Saints bid to end a 13-year wait for Challenge Cup success starts when they host Leeds Rhinos in a last 16 tie on Saturday (April 10, kick-off 2.30pm).
You have to go back to 2008 for the last time Saints lifted the Challenge Cup with a 28-16 final victory over Hull FC. Three Super League titles have followed since then but the nearest Saints have come to cup glory in that time was in 2019 when they lost 18-4 to Warrington at Wembley. This year’s campaign starts with a meeting with the holders. In 2020 the Rhinos held off the Challenge of Salford Red Devils to win 17-16 in a final pushed back to October and played at an empty national stadium due to Covid-19. Fans are still sadly absent from this round and from the quarter-finals on the weekend of May 7-8, but all being well there will be reduced capacity crowds in attendance for the semi-finals and final.
Saints coach Kristian Woolf has made two changes to the 21-man squad which was on duty for the 25-0 win over Hull KR in the last Super League outing. Mark Percival sat that one out after coming off before the end of the opening round win over Salford with a leg injury. He returns, as does Agnatius Paasi after he was forced to miss the Rovers win due to concussion protocols. The duo replace Tom Nisbet and Aaron Smith, the latter having picked up a concussion problem of his own while scoring his first try of the season against the Robins.
Woolf has intimated that Lachlan Coote will return to the starting line-up. The Scotland and Great Britain international fullback has yet to feature for Saints in 2021 despite being named in the 21 for both of the opening Super League games. His return and potentially that of Percival could be bad news for Jack Welsby and Josh Simm, both of whom may have to make way. Tommy Makinson is one of six Saints named in Shaun Wane’s 35-man England training squad this week and will feature in a fairly settled back line elsewhere. Kevin Naiqama operates inside him at right centre with Regan Grace on the opposite wing.
Jonny Lomax this week joined Alex Walmsley, Jake Wingfield and Simm in signing a new deal with the club. Lomax is another of Wane’s England party and has pledged his future to Saints until the end of the 2024 season. By then Lomax will be 34 and will have spent 15 years in the red vee since debuting in 2009. His new deal has already sparked conversations among fans and media about Saints salary cap and the implications on the future of Lomax’s regular halfback partner Theo Fages.
The Frenchman is criminally under used in Woolf’s system so it is easy to see why the Tongan coach might feel he can do without the ex-Salford man. Especially with Lewis Dodd breathing down his neck for a first team chance. Fages’ supporters point out that he is a fierce competitor and a great defender, which isn’t really what he’s for if we’re honest. Undoubtedly Woolf should be using Fages more in attack but if he’s not going to then there’s a certain logic in making some room on the cap.
Morgan Knowles is still missing so expect a back row of Joel Thompson, James Bentley and Sione Mata’utia. They’ll back up a formidable front row of Walmsley, Matty Lees and James Roby with Paasi, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor waiting for opportunities off the bench. Joe Batchelor pressed his claims for a place with his run out against Hull KR and he completes the squad alongside Wingfield. There is no obvious recognised back-up hooker to Roby despite Josh Eaves having returned from a short loan period at Leigh.
Leeds arrive with a whole world of problems in their back line. Starting centre pairing Konrad Hurrell and Harry Newman remain out as are winger Ash Handley and stand-off Robert Lui. Fullbacks Jack Walker and Ritchie Myler are also injured, so it will be a patched up backline that faces the defensively formidable champions. This had been earmarked as the game where former Saint Kyle Eastmond would make his Leeds debut but he is not in Richard Agar’s 21-man selection either. It’s very difficult to see how a Rhinos side unable to call on its best attacking talent will trouble a Saints side which has conceded just six points and only one try in two league outings to date.
Luke Gale has had his fair share of injury problems down the years but is named which at least gives Leeds some experience in the creative department. Other than that and Briscoe brothers Tom and Luke on the wings they’ll largely be relying on lesser known talents like Corey Hall, Jack Broadbent and Alex Sutcliffe. Up front they look a little steadier with Mikolaj Oledzki, Kruise Leeming and Matt Prior in front of Alex Mellor, Rhyse Martin and 2020 NRL Grand Finalist Zane Tetevano in the back row. King Vuniyayawa is also named and could make a debut after joining Leeds from New Zealand Warriors in 2020. Brad Dwyer is a lively alternative to Leeming at hooker which is the one position where the Rhinos 21 appears to have more depth than the Saints selection.
None of which will help prevent them from losing their grip on the trophy. I don’t expect a lot of points given the way Woolf’s team goes about it’s business but I do expect Saints to breach the Leeds defence often enough to make their passage to the last eight fairly comfortable. There have been some classic cup encounters between these two, not least of which were the finals of 1972 and 1978 and the semi-final of 2002. This is unlikely to be another with Saints set to be a couple of scores better without really setting the pulse racing. Saints by 14.
Squads;
St Helens;
1, 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, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Joel Thompson, 12, James Bentley, 14. Sione Mata’utia, 15. LMS, 16. Kyle Amor, 17, Agnatius Paasi, 18. Jack Welsby, 20, Joe Batchelor, 21. Lewis Dodd, 22, Josh Simm, 23. Jake Wingfield.
Leeds Rhinos;
2. Tom Briscoe 7. Luke Gale 8. Mikolaj Oledzki 9. Kruise Leeming 10. Matt Prior 11. Alex Mellor 12 Rhyse Martin 13. Zane Tetevano 14. Brad Dwyer 15. Liam Sutcliffe 17. Cameron Smith 19. King Vuniyayawa 20. Bodene Thompson 21. Alex Sutcliffe 22. Sam Walters 24. Luke Briscoe 25. James Donaldson 26. Jarrod O’Connor 27. Jack Broadbent 28. Corey Hall 31. Morgan Gannon
Referee: Ben Thaler
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