Remember a beautiful day last August? A time before it was illegal to have a
barbecue? The sun shone, the birds sang
and I spent the day outside The Green Man near Wembley Stadium a few feet away
from a group of men dressed in primrose and blue wrestling get-up. It ended horrifically for us as Saints meekly
succumbed to an 18-4 defeat to Warrington Wolves in the Challenge Cup
final. Yet compared to the abject misery
in the UK and around the world since it still qualifies as a fond memory. Such are these times.
This week we get the chance to gain a measure of revenge
over our lupine friends from actually closer to the Mersey than we are. Neither Warrington nor Saints have played a
Challenge Cup tie since their Wembley date, with their scheduled fifth round
entrances in this year’s competition wiped out by the big bad Covid wolf. This Saturday afternoon’s quarter-final
between the two is quite the re-introduction as they battle for a place in the
last four of this year’s somewhat truncated competition.
Had I been writing this preview on Monday it might have looked
quite different. Pressed for a
prediction on this week’s 13 Pro-Am Rugby League Show I regret to say I plumped
for Warrington. They are the only other
Super League side comparable to Saints since lockdown in terms of wins and
losses. Neither have lost since the
restart. Yet on Monday Saints looked set
to be without both of their starting centres to add to the already significant
absence of the suspended Tommy Makinson.
Percival has been missing since the win over Castleford on August 16 but
is named in Kristian Woolf’s 21-man squad along with Kevin Naiqama, who has had
a two-match ban for his swinging arm on Kane Linnett overturned on appeal.
The inclusion of these two is a real boost for Saints who
have been having to do a fair bit of mixing and matching in the backline over
the last few weeks. It has not always
been to their benefit. For every 54-6
shellacking of Huddersfield Giants there has been an edgy, grinding win over
Castleford or a golden point win over Hull KR which managed to be both
hair-raisingly exciting and maddeningly frustrating all at the same time. I believe the modern parlance is clunky.
If Percival is fit enough to play then Saints back division
could return to full strength but for Makinson.
That would see the competition’s form player Lachlan Coote at full back
with a three-quarter line of Jack Welsby, Naiqama, Percival and Regan
Grace. If Percival does not make it then
expect Josh Simm’s recent run of starts to continue with Matty Costello again
not selected in the initial 21. Lewis
Dodd returns to the squad after his period of isolation following the mini
Covid outbreak in the club a couple of weeks ago. He replaces Joe Batchelor in Woolf’s
selection and will hope to challenge Theo Fages for the starting halfback role
alongside stand-off Jonny Lomax. Fages
came up smelling of the proverbial with his golden point drop-goal against
Rovers but was mostly underwhelming. Yet
to introduce Dodd in a game of this importance, when the winner goes home to
think about next year’s cup, would be an enormous call. It is not one I am expecting a pragmatist
like Woolf to make.
Saints are as powerful as ever in the forwards. Their pack has been the main reason why
nobody really came that close to beating them during the restart until Rovers’
effort last time out. Alex Walmsley is
the best prop in Super League by some distance this year so far. Woolf has a choice between club legend and
former NRL superstar James Graham or the industrious and promising Matty Lees
alongside Big Al. Woolf also has the
in-form Kyle Amor to come off the bench and may recall Louie
McCarthy-Scarsbrook who missed out last week.
Yet competition for places on the bench is fierce with Dominique Peyroux,
Lees or Graham and Aaron Smith also likely to feature from the interchange
bench. That’s because James Roby is
James Roby at hooker, and James Bentley has not yet given Woolf any reason to
take the starting second row berth away from him alongside Zeb Taia. Morgan Knowles will play at loose forward,
unless Graham does in which case even Knowles could be scrapping around for a
bench spot.
Warrington have had to do some pack-shuffling of their own
in recent weeks. A Covid outbreak at
Wakefield saw seven Wolves players having to isolate following their 36-0 win
over Trinity on August 30. Among them
were possibly but not officially Chris Hill, Jack Hughes, Jason Clark, Joe
Philbin and Matt Davis. They all return
while Daryl Clark is included despite missing last week’s 12-10 win over his old
club Castleford Tigers.
One man who won’t be involved is Tom Lineham who was this
week handed a bed-wettingly amusing eight game suspension for his ‘interference’
with Castleford’s Alex Foster during that win over the Tigers. This raised eyebrows not to mention ire in
the Wire following Makinson’s five-game ban for a similar offence a few weeks
earlier. Yet the disciplinary committee
clearly took into account a litany of charges on the record of Lineham versus
the relatively clean slate held by the Saints man. Also, to my knowledge Makinson has never done
an eye-poppingly stupid video in support of Boris Johnson and his government
cranks. That has to be worth the extra
three games at least. In Lineham’s absence
Jake Mamo is a contender to feature on the wing now that Toby King can revert
back to centre with Hughes and Jason Clark back to bolster the pack.
Expensive sports stars called Gareth are very much to the
fore this week, so it is pertinent to
mention that Gareth Widdop remains out for what were recently described as
personal reasons. The word around the camp fire is that he could be on a flight back to Australia on Air Contract U-Turn. Regardless of his whereabouts or his reasons for being elsewhere Widdop is one of Warrington’s
more creative outlets. He is a significant miss for coach Steve Price. There will be a heavier burden on Blake
Austin to deliver, which tells me that kicker-bothering Duracell bunny Knowles
will play big minutes for Saints whether he starts the game or not. For those fans who look forward to shouting
obscenities at the television who might be rueing the absence of Lineham fear
not, as self-proclaimed man of the people Anthony Gelling is likely to feature
and Hill will be the closest Wolf to the referees mic throughout.
Through all the muck raking and piss taking Warrington look
strong. Still, I am more confident of
progression to the last four now than I had been at the start of the week when
Saints looked a little more vulnerable in the backs. Let’s stay positive. Let’s assume that Percival will be fit and
ready to play and on that basis I’d just about back Saints to get the better of
a Warrington side which, while it has been very good in the last few weeks, has
not yet come up against anything to compare with this monstrous Saints
pack.
But you know what?
Win or lose, I’d still rather be outside The Green Man in the sunshine with
a pint of something cold in my hand. Saints
by 12.
Squads;
St Helens;
1. Lachlan
Coote 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, Dom Peyroux 13. Louie
McCarthy-Scarsbrook 14. Morgan Knowles 15. Matty Lees 16. Kyle Amor 17. Jack
Ashworth 19. Aaron Smith 20. James Bentley 22. Jack Welsby 26, Josh Simm 27,
Lewis Dodd 32. James Graham.
Warrington Wolves;
1. Stefan Ratchford 3. Anthony Gelling 4. Toby King
5. Josh Charnley 6. Blake Austin 8. Chris Hill 9. Daryl Clark 10. Mike Cooper
11. Ben Currie 12. Jack Hughes 13. Ben Murdoch-Masila 14. Jason Clark 15. Joe Philbin 16. Leilani Latu
17. Jake Mamo 19. Matt Davis 20. Danny Walker 21. Dec Patton 24. Keanan Brand
26. Matty Ashton 27. Ellis Robson
Referee: Chris
Kendall
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