The gap between Saints and their nearest challengers in the Super League table did eventually grow to six points - but there were many points along the way when that seemed doubtful during this rugged, unpolished encounter in the Yorkshire rain.
Wigan’s mirth-inducing flogging at Leeds on Thursday night (July 21) had given Saints the opportunity to open up that sizeable lead at the top of the table. Yet by the time they did the overriding emotion of Kristian Woolf, his players and no doubt the many Saints fans who stood on Belle Vue’s open, sopping terraces would have been relief. In the end a Jack Welsby drop-goal, his second in as many weeks after his cherry-on-the-cake effort against Huddersfield last time out - was all that separated top from bottom after more than 80 minutes of a hardly dazzling but somehow compelling encounter.
Saints arrived in West Yorkshire with more personnel problems. Suspensions to Sione Mata’utia and Morgan Knowles after last week’s win meant that Woolf’s squad was down to the proverbial bare bones. The coach had drafted in Taylor Pemberton, Lewis Baxter and George Delaney to his 21-man selection on Friday (July 22) but in the end chose not to use any of them. With the back line trio of Will Hopoate, Tommy Makinson and Mark Percival all injured it was Welsby who reverted to full back while James Roby took over the stand-off role. That promoted Joey Lussick to the starting nine role and Ben Davies slotted in at centre in his first appearance since the July 2 loss at Catalans Dragons.
With Knowles out it was Jake Wingfield who got the nod to start while there were bench places for James Bell and Dan Norman alongside Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Agnatius Paasi.
The weather certainly helped to reduce the gulf in class between the sides. Willie Poching’s side are desperately fighting for their Super League lives. Twenty-two points was the gap between these two at the start of play, though you’d never had known it on this evidence. It went all the way down to and past the wire, with an extra period of Golden Point rugby required before Welsby finally settled the issue. Yet given the conditions an error count of 11 by the champions and 13 by their hosts isn’t massively high. Both Poching and Woolf had decided that this was not going to be a day for heroics in the handling department and had sent their troops out with respective game-plans to suit that scenario.
Saints had to come from behind before eventually rescuing this one. The first sign of trouble was Jorge Taufua’s first try for his new club after his arrival from Manly Sea Eagles. Joe Batchelor had been pinged by occasional Super League whistler Ben Thaler for blocking off a runner as both teams challenged for Jacob Miller’s testing high ball. From the resultant penalty the ball went left to Mason Lino and his pass found Taufua with too much strength for Jon Bennison as the Trinity man squeezed in at the corner. Lino hit the post with the conversion attempt - one of two such misses which would prove devastating for Trinity in the final analysis.
It got worse for Saints long before it got any better. Lino had landed a penalty as Saints were caught offside to stretch the lead to 6-0 before Welsby endured something of a brain explosion. The 2020 Grand Final hero has been playing at a superstar level of late and would again be the one to provide the vital intervention by the end. Yet his rugby brain temporarily shut down when he tried to react to Lino’s excellent 40/20 attempt.
Desperate to avoid gifting Wakefield possession inside Saints’ 20 Welsby did one of the few things available to him that could produce an even worse result. In trying to push the ball back into the field of play he managed to bat it all the way back into his own in-goal area where Jack Croft was waiting to pounce for his first try of the season. Lino repeated his earlier trick of clanging the attempt at the extras off the woodwork. Poching’s men had to satisfy themselves with a 10-0 lead. It meant a scoreless half for the champions and league leaders who also happen to have the second most potent attack in the competition. Defensively this was all very out of character for Wakefield who have conceded more points in Super League this season than anyone.
Lino would get another opportunity shortly after the break thanks to another mindless defensive decision, this time from the rather more predictable source of McCarthy-Scarsbrook. Konrad Hurrell was carrying the ball out from underneath his own posts and was tackled around 10 metres out. Impatience got the better of McCarthy-Scarsbrook as the play-the-ball was slowed by the Trinity defence. The ex-London Bronco unceremoniously removed former Saints team-mate Lee Gaskell from the ruck gifting Lino a chip shot just 10 metres out. The halfback made no mistake from a far more favourable position than either of his conversion attempts had been and pushed the bottom club’s lead out to 12-0.
When Saints posted their first points there was an element of slapstick about it. Lussick had been hauled down just short of the line and with Roby on halfback duties it fell upon Batchelor to get in at acting half and make something happen. His pass was frankly atrocious, bobbling along in the general direction of a team-mate until Jonny Lomax got a boot to it. Lomax - playing the 300th game of his career - was quickly closed down by Taufua but the winger could not hold on to possession. From the scrum the passing was significantly better as Lussick, Lomax and Welsby combined to put Regan Grace over in the left hand corner.
It was Grace’s fourth try of what will be his final season in the red vee. Or even the blue vee, or the black with random white bits. If that sounds a modest return the Welshman has only featured eight times in 2022 due to injury. Hopoate has managed more than that. Overall Grace has 88 tries now in a 141-appearance, five-year stay in St Helens. His latest one was typically well taken under pressure from a covering defence and got his side right back in the fight.
As an added bonus Lomax chose his milestone performance as the day to set about solving Saints’ goal-kicking problem. Lewis Dodd, Makinson and Percival are all out injured leaving a dearth of candidates for the role. Davies was an option but after Lomax landed a few in the Giants game he kept the job. Whoever made that decision it proved to be an inspired one. Since Dodd’s injury you could all but write off the chances of Saints turning four points into six after a try scored just inside the touchline. We haven’t really been coming close to making them from that position very often this year. Unflustered, and untroubled by memories of what has gone before, Lomax displayed his ability to come good at exactly the moment he is most needed by striking it straight between the aitches to cut the arrears to 12-6.
Contrast that poise under pressure with the tribulations of Lino with the kicking tee on the other side. Lino kicked as many goals in the game (2) as Lomax but both of the Wakefield man’s successful efforts were penalties directly in front of the posts. When he was asked to convert the tries his side had scored from wide positions he could only find the uprights rather than the space between them. Small margins maybe…but the relative fortunes of the two goal-kickers would make all the difference.
Saints still needed another score to get back on level terms. Strangely it was Lomax who wasted their next opportunity as he dropped Lussick’s pass cold deep inside Trinity territory after Croft was penalised for a tip tackle on Norman. By the way is it only me who thinks that if you’re going to try and lift anyone’s legs above the horizontal (which you shouldn’t - ever) then it probably should not be the six-foot-six bloke? Most mere mortals would be more likely to injure themselves in the attempt than do any damage to the giant former London Bronco. But rules are rules and the challenge was rightly penalised before Lomax’s handling woes let Wakefield off the hook.
Saints were much more clinical with their next visit to Wakefield territory. Lussick, Roby, Lomax, Welsby and Hurrell all got hands on the ball as it moved from left to right, culminating in Saints’ Tongan centre putting Bennison in for the try. It was only the 19 year-old’s second try of the season and his first since the Easter Monday win over Huddersfield Giants. Yet it was very valuable. Lomax donned the superhero cape again for the kicking duties, this time landing it beautifully from the right hand touchline to draw Saints level for the first time since it was 0-0 with the score now at 12-12.
As the clock wound down towards another 10 minutes of Golden Point extra time there were a series of drop-goal attempts from both sides. They were of varying degrees of hopelessness. The first of these fell to Lomax after a bizarre set of circumstances handed Saints the field position. Lino’s attempted clearance downfield hit team-mate David Fifita on the back and looped up to Miller. Still on the last play Miller could do nothing to avoid being brought to ground by Grace. Yet when his moment came Lomax was not as assured kicking out of his hands as he had been with the tee and his effort was blocked by Tinirau Arona and recovered 20 yards further away from the Trinity goal-line by Hurrell..
From there Welsby created the space for a shot of his own but on a mixed day for him his effort never got off the ground. It did go between the posts but never threatened to get up high enough to get over the crossbar. The same fate befell Miller when he tried and the last chance before the extra period fell to Lussick. His was one of the weakest of them all, sailing wide to the left by an alarming distance.
After all this, those in attendance might have been forgiven for wondering why they should have to watch another 10 minutes of each side trundling the ball down the field to set up for a drop goal. All ambition to cross for a try evaporates during the NRL-imported gimmick that is Golden Point. It’s even less appetising as a spectacle when it is hosing it down with rain and you are stood getting a soaking at one of the worst sporting venues since the one in which Rocky fought Spider Rico in 1975. Yet modern convention dictates that we must have a winner. Never mind that two sides who have battled it out for 80 minutes in foul conditions without being separated on the scoreboard probably deserve a point each. In modern sport there must be winners and losers. Draws might be preferable to traditionalists like me who think they can often make a league table more interesting, bit the modern fan thinks they are communism and wants nothing to do with them. As a consequence we get to watch a few minutes more of five drives and a kick until somebody finally lands a successful drop.
When this contest’s deciding moment came it was again tinged with a slight shade of comic incompetence. Miller had already missed another for Trinity before Saints marched down the field with one of the most progressive sets of six they managed all afternoon. The ball was flipped back to Lomax by Lussick but the 300-game man had the dropsies once more and put it down. Fortunately, referee Thaler is one official who is still aware that not all dropped balls are knocked on. As the ball came off Lomax’s fingers and went backwards he was able to scoop it up and shovel it out to Welsby. He aced one, left-footed, through (and handily over) the uprights for the win.
Much has been made - mostly by bitterly disappointed Wakefield fans - about the boisterous way in which the Saints players and fans celebrated the moment. It doesn’t seem quite right to complain about that. Irrespective of expectations before the game or how underwhelming the performance might turn out to be, the main thing for players and fans is to win. There’s even more incentive to win when you have exerted so much energy in the rain and mud, or if you have stood or sat brass monkey-like, looking for a welder to reunite you with your most important body parts once you get back on warm, dry terrain. Fans may moan and bitch that regular season games don’t mean as much as they should. I am one such fan. But in that moment when you snatch a game that could so easily have got away from you I’d say you are within your rights to let a little emotion out. Had there been no reaction Saints would have been criticised for acting like empty robots and accused of being patronising. You can’t win if a recently conquered fan base in dire relegation trouble wants to let off a little steam.
When assessing standout performers for Saints the name of Curtis Sironen has to come up again. He led Saints with 152 metres while Welsby (147), Hurrell (143), Bennison (118) and Walmsley (113) all topped the century mark. Jai Whitbread equalled Sironen’s tally of 152, Arona managed 139 while debutant Jamie Shaul chipped in with 108 from fullback.
Lussick’s extended minutes at nine are doing wonders for his defensive stats. He added another 50 tackles in this one with Batchelor adding 34 and Sironen rounding off another good performance on both sides of the ball with 31. Whitbread was Trinity’s busiest defender with 43 tackles while both Arona and former Saint Matty Ashurst managed 36 apiece.
On a day of few clean breaks and conservative attacking intent Saints came up with nine offloads to Wakefield’s seven and four breaks to three. Yet still the most revealing stat has to be the perfect two goals from two attempts from the touchline by Lomax compared to Lino’s ultimately decisive two from four attempts.
These teams will meet again before season’s end. By then Saints might have actually wrapped up what would unbelievably be a first League Leaders Shield under Woolf. Six points is a nice cushion to have with just seven games to play. Wakefield’s fight against the drop meanwhile looks set to go all the way. Amusingly, as we sit here today we still can’t rule Warrington out of contention for the drop down to the Championship. That still doesn’t seem as likely as a Wakefield exit from the top flight. But if Poching’s side can find this level of commitment and desire on a regular basis between now and the end of the regular season they may just be able to save themselves from the second tier rat race.
Wakefield Trinity: Shaul, Murphy, Croft, Gaskell, Taufua, Miller, Lino, Whitbread, Hood, Arona, Ashurst, Tanginoa, James Batchelor. Interchanges: Crowther, Fifita, Bowden, Battye
St Helens: Welsby, Bennison, Hurrell, Davies, Grace, Roby, Lomax, Walmsley, Lussick, Lees, Sironen, Joe Batchelor, Wingfield. Interchanges: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Paasi, Norman, Bell
Referee: Ben Thaler
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