The list of ways in which you could spend 80 minutes of your life that would be more fun than watching Saints maintain their 100% start to the season with this grating win over Huddersfield Giants is infinite. Yet a win is what transpired, leaving Saints with a perfect four wins from four to begin their 2021 campaign.
Coach Kristian Woolf came into this one knowing he would need to make at least one change from the side which had brushed aside Wakefield in a dazzling second half display last time out. Tommy Makinson was ruled out with a foot injury. Instead of opting to draft in youngster Tom Nisbet Woolf shunted Kevin Naiqama out into Makinson’s right wing role. The Fijian’s place at right centre was taken by the almost fit again - more on that later - Mark Percival, allowing Jack Welsby to stay in the left centre role from where he had excelled in the rout over Trinity.
There were changes up front too, with Joe Batchelor dropping out of the 17 altogether to make way for Sione Mata’utia. Former Newcastle man Mata’utia had missed the Wakefield win due to concussion protocols but was restored as part of a back row also including James Bentley and Joel Thompson. In the front row there was another change with Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook starting at prop alongside Alex Walmsley with Matty Lees still out with an ankle problem. This meant that Agnatius Paasi - Saints most influential front rower last week (and better than all but Walmsley this week as it turned out) - had to settle for a place on the bench from the start.
There’s no real problem with Naiqama starting on the wing. He has played in the NRL in that position for Newcastle Knights, Penrith Panthers and Wests Tigers. He can handle a Thursday night in Huddersfield. In any case, his growing band of detractors might prefer to see him on the wing given the number of tackles he manages to butcher when up against bigger opponents in the centres. The issue is more around Nesbit. If he is not deemed ready to step in to Makinson’s shoes for one night against demonstrably weaker opposition then when will he play? He is 21 years old now and will need to start feeling Woolf’s trust soon otherwise he could go the way of Mattys Costello and Fleming. Perhaps a spell on loan might be a reasonable short term solution. I hear Leigh Centurions are hiring.
Given that Paasi ended up with 125 metres on 14 carries there is a reasonable case that introducing him from the bench as an impact player paid off. However, as Saints toiled away pointlessly in the opening half hour it seemed obvious that they were crying out for someone who can bend a defensive line out of shape. Certainly the Tongan offered more in that regard than either lingering nuisance McCarthy-Scarsbrook (96 metres on 12 carries) or his Ireland team mate Kyle Amor (87 metres on 11 carries and one Ryan Atkins impersonation).
It was interesting to see Percival switched from his regular left centre role over to the right. There are two schools of thought on this. One is that as the more experienced of the two Percival is still the more suited to making the transition successfully than Welsby who may only be comfortable on the left. The other is that Welsby has been playing so well there that he has become something of an immovable object. Percival was withdrawn after around 50 minutes which apparently was always the plan as he builds up his match fitness again following his latest lay-off. Yet earmarking one of your precious interchanges for a switch in the outside backs seems like a bad plan to me, but one that is probably symptomatic of the absence of reserve grade rugby post-Covid. The truth probably is that Woolf felt he had little or no option if he is going to get Percival back to his best sooner rather than later.
Things started brightly for Saints and Welsby was at the centre of it. You get shorter notice for filling in your census than you do for a hopeful Saints bomb on the last tackle these days but it nevertheless seemed to catch Huddersfield by surprise. Welsby knew the script, leaping highest to gather Lachlan Coote’s cloud botherer before finding a lovely offload for the supporting Theo Fages to score. Coote reclaimed the goal-kicking duties from the absent Makinson and slotted Saints into a 6-0 lead.
Then came the toil. The tedium abated briefly on half an hour when Amor paid his tribute to Atkins. Burrowing over the line from close range he was surrounded by whatever collective noun is appropriate for a large group of Giants under whom the ball disappeared. It was impossible to see whether the ball had been grounded but Amor wasn’t shy in offering his opinion, thrusting a triumphant finger into the air from under the bodies. Referee Robert Hicks did not share Amor’s conviction, sending it up for review as a no try. The video referee was predictably unable to find enough evidence to overturn Hicks’ call and the try was not awarded.
With perfect symmetry, the side that had scored four minutes into the first half eventually scored again four minutes from the end of it. The ball was shifted right with a pace and precision that had been all too rare to that point as James Roby, Fages and Jonny Lomax combined to allow Percival to stroll over untouched. Coote’s second conversion of the evening gave Saints a 12-0 lead at half time.
Five minutes into the second period and Saints hitherto impregnable defence suffered a slight malfunction. Chris McQueen - who could be seen last week dropping the kind of pass they eat for breakfast at Rugby Tots - glided through a hole on Saints left edge created by a clever pass from former Canberra Raider and proper scrum half Aidan Sezer. Sezer had destroyed Saints with his kicking game when the Giants won the last game attended by fans around the back of Tesco in March of last year. This time it was his new halfback partner Jack Cogger setting the position up with a raking 40/20. Sezer couldn’t convert but the deficit had been reduced to 12-4.
When he wasn’t inspiring this brief rally, Sezer was busy alienating the Saints fans with some ‘simulation’ that is very much more associated with the millionaires of the round ball game. Standing at dummy half deep inside his own territory he took cynical advantage when Mata’utia rolled towards rather than away from him after completing a tackle. Sezer only got a penalty but will be disappointed not to have at least been nominated for a BAFTA or a Golden Globe, such was the drama of his subsequent tumble to the turf. Not to say that it wasn’t a penalty either. Mata’utia has a responsibility to clear the ruck and could easily have rolled away from Sezer. He got played, which is immoral but more and more these days that is professional sport. It’s the old story about the scorpion stinging the frog as they cross the water. It’s what sportsmen do. But amateur dramatics do not necessarily mean an offence has not been committed.
Eighteen minutes from time Saints - who were still keeping the Giants revival under wraps with some characteristically strong defence while failing to create much themselves - settled the result for all intents and purposes. Lewis Dodd had been introduced into his weekly cameo at acting half, and it was from there that he found a sharp, flat offload for Lomax to grab Saints’ third try of the night. A third Coote goal saw Saints well in command at 18-4. It hadn’t been inspiring but the job was being done with something to spare.
The comfort level took a bit of a knock nine minutes from time when Huddersfield added a second try. Bentley had knocked on 20 metres from his own line (one of three errors from him out of a team total of nine) to gift the Giants the field position from where Sezer and Cogger combined to put Jermaine McGillvary over in the right hand corner. Sezer landed an impressive touchline conversion to reduce the Saints lead to 18-10 with eight minutes on the clock. There was one more chance when Giants centre Sam Wood forced a by that time makeshift opposite number Bentley into touch 10 metres from his own line but once again Saints defence - their strongest attribute and the one that has contributed most to their lofty league position - held firm as they held on for the win.
Even now almost 48 hours after the event the thought lingers that a win in itself isn’t enough. It is almost absurd to criticise Woolf when his team are unbeaten at the top of the Super League table and are defending a title won in circumstances that are already the stuff of rugby league legend. Yet watching Saints right now is an utterly tedious, joyless experience at times. They briefly flickered at home to Wakefield last week but for the most part it has been conservative, slow, close to the ruck drivel in attack with a predictable, spiritless kicking game to match. While it is true that only three teams have more offloads than Saints this term there is no support play, no push, unless someone breaks into an area of space the size of Hull. Only then do we see risks taken. It is all about grinding teams down with mistake free football. Keiron Cunningham tried to do the same thing only he tried it with Jack Owens and Lama Tasi instead of Regan Grace and Paasi.
The point is shouldn’t there be something more? Winning is great, and if you had asked the twenty-something me about it pre-Super League I’d have told you that winning was all that mattered. But at this stage of my life as a Saints fan (which believe it or not I am despite my insistence on pointing out awkward negatives in this column and on Twitter in the interests of balance) I am looking for more. I want to go on a journey, to get excited about watching my team again. Looking up at a scoreboard and seeing a bigger number next to my team’s name isn’t enough, nor is merely the collection of trophies. No doubt this attitude has developed after seeing so much success at the club in the Super League era. I’m a bit spoiled by it. And I completely understand if younger fans aren’t bored by that yet. After all, the last two years have been a wildly exciting break from the norm for anyone born after around 2002 and whose formative years were spent watching Mick Potter’s team.
It’s what happens when this style of rugby doesn’t produce results that I’m most concerned about. Let’s be fair, with the more attractive fixtures being held back until the return of fans we haven’t played anyone yet. Bar a banged up Leeds side who pushed us close and made our defence look human in the recent Challenge Cup tie. The same Leeds who were drubbed 26-6 by perennial strugglers Hull KR this week. What happens when we run into Wigan, Warrington, Hull FC, Catalans or Castleford? Will our water tight defence hold, particularly against the more expansive sides who want to challenge us on the edges instead of continually testing the strength and stamina of our middle men?
We’re unlikely to find out next week with struggling Leigh Centurions on the agenda. We’ll win. But I’m already not looking forward to it.
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