Saints v Catalans Dragons - Preview

There’s something a little different about the Magic Weekend this year. 

Normally held much earlier in the season, the September date for this year’s event means there will be far greater consequences for those who lose - and potentially greater rewards for those who win. That is especially the case for Saints and Catalans Dragons when the top two meet in the middle game of three on Saturday (September 4, kick-off 5.15pm).

For the Dragons the equation is simple. Win and they will pick up the League Leaders Shield for the first time since their 2006 launch. The only other silverware they have got their hands on in that time is the 2018 Challenge Cup. The League Leaders Shield is sneered at by many as fan, coaches and players prioritise the Grand Final. Yet don’t be surprised if - should the Dragons win it - the broadcaster devotes generous amounts of time to celebrating it. Close your eyes, count to 10 and remember that they will do so as evidence of the success of expansion and not because they have a personal vendetta against you and your team.

Trying to prevent - or at least delay - the Dragons success are Kristian Woolf’s not-so-bad-themselves Saints. The coach has named an unchanged 21-man squad from the one on duty at Warrington on Monday night (August 30). That probably means we can expect few if any changes to the 17. What shuffling there might be is more likely to come in the pack where the decision over whether to start Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook or Matty Lees at prop alongside Alex Walmsley is a toss-up. In the back row Jake Wingfield made the bench in the win over Warrington but remained unused. That’s highly unusual in the modern game and will have raised the hopes of Joel Thompson that he might see a return to action after being left out of the previous two games. The retiring Thompson will be replaced by his former Manly team-mate Curtis Sironen for next season. If Sironen is half as good for Saints as Thompson has been well...then I hope Mr McManus has kept the receipt. 

The rest of the pack is fairly well established with James Roby completing the front row and James Bentley, Joe Batchelor and Sione Mata’utia competing for two second row spots ahead of nominal loose forward Morgan Knowles. After that it’s a scramble for bench spots with Agnatius Paasi and Kyle Amor also in the mix. 

The most intriguing area of the back division at the moment is in the halves. Jonny Lomax’s untimely injury added to the long term loss of Theo Fages has seen youngsters Lewis Dodd and Jack Welsby thrown together. The pair dealt with the responsibility superbly at Warrington and we should have few worries about them. The Dragons twosome of Josh Drinkwater and James Maloney are two of the best and most experienced knocking around Super League but so are Wire duo George Williams and Gareth Widdop and they didn’t turn out to be an insurmountable challenge for Saints young stars. But more than their quality, Welsby and Dodd just make Saints infinitely more fun to watch. Woolf should be forbidden to coach that out of them under any circumstances. I won’t be getting my hopes up. 

Tommy Makinson’s return certainly helped against Warrington and he and Regan Grace will be the battering rams width outside of the newly Newlovian Mark Percival and Kevin Naiqama. Lachlan Coote is apparently declining according to some, an assessment which honest to God has nothing to do with his decision to move to Hull KR for 2022. For now, he will continue to be the best player on the park amid the grumbling and the he’s-not-as-good-as-he-was’ that will doubtless be trotted out.

Catalans lost at Saints as recently as August 7. They did so comfortably, going down 34-12 in a St Helens monsoon which was even further away from Perpignan climate-wise than Newcastle will be.  That loss for Steve McNamara’s side was down to many things, chief among which was the half arsed team he picked for what turned out to be a phoney war. Sam Tomkins, Sam Kasiano, Drinkwater, Matt Whitley, Tom Davies, Michael McIlorum and Julian Bousquet all missed that game but all feature in McNamara’s 21 this time. There is still no place for Benjamins Garcia or Julien but as well as the players who are returning the Dragons possess plenty of firepower elsewhere. It’s not that long since Mike McMeeken was an England international while Fouad Yaha’s 14 tries in Super League in 2021 make him the joint top scorer along with Ken Sio, Ryan Hall and Jake Mamo. Artur Morgue is a special talent for whom McNamara will no doubt find a role even if Tomkins makes a rare appearance against Saints. The ex-Wigan man is in great form this year but you feel his side’s chances diminish if he doesn’t shake his recent habit of managing to be absent when Saints turn up on the agenda. 

Catalans do have a win against Saints this year, but their 20-16 home success in May was only their third in the last 10 meetings between the two. There was an 18-10 success in April 2019 and of course the 35-16 humbling in the Challenge Cup semi-final a couple of months later, but largely Saints have been dominant against the French side. They hammered the Dragons 48-2 in last season’s Super League semi-final, and scored 50 in a 2019 win just three weeks after that 18-10 loss. The advice would be to just not make them angry.

How much Saints need this one depends on how highly you value the League Leaders Shield. Failing to win it did not stop them from winning the Grand Final last year and the way the playoffs are structured again this year means it should not be a significant barrier this time around either. Yet Saints can still find motivation even if topping the table isn’t floating many boats. The recent home defeat by Castleford appeared to spark something in Saints who look out to prove that they are not as vulnerable as their rivals would hope as we enter the stage of the season when the medals get handed out. Or is it rings? Whether Saints end up with the League Leaders Shield or not this game represents an opportunity to dent the optimism of the side which - looking at the state of some of the other playoff probables - looks the likeliest to stop Saints pulling off a third title win in a row. That opportunity should be sufficient motivation and it persuades me that Woolf’s side will squeak through this one by four. 

Squads;

St Helens; 

1. Lachlan Coote, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5, Regan Grace, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Joel Thompson, 12. James Bentley, 13, Morgan Knowles, 14. Sione Mata’utia, 15. LMS, 16. Kyle Amor, 17, Agnatius Paasi, 18. Jack Welsby, 19, Aaron Smith, 20, Joe Batchelor, 21. Lewis Dodd, 23, Jake Wingfield, 29. Ben Davies.

Catalans Dragons;

1. Arthur Morgue 2. Tom Davies 3. Samisoni Langi 4. Dean Whare 5. Fouad Yaha 6. James Maloney 7. Josh Drinkwater 8. Gil Dudson 9. Micky McIlorum 10. Julian Bousquet 11. Matt Whitley 12. Mike McMeeken 17. Mickael Goudemand 20. Matthieu Laguerre 22. Joel Tomkins 23. Mathieu Cozza 27. Joe Chan 28. Sam Kasiano 29. Sam Tomkins 30. Jordan Dezaria 31. César Rouge

Referee: Liam Moore