Saints welcome Wakefield Trinity on Monday afternoon (August 29, kick-off 3.00pm) in search of the one more point they need to claim a record 10th Super League Leaders Shield.
The champions had a derby date with Wigan just 72 hours before this one. It didn’t go terribly well. The Warriors ran out 30-10 winners to keep alive their slim hopes of snatching top spot away from Kristian Woolf’s side. As a consequence of the short time between that assignment and this one - plus the plethora of injuries and suspensions that have dogged Saints for months - it is likely to be a fairly unrecognisable Saints line-up.
Woolf has named five potential debutants in his 21-man squad, while there are also places for five members of the youthful team which made their only senior appearance in April’s 30-10 defeat at Castleford. Maths enthusiasts will have noticed that in a squad of 21 that leaves only 11 players with any significant first team experience. Those same experts will also have worked out that therefore at least six of the remaining 10 inexperienced players will make the 17. The reality is that it will probably be many more than that.
I’m not going to even try and convince you that I know anything beyond what Google can teach me about any of the new faces or even those who played at Castleford for the first time. I had the good fortune to be away for that visit to Yorkshire and although I did watch it back for these pages I found the whole thing instantly forgettable and frankly a tad depressing. Saints shirts should not be handed out like Tory peerages.
Taylor Pemberton, Daniel Hill, George Delaney, Lewis Baxter and McKenzie Buckley did not leave a lasting impression on me. But then they were doomed not to, thrown to the lions by a coach working within a system which allows - encourages - him to do so in the name of the protection of his established stars. For all intents and purposes Saints threw that game. All cheered on by a fan base which purports to have the best interests of the game at heart but which is actually only concerned with whether Saints win that fourth consecutive Grand Final. And why wouldn’t they believe that this is the way to do it? Woolf has done it this way twice before and could very easily do so again.
Meanwhile the names Rio Osayomwanbo, Ellis Archer, Keane Gilford, Ben Lane and Jake Burns are completely new to me. All of this means that I couldn’t even take an educated guess at how Saints will line-up against Trinity. What I can do is name check the more familiar faces who are in the 21 and who might yet be asked to turn out. Tommy Makinson - who missed the trip to Wigan with a swollen knee - is just about the only regular starting back available although Ben Davies, Josh Simm and Jon Bennison have good experience and are available. I haven’t quite worked out yet whether Makinson’s inclusion is because Woolf thinks he needs game time having recently been out for four weeks with a hamstring injury. Or is it a message to us to let us know that the England winger is fit enough to play if selected for this one and therefore when the knockout games come along?
There may be a few more established players in the pack. Joey Lussick played in that Castleford game and as such is the only Saint to have appeared in every game so far in 2022. There is a fair chance he will maintain that record. If he does I’d still expect Pemberton to get some significant game time. With no Alex Walmsley or Matty Lees the inclusion of Agnatius Paasi in the match day squad would be handy. Dan Norman hasn’t played since the last time Saints faced Willie Poching’s side in July. If anyone needs game time it is surely the former London Broncos prop. To my mind he has been unfortunate not to make the strongest 17 more often this season.
Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook has not missed a game since the trip to Catalans Dragons on July 2. That was one of three in a row he sat out with a facial injury. He will hope to be given the nod to make his 341st Saints appearance. With so many players rested, injured or suspended he might even get a first start since the 26-0 win at Leeds on April 1. His inclusion certainly fooled me that week. Jake Wingfield and James Bell were in the 17 at Wigan and will feel confident of starting or at least playing some part again.
There is some mitigation for Woolf’s selection outside of the three-day turnaround since the derby. Saints are still without the injured Will Hopoate, Mark Percival, Regan Grace, Lewis Dodd and Sione Mata’utia while Curtis Sironen and Morgan Knowles would have missed out anyway after picking up further suspensions at Wigan. Yet to name 10 players with either one appearance or none at all to their name is a step too far for my tastes. Especially if those 10 are all thrown in together rather than drip-fed into a stronger selection. That policy doesn’t do a lot for their development to my mind. But yet again I must reiterate that it is the insistence on a winner takes all Grand Final after a knockout playoff series rather than a first past the post league system which enables Woolf to make this selection.
He is not the only coach to do so. We will see that with Poching’s selections while both Wigan and Warrington have names in their 21-man parties for Monday’s fixtures who will not be familiar to the average rugby league fan. Yet the broadcaster calls the tune. Besides, there is now a whole generation of fans who have grown up on the idea that winning the league means nothing. We are not rowing back from the Grand Final concept any time soon.
As mentioned, Poching has taken similar measures to protect his players. Although quite what for with his side now safe and having only one more match to play after this one I can only speculate. Don’t ask me to tell you anything about Kyle Evans, Isaac Shaw, Dane Winrow, Sid Adebiyi or Yusuf Aydin. In the backs we may see Max Jowitt, Jacob Miller, Lee Gaskell, Liam Kay, Jack Croft and Lewis Murphy. We also might be invited to enter the happy world of Harry Bowes. Or we may not. Who even knows? Does anybody still care? Up front Poching has included Eddie Battye, Tinirau Arona, Matty Ashurst and Rob Butler.
This will be the third meeting between the two sides this season. Saints won 20-4 at home in February before that 13-12 golden point success five weeks ago. Wakefield’s last win in St Helens was a 16-12 triumph in March 2017. Keiron Cunningham was sliding towards the exit door on a night when Percival bagged a double and Ryan Morgan also crossed in a losing cause.
Going further back to more famous clashes Saints went down 9-7 to Wakey in a 1979 Challenge Cup semi-final. They lost 21-9 in the 1967 Championship final replay after a 7-7 draw in the first meeting. However Saints did progress to the 1965 Championship final at Trinity’s expense, winning 10-5 in the semi-final before going down 15-7 in the final to a Halifax side which had finished 7th in the regular season. Saints had finished top, which may or may not be an argument for resting players at this juncture. It is highly unlikely that resting players was A Thing 57 years ago.
Given how difficult it is to predict the line-ups it is equally if not more difficult to predict the outcome. On first sighting of the Saints squad I gave them little chance. Then I saw Poching’s selection. Wigan’s selection for their meeting with Hull KR may yet render the choices of Woolf and Poching irrelevant. If Matty Peet’s side go down to Hull Kingston Rovers then Woolf will have secured the first League Leaders Shield of his Saints tenure whether he likes it or not. Regardless of what the best strategy for success is the bean counters will be unhappy if significant numbers of fans consider a televised virtual playoff eliminator between Castleford and Salford preferable to what could be a glorified academy game.
I’ve already paid to attend the Saints game by virtue of my season ticket. Still, I’m seriously considering staying at home.
Squads;
St Helens;
2. Tommy Makinson, 14. Joey Lussick, 15. LMS, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 19. Jake Wingfield, 20. James Bell, 21. Josh Simm, 22. Ben Davies, 24. Dan Norman, 26. Sam Royle, 27. Jon Bennison, 28. Lewis Baxter, 31. Taylor Pemberton, 33. Daniel Moss, 34. George Delaney, 35. McKenzie Buckley, 36. Rio-Osayomwanbo Corkill, 37. Ellis Archer, 38. Keane Gilford, 39. Ben Lane, 40. Jake Burns.
Wakefield Trinity;
1. Max Jowitt 6. Jacob Miller 7. Mason Lino 8. Eddie Battye 10. Tinirau Arona 11. Matty Ashurst 14. Jordy Crowther 17. Lee Gaskell 19. Liam Kay 20. Jack Croft 21. Brad Walker 22. Yusuf Aydin 23. Sid Adebiyi 24. Harry Bowes 27. Lewis Murphy Dane Windrow 29. Isaac Shaw 30. Corey Hall 31. Thomas Minns 34. Rob Butler 36. Kyle Evans
Referee: Tom Grant
No comments:
Post a Comment