A potentially pivotal game in the race for the League Leaders Shield crops up when Catalans Dragons visit Saints on Thursday night (July 13).
Quietly, stealthily, Saints have crept up on to the shoulder of the table-topping Dragons. Should Paul Wellens’ side win this one they will move to within two points of the league leaders with a crucial game in hand at home to Huddersfield Giants still to come.
It was Ian Watson’s side who helped present this opportunity to the champions by pulling off an unlikely 22-14 win in Perpignan last time out. That was the Giants’ first win since beating Castleford on May 26. For the Dragons it ended a seven-game winning streak and pulled them back to within spitting distance of the chasing pack.
Wellens named an unchanged side for last week’s win at Warrington. The exact same 17 who earned a 24-20 win at the Halliwell Jones Stadium had captured a 22-0 home win over Castleford the previous week. Wellens could conceivably name an unchanged 17 again, but has made two changes to his initial 21-man selection. Curtis Sironen returns from a hamstring injury while Dan Norman is back from a loan spell at Leigh. Quite what we are doing loaning players to teams who currently sit above us in the league I don’t know. The men to make way from the 21 are Tee Ritson and Lewis Baxter, neither of whom featured against Warrington.
Sironen’s inclusion suggests he will be involved if fit enough. He was in impressive form before he picked up a hamstring injury in the 34-6 hammering at Hull FC on June 22. Joe Batchelor is still out so Sironen will either start on the bench (most likely at the expense of either Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook or George Delaney) or he will replace one of Sione Mata’utia or James Bell in the line-up from the kick-off. Sironen usually operates on the left which would seem to make Mata’utia more vulnerable, but often it has been Bell who has missed out whenever there has been a difficult decision to make among the back row options. Morgan Knowles’ improved form in recent weeks seems to have been enough to make him the automatic choice at 13 once more.
Mata’utia has potentially given Wellens this problem for a little while longer. There had been a lot of talk of the ex-Newcastle Knight heading back to the NRL next year. However, he revealed this week that he is close to extending his stay at Saints which began in 2021 and which has so far yielded two Grand Final winners rings.
The front row has been pretty much unchanged whenever props Alex Walmsley and Matty Lees and hooker James Roby are fit. That should be the case for this one with Agnatius Paasi and one of McCarthy-Scarsbrook or Delaney on the bench and Joey Lussick backing up Roby. Lussick has been the subject of speculation linking him with a move back to Parramatta Eels. And not just at the end of the season but with immediate effect. The Eels need cover because Josh Hodgson has another problematic injury which could keep him out for the remainder of the season. So what else is new?
It is hard to believe that this - if it is true - is a plan initiated by Wellens. Roby may have secured his place in the pantheon of the greats of the game but that doesn’t mean that you would want the 37 year-old to be your only option at nine. No, Knowles doesn’t count. It would be less surprising if it had come from Lussick. He can’t be all that happy with the 15 or 20 minutes per game he is currently being offered. Nor will he have been too thrilled to have been left out altogether once or twice in recent weeks, necessitating the positional switch we saw with Knowles. If Lussick is angling for an immediate release and if there is nothing the club can do to prevent it then we could find ourselves in a very tricky predicament for the run-in and the playoffs.
Things are more settled in the backs but Wellens still has to do without Ritson and Tommy Makinson. Jon Bennison is making a case to be selected ahead of Ritson when he returns but the same cannot be said of Will Hopoate in relief of Makinson. His edge combination with Konrad Hurrell was exposed defensively time and time again at Warrington last week. Matt Ikuvalu and one of Super League’s top try scorers Tom Johnstone will be foaming at the mouth at the prospect of facing the Tongan pair. Batchelor’s absence exacerbates this problem so Bell may face a difficult task in trying to help the men outside him plug the holes on that side.
Offensively Hurrell is still playing a massive part along with centre partner Mark Percival and the creative spine of fullback Jack Welsby and halves Jonny Lomax and Lewis Dodd.
There are a couple of key names returning for the Dragons as they bid to banish the memory of that woeful home loss to the Giants. Mitchell Pearce is back from suspension while Sam Tomkins is also included in coach Steve McNamara’s 21. Artur Mourgue was injured against Huddersfield so misses out. Tomkins may step in at fullback allowing Tyrone May to partner Pearce in the halves. Adam Keighran has been linked with a move to Wigan but for now could operate at right centre inside another ex-Wiganer Tom Davies on the wing. With Pearce restored Keighran will be relieved to switch back to a more familiar role after filling in at scrum half in the defeat to Watson’s side.
Romain Navarrete is yet another former Warrior in the ranks as he also comes back in. He’ll challenge for one of the prop roles along with Julian Bousquet and Jordan Dezaria. England international Mike McMeeken played in the front row against the Giants but is more well known as a second rower along with Matt Whitley. The ex-Widnes man was rumoured to be on his way to Saints earlier in the year but that could be on the back burner if Mata’utia has agreed to stay. Ben Garcia, Paul Seguier and Mane M’au offer further pack options. Completing the Wigan tribute act for McNamara is hooker Mickey McIlorum, most likely to be backed up by Alrix Da Costa.
The teams have already met once this season. Saints’ early May visit to Perpignan was at the very peak of their 2023 schizophrenia. The 24-12 loss suffered by the champions was not therefore a massive surprise. Tries from Welsby and Walmsley were not enough as. Mourgue, Ikuvalu and a Davies double got the Dragons home.
Going back further the two most famous clashes occurred in 2007 and 2021. Sixteen years ago Wellens shared the Lance Todd Trophy with Leon Pryce as Daniel Anderson’s side won the second of three consecutive Challenge Cups under the Kiwi coach. Two years ago the Dragons provided the opposition in the Super League Grand Final. Kevin Naiqama crossed twice as Saints edged a tight one 12-10. It was the third of their current run of four successive Grand Final victories. Eleven of the Saints’ 17 that night have a chance of featuring this week while only eight of those who played at Old Trafford for the Dragons are in McNamara’s latest selection.
This looks like a genuinely tough assignment. Only Leeds have won at the home of Saints this year but of all of those yet to visit the Dragons look best equipped for the job. The Giants loss shows their vulnerabilities but there’s every chance it will provide the proverbial kick up the behind they may need. If finishing top means anything then both sides should be desperate. Yet with second place offering exactly the same advantage in the playoffs and Leigh also in the mix it is Saints who will be most vulnerable to being tangibly affected should they lose. For that reason I am backing them to edge it. That could be more heart than head.
Squads;
Saints;
1. Jack Welsby, 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, 13. Morgan Knowles, 14. Joey Lussick, 15. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 16. Curtis Sironen, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 19. James Bell, 20. Dan Norman, 21. Ben Davies, 22. Sam Royle, 23. Konrad Hurrell, 30. George Delaney
Catalans Dragons;
2. Tom Davies 3. Adam Keighran 6. Tyrone May 7. Mitchell Pearce 8. Mike McMeeken 9. Micky McIlorum 10. Julian Bousquet 11. Matt Whitley 12. Paul Seguier 13. Benjamin Garcia 14. Alrix Da Costa 15. Mickael Goudemand 16. Romain Navarrete 18. Tiaki Chan 19. Arthur Romano 21. Matt Ikuvalu 23. Jordan Dezaria 24. Tom Johnstone 26. Manu Ma’u 29. Sam Tomkins 31. Tanguy Zenon
Referee: Liam Moore
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