Saints maintained their unbeaten start to the season with this schizophrenic win over winless Wakefield Trinity.
It took a while for the medication to kick in, but a previously unresponsive Saints racked up 34 second half points in the second half. That followed an opening 40 minutes that was more remarkable for being scoreless than for any of the rugby played. It leaves Saints with three wins out of three, with a points difference of +76 and a defence that concedes an average of only 3.3 points per game. It’s early, but all the signs are that Kristian Woolf’s side are the team to beat again in Super League in 2021.
Saints went in to this one without four first team regulars, which might go some way to mitigating the slow start. Matty Lees and Sione Mata’utia picked up injuries early in last week’s cup win over Leeds Rhinos, while Morgan Knowles is still yet to feature this term due to a thumb injury. Mark Percival also missed out with the leg injury that has kept him out since the latter stages of the opening round win over Salford Red Devils on March 26. Percival’s injury problems are a persistent irritant and an ongoing concern, so it is fortunate that Saints have the versatile Jack Welsby to step in and produce performances of the quality of his second half effort here. Especially with Josh Simm currently on loan at Leigh Centurions.
With Lees out new recruit Dan Norman must be massively disappointed to have missed out on the 17. Agnatius Paasi deserved the start after an epic performance against the Rhinos but the former London Bronco might be justified in thinking that he was worth a place on the bench. Instead Woolf went with regular dugout-dwellers Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook with Jake Wingfield and Lewis Dodd alongside them. Wingfield filled in for a spell at hooker in relief of James Roby with Aaron Smith again not selected. It is worth noting that Wingfield - in only his second appearance and playing in an unfamiliar position - made 22 tackles and missed none.
Smith missed the Leeds win due to concussion protocols but was named in the 21-man squad for this one before being left out of the final 17. Perhaps Woolf felt that the young hooker’s welfare would benefit from another night off but on the other hand it would not be the first time that Smith found himself out of favour with the Saints coach. Smith’s contract ends at the conclusion of the 2022 season and with Saints having been active in extending deals for others in the last week or so his situation may be one to watch. In Mata’utia’s absence Joe Batchelor got the nod in the back row with Joel Thompson and James Bentley. Former York man Batchelor worked hard in defence with 29 tackles but made only 15 metres from just four carries in attack. Saints top metre maker was Welsby with 149. Among the forwards it was Bentley who led the way with 146 to add to his team high 43 tackles. The fella is industrious.
Coming into this game there were grumbles - not least from these pages - about the state of Saints attack. It had stuttered of late, relying on the sin-binning of George Lawler and the dismissal of Zane Tetevano to help it really click into gear in wins over Rovers and Leeds respectively. It was a similar story in the opening half here as Saints toiled away in unconvincing fashion. The closest they came to scoring was when Tommy Makinson was deemed to have been in touch when he galloped in down the right flank just before half-time.
Defensively they weren’t tested very often by a limited Trinity side which had been brushed aside by Wigan and Catalans Dragons in its last two outings. That was despite offering Wakefield more opportunities than was strictly necessary with some poor discipline. Woolf’s Saints seemed to have concluded that a set restart was an acceptable concession if Wakefield were far enough away from Saints try-line early enough in the tackle count. Whether this influenced referee James Child’s decision to sin-bin Bentley on 15 minutes is unclear. I haven’t seen many referees get the yellow card out for a player slowing the play-the-ball down 80m from his own try-line but perhaps Child was also coming to the view that cynical tactics were being employed. Perhaps it was for something Bentley said, or the hint of a high shot on the previous play.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t help Saints find any attacking rhythm but nor was it sufficient to spark Wakefield into life offensively. They were further hampered by the loss of playmaker Jacob Miller with a knee injury especially since they were already without Tom Johnstone and Bill Tupou among others.
Saints were a completely different side after the break. It started in the opening minutes as Lee Kershaw - standing in for Johnstone - made a mess of a routine territorial kick by Lachlan Coote to present Saints with another set inside Wakefield’s half. The ball was switched smartly to Jonny Lomax who found Kevin Naiqama who barrelled through the defensive cover to score. Coote still hasn’t reclaimed the goal-kicking duties in only his second outing of the year and so it was Makinson who landed the extras.
Five minutes later the champagne corks were popping in celebration of a sizzlingly Saintsy score by the returned Bentley. Welsby created the space with a great break through the centre of the Wakefield rearguard before finding Theo Fages who handed on to Bentley to cut inside a bamboozled Ryan Hampshire and cross for his first try of the season. Makinson goaled for a 12-0 lead as we all wondered where this free-flowing rugby had been hiding until this point.
There was more of it to follow before the end, but first there was time for proof that Saints can get it right with their short kicking game on last tackle plays too. So often this season we have settled for a Fages bomb or an apologetic dribble through the line. Imagine all of our surprise then when Lomax took charge of the situation on the left edge to dink a perfect little grubber into the path of the on-rushing Welsby for Saints third try in little more than 10 minutes. Makinson’s third goal was the best of the lot, striking it from near the left hand touchline for an 18-0 lead.
Saints repeated the trick 10 minutes later, but this time it was Welsby with the short kicking skills on the left channel and Regan Grace providing the finish. The lesson here appeared to be for Fages to run and pass more but leave the attacking kicks to others. Makinson converted again from out wide and as the game entered its final quarter it was out of sight at 24-0.
So far out of sight in fact that Woolf felt able to withdraw Makinson just before Naiqama - who then moved into Makinson’s right wing berth - added Saints fifth try and his second. Despite Saints second half dominance to that point there had not been many opportunities for the right winger, so Makinson would have rued the fact that one arrived straight after his departure. Lomax found Naiqama with a good wide ball and the Fijian had too much pace once the space had been created. Dodd had come on by this time but missed with his first attempt at goal so Saints led 28-0.
Saints final try was the highlight of the night. Less than 10 minutes remained when Paasi put a dint in the Wakefield line and found Dodd with an offload. Dodd’s delicious step and body swerve was a demonstration of his much advertised talent, but he also had the awareness to find Welsby in support. Welsby didn’t quite have the pace to get there but he did find Grace just in time before the desperate tackle on him was complete. The Welshman ducked inside the cover to pick up his second four-pointer and round off the try-scoring in dazzling style. Dodd did get his name on the scoreboard with the conversion which gave Saints a 34-0 lead. They had scored more points in half an hour since the break than they had in an entire 80 minutes to this point in 2021.
There was a slight blemish when Jay Pitts took Jordy Crowther’s pass and sliced through untouched to get Trinity on the board, Mason Lino adding the extras to reduce the final arrears to 34-6. But it was a minor detail on a day when Saints showed what they are capable of and what they can be reduced to in the same evening’s work. A distinctly bipolar performance, but one that ultimately gave cause for optimism and got the job done.
There is just one more order of business before thoughts turn to Thursday night’s meeting with Huddersfield Giants. The Wakefield game was the first Saints Super League game to be streamed live on Our League due to the continued closure of stadia. Right up until the day of the game social media was awash with misinformation about who could access the stream and at what cost. Sky - which owns the broadcast rights to all Super League games whether they choose to screen them live on their own platforms or not - made a decision that non-televised games would only be available to 2021 season ticket holders. Or members, as we are now pretentiously titled.
The club had already made a decision that only existing members could renew. Taken together these two decisions meant that a significant number of fans who would have walked up and paid on the gate in normal times had no legal means of accessing the coverage. Sky probably felt that it was not in their interests to allow a rival broadcaster - even the RFL via Our League - to make money from an asset that they own. That’s how Rupert has got rich and why Sky is still the dominant player in UK TV sports rights. Yet it still surprises me that a deal could not be done between Sky and the RFL to get more eyes on this match. It wouldn’t have been all that attractive to neutral RL fans - which is something we Saints obsessives sometimes forget - but nevertheless an opportunity has been missed to maximise a viewing audience at a time when it would be easier to sneak unnoticed into Mordor than get into a rugby league ground on game day.
And that cannot be a good thing for a game desperate for attention.
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