A return to Wembley is still on as Saints saw off the challenge of Hull FC at the MKM Stadium on Saturday afternoon (June 17).
Paul Wellens’ side will appear in the semi-finals for the fourth time in five seasons after overcoming a black and whites side which played the entire second half with 12 men following the dismissal of Josh Griffin after the half-time hooter. The draw has paired them with Leigh Leopards who they will meet at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington on July 22.
Before the drama of Griffin’s red card for brainless gum-flapping at referee Chris Kendall this looked a very tricky assignment for the champions. Wellens was able to name an unchanged team for the first time in his reign. Morgan Knowles recovered sufficiently from a rib injury to take his place so James Bell had to make do with a place on the bench alongside Joey Lussick, Agnatius Paasi and Sione Mata’utia.
In the backs neither Will Hopoate nor Jon Bennison could break into a three-quarter line featuring Tommy Makinson and Tee Ritson on the wings and Konrad Hurrell and Mark Percival in the centres. Yet it would not be long before a major reshuffle was required.
Hull were without their influential halfback Jake Clifford so Tex Hoy partnered Jake Trueman in the creative department and Davy Litten came in at fullback. In the forwards ex-Saint Andre Savelio was promoted to the starting line-up and Brad Dwyer came onto the bench in place of Jack Brown. Chris Satae was also on the bench having missed last week’s defeat at Leigh.
An exchange of errors in the early going seemed to suggest a degree of nervousness on both sides. Both Griffin and Alex Walmsley failed to execute the basic skill that is the play-the-ball. It was Saints who got it together first. James Roby and Lewis Dodd shifted the ball right to Jack Welsby whose perfectly timed pass sent Joe Batchelor crashing over on the right. It was the former York man’s second try in consecutive games after crossing in last week’s win over Wigan. Makinson tagged on two more and Saints led 6-0.
A setback was on the way. It has been that sort of season. One in which you can’t seem to have anything without paying for it. Less than five minutes after the opening score Percival suffered his latest injury. A trademark, direct carry from out of his own half was halted by FC’s mulleted prop Brad Fash. As a Hull colleague came into add weight to the tackle the two of them came down heavily on top of Percival, whose head hit the turf forcefully.
At which point Fash The Bash seemed to move his shoulder needlessly in the direction of Percival’s already walloped head. Unlike the former Gladiator presenter and bang average Womble Fash Mark II appears not to be an expert in martial arts. This - if it was deliberate - was thuggery. I’m not sure if there was intent to injure on the part of the FC man but his action could certainly have been avoided and was reckless from that point of view.
Neither Kendall nor the famed Match Review Panel seem to agree. Kendall spoke to both captains and explained that neither he nor his touch judges could be sure how much intent there had been. There is video technology to help with that sort of thing but Kendall declined to use it, instead putting the incident on report. The same report system that is the biggest cop out in sports, serving no other purpose than to get the referee, his touch judges and the video referee out of making a difficult decision. Yet with no trace of irony the Match Review Panel (MRP) have used that same technology on Monday to decide that Fash has no case to answer. Other than for that hair.
I can’t prove intent but in the current climate of strict liability it doesn’t matter, does it? Players have a duty of care to each other which surely involves not turning your shoulder into the head of an already prone individual. The leniency is especially surprising given that Percival did not return from his HIA and will now miss the league meeting between these sides on Thursday (June 22). The MRP have been using the extent of a player’s injury to determine everything so far in 2023 yet they have decided that there is nothing to see here. Perhaps they have had an epiphany and decided that injury should no longer be a significant factor when judging intent. No, me neither.
Saints were at least awarded a penalty, which would also indicate that Kendall wasn’t totally happy with the challenge. It brought another two points from the boot of Makinson and Saints led 8-0.
Percival’s exit brought about Wellens’ first rejig of the furniture with Mata’utia coming on to fill in at centre. Within a couple of minutes Hull coach Tony Smith had to make an enforced change as former Wigan plodder Scott Taylor dislocated his shoulder in the tackle of Roby, Batchelor and Matty Lees. He landed on his right shoulder but was helped off clutching his left. It appeared that the weight of the three Saints forwards had done the damage rather than any impact with the ground. Either way it ushered in the arrival of Satae who proved to be quite the pain in the proverbial for the Saints pack all afternoon.
Half an hour before his most decisive act of this contest Griffin made a much more positive contribution. Out of nowhere Hoy was able to get between Jonny Lomax and Hurrell just inside the Saints half and make inroads down the left. Griffin supported him on his inside and was rewarded with a fairly routine stroll to the line from Hoy’s well timed pass. It was the back rower’s fifth try in his last three appearances after his hat-trick in the Magic win over Warrington at Newcastle and another four-pointer in a losing cause at Leigh last time out. They’ll probably be his last tries for a while. Liam Sutcliffe was on goal-kicking duties with Clifford out of the side and drew FC level at 6-6.
Shortly after Hull had the temerity to take the lead. Adding to the annoyance of this was that it was a former Saint who crossed, and who did so after what looked suspiciously like a knock-on. Hoy - who was having a serious impact in the halves - lofted a ball across the field in the direction of Darnell McIntosh, Carlos Tuimavave and Savelio. McIntosh got to it ahead of Mata’utia - who unsurprisingly is about as much use under the high ball as his brother - and it rolled along the ground where Savelio picked it up for an easy score.
Kendall - who it seemed hadn’t seemed sure about much to this point - sent it for review for both offside from Hoy’s kick and for the possibility of a knock on when McIntosh won the aerial challenge. His initial touch went backwards but there was more than a suspicion that after it hit Mata’utia it then struck McIntosh again and travelled forwards. Not according to video referee Tom Grant who rubber stamped Savelio’s first try of 2023 in only his seventh appearance of the season. Almost as if he’d been waiting for us. Sutcliffe was on target again with the extras and the home side held a four-point lead at 12-8.
Ten minutes out from the sanctuary of half-time Saints suffered another blow. Makinson set off on another full throttle, slightly sidewinding carry from inside his own half and was confronted by Sutcliffe. As Makinson attempted to accelerate around the former Leeds man he was instead brought to ground holding his hamstring.
Wellens has admitted leaving the winger out of the home win over Warrington in April to allow him to rest and recover from general wear and tear on his body. When he goes down clutching something it is invariably bad news. Not only for the 31 year-old himself at this stage of his career but for the team as a whole. There is nobody in the squad who is currently comparable in terms of what they offer the team. This latest setback will see Wellens have to do without his former team-mate for the next five weeks according to the most recent assessment.
For now it meant more pack shuffling. Lussick came in and went to hooker with Roby moving to 13. Hurrell moved to the wing and Batchelor shuffled across from second row to fill the Tongan’s favoured centre position. Bell filled in for Batchelor who - along with Mata’utia - surely now helped form the slowest centre pairing of the professional era. Not a pair you’d want to run directly at, mind.
The reorganisation didn’t immediately hamper Saints’ attacking potential. Less than five minutes after Makinson’s departure they found the score which levelled the game up once more. Welsby’s kick through the line for Dodd forced a goal-line dropout and from that position Lussick, Dodd and Lomax shifted it right to Welsby who found a looping pass to Hurrell for a walk-in. The former Leeds Rhino picked up his eighth try of the season in all competitions and his 19th for Saints in 40 appearances. Lussick couldn’t land the conversion from out wide but his side were back in it at 12-12 just before the break.
And that’s when things got messy for the home side. It started with just a few seconds left before the hooter to end the first half. Griffin and Hoy were penalised for a ball steal giving Saints one final chance to go in to the interlude ahead. Griffin was clearly irked by this outcome and began chunnering away at Kendall. The official ignored him at first and that seemed to be that when the one play Saints managed before the hooter came to nothing. And it would have been had Griffin not decided to continue the conversation with Kendall as they left the field.
We don’t know what was said. It wasn’t picked up by the broadcaster’s microphones. Whatever it was Kendall took exception to it, showing the Hull back rower the yellow card. Griffin seemed to have a view on that decision which was not entirely supportive and continued to question the referee. Which was the point at which Kendall was not prepared to tolerate any more. He promptly produced a red card before the pair of them had even got half way off the field.
Predictably there has been a lot of muttering and moaning about this from Hull fans. Despite not knowing what was said they are all entirely satisfied that it could not possibly have been enough to warrant a dismissal. Meanwhile the legions of Saints fans who spend most weeks complaining about referees - in particular Kendall - were equally adamant that the dissent was absolutely deserving of a red card.
I see through this hypocrisy, yet I have to agree that it is quite likely that Griffin said something way beyond a polite enquiry over a decision. He wasn’t asking Kendall what he was doing after the game and would he like to join him for a pint. The fact that Griffin has subsequently been charged with questioning the integrity of an official indicates that Griffin went well past what would be deemed acceptable.
So the person at fault for this is not Kendall, nor the RFL or the MRP or any of the usual and convenient scapegoats that fans use when they cannot bear to hold one of their own accountable. The person at fault is Griffin. He let his side down badly and the shot of him looking very glum in the dressing room at one point during the second half tells me that he knew it then and knows it now.
Of course it is possible to remain competitive and even win with a numerical disadvantage. We saw Wigan do it against Warrington the very next day. And they had to play shorthanded for 74 minutes rather than just the 40 that Hull had to contend with. And we’ve also seen Wigan on the other side of that equation, thrashed by Leeds after the Rhinos had seen Zane Tetevano marched before half-time earlier in the season. Here, the truth is that FC never really looked like they could pull it off. Not against a Saints side still on an upward trajectory in terms of form and not when they appeared to be feeling sorry for themselves. They were right to feel hard done by but they should point their ire at their team-mate and not the whistle blower.
Saints almost handed out an instant punishment for Griffin’s disciplinary brain explosion. Just a minute of the second half had gone by when Lomax planted a perfect kick to the right hand corner in behind the Hull defence. The bounce was perfect for Lussick in pursuit of it but the former Salford man somehow failed to bring it under his spell. Instead he flapped at it like an England fielder on the boundary, knocked it on over the line and the chance was gone.
The hooker was involved when Saints did get into the lead five minutes later. He was at dummy half, spinning it out to Dodd who produced an incisive short ball from which Sironen went over. It was a fitting way to celebrate the new deal which keeps the former Manly Sea Eagle at Saints until the end of 2025. It was his third of the season and his first since the golden point victory over Leeds at the end of May. Lussick nailed the conversion from the touchline to push Saints out to a lead of a converted try at 18-12.
FC flickered into life when McIntosh took an audacious pass from Trueman and set off on a 55 metre journey into Saints territory. Yet the good work was undone when Sutcliffe tried to find Swift on the next play but could only do so by pushing the pass forward. Similarly spectacular but equally fruitless was Ritson’s break almost immediately after. Picking it up on his own 20 from a Hoy kick Ritson took on all challengers to his progress - including Hoy - and set sail for the left hand corner. But Hoy wasn’t finished.
Having missed his man with a rather meek effort on halfway Hoy reeled Ritson in and brought him down 10 metres short. Which has caused some grumbling among the Saints fans who were sold the idea of Ritson as an uncatchable flyer when he was brought in to replace Regan Grace. To be fair to him, Ritson had travelled 70 metres on a run which had included heavy collisions with a couple of Hull defenders along the way. He probably is quicker than Hoy but had just run out of steam. Speed endurance is a different thing from pace off the mark or over a shorter distance. Something to work on for Ritson, perhaps. Or you could just write him off. Pick your poison.
It didn’t matter anyway. Ritson had scattered the black and whites’ defence all over the place to the point where they were less likely to recover than Philip Schofield’s career. On the very next play Welsby linked up with Dodd who stepped his way past what little cover remained to extend Saints’ lead. With Hull threats increasingly rare by now, it felt like the try that settled the issue and put Saints into the last four. Lussick’s conversion meant that the home side would now have to claw back a 12-point deficit at 24-12, and do it with only 12 men on the field. They have made some great strides under Smith in his first season since crossing the city but this task always looked beyond them.
When Hoy then left the field with a hamstring problem the FC faithful would have been forgiven for packing up and going home. If any of them did they missed the brief glimmer of hope offered by Trueman’s try 15 minutes from the end. It came as a result of the kind of generosity normally reserved for a Ben Stokes declaration.
With Hoy off Danny Houghton took over the field kicking, sending one soaring into the sky. It looked hopeful rather than dangerous until Ritson and Welsby got in each others way and sent the ball spinning to a grateful McIntosh. He found Tuimavave on the right and despite the best efforts of the recovering Welsby the centre was able to turn it back inside for Trueman to fall over the line. Sutcliffe held his nerve well to convert and bring his side to within one score at 24-18.
The faint hope didn’t last long. Joe Cator tried a pass to Satae in the shadow of his own posts which never seemed on and served only to gift Saints an opportunity. A few plays later Lussick combined with Welsby who stepped inside Dwyer and Litten to restore Saints’ double digit lead. Lussick’s failed conversion was something of a howler. A foreshadowing of the goal-kicking issues that may be on the horizon without Makinson or Percival in the ranks. But with 10 minutes left and at 28-18 up that seemed like a problem for another day.
Desperation set in for Smith’s men. A McIntosh restart failed to go the requisite 10 metres. That wasn’t punished but when Dwyer squandered a penalty by finding Batchelor instead of the 10th row of the stand the hosts did not get off the hook. Bell, who had been his quietly industrious self throughout, ran a great line as he received it from Lomax 15 metres out. The run and the pass were good enough to see the Saints back rower ease between Houghton and Sutcliffe to go over for the final try of the afternoon. Lussick came up empty with the extras once more but a 32-18 win was a fair enough reward for a professional job after half-time.
Saints stay in Hull for their next assignment, a Super League meeting with FC on Thursday night (June 22). The glorious jeopardy of the weekend meeting will be absent but Saints still need a win to continue to improve their relatively modest position in the table. Makinson and Percival are confirmed absentees so Wellens has drafted in Ben Davies and Wesley Bruines to his 21-man squad. Will Hopoate and Jon Bennison should be confident of seeing some action but the number of other changes depends very much on how highly Wellens values the two points on offer.
And what of that Wembley dream and those badly dressed Leopards in the last four? The pairings set up the tantalising prospect of a final meeting with Wigan who take on Hull KR in the other semi-final. In years gone by we may have celebrated this outcome but not so much these days.
This is a side which sits above both Saints and Wigan in the league at present and which has already beaten Wellens’ side at the Leigh Sports Village earlier this season. They have plenty of attacking threat - what commentators and pundits call strike - and are being led around superbly by Lachlan Lam, son of Head Coach Adrian. He has also undergone something of a transformation, leading this exciting outfit so soon after presiding over one of the worst attacks in Super League at Wigan.
Another cup final isn’t a foregone conclusion but in emerging unscathed from Hull - one of sport’s notorious Difficult Places To Go - the world champs have taken a significant step on the road.
Hull FC;
Litten, McIntosh, Tuimavave, Sutcliffe, Swift, Hoy, Trueman, Fash, Houghton, Taylor, Griffin, Savelio, Taylor. Interchanges: Satae, Lane, Dwyer, Sao
Saints;
Welsby, Makinson, Hurrell, Percival, Ritson, Lomax, Dodd, Walmsley, Roby, Lees, Sironen, Batchelor, Knowles. Interchanges: Paasi, Lussick, Mata’utia, Bell
Referee: Chris Kendall
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