Saints position at the top of the BetFred Super League table was never really under serious threat during this fairly routine 40-8 win over an under-strength Leeds Rhinos side.
Although there has been a lot of it about during this strange, Covid-compromised campaign, Richard Agar’s decision to rest many of his senior players was nothing new in the aftermath of a cup final. Even in more normal times we have all attended games a week either side of a trip to Wembley in which a weakened team turned in a less than competitive performance. The scope for coaches to take the opportunity to rest their stars at such times has only increased with the introduction of playoffs and the Grand Final in 1998. Why risk injuries and burnout when there is no requirement to finish top of the league in order to be crowned champions? Leeds have played this system better than anyone down the years, twice winning the title despite finishing a modest fifth in the regular season standings.
If weakened teams feels like a new phenomenon it is because those sorts of selection decisions have been made even more likely in the year of Covid. A combination of a packed schedule featuring midweek fixtures and the frequent absence of those either infected or sidelined by contact tracing protocols have played their part. We will no doubt see a much changed Leeds side take on Castleford on Monday (October 26) just as we will see Kristian Woolf ring the changes for Saints against Salford that same day. More on which later.
First let’s focus on this one. At times it felt a little bit too much like a training run for Saints. Their line was rarely threatened in the first half. Saints gave the kids nothing. A bit like this callous Tory government. The baby Rhinos went without, but mercifully it was just possession and territory that they lacked for the most part in the opening half. For a while it looked as if Saints might shut out the Rhinos in both league fixtures for the first time following that memorable 48-0 win back in August.
That they did not was due as much to lack of concentration as anything else. If we are picking holes in this Saints display the left hand edge defence still looks unconvincing and there were some sloppy errors in attack that allowed Leeds to build their way into the game. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Kyle Amor and Alex Walmsley all dropped passes you would not expect to see shelled at junior level. You couldn’t shake the feeling that a little bit of intensity was lacking from Saints at times. That is perhaps understandable given that the result was never in doubt and with that Salford fixture looming less than 72 hours from the final whistle.
One man who did enhance his reputation was Josh Simm. The young centre was left out of the last match against Wakefield Trinity and must have feared that Jack Welsby’s performance in that game would make it difficult to get back in. Yet he justified his recall in the grand fashion, scoring a superb first half hat-trick. These were the first tries of Simm’s Super League career and on this evidence there will be many more. He put on a clinic in how to finish, swerving inside and rounding Jack Walker for his first before crashing through two defenders for his second. His third was more straightforward, strolling in after a sublime looping pass from Jonny Lomax. Simm had a quieter second half and is one of those who needs to work to tighten that left edge defence. Yet we may one day look back on this game as the one in which he arrived as a Super League force.
Simm’s second try was also the second of two that Saints scored while playing with 12 men after the early sin-binning of Alex Walmsley. The England forward was invited to take a 10-minute rest by referee Liam Moore after an incident involving Alex Sutcliffe. As Walmsley wrestled the Leeds man to the ground he seemed to drop his weight on to Sutcliffe’s neck and shoulders. The level of intent was unclear and is something only Walmsley can really know. Yet irrespective of intent tacklers have a duty of care not to place ball carriers in dangerous positions. It is something that has crept into the wider game since the defensive emphasis has shifted towards wrestling techniques. For Walmsley it is an incident which comes quickly off the back of the controversial tackle in which Wigan’s Jack Wells was seriously injured. Walmsley was never ‘that sort of player’ before. The nagging feeling persists that there is something in Woolf’s philosophy, and in particular his approach to defending and slowing the play-the-ball, that has made incidents like this a more prominent part of Walmsley’s make-up.
Back to more positive thoughts, and the performance of the ageless James Roby. The skipper took us straight back to his Man Of Steel winning year of 2007 in creating a first half try for Zeb Taia. Roby dummied to Theo Fages before shooting out from dummy half and finding Taia with an offload for an easy walk-in. It was a vintage moment from Roby in an overall performance which saw him chew up 153 metres on 10 carries and make 44 tackles. Only tackle machines Morgan Knowles and James Bentley bettered that defensive tally for Saints. That Roby is a decade older than those two illustrates how remarkable his efforts are at this stage of his career.
Roby has been so good recently that Woolf has felt able to do without the services of Aaron Smith. The understudy was recalled to the bench here for his first action since the golden point win over Hull KR on September 11. This was good news for those of us starting to worry that he was falling further and further from the coach’s thoughts. He repaid the faith with a try following a glorious break and exchange of passes with Fages. It was one of the highlights of the match along with Kevin Naiqama’s try in which the Fijian tipped the ball on to Tommy Makinson and supported the winger on the inside to touch down. Yet overall Smith was limited to only a 15-minute cameo and will hope to feature more against Salford. That seems more likely with the announcement of the 21-man squad which includes Smith but not Roby.
On which subject we now know following that squad announcement that the team will look significantly different on Monday. Lachlan Coote, Lomax and Regan Grace are all rested along with Roby, Taia, McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Matty Lees. Lewis Dodd was not in the 17 for this win over the Rhinos which hopefully points towards a first start in one of the halfback positions against Ian Watson’s men. Smith should get a decent run while the experience of Walmsley, Amor, Dom Peyroux and Joseph Paulo could prove useful if there are some unfamiliar names given an opportunity. Along with Dodd and Simm and Joe Batchelor, Welsby is included as is Matty Costello but there still may be room for some new boys with Josh Eaves, Tom Nisbet, Matthew Foster and Jake Wingfield all included.
Saints form so far has afforded them the luxury of resting their stars just as it did at various times during both the 2018 and 2019 campaigns. Only the prospect of winning a third straight League Leaders Shield acts as a reasonable incentive now for Saints. They have reached the 15-game mark required as a minimum to qualify for the playoffs and don’t seem in any real danger of slipping out of the top four even should they suffer one or two defeats. With home advantage not really relevant there is a compelling argument that the bigger picture for Woolf is to keep everyone as fit and sharp as possible for the knockout games.
The League Leaders Shield would be most welcome but Woolf knows that he will be judged largely on events on a Friday night in Hull in November.
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