Job done. Winning was all that mattered this week as Saints edged through to the last four of the Challenge Cup. Yet the manner of this 23-18 victory over Ian Watson did little to dissuade me from the view that if Saints and coach Kristian Woolf don’t change course soon, then a rude awakening is lurking around the corner.
Having trumpeted the return of Morgan Knowles to the 21-man squad Woolf ultimately decided that the Cumbrian wasn’t actually ready to be involved on the field after all. With James Bentley still in his hospital bed after surgery on his broken leg that meant a start at what used to be known as loose forward for Joe Batchelor. Joel Thompson returned from a foot injury to take his place in the second row alongside Sione Mata’utia. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook was again preferred as a starting prop ahead of Agnatius Paasi with Matty Lees another long term injury victim.
Also returning was Tommy Makinson. He was restored to his familiar right wing role which meant that Jack Welsby - one of the few Saints players who can claim to have been operating at or near his maximum level in recent weeks - was the unfortunate man to be left out. This was to accommodate both Kevin Naiqama and Mark Percival in the centres as Woolf opted for experience. It didn’t last long, with Makinson seeming to suffer a recurrence of his foot injury within the first three minutes. Welsby - who had been named on what looked a light bench also featuring only two props in Kyle Amor and Paasi alongside the recalled Aaron Smith - was going to play the vast majority of this one after all. Naiqama switched back to the wing and Welsby slotted back into the centres. Smith’s inclusion was a head scratcher bearing in mind that the young hooker had been out of favour recently. It also meant there was no place in the 17 this week for Lewis Dodd. Fortunate then that Theo Fages had one of his less disastrous performances.
Woolf later denied that it had been too soon to recall Makinson following his absence from the last two games. In fact, the coach was quick to point out that Makinson could have played in last week’s 22-12 victory over Leigh Centurions but it was felt that another week’s rest would be beneficial. Seemingly, that extra week was not enough to get rid of the problem. It will now be interesting to see what Woolf does with Makinson for next Monday night’s clash with Salford Red Devils (May 17). It is the slated to be the first game attended by fans since a defeat to Huddersfield last March, but it might be one in which it would be wise to manage without the England winger. It is always a shame to see games missing the very best players but I’m sure those among us fortunate enough to be selected to attend as a result of the ballot will be glad of the opportunity to see even this dreary Saints outfit live and in the flesh after such a long and difficult period.
I could fill pages and pages telling you all about Saints failings in this one. Woolf continues to insist on a tedious, grinding style of rugby which on the face of it seems only to achieve the dubious aim of keeping games against lesser opposition close. Huddersfield are an improving side but the way some fans have turned them into Penrith Panthers because they mixed it for 80 minutes with Saints is at best laughable and at worst borderline delusional. If Woolf ever lets the handbrake off on this side the likes of Huddersfield would be cannon fodder for a team containing the amount of talent that Saints have. Saints many and varied weapons are criminally underused at present. So far it is a winning formula, but Saints are very much the academically gifted student who can’t be arsed to use all of their resources and abilities, preferring just to scrape through to the required grade.
It is not just Saints. The Grind is the prevalent style across Super League. But at least some clubs have the excuse that keeping it tight helps them compete against more talented teams. What’s our excuse? There aren’t any teams in Super League with more talent than Saints. Huddersfield aren’t all that close if we’re being honest. I’m glad it didn’t happen this week in a knockout game but we probably need to get our arses summarily handed to us by someone - to suffer that rude awakening - for Woolf to consider a change. The alternative is a fairly joyless march to Super League domination. Which is fine if you like that sort of thing.
The difference for Saints was mainly the brilliance of Regan Grace. Part of the Woolf ideology is that we should not move the ball as wide as the vicinity of Grace until tackles five or six, and never further than 20m from the opponent’s line. The days of watching out-of-your-seat long range tries are seemingly over. Too high risk. Go through the processes. Build pressure....zzzzz.....
So anyway because of this fun-deficient philosophy the Welshman doesn’t get a lot of touches. When they arrived in this one he made them count. His first significant intervention had a touch of good fortune about it when a Fages grubber ricocheted off a Giants defender before being scooped up and finished by Grace. That brought Saints back into it, 6-4 down after Michael Lawrence had opened the scoring by sneaking behind the Saints defence to be first to a pin-point Aidan Sezer grubber.
Grace’s second took Saints into an 18-12 lead. Mark Percival had put Saints 10-6 up with a determined effort which he’d made more difficult than it needed to be by electing not to pass to Grace. Yet at half-time the Giants had retaken the lead 12-10 through Darnell McIntosh’s converted try. A Coote penalty had levelled the scores at 12-12 before Grace’s second try gave Saints a lead they would not relinquish. He was served up a fantastic long ball from Coote before bamboozling the cover by stepping inside in a manner that has become something of a Grace trademark.
Fages landed a drop-goal to push the lead out to two scores at 19-12 but still the Giants hung around. lingering. Kept in it by Saints inertia. McIntosh’s second try arrived after Naiqama flapped at a Sezer lob, former Saint Joe Greenwood on hand to make the telling pass. There was now only one point in it at 19-18. And so it was again left to Grace to sort out the mess, going over to complete his hat-trick five minutes from time. This time it was Jonny Lomax who provided a stunning catch and pass after being fed by Fages. Coote could not add the extras which ensured that the tension remained for the last few minutes, but Saints hung on.
Grace had started the week by penning a new deal to keep him at the club until the end of the 2022 season. This was largely celebrated fans. And why wouldn’t you? Having an out and out speed merchant with a poacher’s instinct for the try line in your team for another year has to be viewed as a positive. A ray of light among news of links with another identikit, second row tackling machine being brought over from the NRL to help carry out the Woolf masterplan. Yet the shortness of Grace’s new deal was something which I found quite jarring. It would seem to suggest that he does not see his long term future in St Helens. Woolf has already conceded that there has been interest in Grace from rugby union, which we should remember is the working man’s game in Wales and not the pursuit of lager-lout lawyers and dentists that it is often viewed as in England. Financially it is also attractive, and it has a vastly superior international structure. In addition the idea that a winger gets more involved in league than union starts to look flimsy after a few weeks watching Woolf’s team. Anthony Sullivan never had this problem. It doesn’t look like Grace will tolerate it beyond 2022 either.
One other issue emerging from this one was the ongoing saga of the ‘six again’ rule and its interpretation. Brought in as an attempt to speed the game up it is surely time to put it back in the cupboard. Nobody seems to understand why set restarts are awarded. Since the game doesn’t stop there is no time to analyse the reasons for such awards. We are left to rely on the odd call of ‘too slow’ or ‘hand on ball’ from the referee which only arrive sporadically. And in any case...hand on ball? How can ‘hand on ball’ be an offence when the authorities just made it legal to strip the ball one on one? It’s a confusing, ill conceived rule. The commentators rarely explain it, largely because they are as clueless as the rest of us and too busy telling us how entertaining five drives and a kick is. What it is not is poor refereeing or some kind of inexplicable bias against your club. And no, Bill Gates isn’t responsible for Covid.
But the real kicker, the most compelling reason for casting set restarts forever into the fire of rugby league bad ideas along with margin meter and distance to target, is the fact that coaches now routinely abuse it. Yes, even Kristian Woolf. Especially Kristian Woolf actually. They have all figured out that when defending deep in your opponent’s half early in the tackle count it is often better to give away a set restart and make one or two extra tackles than allow a quick play-the-ball. They would not make this decision if a ruck infringement was likely to result in the concession of 30-40m from a penalty.
So Saints live to fight another day. The dream of winning a first Challenge Cup in 13 years is still within sight. The semi-final draw has thrown up a challenging tie with a Hull FC side finally showing a bit of consistency and steel under Brett Hodgson. One of the delights of the black and whites win over the Evil Empire Wigan Warriors was the way they made the self proclaimed best fullback in the known universe Zak Hardaker look like he hadn’t played there before. To the point where the ancient and loyal brigade are already calling for him to be moved back into the centres at the earliest opportunity. Avoiding Warrington in the last four has thrown up the prospect of a repeat of the 2019 final for which a spot of revenge would be very welcome. But honestly, it looks a long way off if we continue to grind it out. One day soon one of these too-close-for-comfort affairs is going to go against us.
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