Threepeat champions Saints look to earn a fifth league win in a row when they take on Hull KR in a rare Sunday afternoon home outing (June 12, kick-off 3.00pm).
Last week’s 28-14 success in Toulouse was payback for one of only two league defeats in Saints’ opening 14 games. The only other blemish came at Castleford in April when coach Kristian Woolf chose to send an experimental side into The Jungle as his stars rested up from the Easter double header. That consistency over the season has translated to a four-point lead at the top of the table going into this weekend’s round of games, temporarily cut to two by Wigan’s stroll over Salford on Friday night (June 10).
Meanwhile Rovers have not quite kicked on from last season when they came within one game of making it all the way to Old Trafford and the Grand Final. Their campaign so far has had its disappointments to say the least. Tony Smith’s side failed to win any of their opening two league games against Wigan and Huddersfield. Their first win came against Castleford in Round 3, but the manner of their 32-0 shellacking by the Tigers in mid-May illustrates the Jeckyll and Hyde nature of their season so far. That came on the back of another nilling - this time against Leeds. Both those results bookended their meek surrender to the Giants in the Challenge Cup semi-final.
Sunday’s 43-16 pummelling of Salford came on the back of three consecutive league defeats. Currently Rovers sit sixth in the table, occupying the last playoff position. Smith’s men are only two points behind their local rivals Hull FC in fifth, but defeat here would have them nervously looking over their shoulders at the teams chasing them for the right to extend the season. They have already suffered at the hands of Saints in 2022 when a Tommy Makinson hat-trick and two tries apiece by Lewis Dodd and Sione Mata’utia set Woolf’s side on the way to a 42-8 win.
Two of those three will not be in the Saints ranks this week. Lewis Dodd had his season wrecked by an Achilles injury on Good Friday, while Mata’utia has picked up a two-game suspension for a late hit on Lucas Albert in the win at Toulouse. His place in Woolf’s initial 21-man selection is taken by Sam Royle. In the only other change Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook is denied the opportunity to add to his impressive if logic-defying collection of 392 Super League appearances after picking up a facial injury in France. More on Super League appearance addicts to follow.
Mata’utia has been operating in the centre of late and with Mark Percival still out a vacancy has now arisen. Ben Davies may feel deserving of an opportunity in his preferred position after a difficult time filling in at stand-off. That would remove the need to shuffle other players around too much, but it should probably be remembered that Will Hopoate was touted as a replacement for Kevin Naiqama when the Tongan arrived from Canterbury. He would fit in seamlessly there but given the problems Saints have had in halves without Dodd do we really want to move Hopoate out of the fullback role. Do we want to then have to adjust the position of either Jonny Lomax or Jack Welsby? Jon Bennison is another option at either fullback or centre. With Regan Grace now restored he and Makinson should start on the wings, with Konrad Hurrell at right centre.
It is strange to think that Mata’utia won’t be too sorely missed as a back rower but there is depth there now. Joe Batchelor is an established Super League performer with a Danny Houghton-like appetite for a tackle, while Curtis Sironen is a skilled if sometimes temperamental performer on the opposite side. Morgan Knowles is an unchallenged starter at loose forward when all things are equal but it is comforting to know that we have more than capable back up in James Bell.
And so to the front row and the subject of appearances. Hooker and skipper James Roby is set to make Super League appearance number 455, thus breaking the record that he currently holds jointly with Leeds Rhinos legend Kevin Sinfield. The milestone has provoked much debate among fans of all clubs but especially those of a Saints persuasion on the subject of the greatest ever Super League players. In particular number nines. In many ways the Roby/Cunningham debate is one that can never be conclusively won by either side. It’s our Messi v Ronaldo argument. Nothing about it is proven other than the fact that the level of revisionism on Cunningham’s playing days has been launched into the stratosphere by a rather sad coaching stint.
Yet stats are stats and records are indisputably great achievements. Roby never has a bad game. An absolute legend of all sport, not just rugby league. In many ways the debate around Roby and Cunningham is in danger of cheapening the overall contribution of both. They are both all-time greats in their own right. Roby should start on Sunday alongside props Alex Walmsley and Matty Lees, while the excellent Joey Lussick waits for his opportunity from the bench. Roby is sure to get a richly deserved raucous reception from the fans. We’ll all be hoping there will be a few more appearances to come after number 455.
With McCarthy-Scarsbrook having gurned himself into the treatment room there is a bench spot up for grabs. Royle will fancy a shot at backing up the second rowers but then so will Jake Wingfield. But if it is a prop that Woolf needs then Dan Norman would appear to be well placed. Lussick and Agnatius Paasi are dead certs if fit while the final place in the squad is taken by Dan Hill who may yet come into Woolf’s thinking in the backs.
There are still notable absentees for Rovers. Brad Takairangi looks to have played his last game for the club having sustained a season-ending injury in the final year of his contract. Yet it is perhaps the loss of halves Mikey Lewis and Jordan Abdul which has caused the biggest headache for Smith in recent times. Even Saints have discovered that life can be difficult with injuries in your creative department. I just read that back and should like to point out that it is not a euphemism. Whatever, leaving it in. This is a blog, not Martyn Sadler’s column. Happily for Rovers Lewis is now fit again but they will still be without Abdul while Korbin Sims also misses out this week.
Focusing on who they do have in their side, one name immediately stands out. Lachlan Coote only spent three seasons at Saints but was a Grand Final winner in every one of them. You can throw in a Challenge Cup winner’s medal too. He is a bona fide Saints legend and the man who made us forget about Ben Barba. He’s also a pretty good mentor too if the rapid development of Welsby as his replacement is anything to go by. He may be on the opposite side on Sunday but I have nothing but good things to say about Coote.
Of course Coote had quality NRL experience before he pitched up at Saints. That source of incredible talent is something that Rovers have proven outstandingly adept at in recent years. Shaun Kenny-Dowell, Albert Vete and Kane Linnett are players who might have been considered ageing, risky luxuries if they’d turned up at a doss house like Warrington or Hull FC but they have been exceptional for Rovers. There’s an art to NRL recruitment. It is not a sure thing. We all have our Josh Perrys, our Greg Inglises. Rovers have got it right more often than not of late.
There’s some exciting British talent too. Lewis’ injury gave an opportunity to the gifted Rowan Millnes while in the forwards Matty Storton and Elliot Minchella look to be still improving. Meanwhile at the other end of the age spectrum Ryan Hall has won six Super League rings, two Challenge Cups and two World Club Challenges and is one of only three men to have scored over 200 Super League tries. He currently lies second on the all-time list on 222, 25 behind his former Leeds Rhinos team-mate and current Rovers assistant coach Danny Maguire. The third member of the 200 club is Josh Charnley. He played for Hull KR too once upon a time.
This is not a fixture Saints struggle with often, at least not at home. At Rovers’ Craven Park they have had their tribulations but on home soil Saints haven’t lost to the Robins since a 24-12 reverse nine years ago. Saints try scorers that night were Francis Meli and Anthony Laffranchi. They were different times. So long ago in fact that Roby was playing for just the 276th time.
I don’t expect Saints to struggle here either. The attack looked better balanced last week with Hopoate at fullback and Grace back in on the wing, albeit against the league’s bottom club. If Woolf sticks to that formula and resists the temptation to tinker then Saints should have far too much for a Rovers side who were in a slump until they had the good fortune to run into the currently ailing Salford Red Devils last week.
Squads;
St Helens;
1. Jack Welsby, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Will Hopoate, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Jonny Lomax, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Matty Lees, 12. Joe Batchelor, 13, Morgan Knowles, 14. Joey Lussick, 16. Curtis Sironen, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 19. Jake Wingfield, 20. James Bell, 22. Ben Davies, 23. Konrad Hurrell, 24. Dan Norman, 26. Sam Royle, 27. Jon Bennison, 29. Dan Hill.
Hull KR;
1. Lachlan Coote 2. Ben Crooks 4. Shaun Kenny-Dowall 5. Ryan Hall 8. Albert Vete 9. Matt Parcell 10. George King 11. Dean Hadley 13. Matty Storton 14. Jez Litten 15. Luis Johnson 17. Elliot Minchella 18. Jimmy Keinhorst 19. Will Dagger 20. Mikey Lewis 21. Rowan Milnes 22. Will Maher 23. Ethan Ryan 24. Sam Wood 25. Greg Richards 27. Frankie Halton
Referee: Marcus Griffiths
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