There won’t be a 14th Challenge Cup success for Saints in 2023 after Paul Wellens’ men fell at the semi-final stage to Leigh Leopards at Warrington on Saturday (July 22).
It’s the second consecutive season in which Saints have bowed out in the last four after losing to Wigan at Elland Road a year ago. Meanwhile Leigh play at the national stadium for the first time since an Alex Murphy-inspired side won the trophy with victory over Leeds back in 1971.
This is not your usual Leigh Super League vintage. At almost any time during the last 27 years since the introduction of summer rugby and full time professionalism Saints would have been heavy favourites for this one. Yet it is the newly monikered Leopards who sit higher in the Super League table. Only Catalans Dragons can currently look down on the traditional yo-yo club in the league standings. Saints lie two places behind Adrian Lam’s side in fourth.
The odds on a Saints win were not improved by the absence of some key personnel. James Roby and Mark Percival were never in contention having picked up head knocks in last week’s home loss to the Dragons. In addition, Joe Batchelor missed out despite being named in the initial 21-man party while Curtis Sironen is also sidelined through injury.
The big plus was the return of Tommy Makinson. The England winger had missed the last four but was restored to his familiar right wing slot. On the opposite wing Tee Ritson came back in for his first appearance since the Super League loss at Hull on June 22. Joey Lussick - who it turns out was playing his last game for the club - started in place of Roby with no other recognised hooker in the 17. Perhaps owing to a lack of confidence in Makinson’s fitness the other change saw Ben Davies earn a spot on the bench alongside props Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Agnatius Paasi and George Delaney.
Coach Lam almost had a fully fit squad to choose from. Jake Wardle was the most notable name missing from the initial 21 but then former Huddersfield centre Ricky Leutele was a fairly late withdrawal. It meant that Zak Hardaker and Ed Chamberlain formed the centre partnership with Gareth O’Brien at fullback.
Back in March Saints went down to a 20-12 defeat at the Leigh Sports Village. It was difficult not to be reminded of that night as this one unfolded. During the league meeting Saints spent large amounts of time in possession in Leigh territory without seriously threatening to score enough points to put the game away. It was a similar story here as the champions’ insipid attack failed to deliver. To be honest I’m not even sure the driver made it to the restaurant.
Saints’ success over the last few years has been built on a solid defence and on controlling possession and territory. Starving your opponents of both. But you have to score points. When you only concede 12 points in a game you should win the game. But it won’t just come to you via another dismal drop off, a surge from the same prop forward or a hopeful bomb from Lewis Dodd. It didn’t work in March and it didn’t work here.
Credit is due to Leigh for their defence on the day. It is one of the areas that has improved the most under former Wigan boss Lam. Only Saints and Wigan have conceded fewer points than the Leopards in Super League this year. If you examined their defensive record in previous seasons in Super League then you might say they have changed their spots. But how often did Saints really stretch them? Even the twin threats of Jonny Lomax and Jack Welsby looked slightly chaotic when in possession in good field position, as if they didn’t know what they or any of their team mates were going to do.
Lomax got over late on with a nice show and go, but Saints’ only other try of the afternoon arrived courtesy of a Lussick barge over. That was the only four-pointer of a tight first half. The only other genuine chance for Saints to cross fell to Makinson who was surprisingly hammered into touch by Josh Charnley as the Saints man took to the air for an attempt at his trademark flying finish by the corner flag. Saints could - and should - have gone in at the break with an eight-point lead but Makinson managed to miss a very kickable penalty just before the hooter after Tom Amone had been guilty of stealing the ball from James Bell inside the Leopards’ 10m line.
Goal-kicking was a topic of conversation last week during the defeat by Catalans and is a topic of conversation again now. Still, it’s overly simplistic to put the blame for the loss on Makinson. There are a million other factors which decide an outcome. And had he converted Lomax’s try he would have been hailed as a hero for holding it together under that level of pressure and from a very difficult position on the field. It was far from easy. The missed penalty in the first half was the one which should have gone over. Sadly, it was not the first time that Makinson has missed a shot at goal which should be meat and drink for a regular goal-kicker. There was a similar miss in the one-point loss to Leeds in the first home game of the season.
If Dodd can’t fulfil the goal-kicking role since coming back from his injury, with Percival now only an occasional presence and Lussick having headed home Wellens has a problem to solve in this facet of the game. Lussick’s replacement - Moses Mbye - has over 140 goals to his name in the NRL but has only made one attempt for St George-Illawarra during 2023. It was a successful attempt. Maybe he might be given the responsibility if he turns out to be good enough to earn a regular place in the team.
NRL-watching Saints fans have queued up in recent days to tell us that Mbye isn’t good enough. From what I have seen of him playing for Canterbury, Wests Tigers and St George-Illawarra I am not exactly blown away. But Super League and the NRL are a different standard altogether. I remember being told on his arrival that Lachlan Coote was not up to it and he didn’t do too badly. Let’s wait and see.
Irrespective of whether Mbye succeeds or fails the loss of Lussick at this point in the season - when your only other hooker is 37 years-old - is an absolute clinic on how not to handle a transfer. The world champions should not be here to solve the injury concerns of a Parramatta Eels side who knew what they were getting into when they acquired that Figgis of rugby league Josh Hodgson.
As average as they were in attack there were still moments in the game about which Saints can feel aggrieved. Not least of these is the ultimately decisive try scored by Hardaker. As Lachlan Lam’s kick dribbled over the Saints try-line Ritson looked favourite to get to it first. He was in a foot race with Tom Briscoe with Hardaker trailing behind. Both Briscoe and Ritson missed it which allowed Hardaker to touch it down just inside the dead ball line. There is a gag in there about Hardaker getting close to white lines but I’m not going to do it.
Instead I’m going to ask what game video referee Marcus Griffiths was watching when he upheld Chris Kendall’s on field decision of a try. Three or four times Griffiths clearly and confidently announced that what looked like a blatant push in the back on Ritson by Briscoe was a shoulder to shoulder contest for the ball. He was therefore only considering whether Hardaker had grounded the ball in time and not whether a foul had been committed.
The TV commentators didn’t make much of it either. What was everyone looking at? It was a blatant foul. And if you think that’s a biased view I take your point. But please…go and have a look back at the history of this blog and see if I always see controversial decisions in Saints’ favour. It was just a foul.
That it wasn’t seen that way meant that although Ben Reynolds Makinsoned his conversion half way to Wigan the Leopards led 10-6 with less than half an hour remaining. They had responded to Lussick’s opener when Lachlan Lam expertly put Oliver Holmes through a gap created by Hurrell wandering off in the defensive line like Johnny Bairstow ambling out of his crease,
At this point the 2023 Saints remembered who they were and promptly shot themselves in the metaphorical size nine. Reynolds was executing a routine kick for territory which was gobbled up by Welsby on his own 10 metre line. All well and good except that serial late hitter Sione Mata’utia had flattened the Leigh stand-off long after the ball had been booted downfield. The penalty was given where Welsby caught the ball. A gimme two points. For most teams at any rate.
Reynolds added the two on offer to make it 12-6, but before he did Kendall took Mata’utia and Saints’ stand-in captain Lomax aside to discuss the back rower’s latest transgression. Kendall produced the yellow card, explaining that the tackle on Reynolds had been late and with ‘a lot of force’. Not much to argue about there. Mata’utia has subsequently been handed a two-match ban by the Match Review Panel at their weekly lottery.
I don’t have the exact figures but it feels like Mata’utia has picked up bans amounting to something in double figures since he arrived in 2021 from Newcastle Knights. What I can tell you is that in almost three seasons he has made 53 appearances for Saints. He has had some injuries but I’d be confident in saying that the majority of the 27 matches he has missed since he joined the club have been due to his own indiscipline.
Saints dominated in the final quarter but again - that Lomax try at the death aside - it was without any great menace. Leigh defended desperately and with great resilience. Yet the tackling technique of one Leopard in particular may just have deepened Wellens’ injury worries. John Asiata had a monstrous game in defence for his side but as the game wore on the 30 year-old’s fatigue took it’s toll on his regard for the safety of anyone including himself. Twice he tackled Saints props by just launching himself head first at the knees. The first victim was Alex Walmsley who was strapped up and continued, but when the same thing happened to Paasi close to the line in the last few minutes he had to be helped off.
There have been suggestions that both Saints front rowers will miss the rest of the season. Wellens admits that Paasi will be out for a ‘significant’ period and that the ex-New Zealand Warrior’s knee was ‘blown to smithereens’. On Walmsley the boss was more optimistic, which might explain why he was allowed to continue for the final 15 minutes after the offending challenge. Getting to Wembley and winning cups are important but not at the expense of your premier metre maker for the rest of the season and certainly not at the expense of his health.
Asiata received no sanction for either challenge. Kendall did not even give a penalty, much less show a card. The MRP didn’t consider it a problem either. Which leads us only to conclude that throwing yourself head first at the knee of an opponent - thus putting yourself in as much danger as the player you are tackling - is perfectly legal. I can’t help thinking that in this age of strict liability on dangerous tackles and of ex-players launching legal proceedings against the sport’s authorities that it ought not to be.
After the Lomax try and Makinson’s failed conversion left Saints two points adrift there was a shred of hope. There would be time for a few plays before the final hooter. Yet it was never really on. One of the notable weaknesses of this Saints side is a lack of the kind of pace needed to strike from deep when opposition defences are set. Saints have been so busy taking the risk out of their game that they no longer have a Wide To West moment in them. And so it proved as Makinson’s attempted chip and chase on the last play was snaffled by Lachlan Lam and gleefully launched out of play as time expired.
Which leaves us with only the quest for a fifth Super League Grand Final win to play for. I say only…that’s not too shabby especially in a season when you have already been crowned world champions. Next up is Leeds Rhinos at home on Friday (July 28) as the jockeying for league placings inside the top six continues. It’s impossible to predict which Leeds side will turn up. The one which put 40 on Wigan or the one which lost to Wakefield recently? It’s rare for Saints to lose at home to the same opposition twice in the same season which makes me feel a bit better even if deep down I’m fully aware of its irrelevance.
What could really decide Saints’ fate this week and for the remaining months of the season is available personnel. They are not going to develop a slick, cavalier attack any time soon so the likes of Walmsley, Makinson and Batchelor are absolutely central to the MO of forcing opponents to play the game in their own half until their defensive dam bursts.
On this occasion Leigh’s did not. That - coupled with Hull KR’s surprise win over Wigan in the other last four tie - sets up a final which if nothing else should be good for the game. The perfect response to those who observe that trophies in rugby league are shared only between the same three or four clubs. We will now see the first Challenge Cup final without one of Saints, Wigan, Leeds or Warrington since 1986. Hull KR could probably have lived without the reminder as they lost to Castleford that day.
I’d make them favourites to lose again. Wellens’ side might be a bit Saints-lite at the moment but Leigh look like the real deal as far as genuine trophy contenders go.
Saints: Welsby, Makinson, Hurrell, Hopoate, Ritson, Lomax, Dodd, Walmsley, Lussick, Lees, Mata’utia, Bell, Knowles. Interchanges: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Paasi, Delaney, Davies
Leigh: O’Brien, Briscoe, Chamberlain, Hardaker, Charnley, Reynolds, Lam, Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, Holmes, Hughes, Asiata. Interchanges: Nakubuwai, Davis, Mellor, Wilde
Referee: Chris Kendall
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