It’s a trip east for Saints this week as they visit Hull FC on Sunday afternoon (August 14, kick-off 3.00pm).
After the nasty shock of a drubbing at Salford the champions got back in the winner’s enclosure at home to Castleford Tigers last time out. That victory reopened Saints’ four-point lead at the top of the Super League table after Wigan had temporarily closed the gap to two with a dismissal of Warrington on Friday night (August 5). There are just four games to go in the regular season after this one. Another positive result here would be a large step towards securing top spot and the League Leaders Shield for Kristian Woolf’s men.
Defeat to the Red Devils was only Saints’ fourth of the league campaign. Contrast that with Brett Hodgson’s Hull FC side who have tasted defeat in 12 of their 22 Super League outings so far. Yet despite a run of only three wins in their last 10 they cling to a shot at making the top six and entering the playoffs. Before the start of tonight’s meeting between Hull KR and Leeds (August 12) the black and whites sit just one point behind the sixth placed Rhinos. Rohan Smith’s side have also lost more often than they have won this year ahead of their visit to the other side of Hull. Mediocrity pays.
Woolf has been hit with all sorts of injuries and suspensions to his squad in 2022 and is again forced into some tinkering. There are four changes to the 21 who were on duty for the Castleford game. The headlines are the return of Sione Mata’utia from suspension and of Will Hopoate from yet another injury. Mata’utia has served a three-game ban for offering Danny Levi some ill advised medical assistance in the 25-0 rout of Huddersfield on July 15. Hopoate’s latest injury was a shoulder problem picked up in the early minutes of the same game.
Agnatius Paasi missed out when the Tigers visited due to concussion protocols. Helpfully, the in form impact prop is available again to bolster Woolf’s front row rotation options. The final man recalled to the ranks is three-quarter Josh Simm. Having not featured for Saints since the Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Wigan at the start of May, Simm was shipped out on loan to this week’s opponents where he became a regular starter, scoring three tries in five appearances. The 22 year-old was immediately recalled after Regan Grace’s Saints career was ended by a ruptured Achilles at Salford. Either Simm has a genuine chance to feature in a still busted back line or else Woolf didn’t want to risk having egg on his face were Simm to have made a significant contribution to an FC win.
Curtis Sironen is again suspended while youngsters Lewis Baxter, Tyler Pemberton and Danny Hill are the others to make way from last week’s group. Hill started the Tigers match but sustained a shoulder injury which was ruthlessly exploited late in the game by Lee Radford’s men. Woolf withdrew Hill from the firing line and the Tigers’ comeback fell short. Nevertheless it will have been valuable experience for Hill. He will have learned much for when his next opportunity comes around.
For now the way that Saints line up in the backs seems to rest heavily on the fitness or otherwise of Hopoate. If the ex-Canterbury man is healthy then he would be a natural fit at fullback, allowing Jack Welsby to play at stand-off alongside halfback Jonny Lomax. Jon Bennison was the last line of defence against Cas but could revert to the wing where he stood in for Tommy Makinson for four games before the latter’s return from a hamstring injury last week. With Grace gone there is still a vacancy. If it is filled by Bennison then Woolf may not need Simm after all.
Yet all of that relies on Hopoate being ready to go, which hasn’t happened a lot this year. If the Tongan misses out again then Bennison could continue in the fullback role. That could offer Simm a chance to come in on the wing. Konrad Hurrell will fill one centre berth. Mata’utia is a candidate for the other but with Sironen out the former Newcastle Knight may be needed in the back row alongside Joe Batchelor. If Woolf goes that way expect Ben Davies to keep his place at left centre. Hands up if you’re worried about a defensive left edge of Davies and Simm?
At the moment and arguably at even the best of times the strength of this side is the pack. Paasi is outstanding back-up to the monstrous Alex Walmsley and the industrious Matty Lees. Industrious might be a euphemism for ‘doesn’t make many metres but does a lot of tackling’. You decide. There isn’t a euphemism this column hasn’t used to describe Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook who doggedly continues to be a fixture on the bench. Joey Lussick will back up James Roby at hooker now that the experiment of using the captain in the halves has seemingly been abandoned. James Bell and Jake Wingfield look set to compete for the final bench spot. Both could reasonably spell Morgan Knowles. Dan Norman and Sam Royle also await their opportunity.
Hull FC’s back line is not in the best of nick either. Adam Swift scored 86 tries in 130 appearances for Saints before he was shipped off to Humberside to make way for Grace. Yet he won’t be adding to his Hull tally here as he is out with a broken leg sustained in the worst game of rugby league in history at Warrington at the end of June. He joins Carlos Tuimavave and Josh Griffin on the sidelines. Simm’s recall means that Darnell McIntosh could be partnered on the wing by this year’s Fijian temp Mitieli Vulikijapani or youngster Harvey Barron.
Jake Connor has been operating in the centre since the arrival of former Penrith, Parramatta and Gold Coast playmaker Will Smith and that of Jack Walker on loan from Leeds. Smith and Luke Gale could be a partnership to watch. Either because they produce some dazzling stuff or because they completely implode. Either way, like much of what FC get up to it won’t be dull.
Ligi Sao is a big miss from the front row while behind him Hodgson will also be without Catalans-bound back rower Manu M’au. There will be a lot of responsibility on the absurdly mulleted Brad Fash and ageing ex-Wigan prop Scott Taylor as well as Chris Satae off the bench. At hooker Danny Houghton has been around for almost as long as Roby but is backed up more frequently these days by Jordan Johnstone. Joe Lovodua adds more FC-exque unpredictability in a range of positions including but not limited to stand-off, loose forward and hooker.
This is the third meeting of these two thanks to Super League’s universally unpopular loop fixtures system. Saints beat FC 38-6 back in February, a game which saw Gale sent off for a bizarre studs first football lunge on Lomax. Channel 4 hasn’t seen a tackle like it since the heyday of James Richardson reading the papers outside a cafe in Football Italia. When Hull came to St Helens in mid-May they left on the end of a 24-10 defeat as the threepeaters crossed through Lomax, Welsby and a Makinson double. This third fixture between the two does not count towards the Steve Prescott Cup - the annual trophy played for by the two sides in memory of their former fullback and relentless fundraiser. Saints sealed that honour with their victory in May, winning by an aggregate of 62-16 over the home and away meetings.
It’s five years since Hull recorded a Super League win over Saints. The airlie birds squeaked an 8-6 success over Saints in August 2017. Grace scored Saints’ only try of that game, the halfback pairing was Theo Fages and Danny Richardson, McCarthy-Scarsbrook started and our impact off the bench came from Matty Smith. They were troubled times, though new coach Justin Holbrook would eventually guide the team to within a Gale drop goal of a Grand Final appearance.
FC’s last success at home over Saints had come five months earlier when Keiron Cunningham’s Saints went down 24-14. Swift played in that one, opposite the poster boy for the issues of the era Jack Owens. Sky Sports’ frustrated anchor Jon Wilkin started at halfback, there was a place in the starting 13 for Luke Douglas and both Adam Walker and Tommy Lee made the 17. McCarthy-Scarsbrook was in his more familiar habitat on the bench.
It’s hard to know what to expect from Saints at the moment. The Huddersfield performance was so extraordinary that it looked like they may never concede a try in Super League again. Since then to call them average would be an insult to the likes of FC and Castleford who work really hard on their averageness. Hopoate’s name on the squad list gives me a little more confidence. He’s been good when he’s played and even if he’s subdued he offers the side a better balance and greater experience. Assuming he plays I’m going for Saints to record a narrow win by around 10-12 points.
Squads;
Hull FC:
1. Jake Connor 5. Darnell McIntosh 7. Luke Gale 9. Danny Houghton 10. Chris Satae 13. Jordan Lane 14. Joe Lovodua 16. Kane Evans 17. Brad Fash 19. Ben McNamara 21. Jordan Johnstone 23. Connor Wynne 25. Mitieli Vulikijapani 30. Scott Taylor 32. Harvey Barron 33. Denive Balmforth 34. Davy Litten 35. Matty Laidlaw 36. Jack Walker 38. Ellis Longstaff 40. Will Smith
Saints:
1. Jack Welsby, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Will Hopoate, 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, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 19. Jake Wingfield, 20. James Bell, 21. Josh Simm, 22. Ben Davies, 23. Konrad Hurrell, 24. Dan Norman, 26. Sam Royle, 27. Jon Bennison.
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