out of harm’s way for now in Australia’s group Michael Maguire’s side should have few problems squeezing past Lebanon, Jamaica and Ireland. I read recently that Ireland were going to ditch their policy of selecting Super League stars with Irish heritage and would instead include more Irish-born players. That could be grim news for Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor, both of whom were born in England but featured for Ireland in the 2017 tournament.

If you fancy seeing a Kiwi game there will be one on October 24 not too far down the road at Warrington. Lebanon are the opponents on that occasion before New Zealand play both Jamaica (October 30) and Ireland (November 5) at Headingley in Leeds. If you have more of a feeling for the Irish - and let’s face it who on Merseyside doesn’t have some kind of Irish connection? - you can also see the Wolfhounds take on Jamaica at Headingley on October 24 and Lebanon at Leigh Sports Village on October 31. Jamaica have never qualified for a Rugby League World Cup before so their presence will automatically be a triumph both for them and for the sport. It would be a major surprise if they and not Lebanon or Ireland joined New Zealand in the knockout phase. Lebanon lost by just two points to Tonga in their 2017 quarter-final on the way to which they beat France. If Tonga are ‘Big 4’ or ‘Big 5’ then perhaps that suggests Lebanon aren’t that far away either. Their final group game, against Jamaica on November 7, is also at Leigh Sports Village.

Lebanon would be likely to face Australia at Huddersfield on November 12 if they win through, while the prospect of a reunion between New Zealand and Fiji in a quarter-final at the KCom on November 13 is enticing. England’s Anfield quarter-final will be on November 13 provided they win their group, while the smart money says Tonga will face Samoa in Bolton on November 14.

The semi finals take place at Elland Road, Leeds on November 19 and at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on November 20. With perhaps a slight nod to Super League the final will take place at Old Trafford, Manchester on Saturday November 27.

It should be absolutely fabulous. Provided nobody pulls out two weeks before it starts.

Rugby League’s New Normal Part II - An Explanation

I was in on a media briefing on the Super League rule changes for 2020 on Friday. I say I was in on it. It was conducted on Microsoft Teams so what I actually did was sit silently and listen in place of my friend, 13 pro-am podcast colleague and proper journalist Dave Parkinson. I didn’t actively participate in the discussion. However I did learn a lot and following my piece earlier this week regarding the rule changes I thought it might be instructive to offer you a little follow-up to explain the rationale behind some of the decisions that have been taken.

Dave Rotherham from the laws committee clarified that it had been decided in January that the laws should be looked at. It was not done only as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, by March it had become clear that they would need to deal with the effects of the outbreak. Their aim was to ensure that the game remains safe, fair and entertaining.

Ben Jones from England Performance Unit explained that in order to ensure that the game could return safely from its current suspension they had to demonstrate that a positive Covid test for one player involved in a game would not necessarily mean that all of the others involved in that game would have to self isolate. Should they have do so it is not hard to imagine a scenario where the whole thing comes crashing down and we slide back into a period of suspension.

We know that the risk of transmission outdoors is lower than it is indoors. If it could be demonstrated that face to face contact within a game could be lowered to acceptable levels then that risk could be managed. Face to face contact carries an increased risk of transmission, but for it to be significant it needs to last for 15 minutes or more. The obvious examples of face to face contact in rugby league are tackling and scrums. They examined both to find out whether measures were required to ensure that cumulatively players would not be engaged in face to face contact for longer than that 15-minute threshold.

Tackling is not the big problem. Contact of up to 3 seconds in duration carries only a medium risk. Tackles do not generally involve contact for more than three seconds and so for these purposes are considered ‘fleeting’. On this basis a player would need to be involved in 300 tackles to take them beyond that cumulative 15-minute threshold. This risk is considered manageable although the fact that there is risk involved at all is one of the reasons given for the “6 again” or set restart rule. By discouraging players from holding on or wrestling at the play-the-ball you can further minimise the amount of face to face contact between players.

We’ll see how the set restart will influence the game later but let’s deal with the bigger problem at hand which is scrums. Scrums have been removed essentially because they create a micro-environment. Twelve players breathe the same air during a scrum, and each has the potential to infect any of the other 11. The two scrum halves and the referee are not included in this equation as they are not considered to be in face to face contact with the others. Still, that’s 132 potential transmissions. That risk is considered too great. Those of you who have been watching the NRL will have noted that scrums remain in that competition. It’s important to remember that Public Health England advice is different to that of its Australian equivalent. The higher R rate and significantly higher Covid-19 death toll in the UK were also factors in reaching a different decision to the one seen in the NRL.

The removal of scrums has taken all of the headlines but other types of so-called ‘huddling’ have also been eliminated from rugby league’s new normal. Players will not be allowed to gather at moments of celebration nor will they be able to group together behind the posts as you would often see when a try is conceded. All of these measures serve to reduce the amount of face to face contact during the game to keep it safe.

If like me you were expecting the absence of scrums to result in a tap-athon then you might be interested in learning more about what the game will look like at situations which would normally require a scrum to pack down. If there is a knock-on or the ball goes over the sideline the game will restart with a handover. If the ball is kicked out ‘on the full’ then the handover will take place at the spot where the ball was kicked, just as the scrum does currently. The new rule does not provide an escape route from a poor territorial kick.

One of the concerns the players had with removing scrums was that they would lose the down time that they afford. To combat this referees boss Steve Ganson explained that the shot clock currently used for scrums and drop-outs will be in operation. The teams will have 30 seconds to get set for the next play after the handover. The game clock will stop if play has not restarted by the end of that 30 seconds and will only restart once the ball is played.

There is no such downtime allowance for set restarts. The players are going to have to be that little bit fitter as the down time that conceding a penalty normally creates will disappear. Ganson explained that previously a team conceding a penalty could expect an average of around 22 seconds down time. Set restarts are for situations where a penalty would previously have been given at the ruck. In simple terms infringements which take place before the tackle is completed will remain a penalty. Offences which occur after the tackle is completed but before the ball is played again successfully will become set restarts, giving the attacking team a fresh set of six tackles in possession. The exceptions to this are persistent offences or those which in the opinion of the referee prevent the team in possession from getting sufficient benefit, or professional fouls. For the latter, the referee may impose a 10-minute sin-bin on the offending player.

The set restart rule was introduced into the NRL this year and we have already seen seven weeks of action since their restart. In the early weeks the players relied on a referee’s signal to notify them of a set restart. The clubs felt that it was proving difficult for all players to see that signal and so the alarm that you might have heard frequently during Sky Sports’ recent coverage was introduced. Learning from that, Ganson explained that the existing shot clock buzzer will sound when a set restart is awarded. This should help make all players, TV viewers and - maybe by October - fans inside the stadium aware of the decision.

The final change was the one with less relevance to Covid-19. There has long been a debate about the ‘third man in’ to a tackle. Tackles made by players joining late are often more about stat padding than anything else and have the potential to cause serious knee and leg injuries. Ganson explained that it will now be illegal to hit a ball-carrier below the knee if he is held upright by two or more defenders and is not making any further progress. This is aimed at making the game safer irrespective of Covid-19 and will be retained once the health crisis ends. The only rule changes that will revert back to how they were pre-Covid once we get the all clear are those concerning scrums and huddling.

There was one more rule change considered by the committee but it was agreed that the 20-40 kick, already in place in the NRL, will be deferred for discussion for 2021 as there are no immediate safety concerns relating to it. We can probably expect it to arrive at the start of next season and the interpretation of the current ball steal rule is also up for discussion by the laws committee at that point. Hopefully by then there will be a current professional player on the committee. There have been lots of social media posts by players worrying about how much say they are getting in how the game is changing. Rotherham explained that the player who was on the committee has dropped off but that they are actively looking for a replacement. Until then Gareth Carvell from the players’ union has been their representative in the process.

With just over two weeks to go until Super League’s return it is going to be fascinating to to see how well the changes work and whether they achieve their stated aims of keeping the game safe, fair and entertaining.

Super League Fixtures Revealed - Partially...

Like many rugby league fans I have been building up for weeks to the announcement of the Super League fixtures for the remainder of the 2020 season. We have known since June 26 that the season would resume on August 2 with a triple header of fixtures scheduled to help those teams with games in hand due to postponements to catch up with the rest. Saints are one of those clubs and so the one thing we have known since then is that Kristian Woolf’s side will start against Catalans Dragons, while on the same date Leeds Rhinos will take on Huddersfield Giants and Hull KR Will face Toronto Wolfpack.

Since then there have been delays and postponements to the announcement of any further fixtures. Ongoing spats over wage cuts for players, match venues and the traditional Toronto visa fiasco have all contributed as the publication of the schedule was delayed more often than the 8.42 bone shaker to Lime Street. Some or all of these issues remain with just 17 days to go until that opening triple header. Yet a further delay would surely have thrown huge doubt over whether the restart would happen on time. So today the announcement was made as planned, but with a level of vagueness normally reserved for a government statement on face coverings in Pret A Manger. I can now tell you the order in which Saints play their remaining fixtures but the exact dates and venue details are still about as clear as the average 3-2-1 clue. Ask your dad.

It has now at least been confirmed that the Catalans game will take place at Headingley. This despite the fact that Saints own stadium, the one that doesn’t get a mention on these pages, is also named as a venue at which fixtures will take place following the restart. There will be a Round 9 triple header there on August 16 with Saints taking on Wakefield Trinity, Hull FC meeting Castleford Tigers and another dust-up between what will by then be the old foes of Hull KR and Toronto. Reports that the Wolfpack get to play Rovers every week to give the Canadian side the best chance possible of avoiding the wooden spoon are unconfirmed.

The question that immediately leaps out is why, if Saints can host Wakefield on August 16, do they have to travel to Leeds to play Catalans Dragons in what would have been a home game under normal circumstances? This is a rearranged fixture which should have been played on the weekend that Saints were otherwise engaged with Sydney Roosters in World Club Challenge action.

The line on triple headers at a single venue is that it “ensures greater control over the safety and well being of our players, staff and match officials.” That makes a lot of sense in the crazy Covid world, but under closer inspection basically means that if Saints had been allowed to play the Dragons on home soil then Leeds would not have been able to do the same against Huddersfield on the same day. Someone had to yield and it was never likely to be Gary Hetherington. Should Saints lose that opening game expect sparks to fly from the keyboard of Eamonn McManus in the aftermath.

Saints face the Rhinos on the second weekend of the restart in a more traditional away fixture before that date with Trinity. Beyond that there are no venues confirmed. In theory we could play all of our remaining home games at The Stadium Round The Back Of Tesco but presumably this will be deemed an unfair advantage if others are asked to play at neutral venues while games are still played behind closed doors. We saw a glimpse of what the response to that might look like last week when there was a largely hostile reception to the Dragons’ attempts to play their home games at Stade Gilbert Brutus. The French government have given the go ahead for the Dragons to open up to a maximum of 5,000 fans but as things stand the venues for the scheduled Dragons home games are one of many unconfirmed details of the 2020 season. There are still hopes that fans will be able to attend games in the UK as the season progresses but if that isn’t possible it doesn’t seem likely that the Dragons will drop their interest in hosting in France.

The other standout detail that is not set in stone following today’s announcement concerns the precise dates of matches. Saints’ have confirmed fixtures on August 2, 9, 16 and 30 but when September appears on the schedule released today it does so along with some fairly liberal use of a forward slash indicating that there are two possible dates. After the August 30 meeting with Hull KR Saints will face what should be an away game with Huddersfield Giants on either September 3 or 4. The following week Woolf’s side face Rovers again on either September 10 or 11 and then Toronto Wolfpack on September 24 or 25 and.....well....you get the picture. Interestingly, there is a gap in the schedule on the weekend of September 17 and 18 which given that there are midweek Super League games crammed in to the back end of the programme causing all manner of disputes about player welfare can only be a window deliberately created for the Challenge Cup. This has not been confirmed as yet but it has been the party line all along that the Challenge Cup will be completed despite serious doubts about whether rugby league will resume at professional levels below Super League.

The point about the exact dates of matches might be considered relatively minor by some given that as we stand fans will not be in attendance. Yet if the games are going to be televised or streamed then there will be fans who have complex work schedules who might appreciate a little more clarity. If you were going to try to arrange your work schedule around attending matches before Covid why wouldn’t you try to arrange it so that you can at least watch those games on TV or via a club stream? You’re going to want something if you have agreed to donate your season ticket money to your poor, cash strapped club. The one that goes shopping in the NRL while pleading that it has the financial plight of the NCL. As it stands Sky have committed to the live broadcast of 21 matches in August alone. There is the promise of a lot more along the way. That they have not been confirmed beyond August is a non-issue. It is fairly routine for broadcasters to make fairly late decisions about which games they will screen.

And so to the thorny issue of midweek games. They seemed an inevitability the longer the lockdown continued and are now a concrete part of the plans. Perhaps most interesting for Saints fans is the Wednesday night meeting with Wigan on September 30. Multi-sport fans might be peeved that they could end up having to choose between the derby and their team’s Champions League Group H trip to Vladikavkaz but the people who have the most justifiable gripe are the players. Rugby league is tough at the best of times and if players are asked to back up on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday from a Thursday or Friday game then injuries, fatigue and a general lowering of standards become increasingly likely.

The moans and groans out of the way let’s talk rugby. Saints had played six games before lockdown, winning against Salford, Hull FC and Toronto but suffering defeat to Warrington, Huddersfield and Castleford. That kind of iffy record makes the month of August crucial if we are to live up to the bookmakers billing of title favourites. The Dragons game takes on much more significance than a regular opener would. To go into the clash with a Rhinos side that was clobbering everyone before lockdown on the back of a defeat would present Woolf with a serious problem in this weirdest of debut seasons for the coach. Ending the month with Wakefield and Hull KR looks more gentle but a fast start is essential.

September starts with that Huddersfield clash on either the 3rd or 4th. The Giants had posed few problems for Saints in recent years until they rolled into town in early March and left with a 12-10 win on the back of Aidan Sezer’s surgical kicking game. They are a threat. A second meeting in the space of a fortnight with Rovers follows before Saints take on the Wolfpack and end the month of September with that midweek derby.

October is usually Grand Final month but the showpiece finale has been rescheduled for November in this new reality. Instead the month of October starts with a clash with Wakefield on October 8 or 9 before Castleford on October 14. A rare moment of decisiveness from the schedulers, there. The Tigers were Saints last opponents before lockdown and it was a game that the champions were never in. They went down 28-14 in what turned out to be Luke Thompson’s last appearance before joining Canterbury Bulldogs.

The Tigers match leads into a hectic end to October in which Saints will face Leeds, Salford and Wigan in the space of eight days. It looks a punishing schedule and there are those who feel midweek games should have been slotted in earlier in the schedule when players will be fresher. Yet there might be a reluctance to get the players to do too much too soon after the restart from the fixture planners. This route also gives players a chance to get used to the fitness sapping “6 again” rule and the abolition of scrums which are changes that we will see introduced when things get back under way. November is similarly over crowded, with Catalans Dragons, Hull FC and Warrington all on the to do list between Bonfire Night and November 13.

The playoffs will be reduced for this year. The five team McIntyre system has been temporarily shelved and instead we will see a straight semi-final and final knockout format contested between the top four teams at the end of the regular season. The dates are blighted by yet more vagueness but it seems likely that the opening round will be on the weekend of November 19 and 20 with the Grand Final on November 26. Old Trafford has hosted every Grand Final since its inception in 1998 but is not yet confirmed as the venue for 2020.

It was that sort of big reveal.

Rugby League’s New Normal

Rugby league is coming back, but not quite as we know it. The RFL board met for another hard session of procrastination and kicking the can down the road on July 6.

No decision was reached on whether promotion and relegation to and from Super League will take place in 2020. In addition, no definitive fixture schedule has been set beyond the triple-header planned for August 2 featuring teams with games to make up on the rest. The release of a full schedule was delayed firstly until July 8 before it was then announced that it would not be finalised until some time this week. The suggestion was that there has been objections to Catalans Dragons’ playing home games with a capacity of up to 5,000 in line with French government guidelines at a time when UK clubs are still forced to keep their stadium gates closed.

As I write this there are suggestions that only six of the 12 Super League clubs can return to training, despite the fact that we are now just 19 days away from the proposed restart date. The remaining six are still said to be in discussions with their players about wage cuts. The clubs feel that reductions are necessary so long as games are to be staged behind closed doors. The players are understandably baulking at the idea of a lower reward for what is likely to be a more demanding if shorter schedule. Though we don’t yet know dates and times of matches we do know that plans are afoot to introduce some midweek fixtures to ensure that the Grand Final can be played in November. This is to prevent the current season from dragging on into the winter months and therefore allow the players a reasonable break before the 2021 season is due to get under way in February.

Amid the procrastination and possibly under the influence of the lockdown bubbly some key decisions were made about the way the game will be played in 2020. The Covid crisis has forced many sports to think carefully about how they can adapt to make competition safer and rugby league is no different. It arguably presents more challenges than most other sports because of the level of physical contact involved. Being gang-tackled by three toothless Wigan front rowers with meat pies where their brains should be almost certainly carries a greater risk than....say.....having your pony-tail pulled by Dejan Lovren at a corner kick.

Experts can’t agree on very much during this pandemic. Some will tell you that it’s all over and that it is time to go back to that awful state we used to call normal. Others will tell you it is only just beginning and that popping down to your local Tesco Express for some milk and a packet of Minstrels is an extreme sport that could see you meet your end by the middle of next week. The latter view has only been bolstered by the Prime Minister’s decision to introduce the compulsory wearing of face coverings from July 24. The horse is several furlongs into the distance on this one and Johnson shutting the gate now makes little sense except to say that it is entirely in keeping with his government’s mixed messages and muddled thinking in response to the pandemic. While the truth about the dangers posed by the virus is probably somewhere in between the two extremes that are so often peddled, one thing that they seem to have reached a consensus on is the notion that rugby league in the age of Covid-19 will be safer without scrums.

During the 2020 Super League season If a ball is knocked on, thrown, kicked or batted into touch then the game will restart with a tap for the opponent. This decision has been met with some pretty mixed reactions. There are those who have long held the view that scrums in rugby league are about as much use as Matt Hancock’s protective ring around care homes. I have not seen a rugby league scrum fairly contested since Scrumdown was an ITV highlights show. Nevertheless they do contribute to the spectacle in their own way. A bit like Michael Ball on The One Show.

The thing about scrums is that they take six king-size forwards out of the defensive line. The effect of this is that it makes space for teams to attack. To put on what Stevo used to call a ‘planned move’ and what modern coaches might term a set play. As the game gets more and more structured and players and coaches rattle on about processes, building pressure and completion rates, it needs the opportunities provided by scrums more than ever. In the early weeks of the NRL since its restart some of the best passing movements and the most spectacular tries have originated from scrums. Far from scrapping them in the Covid-19 climate, the Australians have taken advantage of the enhanced potential for excitement from scrums that comes from allowing the team feeding the scrum to choose whether they want to form the scrum 10m or 20m in from the touchline or whether they want it in line with the mid-point between the posts.

It’s not just about entertainment. The absence of scrums will alter the rhythm of the game. It will lack variety in the way it looks. It may also affect the game tactically. The long, raking touch finder is another of the game’s arts which might not be top of the list of skills that fans want to watch but can be an integral part of a team’s game plan. Previously it gave everybody a rest and allowed the kicking team to at least set up their defensive line in anticipation of what would be thrown at them from the resultant scrum. The new arrangement means it is theoretically possible that your halfback’s cool, measured kick for territory will be rewarded with the opposition’s rapid, 18-stone winger retrieving the ball, taking a quick tap and coming at you at a rate of knots before your tired pack have advanced 20 yards down the field.

If that prospect offers little respite the introduction of the ‘6 again’ rule will test the stamina of the athletes even more. In a bid to discourage defenders from lying on a tackled player or from wrestling in an attempt to slow down the play-the-ball a fresh set of six tackles will be awarded to the team in possession instead of a penalty. The rationale is similar to that which has seen off scrums, cutting down the amount of time that players are in close contact and therefore potentially lowering the risk of transmission. Yet that will bring its own challenges to the players. As irritating as they can be the award of a penalty against your defence for ruck infringements buys time to reset and get a bit of breath back in readiness for the next wave of attack. Now teams will need to be ready to defend that next play instantly. In the early weeks of the NRL resumption this had a seismic effect on the fatigue levels of players not used to it and we saw some big scores as a result. That imbalance has levelled off a little as the weeks have gone by and coaches and players have adapted. Still, be warned that the close, intense battles you tuned in for may turn into processions in the early going.

Even as teams adapt defensively there is an argument that the 6 again rule fundamentally changes the game too much. If you are carrying the ball off your own try-line you may prefer the solace of a penalty and a kick to touch to the alternative of six more hard carries starting in difficult field position. And what about if you are transgressed against within kicking distance of the posts? The chance to break a tied score is a thing of the past unless one of two things happens. Either the referee deems an infringement so cynical that the offender is yellow carded for a professional foul, or the ball comes loose meaning that the attack can’t just get on with the next play-the-ball with a new set. It is not hard to envisage a time during a game when a player who has been infringed upon in the ruck develops a relaxed attitude to ball retention. Referees already struggle to decide whether a ball has been stripped in the tackle, dropped or voluntarily lost in a bid to milk a penalty. That problem has the potential to get significantly worse in situations where the attacking side feels that a penalty would be altogether more beneficial than a fresh set of six.

With such a short time to get ready for the restart even for those clubs with pay agreements in place, and with significant rule changes which could make rugby league look and feel quite different to what we saw before lockdown, the game that comes back on August 2 might not be quite as you know it.

After four months without it and as good as the NRL has been, I am still desperate for Super League to start. Even if it is laced with controversy, blowouts and quick-taps.