It ended in defeat, but Saints 12-10 reverse against Salford Red Devils on Monday (October 26) was not without its plus points.
Changes were expected for this one when we saw the squad that Kristian Woolf had named two days previously. Even so the scale of the reshuffle was a surprising, slightly jarring development. Not like finding out that Dido Harding is still in charge of test and trace, but you feared the worst in terms of the result. And so it proved. Yet we may one day look back on this game as a day when far more important gains were made. Five players made their first team debuts while there were further opportunities for Matty Costello, Josh Simm, Jack Welsby, Aaron Smith, Lewis Dodd, Jack Ashworth and Josh Eaves. In all 13 of the 17 on duty had come through the system at Saints, which would still have been true if Woolf had gone a little bit stronger and included any or all of Tommy Makinson, Regan Grace, Johnny Lomax, James Roby, Matty Lees and Morgan Knowles. There is nothing wrong with the production line.
None of Tom Nisbet, Ben Davies, Nico Rizelli, Matty Foster or Jake Wingfield let anybody down. My own feeling is just that youth benefits more from being introduced gradually rather than being thrown in together all at once to either sink or swim. With the exceptions of Alex Walmsley and James Graham the experienced players that were included were those on the fringes of the first team squad and not the regulars who have been playing every week. Men like Ashworth, Joseph Paulo and Joe Batchelor needed the minutes but none of them are currently part of what you would say is Saints strongest 17. Just one or two more of the established stars could have made the difference to the result and - crucially perhaps - to the confidence of the youngsters making their first appearance.
Not to say that there wasn’t justification for Woolf’s decision to give some players the night off. Saints had played Leeds only three days before this one and face Wigan on Friday (October 30) in a derby game that has the potential to decide the League Leaders Shield. Players have limits and three games in eight days is probably beyond what is good for them. Graham had missed the win over Leeds and Walmsley had learned earlier in the day that he will be suspended for the Wigan game, factors which gave Woolf a little bit more leeway with those two. Walmsley was hit with a two-game ban for an alleged crusher tackle on Alex Sutcliffe of the Rhinos. That has since been reduced to one but Walmsley will still sit the derby out.
Despite the changes the game started well enough for Saints. Inside three minutes Dominique Peyroux sliced through two or three defenders to put Eaves in for his first try for the club on just his third appearance. Peyroux was outstanding throughout. He did more than anyone to stake a claim for more minutes when the bigger games come along.
He was a regular in Justin Holbrook’s outstanding 2019 side but has been edged out this year by James Bentley. On this evidence Peyroux is a more penetrative player than the combative Bentley and must at least be considered a useful option off the bench. There will be those who will highlight his sloppy play-the-ball error which led to Pauli Pauli’s try just before half-time but that was a rare blemish. Peyroux carried the ball only 10 times but ran for 98 metres, contributing 41 tackles in defence. No Saints player managed more than that though it is some way short of the ludicrous 70 that Luke Yates managed.
Eaves made his mark to the extent that he has been named ahead of Smith in the 21-man squad for the Wigan game. As well as scoring Saints only try of the night the young hooker made 26 tackles, 10 of which came from marker, while averaging nine metres per carry in attack. By comparison Smith made 15 metres per carry but from only three attempts and 24 tackles. Statistically then there isn’t much between them but there has just been a sense in recent weeks that Smith is falling out of favour with Woolf. Eaves may have emerged as a genuine contender to be Roby’s regular understudy.
After scoring first through Eaves Saints had stretched out to a 10-0 lead before Pauli Pauli’s intervention. Yet they had done so courtesy of two penalty goals from the boot of Dodd. There is an argument that the decision to take the two on those occasions betrayed a lack of confidence in the young Saints ability to break the Salford line. With a stronger team on deck there would still be justification for taking the first one to push the six-point advantage out to eight and so force Salford into having to score twice. But the first XIII kicks the second one to the corner and goes for the try 100% of the time. Such is their attacking philosophy they would probably have ran both. Ideally, you’d like the philosophy to stay the same even when the personnel changes.
Maybe one reason why they did not feel confident in doing so was the absence of the three attacking pivots through which everything flows. With Lomax, Theo Fages and Lachlan Coote out of the side creativity was always going to be affected. In particular Coote’s role is crucial as a facilitator, almost like a third halfback. With Costello at fullback Saints just didn’t have that despite a solid showing from a man who has played most of his first team football at centre or on the wing. Costello did have 116 metres on 17 carries and led Saints alongside Paulo with three offloads but the assist column remained bare. That is not all down to him. Welsby and Dodd are not yet as practiced in the system as Lomax and Theo Fages and between them the trio just couldn’t get that link going.
Regrettably we have to address the one moment that could and probably should have won it for Saints. It was rare that the young Saints were able to strip the Red Devils for numbers out wide but they did so 15 minutes into the second half. Jack Welsby found space on the right edge and handed on to Nisbet for what looked like a simple walk-in. What transpired instead was horrific for the unfortunate 21 year-old, who dived for the line a fraction too early and lost the ball on impact with the ground. The ball had been grounded so there was hope before the video review that he might have got away with letting the ball squirm from his grasp. Yet the pictures told the sorry tale. The ball had been grounded short before coming loose.
Many were quick to point out that Nisbet would learn from the experience. And he will. Yet the lesson should be on how to put such a glaring error behind him and move on, and not about the execution. Nisbet did not reach the heights of Super League without knowing how to ground a ball from a technical point of view. He would not have got out of junior club rugby and into Saints famed youth system without knowing how to do that. He won’t need telling. He’ll just need the support firstly of all of us albeit socially distanced on social media, but also of the coaches and the senior players at the club. The best thing that can happen for Nisbet is to get another first team opportunity as early as possible but with Makinson and Grace rather immovable objects on the wings it could be a while before he gets that chance. It should also be remembered in all of this that players like Nisbet - used to turning out for the reserves and under-19 side in previous seasons - have not had a game for some time thanks to Covid.
Saints fledgling stars proved durable enough. Both Eaves and Wingfield withstood high shots from Lee Mossop. It’s a trait that the Salford man no doubt picked up from the Wigan School Of Grubbery but at least offered the pair a revealing insight into the physicality of the big league. In the end it was another error which led to Saints undoing. Rizelli had done extremely well to beat a couple of defenders in trying to clear his lines with Saints hanging on to a four-point advantage at 10-6. Rizelli arguably took on one too many as the ball came free to give Salford a late chance. They duly took it as the ball was moved to the other side of the field where Krisnan Inu got rid of Welsby like Ben Bradley swatting away a hungry child before cutting inside to score. For an encore Inu landed a superb conversion from near the touchline to deny Saints even the prospect of a shot at golden point extra time.
Even then there was one final chance for Saints. They worked the ball left as the clock ticked down but just as it looked like a gap had opened up Simm just couldn’t find the offload that might have earned Saints a reprieve. It means that a loss against Wigan this week will leave the two old foes on the same win percentage ahead of whatever manic, late season goalpost-moving is being cooked up by Robert Elstone and his trusty advisors otherwise known as club chairmen.
It’s a stretch to say the derby might not matter. The derby always matters even if Wigan tried to pretend otherwise in September’s meeting. But whether it decides the destiny of the League Leaders Shield or not Saints look in good shape not only to defend their title - whatever that will mean in the madness of 2020 - but also for many years to come.
The kids are alright, even if they didn’t quite do enough to win this time.
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