Some things just keep happening over and over. Television presenters getting involved in scandals. Jonny Bairstow getting out brainlessly. Saints winning at Warrington.
It was close - and this wasn’t vintage Saints by any means - but Paul Wellens side still found a way to come out on the right side of the scoreboard at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. It extended an unbeaten run which goes back four years to a time before home working was perfectly normal, when I used actual cash to pay for things and when Jeremy Kyle was still getting air time.
More importantly it elevated the champions to third place in the league table having spent most of the season outside the top four and parts of it outside a top six playoff spot. With other results going their way - we’re not laughing at you Wigan honestly - Saints could get within two points of league leaders Catalans Dragons if they get the better of Steve McNamara’s side at home on Thursday night (July 13). And with a game in hand. That follows the French side’s surprise loss to Chris McQueen Try Machine’s Huddersfield Giants on Saturday (July 8). Suddenly, top spot and another League Leaders Shield is back on the agenda.
Meanwhile, poor old Wire are slumping alarmingly, if not unpredictably. This defeat was their seventh in their last 10 league outings after starting the campaign with eight wins in a row. It’s looking increasingly likely that this might not be their year. If coach Daryl Powell doesn’t find a way to turn around their miserable form they may yet struggle to cling on to a spot inside that top six where end of season knockout football lies. They face what is sure to be an embarrassed and consequently highly motivated Wigan next.
Back to this one where Wellens achieved a feat rare among rugby league coaches in the modern game in being able to name an unchanged 17. All the same players who had slugged out a 22-0 win over Castleford in the sideways rain a week previously were on duty again. Which meant Sione Mata’utia and James Bell starting in the second row in place of the injured Curtis Sironen and Joe Batchelor, and Will Hopoate and Jon Bennison occupying the wings in the absence of Tommy Makinson and Tee Ritson. Joey Lussick made his 50th appearance for the club but did so from the bench as James Roby started in game number 539 for him.
Powell’s squad announcement two days before the game threatened the reintroduction of George Williams. The ex-Wigan and Canberra halfback had not played since the cup defeat by Wigan and was ruled out again with his hamstring problem. Having experimented with Matt Dufty in the halves in a loss at his old club Castleford, Powell turned back to Peter Mata’utia to partner Josh Drinkwater in the halves. That sent Stef Ratchford back to centre. With forwards Sam Kasiano and James Harrison suspended Powell had to put his faith in youngsters Adam Holroyd, Lucas Green and Thomas Whitehead. It also meant a start for Gil Dudson which was always going to end badly but should have ended much worse than it did for the former Wigan grub.
Early in the proceedings a clearly highly motivated and fresh Wire outfit started targeting Saints’ flakey right edge defence. With a Makinson shaped hole in it that area of the team haemorraghed metres from the outset. Just five minutes had gone by when Dufty waltzed between Konrad Hurrell and Hopoate on a 45 metre burst into Saints territory. He was brought down by Mark Percival and blatantly flopped on by Jack Welsby before a retreating Saints were all caught offside on the next play. Bang in front of the posts so early in the game it seemed reasonable to take the two which is exactly what Ratchford did.
Saints would have slipped further behind five minutes later were it not for the effort of Jonny Lomax. Again it was the right side of defence which was shredded, and again it was Dufty doing much of the shredding. Taking another predictable Lewis Dodd skyscraper on the full the fullback tore down that side of the field, reaching halfway before spotting the possibly even faster Matty Ashton on his inside. It looked all over until Lomax hustled back to drive the Wolves winger to the turf.
A couple of things went Saints way to swing things in their favour on the scoreboard. First a wayward pass by Whitehead skewed back into the Warrington half where Joe Philbin failed to secure it on the ground. It bobbled instead into the path of Dodd who scooped it up to give his side great field position.
Referee Jack Smith then saw no infringement when Matty Lees carried the ball in and hit Whitehead in the head with his shoulder. Whether there was any intent is arguable but often largely irrelevant in these days of strict liability. If you can’t make head contact using your shoulder - deliberately or not - when you are defending then it follows that you can’t do it when you are carrying the ball. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the infamous Match Review Panel will take a look.
Whitehead left the scene for an HIA just before Saints took the lead. When the try came it was slick. Roby found Dodd on the left and he handed on to Welsby. The quick hands of the Saints fullback found Percival in space and the centre stepped inside the grasping Dufty to score. Pacy and buccaneering going forward Dufty wears the look of a man who would rather be anywhere else than in one on one defence. The Saints centre converted the try himself to put Saints four points up at 6-2.
Welsby has had his own more jittery moments in defence in recent times which have clearly induced a change of philosophy. When Drinkwater sent a raking kick into the Saints in-goal Welsby had no thought of trying to run it back into the field of play. Instead he hacked it dead and prepared for the dropout. While that might be preferable to making a mistake which could lead directly to a try it did invite more pressure from which Wire again exploited Saints on their right flank. Daryl Clark - a man constantly linked with a move to Saints for next season after the impending retirement of Roby - linked with Dufty, Drinkwater and finally Ben Currie who put Ashton in at the corner. Ratchford couldn’t add the extras but things were all tied up at 6-6.
For about three minutes, that is. Saints’ second try was controversial. Which is a nice way of saying that referee Smith and his touch judges made what Eddie used to call a porridge of it. Dodd was probing on the left about 35 metres from the Wire line where he found Welsby with a pass which could most generously be described as a bit on the forward side. It allowed Welsby to cause mayhem in the Wolves defensive line, combining with Lomax who found James Bell to his right for a walk-in. Percival was spot on with the conversion again and Saints lead 12-6.
Saints’ very own mix of frazzled discipline and outstanding defence was to the fore as the Super League’s dominant force preserved their six-point advantage before the break. An offside call was swiftly followed by high shots by Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Sione Mata’utia on Joe Bullock and Drinkwater respectively. That had Warrington camped out inside the Saints 10 metre line but each of the home side’s unimaginative raids were repelled. The danger finally passed when Drinkwater took the eccentric decision to lob the ball across the field towards Ashton early in what turned out to be the final repeat set of a sustained attack. The Saints right edge had a fraught evening but they played their part here and were deservedly let off the hook when Ashton couldn’t haul in Drinkwater’s effort.
Three minutes into the second half it was Saints’ turn to pitch the tent within spitting distance of the opposing try-line. Wire hung on for a while but looked busted when the ball arrived in Welsby’s hands on the right. Hindsight genius tells me that a simple ball to Hurrell may have produced the desired effect. But that’s not Welsby’s style. He very rarely gets it wrong so it is hard to criticise him too much for choosing instead to try to find Hopoate with a long ball.
He paid a price for his choice though as Ashton plucked it out of the air and raced 90 metres for his second try of the evening. It was his 15th of the Super League season. Only Leigh’s Josh Charnley and Tom Johnstone of Catalans Dragons have more in 2023. Nobody in Super League has scored more goals than Ratchford either. His latest effort levelled the scores again at 12-12.
His next one followed soon after. Warrington were trying to launch another attack in the Saints half when the ball squirmed away from Clark at the play-the-ball. He didn’t regain his feet to play it, instead trying to get it back into play as quickly as possible. Quick play-the-balls are all the rage these days. This one was a bit of a mess, but Warrington were fortunate that Smith saw the position of Lees at marker as the first offence. The Saints prop wasn’t square and was making Clark’s job more difficult as a result.
So here we have two players on opposite sides who are both flouting the rules. What does a referee do? This is one of the areas of the game which is most in need of urgent repair and especially now that it has been made even more complex by the nefarious persistence with the six again rule. Survey the fans on which offences carry a full penalty and which invoke another six tackles and I suspect you’ll get a mixed bag of answers. Offside at marker is still a full penalty and the execution of it by Ratchford nudged the home side out to a 14-12 advantage.
Having scored two tries Ashton then arguably saved one when he got a hand to Bell’s attempted pass to Hurrell on the Saints right. The numbers were there in attack and the Tongan would probably have strolled in. Instead it was Warrington who scored next, conjuring up a flowing move covering 85 metres through some floundering defence in the usual location. Currie made the initial break before finding Drinkwater. He handed on to Ratchford who had Dufty in support. He may not be the man to lead your team around from halfback but if you give him possession in space 40 metres from the try line the outcome is usually four points with a chance of six. He was able to dot it down near enough to the posts to allow Ratchford to slot his 64th goal of the season and give his side a 20-12 lead. For the first time the margin was more than a converted try.
Time to get to work, then. Wellens is paid to make decisions in sticky situations such as this. So it was then that shortly after Dufty crossed the Saints boss threw Alex Walmsley and Morgan Knowles back into proceedings. The whole feeling of the game changed. Saints began to dominate in both attack and defence. Opportunities for Wire to get the ball out left to run at Saints’ beleaguered right edge defenders dried up a little.
Within two minutes of their reintroduction Knowles’ powerful surge scattered the Wire defenders enough to create space for Lomax to work a little magic. He sliced between Currie and Philbin before exchanging passes with Welsby and scoring beside the posts. It was his seventh try of the season and his 128th in 313 Saints appearances. It was also crucial as Percival’s conversion dragged Saints back to within two points at 20-18.
Anything Knowles could do Walmsley could match. Seven minutes after Lomax’s try the big prop started the chain of events which put Saints ahead to stay with a typically damaging run. With Wolves defenders backing away Dodd looked left and found Welsby. As he had with Lomax on the previous try Welsby returned the gesture, finding Dodd with a pass which allowed him to stoop low and stretch over to score. There was again a hint of some forward travel about Welsby’s pass but if Smith and his officiating colleagues hadn’t seen the one in the build-up to the Bell try they weren’t about to give this one. It was very marginal in any case. The kind you might have seen given but probably not as often as you have seen it let go. Percival’s fourth goal of the night gave Saints a four-point cushion at 24-20. They still had 12 minutes to play.
That was time enough for Hurrell to flirt with a little disciplinary trouble. He caught Ashton high as the winger was trying to work the ball out from his own end. Smith explained to Hurrell that he had not issued a yellow card only because Ashton was already losing height from contact from another tackler. The penalty was sufficient on the night then, but you pays your money and takes your choice when trying to work out what the MRP will make of it.
Of more immediate concern was holding out defensively as the game entered its final throes. The hosts claimed a repeat set when Welsby batted another Drinkwater grubber dead ahead of Currie. When it mattered the Saints defence - including its rickety right edge - held firm. A penalty for a ball steal on Saints next set was a huge help. They were backed up near their own line when the ball came free from Hurrell under pressure from Currie and Danny Walker. Debaters on both sides have assured me that the ball was stolen from/knocked on by Hurrell but I am yet to see a television angle which proves either theory. One of them must be right of course but it is another area in which all too often similar looking scenarios produce different outcomes to the bewilderment of fans in the stadium and at home. Video reviews will never end arguments over decisions. That’s really not what they’re there for.
Dudson almost completed an entire game without showing us the weapons grade shithousery he learned in his Wigan days. Almost, but not quite. And when he snapped it relieved a lot of pressure on Saints with just minutes remaining. He was busy with some unnecessary wrestling of an already grounded Lees when he then hit upon the not very bright idea of pushing his knee into Lees’ head as the Saints man lay on the floor. How Smith did not consider this deserving of a yellow card is quite the mystery. One which will hopefully be put to bed by our friends at the MRP. It could be a busy week for them but then…what else is new?
When Connor Wrench spilled the ball at the end of a flowing move involving Matty Russell and Peter Mata’utia the jig looked up for Wire and Saints looked safe. It only remained for the champs’ prospective new recruit Clark to fumble at the play-the-ball in the last act of the contest.
Stats tell you a lot of things but sometimes they lie in your face. For example, the fact that Hopoate led Saints in metres made with 160 might make you think he was a standout player. And while he did a good job of returning kicks to set up good field position he was also part of a defensive edge that was not so much turnstile or wet paper towel as gaping canyon. Warrington continually went around them rather than through them owing to the speed of Ashton and Dufty. They combined for 362 metres with most of it emerging from that side of the field. That also tells a story.
Other than Hopoate Saints’ best go-forward men were Sione Mata’utia (129 metres), Walmsley (117), Lomax (105) and Percival (102). Besides Ashton and Dufty Vaughan (139), Bullock (115) and Russell (100) made solid contributions.
Clark topped Warrington’s tackle count with 34 with both Vaughan and Currie just a couple behind on 32. For Saints Lees weighed in with 40 stops, Knowles had 32 and Roby 31.
Next up Saints face what could be a pivotal assignment when the Dragons visit. It represents an opportunity to get into an excellent position in the face for the League Leaders Shield. A race which Saints have hardly looked like being involved in this year. Yet it’s a realistic prospect, which is testament to the resilience they have shown under Wellens when their top form has eluded them.
I must confess to being a tad concerned about what havoc Johnstone and Matt Ikuvalu might wreak against Hurrell and Hopoate. The return of Batchelor would help but with the Challenge Cup semi-final nine days later it seems a long shot. We might just have to take heart from the fact that if they can’t beat Huddersfield then Catalans can’t be all that and a bag of chips.
Warrington: Dufty, Russell, Minikin, Ratchford, Ashton, Mata’utia, Drinkwater, Dudson, Clark, Vaughan, Currie, Whitehead, Philbin. Interchanges: Walker, Bullock, Holroyd, Green
Saints: Welsby, Hopoate, Hurrell, Percival, Bennison, Lomax, Dodd, Walmsley, Roby. Lees, Mata’utia, Bell, Knowles. Interchanges: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Delaney, Paasi, Lussick
Referee: Jack Smith
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