Saints celebrate a record 10th League Leaders Shield when they host Toulouse Olympique on Saturday afternoon (September 3, kick-off 3.00pm).
Aside from the playoff shootout between Leeds and Castleford at Headingley the final round of the 2022 regular season is riddled with dead rubbers. This one is no exception. Saints secured top spot despite losing at home to Wakefield on Monday (August 29) courtesy of Wigan’s loss at Hull KR. A few days previously Toulouse’s relegation back to the Championship after just one season in Super League was confirmed when they lost to Catalans Dragons. Though they have flickered into life at times - especially towards the end of the campaign - the bare facts of the matter are that Sylvain Houles’ side have managed only five wins from their 26 top flight matches ahead of this one.
The champions’ defeat by Trinity was almost exclusively down to Kristian Woolf’s team selection. He gave first team debuts to four academy products while also including four more players who had previously appeared only once for the first team. Of the debutants only Keane Gilford and Ben Lane keep their places in Woolf’s 21-man squad for this one. Meanwhile Daniel Moss and George Delaney survive among the one-hit wonders. That’s because no fewer than eight first team players come back into the reckoning.
Jonny Lomax, Jack Welsby, James Roby, Matty Lees, Joe Batchelor and Konrad Hurrell all return along with previously suspended pair Curtis Sironen and Morgan Knowles. Yet this is a Saints side still lacking the services of Will Hopoate, Mark Percival, Regan Grace, Lewis Dodd, Alex Walmsley and Sione Mata’utia through injury. Relatively inexperienced men like Jon Bennison, Ben Davies and Jake Wingfield are set to play a major role in Saints’ bid to reach and then win a fourth consecutive Grand Final.
They’ll be either helped or hindered by the emotion surrounding the news this week that Woolf will leave the club at the end of the season. The 47 year-old has opted to return to Australia to assist and then succeed Wayne Bennett as the head coach of 2023s new NRL franchise Redcliffe Dolphins. It ends three trophy-filled years at the club for Woolf. As well as winning back-to-back Grand Finals he secured a first Challenge Cup success for the club in 13 years in 2021 and now has the full domestic set of honours after clinching the League Leaders Shield.
With the changes to his squad the line-up is likely to be somewhat stronger than the one which took on Trinity. Josh Simm misses out meaning that Bennison will probably be required to fill one wing spot opposite Tommy Makinson. The real significance of that is that it prevents Bennison from playing fullback and so freeing Welsby up to partner Lomax in the halves. Instead Welsby will likely start at fullback and either Ben Davies or James Roby will go in alongside Lomax. At Wigan last weekend it was Davies, with the skipper unmoved at his familiar number nine role backed up by Joey Lussick. Davies’ centre role went to Batchelor. That wasn’t a roaring success but the defensive intensity of the French side is unlikely to match that of Wigan on derby day.
Without Walmsley there is a hopefully temporary vacancy at prop. McCarthy-Scarsbrook is in contention having started last time out but the nod may go to the much more impactful Agnatius Paasi. Matty Lees should take the other front row berth. If Batchelor stays in the centres then one of James Bell or Jake Wingfield could partner Sironen in the back row ahead of Knowles at 13.
There’s more than a sprinkling of former Saints in Toulouse boss Sylvain Houles’ party. Dom Peyroux and Joseph Paulo were around when Saints’ successful run began under Justin Holbrook. The former played at Old Trafford in both 2019 under Holbrook and in Woolf’s first triumph in 2020. Meanwhile Andrew Dixon played 67 times for Saints between 2009-12.
Eloi Pelissier and Harrison Hansen are Super League veterans while Matty Russell has played in a Grand Final for Warrington after starting out his career at Wigan. Another ex-Wiganer - Chris Hankinson - has shown his qualities at times in a difficult year and has been a hugely impressive goal-kicker. Up front the signing of Daniel Alvaro from St George-Illawarra Dragons has helped beef up the pack. The glaring weakness of the side is in the halves at the moment. Recently recruited NRL star Corey Norman copped an eight game ban following some highly unsavoury antics in a recent defeat to Warrington which always looked terminal to their survival hopes. Behind him both former Catalans Dragons playmakers Lucas Albert and Tony Gigot are unavailable. It’s tough to see where Houles’ men will break down the Saints defence with so many of Woolf’s stars back on deck.
Toulouse’s relegation back to the Championship has reopened the debates about expansion and about promotion and relegation. A significant number of observers take the view that as a club from a genuine expansion, non M62 area Toulouse should have been made exempt from relegation for three years as was the case with Catalans when they arrived in Super League in 2006. Others would go further and scrap relegation altogether.
My own feeling is that promotions should be earned on the field as should the right to stay in the top flight once you get there. Yet the conditions around promotion do not currently give Championship clubs - particularly French sides - a genuine chance of staying afloat. The Million Pound Game - which determines the promoted side - happens too late for any thorough planning and quality recruitment to take place in preparation for the following year. Add to that the repeated suggestion that the French sides are still paying for the English sides to travel to fixtures in France and it is easy to see why they find it difficult from the outset.
We must address these issues and stop acting only in the best interests of the established Super League clubs. At the same time those sounding the death knell for the whole sport on account of one team sitting outside Super League are guilty of hyperbole and short-termism. This should not be a Toronto situation. Toulouse will no doubt return and be better for this experience when they do. But let’s give them a fair enough crack next time.
As you might expect there isn’t much in the way of a history between these two. When this one ends 50% of all meetings will have taken place in 2022. Prior to Toulouse’s promotion there was only a 1952 tour match won 31-5 by the French outfit and a 2010 Challenge Cup tie which Saints breezed through 56-16. This year, Toulouse shocked Saints 22-20 in early March before Saints gained a measure of revenge with a 28-14 win in June. Both of those meetings were in France. If Toulouse can win the series 2-1 it would be quite the feather in the cap and a memory to cherish as they are working their way back up next year.
But it couldn’t happen, could it? Probably not. Woolf’s squad selection is an indication that he wants to recover the winning habit all the way to Old Trafford before his departure. And with a trophy to collect at the end of this one the players, coach and the crowd should have plenty of energy about them. All of which could be in stark contrast to Toulouse who face a frustrating period away from the top table even if it is not quite the extinction event that some suggest.
Squads;
St Helens;
1. Jack Welsby, 2. Tommy Makinson, 6. Jonny Lomax, 9. James Roby, 10. Matty Lees, 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, 33. Daniel Moss, 34. George Delaney, 38. Keane Gilford, 39. Ben Lane.
Toulouse Olympique;
4. Matthieu Jussaume 5. Paul Marcon 10. Harrison Hansen 11. Andrew Dixon 12. Dominique Peyroux 13. Anthony Marion 14. Eloi Pelissier 15. Maxime Puech 16. Joe Bretherton 17. Joseph Paulo 20. Ilias Bergal 21. Chris Hankinson 23. Justin Sangare 24. Guy Armitage 25. Matty Russell 27. Olly Ashall-Bott 28. Nathan Peats 29. Lambert Belmas 30. Maxime Stefani 35. Daniel Alvaro. Benjamin Laguerre
Referee: Michael Small
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