After the long trip to Newcastle we revert to local squabbling this week as Saints host Wigan Warriors on Friday (June 9, kick-off 8.00pm).
Saints demolished Huddersfield Giants in last weekend’s north east jamboree. A 48-6 win lifted Paul Wellens’ side up a place to sixth in the table, a spot which comes with an all-important playoff place. It was an eighth league win of the season for the champions and a fourth in a row in all competitions after successes against Salford and Leeds either side of a Challenge Cup victory at Halifax.
All of which means that Saints will go above their unwelcome visitors if they come out on top in this one. While Saints are finding a little form Matty Peet’s side are in a funk. They were clobbered 46-22 by Catalans Dragons at Magic a week after snatching a scarcely deserved golden point win at Hull KR. Before that they edged Leeds Rhinos out of the Challenge Cup in a close one having been blown away 40-18 by a 12-man Rhinos outfit a week previously. Defeat here could see them slip out of the playoff places if other results go against them.
Wellens is finally playing with a full deck in terms of personnel and so makes only one change to the 21-man squad. Morgan Knowles returns from the two match suspension he incurred for his needless high lunge on Tom Inman in the dying seconds at Halifax. Wellens has a decision to make in whether to bring Knowles straight back into the starting 13 - probably at the expense of James Bell - or else keep him on the bench to cool his jets.
Either way Knowles is vulnerable. As soon as he enters the fray he will be met by the Warriors’ assortment of dark arts merchants who will be just desperate to get the Saints man to do something mindless. Which on recent evidence won’t be all that difficult. I’d be more than happy to stick with Bell but that will not happen.
The only other half-dilemma is at centre where Mark Percival returned last week at Newcastle and forced Will Hopoate out of the 17. Percival should get the nod again to partner Konrad Hurrell who scored two tries at St James’ Park. Tommy Makinson trumped that with four, setting a Magic Weekend record of 28 points into the bargain. He will occupy one wing with Tee Ritson enjoying a run in the side on the other. That is tough on Jon Bennison but that shows the depth of a squad which might just be revving up towards its best form now that everybody is fit and - for now at least - free from suspension. Jack Welsby should continue at fullback with Jonny Lomax and an improving Lewis Dodd operating in the halves.
If we assume that Knowles starts he will probably do so at 13 behind a second row pairing of Curtis Sironen and Joe Batchelor. Sione Mata’utia has been used off the bench since coming back from a layoff due to concussion protocols. Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Matty Lees should form the starting front row with Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Agnatius Passi and Joey Lussick backing up from the bench. Jake Wingfield will not feature as he is the unfortunate one to make way for Knowles’ return to the squad.
Dan Norman won’t be involved either having been sent on a two-week loan to Leigh Leopards. If ever a guy did not suit leopard print it might well be the enormous Norman. Yet he is not really suiting the red vee either at the moment. His move to Saints from London Broncos has never really got into gear. He has made only 15 appearances in two and a half years at Saints since joining in December 2020. He is under contract for the remainder of this year but would be forgiven for looking at his options after that. George Delaney is another who is now ahead of Norman in the pecking order and the youngster is again part of this selection.
Peet’s plodders are not quite at full strength either. There is only one change to their 21 but that owes more to the fact that injured players are still not ready to return. Peet would doubtless make changes if he could. Ex-Leeds prop Brad Singleton is one who does come back, replacing hooker Tom Forber.
Wigan are still without Willie Isa - possibly a good thing for them as the ex-Widnes man cranks up the psychopathy to an especially high setting for derbies. Also missing are groin stretching NRL wannabe Kai Pearce Paul and Ethan Harvard along with long term absentee Mike Cooper. Singleton will hope for game time at prop along with Liam Byrne, Kaide Ellis, Harvie Hill, Junior Nsemba and Patrick Mago. A more than underwhelming collection of options if truth be told. Liam Farrell and Morgan Smithies should be certainties for starts in the back row with Joe Shorrocks also in contention. Brad O’Neill is included as cover for hooker Sam Powell, for whom the phrase diminishing returns was invented.
The picture is a little rosier in the backs, on the face of it at least. Jai Field returned to the fold last week and - though he wasn’t exactly sparkling in the loss to the Dragons - won’t take long to find his form. His combination with fullback Bevan French is key for Wigan whose back division has further pace and try-scoring potential in the form of Liam Marshall. Jake Wardle and Toby King are the centre partnership. Field is likely to stay in the halves alongside Harry Smith. Peet seems reluctant to rely on Cade Cust at six but should he choose to do so for this one he could have one of Field or French on the wing and the other at fullback. Some see that as a revolutionary two fullback system of attack. Others see two fast blokes dominating an otherwise stagnant attack, with the exception of Marshall, Wardle and Farrell.
The sides have already met this season. A game which saw Knowles pick up a five-match ban for hip-dropping Cooper out of any further involvement in 2023 ended in a 14-6 Warriors win at the DW on Good Friday (April 7). Shorrocks earned rave reviews for his performance at stand-off that day as a Field-less Wigan got home by virtue of tries by Smith and King and three Smith goals. Will Peet try and go back to that well and use Shorrocks in the halves again? What he probably won’t be able to do is count on Smith’s goal-kicking. The haltback has only made 60% of his attempts this year and his three misses at Hull KR could have cost them on another day with Makinson hardly a metronomic goal-grabber this could yet be a key area of battle.
Wigan’s last win at Saints was the final regular season game of the fever dream that was the Covid-ravaged 2020 campaign. That was an 18-6 reverse for Kristian Woolf’s side behind closed doors. They avenged it pretty quickly, beating Adrian Lam’s Warriors side 8-4 a month later in a Grand Final which will forever be remembered for Welsby’s last-gasp winning try and for the look on Lam’s kipper in the glorious aftermath. Sadly, there was again nobody inside the temporary Grand Final venue in Hull to see it in person.
For Wigan’s last win at Saints in front of paying humans you have to go back to August 2018 - a time when Saints players and rugby league players in general needed less coercion to talk to Jon Wilkin on the pitch and when Ben Barba seemed like a conduit for acts of God at fullback (though by the time of this 30-10 defeat he had pretty much cashed in his chips). Two Dan Sarginson tries helped Wigan on their way while Sean O’Loughlin and new Hull KR recruit Oliver Gildart also crossed.
If you’re looking for classic encounters between the two the list is long. They have met in five Super League Grand Finals (current score 4-1 to Saints) and six Challenge Cup finals (3-3). Yet even when there isn’t a trophy up for grabs these are always high intensity contests with a genuine edge and extra importance to the fans. It will be the same again on Friday night.
Not wishing to put the mocker on my team but I have a slight leaning towards Saints at prediction time. Wellens’ side are coming into form whereas Wigan look a little bit unsure of themselves at present. If they turn up with the sort of defensive attitude they took to Newcastle to face the league leaders then the Wigan Walk may start early. Saints by 12.
Squads;
Saints:
1.Jack Welsby, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Will Hopoate, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Jon Bennison, 6. Jonny Lomax, 7. Lewis Dodd, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Sione Mata’utia, 12. Joe Batchelor, 13. Morgan Knowles, 14. Joey Lussick, 15. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 16. Curtis Sironen, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 19. James Bell, 23. Konrad Hurrell, 25. Tee Ritson, 30. George Delaney.
Wigan Warriors:
Jai Field, Bevan French, Toby King, Jake Wardle, Liam Marshall, Cade Cust, Harry Smith, Brad Singleton, Sam Powell, Liam Byrne, Liam Farrell, Morgan Smithies, Kaide Ellis, Joe Shorrocks, Patrick Mago, Iain Thornley, Brad O’Neill, Abbas Miski, Harvie Hill, Junior Nsemba, Ryan Hampshire
Referee: Chris Kendall
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