It was a performance very much in character from both teams as Saints eventually eased to a 42-12 win over Leigh Centurions on Thursday night (August 26).
With fewer and fewer days between each game in the packed late season schedule Saints coach Kristian Woolf sent out a different looking side to face the league’s bottom club. Tommy Makinson and James Bentley were both suspended while Woolf chose to rest others. Mark Percival’s recent injury troubles were reason enough for him to sit this one out while Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Joel Thompson also had the night off. James Roby saw action from the bench as Aaron Smith got the start and Jake Wingfield made his first appearance since the last time Saints met Leigh at the end of April.
Makinson’s absence meant Kevin Naiqama switched to the wing and Jack Welsby slotted in at centre alongside Josh Simm. The latter had not featured in the first team since a home win over Hull FC at the end of May.
Yet as much as Woolf attempted to protect his key players he still had to endure the potentially damaging loss of one of his main men. Jonny Lomax was helped off in the second half with what was described as a hamstring injury. Lomax will undergo a scan this week but with Theo Fages already ruled out for the season with a shoulder injury the loss of Lomax is a headache that Woolf could well do without as we approach the most important period of the year.
Jack Welsby will likely fill in alongside Lewis Dodd in the halves for as long as Lomax is out but it was at centre that he excelled in this one. The 20 year-old scored two tries and grabbed two assists in an all action performance which also included a couple of offloads. He only made a relatively modest 74 metres on 10 carries but showed all the skill, vision and awareness that leave you feeling more than comfortable about his ability to adapt to a halfback role.
Welsby was many people’s pick for the man of the match and it would be hard to argue. Yet if we are looking for other candidates then Sione Mata’utia must have run him close. The second rower’s form hasn’t blown me away since his arrival from Newcastle Knights but he was influential here. He ran for 183 metres on 19 carries, scored a try and laid on another for Welsby. Only Regan Grace made more ground than Mata’utia while the next best effort from a Saints forward was the 155 metres chewed up by Alex Walmsley. If you were being overly cynical - and let’s be fair this column often is - you might suggest that Mata’utia has simply found his level in running all over a team which has won only one of its first 18 Super League outings in 2021. It will be interesting to see if this display helps his confidence and sees him kick on, but the truth remains that the ground he gained against Leigh was well over two and a half times his average for 2021 coming in to this game.
Mata’utia and Welsby preformed solidly throughout but this was another game in which it took a very long time for the Woolf machine to fire up its engines. It started well enough with Grace’s try after just three minutes following a classic Lachlan Coote wide ball. Yet the remainder of the first half was a familiarly frustrating affair. Matty Gee got Leigh on the board - crashing over from close range - but that came after Coote had extended Saints lead with a penalty from in front of the posts after he had been caught high. There are those who will argue that a gift two points should never be turned down and that is a philosophy which has seeped more and more into the modern game. Yet when you are the back-to-back champions playing at home to the team way adrift at the foot of the table do you really have the mindset that you might need every point you can get n order to win? If you are I’d suggest you are in the midst of a confidence crisis which wouldn’t be all that surprising given the limitations of Woolf’s attacking strategy.
Saints added just one more try before the break, Mata’utia putting Welsby over which following Coote’s failed conversion gave Saints a 12-6 lead. Mata’utia and Welsby combined again for the second half. The Australian’s attempted kick was deflected into Welsby’s path and the youngster did the rest. Another Coote conversion gave Saints an 18-6 cushion.
Yet Leigh did not roll over and the expected opening of the floodgates had to wait. Following the example of Gee in the first half Adam Sidlow took a short ball from James Bell and barged over. Brierley converted to bring the Centurions within a score at 18-12 going into the last quarter.
This is the point at which both teams fulfilled their relative expectations. Saints have often come on strong in games as opponents have begun to tire, while Leigh have tended to mix it with Super League sides for an hour or so before fading away. Mata’utia’s try stretched the lead to 24-12 which always looked a decisive advantage with time ticking on. If there was any doubt lingering it disappeared when Welsby’s neat offload found Coote in support with the simple task of plunging over the line. The fullback converted his own try to take the advantage out to 30-12.
Saints were not quite done as they went on to rack up 30 second half points. Joe Batchelor was next to go over, taking Welsby’s pass to touch down by the right side of the posts. It was only Batchelor’s third try as a Saint but a nice way to remember the week in which he signed a new two-year deal with the club. The last word was reserved for Dodd. Grace looked like he might score himself after another raid down the left channel. Yet when the Welshman was hauled down Dodd shimmied to his right and effortlessly breezed over.
It was a real touch of class from a half who is really starting to settle into the role. Even before the Lomax injury it was becoming evident that it is less about just getting any old minutes for Dodd than it is about actively and consistently influencing the game. He has now scored tries in his last three outings following his try in Monday night’s win over Warrington (August 30). Nineteen appearances is a small sample size but there now seems a slightly different, more interesting feel about the Saints attack with Dodd involved.
Saints will have tougher nights than this between now and the end of the season. Yet it was nice to know that they are still capable of piling on a large number of points in a relatively short amount of time. Doing it for 80 minutes is the challenge and there does still appear to be a significant drop-off in quality when Walmsley in particular takes his rests.
Still this was much more like the rugby I expect. From Saints and from Leigh.
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