Refreshed and hopefully recharged Saints swing back into action when they travel to face Toulouse Olympique on Saturday night (June 4, kick-off 6.00pm CET, 5.00pm BST).
It’s been a fortnight since Kristian Woolf’s side were last in action as Super League took a break for the Challenge Cup final last weekend. The opportunity to recalibrate perhaps came at a good time for Saints. Following the cup exit to Wigan the champions have laboured to narrow wins over Salford and Warrington either side of a more dominant success over Hull FC. The Lewis Dodd-shaped hole in the halves was really starting to tell during that spell, particularly with Jonny Lomax also carrying an arm injury and the likes of Will Hopoate, Regan Grace and Jon Bennison sidelined throughout that period too.
Though it has been a struggle Saints have at least kept winning. As a result they remain two points clear of Catalans Dragons at the top of the Super League table as we go into this weekend’s round of games. Despite their problems Saints have won 11 of their first 13 league fixtures.
Contrast that with their hosts, whose only league wins since earning promotion from the Championship were a shock 22-20 triumph when Saints last visited in March and a somewhat less surprising 20-14 victory over a currently dreadful Wakefield in mid-May. All of which means that although Sylvain Houles’ side remain bottom of the pile they are only two points behind Trinity. With Leeds and Salford improving it is looking increasingly like a two-way battle to avoid the drop into the second tier.
Saints have reasons to be cheerful coming into this one as they bid to avenge that rather blush-inducing reverse in France. Jack Welsby and Matty Lees have agreed deals to stay at the club until at least the end of the 2025 season. Both are academy products who have become key members of the side as it looks for a fourth consecutive Grand Final win. Turning youth products into first team regulars has been absolutely key to Saints’ success over the last few years so it is great to see it continuing.
In addition, Sione Mata’utia and Agnatius Paasi have committed until at least the end of the 2023 season. Both were on deals until the end of this year but have had their options for a further year triggered. That’s a huge boost for Saints given the impressive form of the duo. Mata’utia has been operating in the centres recently but is one of the premier back rowers in Super League. It says a lot about him that he sits joint third in the Steve Prescott Man Of Steel standings despite having missed six weeks of the season through injury. Meanwhile Paasi has been fantastic this year especially, catching the eye as the impactful, offloading prop which every great Saints side should have.
There’s better news for Saints in the short term too. Three long-term absentees return to Woolf’s 21-man squad for the trip across the Channel. Hopoate has not played since hobbling through the win over Salford on April 29, and has only made five appearances in the red vee since joining from Canterbury Bulldogs at the start of the season. He is back in contention here along with Jon Bennison who after appearing in four straight Super League games earlier in the season has not featured since fracturing his cheekbone in the loss at Castleford in April. Both Hopoate and Bennison are options in the fullback role but Woolf has been using Lomax there of late in what appears to be an effort to protect that troublesome bicep from the more frequent physicality required in the defensive line.
Perhaps the standout returnee to Woolf’s squad is Regan Grace. The winger has only featured once in 2022 and that was the relatively gentle assignment of the cup win at Whitehaven in March. A return for the Welshman has been regularly tantalised by Woolf only for it to consistently fail to materialise. As a consequence the chat has got louder about Grace’s future.
Alarm sirens blared when he only agreed a one-year deal last year. Since then the gossip has intensified, with suggestions on social media that Grace’s agent has been looking for a rugby union club for his client. That a young Welshman should want to play rugby union for his country should not come as a surprise, particularly with that sport’s next World Cup on the horizon in 2023. In the hope of being wildly wrong I’d suggest we make the most of any opportunities we get to see Grace flying down that Saints left wing from now on.
Hopefully this will be one such opportunity. If it is it will help out a three-quarter line which will be without the services of Mark Percival. The 28 year-old has started the last two games on the wing as Woolf has had to move pieces around to cover for injuries. Yet Percival will not feature in this one after picking up a knock at Warrington. If Grace and Tommy Makinson occupy the wing slots then Hopoate could slot in at centre alongside Konrad Hurrell with Bennison or Lomax at fullback. Hopoate is also an option at 6, although Ben Davies has started there of late.
The picture looks a little clearer in the forwards. Lees should join Alex Walmsley in the starting front row along with James Roby at hooker. If Mata’utia reverts to the back row then it seems likely that Joe Batchelor will get the other starting berth ahead of Curtis Sironen with Morgan Knowles at 13. Former Manly Sea Eagle Sironen could be on a bench also featuring Paasi, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and back-up 9 Joey Lussick. Dan Norman, Jake Wingfield and James Bell will all be pushing their claims for a place in the 17 also. Suddenly the squad is looking considerably stronger than it has in recent weeks.
The same can be said of Toulouse relative to the way they started their maiden Super League campaign. Since their win over Saints they have been out shopping, with Corey Norman and Daniel Alvaro added to the ranks. Norman is a creative if slightly unpredictable stand-off who lists Brisbane Broncos, Parramatta Eels and St George Illawarra Dragons among his former clubs. Alvaro is a prop, another ex-Eel who turned out 89 times in blue and yellow. The pair add much needed quality to a squad suffering from the age old promoted side’s complaint of having less time and less money to recruit in their preparations for life in the top flight.
Other familiar names in Houles’ 21 include former Catalans Jack-Of-All-Trades Tony Gigot, ex-Dragons dummy half Eloi Pelissier and former Saints trio Andrew Dixon, Dominique Peyroux and Joseph Paulo. There’s also a significant ex-Wigan contingent in props Harrison Hanson and Romain Navarrete as well as centre Chris Hankinson and winger Matty Russell.
In addition to former Dragons Pelissier, Gigot and Lucas Albert and ex-Wigan man Navarrete there is some lesser known French talent who are all keen to make their mark on Super League. Fullback Latrell Schaumke and winger Mathieu Jussaume could feature as could forwards Anthony Marion, Maxime Stefani and Maxime Puech.
Aside from the league meeting in March you have to go all the way back to 2010 to find the next most recent encounter between these two. On that occasion Dixon was a try scorer for Saints in a 56-16 Challenge Cup fourth round success at Knowsley Road in front of only just over 4,000 fans. Gary Wheeler, Chris Dean, Chris Flannery, Tony Puletua and Maurie Fa’asavalu were also among the Saints try scorers on that occasion while Jamie Foster kicked eight goals.
Toulouse could have had more than just the two wins in Super League this year. Both of last week’s cup finalists edged past them by just a single point earlier in the year. Wigan won 29-28 in early March while the Giants prepared for Tottenham by beating Houles’ side 17-16 at The John Smith’s Stadium on May 20. As well as that there was only one score in it when Hull KR came to town, Rovers winning 28-24 on Easter Monday. Toulouse are getting closer, and as Saints already know to their cost the French side can spring a surprise if the visitors’ preparation and attitude is not quite right. The strengthening done by Houles only increases the level of jeopardy Saints will face.
And yet for all of that, the once bitten nature of this assignment added to the return of some very useful personnel leads me to believe that the proverbial lightning won’t strike twice on Saints. With no promises about how the attack will look I’d back Saints to get home by 16 to consolidate their place at the Super League summit.
Squads;
Toulouse Olympique;
2. Latrell Schaumkel 4. Mathieu Jussaume 6. Corey Norman 7. Lucas Albert 8. Romain Navarrete 10. Harrison Hansen 11. Andrew Dixon 12. Dominique Peyroux 13. Anthony Marion 14. Eloi Pelissier 15. Maxime Puech 17. Joseph Paulo 19. James Cunningham 20. Ilias Bergal 21. Chris Hankinson 23. Justin Sangare 25. Matty Russell 27. Olly Ashall-Bott 30. Maxime Stefani 31. Tony Gigot 35. Daniel Alvaro
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, 11. Sione Mata’utia, 12. Joe Batchelor, 13, Morgan Knowles, 14. Joey Lussick, 15. LMS, 16. Curtis Sironen, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 19. Jake Wingfield, 20. James Bell, 22. Ben Davies, 23. Konrad Hurrell, 24. Dan Norman, 27. Jon Bennison.
Referee: Liam Moore
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