There hasn’t been a lot of positivity around Saints 20-16 win over Wakefield Trinity last Friday night (October 9). If the reactions I have seen could be merged into one average reaction to suit the majority of us it would be something like a disappointed shrug and some cliched mumblings about how a win is indeed a win. Even if it no longer equates to two league points. It wasn’t pretty but it worked, as Alice Cooper once said about Barbara Streisand. Pots and kettles.
The problems were numerous so let’s start at the beginning. Saints lost James Graham in the run up to the game. He has been forced to isolate due to a Covid-19 issue within the family. No problem. We didn’t have James Graham at the start of the season. Let’s just bring in another prop...say....Matty Lees and the rest of the side can be left virtually undisturbed from the pristine state that Justin Holbrook left it in.
Clearly Kristian Woolf’s mother never taught him to put things back where he found them. Lees did start at prop but the new coach has gone away from the concept of Morgan Knowles as the starting 13. When he is available the spot goes to Graham, and now we find that when the former NRL star is not available the spot does not go back to Knowles. It goes instead to veteran penalty dispenser Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook. Knowles is shoe-horned into the second row where he looks about as comfortable as Matt Hancock doing Queen on karaoke, and Zeb Taia is relegated to the bench.
It took half an hour of horror and slapstick to convince Woolf to introduce Taia. Saints were dreadful in that opening spell. About as bad as I’ve seen them since the departure of Keiron Cunningham and the arrival of Holbrook in 2017. These are first world problems to fans of clubs who don’t make the playoffs every year but for us the tedium of that time was real. If Woolf wants to take us towards a more simplified, mistake-free philosophy then he hasn’t got much of a margin of error before we natives get restless. Lose playing this way and you’re out. Without seeming to move the ball outside the middle third of the width of the field Saints nevertheless managed to fail to complete any of their first five sets. I can live with mistakes if we are missing flick-passes out wide but when it is happening despite a strategy of one pass off the ruck alarm bells ring.
Those alarm bells were blaring in this one after 20 minutes. By that time Chris Chester’s side had gone in for two tries and taken a 12-0 lead. First Reece Lyne found space down the right and kicked inside for Alex Walker to score, and then Craig Kopczak burst over from Ryan Hampshire’s pass from dummy half after Jonny Lomax had somehow hauled him down earlier in the set. Misfiring, malfunctioning Saints were in a hole.
They survived two more scares before things got better. First Jonny Lomax’s attempt to give the attack a little width was picked off by Lyne who headed off quickly in the direction of Saints line. Only the pace of Regan Grace prevented more points, the Welshman reeling Lyne in and then hauling him down with a crucial tackle. Later, youngster Jack Croft tore a hole through Saints right edge defence. Understandable that they should be a bit sleepy. Kevin Naiqama gets so little ball that I have just had to check that he is not furloughed. Yet as Croft found himself in open space he rather lost his nerve and let Saints off the hook with an ill-advised, over-hit kick ahead which was scooped up easily by Lachlan Coote. Had either of those chances been taken the mountain may have been too high to climb. As it was it set up a flicker of a revival in the last 10 minutes of the first half.
The two tries that Saints scored in that period were absolutely crucial. Going in just two points down at 12-10 having played so far beneath themselves had to have been strangely heartening for Saints. McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s crash through two flailing defenders showed that Saints had the physical power to take over the contest just as soon as they could get their shit together. Coote then profited from Josh Simm’s miracle ball as he was bundled into touch, which showed also that Saints had the class and the skill to see off the league’s bottom club, even though they had effectively been given a 12-point start.
Saints control of the second half was not absolute but it was just about enough. Wakefield’s attacking opportunities dried up but perhaps more importantly Saints began to keep hold of the ball a lot better. Their 55% completion rate from the first half was improved to 66% by the end of proceedings. After making a ridiculous nine handling errors in that first 40 minutes Saints were guilty of only four more after the break. Slowly but surely they began to overhaul Trinity. First with Grace going over from a sublime long ball from Lomax and then Coote grabbing his second try of the night when James Roby created space for Lomax to find his fullback in support. Coote would have felt more than a little relief as he converted the second of those two scores to give his side a 20-12 lead. He had wasted an opportunity moments earlier when having broken the Wakefield line he failed to find Theo Fages supporting on his inside.
It was not at all surprising that Roby should find a moment of class to help decide the outcome. He was superb on the day, with 60 tackles in defence and 131 metres with ball in hand. Of the Saints forwards only Alex Walmsley made more ground while no player on either side matched Roby’s defensive effort. Many felt the decision by the broadcasters to award the man of the match gong to Josh Wood was indicative of their bias towards Trinity on the night. I must admit there was a surreal moment late in the game when I’m certain I heard Phil Clarke cheer when a short Wakefield restart cannoned off Simm into touch to give the Yorkshire side possession and with it one more chance to get back into the game. Then when Matty Ashurst did score a late try Clarke began bizarrely shrieking for an 8-point try. The replay was shown several times but in the end Blackrod’s finest couldn’t find a better reason than the fact that it was against Saints. Fans of his persuasion would introduce 20-point tries against Saints if they could count that high.
Overall though, as comically bad as Barrie and Terry are much of the TV bias comes from the fact that this was the league’s bottom side putting the frighteners up the league’s best side. When you are at the top you are there to be shot at. Pretty much every rugby league fan who is not a Saints fan would have wanted Wakefield to win this game. It will be the same when the sides meet again next week. Best buckle up for the ride. It is a compliment in a roundabout sort of way.
That Wakefield did not win it was thanks partly to Fages’ late try-saver on Ashurst. The Frenchman showed astonishing strength to haul the ex-Saint back from virtually across the try-line before he could plant the ball down. For all that, I am still not convinced Fages offers enough as a creative half and in particular as a foil for Lomax. Fages may well be playing to Woolf’s instructions but you can’t help but wonder about Lewis Dodd and the impact he could have. Amid all the other selection questions is another concerning the whereabouts of Dodd for this one. Having made his debut in the win over Wigan last time out it was disappointing not to see him given the chance to build on that start. And disappointment for Jack Welsby too, named as one of the four interchanges as Tommy Makinson returned from suspension but not called upon to take the field. In the age of Covid is it wise to be trying to play with a 16-man rotation? Might it not have been better to call up Aaron Smith who can at least spell Roby? The skipper was outstanding but playing the full 80 minutes isn’t a recipe for extending his longevity.
And yet for all the moaning, including my own in this piece, we should not forget where we are. Saints are now clear at the top of the Super League table with a win percentage that is now five points better than that of nearest challengers Wigan. Yet another year in the playoffs beckons and who knows, with a fair wind and a bit more respect for possession at times we could yet find ourselves topping the league for a third straight year and winning a second consecutive Grand Final.
It’s really not all that bad...
No comments:
Post a Comment