Despite all the talk of what might have been it’s as you were in Super League after Saints thrashed Leeds 26-0 at Headingley on Friday night (April 1). Saints are still top of the pile while the Rhinos remain in crisis despite the unfailing optimism of interim coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan in his post game interview.
Before kick-off there were nagging doubts about Saints from some quarters. Their last league outing had ended in a shock defeat to the league’s bottom club Toulouse, a setback which was followed by a routine Challenge Cup win at Whitehaven which didn’t really reveal a huge amount about where Kristian Woolf’s side were in terms of form.
Heartening Leeds further before kick-off was the fact that Saints went into this one without several key players. Already set to be without Will Hopoate, Regan Grace, Matty Lees and Sione Mata’utia when the squads were announced 48 hours before kick-off, Saints were dealt a further blow when Woolf decided not to risk Alex Walmsley. That left the champions without both regular starting props, elevating impact players Agnatius Paasi and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook to starting roles. They were backed up only by Dan Norman, Jake Wingfield and Sam Royle off the bench with no place even for Kyle Amor in the match day 17.
Woolf had another selection surprise in store when he named Jon Bennison in Grace’s left wing position. Grace has been absent for all but the trip to Whitehaven so far in 2022 but it has been Josh Simm who has so far been preferred as Tommy Makinson’s wing partner. Yet it was Bennison who was handed only his second start for the club, the first having been in a 26-14 defeat at Salford last September which arguably cost Saints a shot at the League Leaders Shield in 2021.
Leeds had a few key figures of their own missing. David Fusitu’a, Harry Newman, Ritchie Myler, Brad Dwyer and Alex Mellor had long since been ruled out while a groin injury prevented Aidan Sezer from taking his regular halfback slot. That meant Liam Sutcliffe partnered Blake Austin in the halves while Liam Tindall, Cameron Smith and Jack Broadbent all started. Nevertheless there seemed a feeling that the list of absentees on both sides would have a greater effect on Saints than it would on Leeds. That was something of a miscalculation as it turned out.
We can’t get into the minutiae of what unfolded in this one without first paying tribute to James Roby. The Saints captain became only the fourth man to make 500 appearances for the club. Roby is in his 19th - and he says final - season after making his senior debut against Widnes all the way back in March 2004. A time when not only were Widnes an actual Super League club but Wayne Rooney was an 18 year-old phenomenon lighting up the European Championships, Brad Pitt was starring as Achilles in an epic retelling of the Iliad and Franz Ferdinand were A Thing.
Since then Roby has picked up five Super League titles and four Challenge Cup winners medals. He has scored 114 tries and 459 points for his hometown club, of which he has been captain since 2018. He has made 31 appearances for England and seven for Great Britain. Throughout his career Roby has been among the very best in the world at the number nine position and would surely still be in contention to feature in this autumn’s World Cup had he not announced his retirement from the international scene last year. Roby is a player who can do it all in both attack and defence, a man with great humility who has led by example long before he was given the armband by Justin Holbrook. He is still performing as well as any hooker running around Super League in 2022. There really aren’t enough superlatives to describe him and the contribution he has made and continues to make.
Roby deserves every accolade that comes his way, so it would be churlish of me to dwell too long on the out and out revisionism that is currently being applied to the career of Keiron Cunningham. To listen to some fans on the great Roby-Cunningham debate you would think the latter had enjoyed a couple of decent seasons before fading into obscurity. These are the same people who voted for Cunningham ahead of any other Saint in history to be the one recreated in bronze outside the stadium. Perhaps that vote and the current insistence on Roby’s goathood are symptomatic of the modern obsession that everything that is happening in sport now must be the best that it has ever been. Whichever side of the fence you sit the two deserve a place beside each other in the pantheon of all-time greats of not only Saints but of rugby league and even sport itself.
To the match then, and if Leeds were feeling optimistic ahead of this one that would have been reinforced when they had the first clear opportunity to score. It seemed like Saints might create something with good ball deep in Rhinos territory but a Jack Welsby pass missed it’s mark and almost found itself in the hands of Ash Handley on the Leeds wing. Handley had two or three more similar opportunities throughout the game, none of which stuck. Yet it is a telling and rather sad indictment of how the Rhinos performed with ball in hand that a Handley intercept always looked their most likely way of breaching a typically miserly Saints defence.
Moments after Handley’s first near miss Saints took the lead. Roby was at the centre of it, taking possession from a Saints scrum and feeding former Rhino Konrad Hurrell. The Tongan got on the outside of his defender and plunged over easily for his second try of the season and his first since the opening night win over Catalans Dragons on February 10. Makinson was unable to add the extras but - though they didn’t yet know it - Saints had already scored enough points to seal the win and return to the Super League summit.
Handley thought he’d secured his next opportunity to hit Saints on the counter but would have been dismayed to get half way down the field only to find that referee James Child had pulled play back for a Saints scrum because Broadbent had got a hand to Jonny Lomax’s pass and knocked it forward towards Handley. It was further evidence that despite not being unduly disturbed defensively, Saints were not quite firing in attack in the first 40 minutes.
Lomax would settle into his attacking stride later. For now he was enduring a frustrating time not helped by the fact that the authorities have seemingly abandoned the recent crackdown on foul play. Twice he was caught high, first by Sutcliffe and then by former Saint James Bentley. Both would probably have resulted in yellow cards in the early weeks of the season. That a penalty was deemed sufficient in each case will please those who crave violence in the sport and who claim that ‘the game’s gone’ when that violence is punished. The rest of us are left to wonder whether those running the game are serious about protecting its future if they are prepared to shift under mild pressure from keyboard fans, not to mention old school neanderthal coaches rattling off misogynistic tropes about netball whenever his players transgress.
The best way to respond to being roughed up is to post more points. This time it was Makinson going over for his ninth try of the season - his 10th would follow later and move him to the top of the league’s try scoring charts. The winger took Welsby’s pass and scooted over unopposed to double Saints lead to 8-0 with a quarter of the game played. Again Makinson failed with the conversion but goal-kicking was just about all he got wrong on the night. He reeled off 197 metres on 13 carries, a tally which was some 72 metres better than the next best Saint in this category, Curtis Sironen who had 125. Tellingly, Handley’s 120 was the best that any Leeds player could manage. Only Broadbent joined Handley in the 100+ club for the Rhinos, and just barely at 103.
Sironen had a mixed night. He was another who was fortunate that the clampdown on foul play has vanished into thin air after he caught James Donaldson high. The former Manly man has failed to hold down a regular starting slot in the early part of the season thanks to the form of Mata’utia and Joe Batchelor. He will continue to struggle to do that if he cannot clean up the errors from his game which were evident here. For all his effort and go-forward four errors is far too many to expect to be a regular starter in a side selected by the risk averse Woolf.
Mata’utia is still a few weeks away from fitness so there should be other chances for Sironen to press his claims. Yet even if he cuts out the errors Sironen will still have to fight off the challenge not only of Mata’utia but of Batchelor, who has improved beyond measure over the last 12 months. Batchelor only gained 73 metres on 10 carries in this one but importantly he was error free and he contributed 38 tackles on a night when Saints dominated defensively. The only Saint who could top Batchelor’s tackle count was Roby. Naturally. The skipper chipped in with 40 defensive efforts - bettered only by Smith (52) and Kruise Leeming (41). But then Leeds spent a lot more time defending over the 80 minutes.
Eight points in the first half did not reflect Saints dominance but it did highlight their lack of attacking fluidity. Woolf is nothing if not a problem solver and that was in evidence in the second half. Yet it was again Leeds who had the first opportunity as Bennison shelled Sutcliffe’s sky scraping kick to gift Leeds a full set deep in Saints territory.
On only the first tackle of that set Saints swarmed around Tindall and forced him into touch. Just as well as they were protecting a slender lead, perhaps. On the other hand you get the feeling that the same outcome would have transpired if Saints had been leading by 30. A healthy desire to defend their try line is drilled into this Saints side, the result of which has been the concession of just 50 points in their seven Super League outings so far. That’s an average of just 7.14 points per game. Even when the attack doesn’t quite click you won’t lose many games if you are only giving up seven points per game. Unlocking Saints defence is a conundrum that the rest of the league are charged with solving. An out of sorts Leeds lacking their key playmaker was never going to find the solution.
The Rhinos thought they had come up with an answer 10 minutes into the second half, but Jack Walker’s try was rightly disallowed for an obstruction by Rhyse Martin. The moment that finally broke their resolve came a few minutes later and again it owed much to Saints defensive tenacity and Leeds’ current propensity for outright panic. Saints rushed up in defence to smother the Rhinos playmakers forcing Sutcliffe to throw an ill-advised flick pass out to the left wing. It was easily picked off by Makinson who streaked away to put real daylight between the sides. Breathing rather heavily from the exertion Makinson handed on the goal-kicking duties to Mark Percival. The centre converted to push the lead out to 14-0.
If Bennison was still thinking about his earlier mistake he needn’t have worried. Things were about to get an awful lot better for the youngster. Again Percival played a part, surging through a gap and putting Bennison away down the left touchline. Bennison kept his composure superbly to find Dodd on his inside. The young half crossed easily for his sixth try of the season. Percival’s second conversion turned the lights out on Leeds who now trailed 20-0.
Bennison was unfortunate not to find himself surging down the touchline again shortly after, Lomax’s wide ball adjudged to have gone forward by Child. Yet perhaps the moment which confirmed that Bennison has the potential to succeed arrived with 10 minutes left. Taking a Leeds bomb close to his own line he jinked away from a couple of would-be tacklers and set off on a 30 metre jaunt which allowed Saints to start their set on the half way line. Bennison ended the night with 112 metres on 12 carries, a pair of clean breaks, just that one error which was arguably made up for by the try assist to Dodd. How long it will be before we see Bennison at this level again is unclear but his inclusion it is not something which should worry Saints fans on this evidence.
There was time for one more moment of magic to underline the difference in class between the sides. It was Lomax who provided it, noticing that Walker had moved up into the defensive line leaving space in behind. The Saints stand-off executed the perfect chip and chase to touch down and put the exclamation mark on the win. Another Percival conversion pushed the final score out to 26-0.
And so eventually - after an unconvincing start in attack - Saints proved that they can win and win well without Walmsley. Looking at those who filled in for him and for Lees there is a reasonable argument that there is adequate back up when needed. Very few props in the world could replace Walmsley without some sort of drop off, but Paasi’s 112 metres on 14 carries is a perfectly acceptable performance as are the 91 metres gained on 10 carries by McCarthy-Scarsbrook. Both were active defensively too, McCarthy-Scarsbrook weighing in with 25 tackles and Paasi adding 22. Not bad considering both had an increased work load in relation to what they are used to.
Beyond those two Norman also held his own and actually added more go forward than McCarthy-Scarsbrook. Norman racked up 105 metres on just nine carries and made 24 tackles. He may be disappointed that he could not cross for a try for what would have been a third consecutive game but he is starting to establish himself as a viable option in the prop rotation. Saints may need him to be given the current injury situation and the advancing years of McCarthy-Scarsbrook and the absent Amor.
While Leeds continue to naval gaze following another drubbing Saints have reasserted themselves as the team to beat once more. They face what looks a tougher test next week when they go to Catalans Dragons in the quarter-final of the Challenge Cup (April 9), before returning home for the first derby meeting with Wigan on Good Friday (April 15). Woolf’s caution in leaving out Walmsley at Headingley has hopefully ensured that the ex-Batley man will be fit for those two vital games.
Saints last visit to France ended in ignominy, but there was enough in this performance to suggest that they won’t suffer the same fate when it really matters in Perpignan next week.
Teams;
Leeds Rhinos: Walker, Tindall, Briscoe, Broadbent, Handley, Austin, Sutcliffe, Oledzki, Leeming, Prior, Bentley, Martin, Smith. Subs: Gannon, Mustapha, O’Connor, Donaldson
Saints: Welsby, Makinson, Hurrell, Percival, Bennison, Lomax, Dodd, Paasi, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Batchelor, Sironen, Knowles. Subs: Norman, Royle, Wingfield, Lussick
Referee: James Child
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