Saints round off their regular season campaign when they visit the AJ Bell Stadium to take on Salford Red Devils on Friday night (September 17, kick-off 7.45pm).
There’s nothing really riding on this game for Saints. They are certain to finish second in the table and get the first week of the playoffs off. After which they will face the highest ranked qualifier from week one of the playoffs at home for a place in the Grand Final.
The lack of either jeopardy or incentive is perhaps reflected in Kristian Woolf’s 21-man squad selection. It includes four new faces and is shorn of the suspended Lachlan Coote and Agnatius Paasi, the injured Theo Fages, James Bentley, Sione Mata’utia and Mark Percival, and a whole host of rested regulars. Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, James Roby, Morgan Knowles and Joe Batchelor will all have their feet up in preparation for knockout football in a fortnight. Percival and Mata’utia are also expected to be fit by then. Percival suffered a head knock in the 40-6 routing of Leeds Rhinos which keeps him out, while the ankle injury sustained by Mata’utia in that game is not thought to be as serious as first feared.
So many absences make it particularly difficult to predict what the Saints line-up will look like. Jack Welsby is included and may - in Coote’s absence - get the opportunity to have a run out in the fullback role which Woolf has earmarked for him in 2022. With that in mind the possibly surprising return of Jonny Lomax is timely. Lomax hasn’t featured since injuring a hamstring in the win over Leigh on August 26. He was expected to be out for four weeks but is deemed fit enough for inclusion here. He could slot back into his regular stand-off position alongside halfback Lewis Dodd. Another option is to leave Welsby at 6 and move Lomax to the fullback role he occupied until the 2017 arrival of Ben Barba and the subsequent signing of Coote. Jonathan Bennison is a fullback who will be hoping that Woolf goes down a different route.
Shay Martyn - son of the legend that is Tommy Martyn - is one of only two recognised wingers in the squad along with Regan Grace. Therefore it would not be surprising to see Martyn make a first team debut. Martyn has played at centre also, but Woolf has named both Josh Simm and Ben Davies who are both slightly more experienced.
Alex Walmsley’s 275-metre tear-up against the Rhinos last week wasn’t enough to earn him a week off. All of Saints available front line props are included, with Matty Lees, Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook all in the reckoning. Dan Norman would have had high hopes of making the 17 last week. If he does not get the gig this week then he would be forgiven if he started to question his future at the club. The former London Bronco has featured only once in the first team, and that was a brief appearance in the Challenge Cup semi-final win over Hull FC in June.
The back row looks set to be experimental, with only Joel Thompson and Jake Wingfield having significant recent first team experience there. Reece Sumner is an option, as is Sam Royle who along with Matty Foster has just signed a new deal with the club. Aaron Smith will hope to start at hooker in Roby’s absence but faces competition from Josh Eaves and another youngster Taylor Pemberton. All of Saints current group of number nines - including Roby - will have been interested in this week’s news that Joey Lussick has signed a three-year deal from next season. Lussick is currently injured but could yet return to the Parramatta Eels line-up for the remainder of the NRL playoffs. He seems a more likely heir to Roby’s throne than either Smith or Eaves in the short term.
Salford are involved in this dead rubber for very different reasons. Richard Marshall spent two season’s as an assistant at Saints but his first year at the Red Devils’ helm hasn’t gone quite as he would have liked. Ian Watson’s shoes were always going to tough to fill after he led the club to Grand Final and Challenge Cup final appearances in successive years. Yet just six wins from 21 league outings in 2021 is a massively disappointing return for Marshall whichever way you slice it. Only Leigh Centurions sit below Salford in the league table and that won’t change regardless of the result in this one. Salford are one of only two teams to lose to the Centurions in a miserable campaign which has seen the Leigh side drop straight back down to the Championship.
Despite the relatively low stakes Marshall has gone as strong as possible with his squad selection. And why not? There are no playoff games for Salford to rest players for. Mad Monday is on the horizon. You’d have to think that there will be changes to the Salford playing staff in the winter but until then the players have one last chance in 2021 to show Marshall that they are worth persevering with.
Among those who won’t feature are ex-Leeds and England star Kallum Watkins, former Wigan speedster Joe Burgess, retiring prop Lee Mossop, Harvey Livett, James Greenwood and Lussick’s brother Darcy. Kevin Brown will bring the curtain down on his career and there has been speculation about the Salford futures of Ken Sio, Tui Lolohea and Sebastine Ikahihifo. Krisnan Inu has already declared himself a free agent. Others such as Dan Sarginson, Rhys Williams, Chris Atkin, Pauli Pauli, Oliver Roberts and Danny Addy will be looking to show Marshall that he has the nucleus of a competitive side already at his disposal. Ellis Robson is also included for what could be his last appearance for Salford on loan from Warrington.
There might be a slight feeling of deja vu about this one. Late last season Saints visited Salford for a game in which Woolf handed debuts to five youngsters. That experimental Saints side went down to a 12-10 defeat but it was experience which has proved invaluable to the likes of Welsby, Dodd and Wingfield who have since developed further. It may be that Woolf is less concerned about the result than with finding out how the youngsters and the fringe players handle the challenge.
The teams have met twice already this season and the stats make grim reading for Salford fans. Marshall’s side have scored only six points in those 160 minutes of rugby league, going down 29-6 on opening day in March and 28-0 when crowds returned in mid-May. This could be somewhat different given Saints’ squad selection. There’s every chance that the Red Devils may just edge it.
Squads;
Salford Red Devils;
1. Morgan Escare 2. Ken Sio 4. Krisnan Inu 6. Tui Lolohea 7. Kevin Brown 9. Andy Ackers 10. Sebastine Ikahihifo 11. Ryan Lannon 12. Pauli Pauli 13. Elijah Taylor 14. Danny Addy 15. Oliver Roberts 16. Greg Burke 17. Josh Johnson 18. Chris Atkin 22. Rhys Williams 23. Dan Sarginson 24. Matty Costello 25. Jack Ormondroyd 30. Connor Aspey 35. Ellis Robson
St Helens;
5. Regan Grace, 6. Jonny Lomax, 8. Alex Walmsley, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Joel Thompson, 15. LMS, 16. Kyle Amor, 18. Jack Welsby, 19, Aaron Smith, 21. Lewis Dodd, 22. Josh Simm, 23, Jake Wingfield, 24, Josh Eaves, 25, Dan Norman, 29. Ben Davies, 30. Sam Royle, 31. Jonathan Bennison, 32. Shay Martyn, 33. Taylor Pemberton, 34. Reece Sumner.
Referee: Marcus Griffiths
No comments:
Post a Comment