It was the third time of asking in 2023 but Saints finally got the better of newly promoted, upstart playoff gatecrashers and Challenge Cup winners (n.b. not champions) Leigh Leopards on Friday night (September 9).
There was a heavy feeling in the air of scores to be settled on a raucous, at times edgy night at the stadium that dare not speak its name. Much of that stemmed from Saints’ Challenge Cup semi-final loss to Adrian Lam’s side at Warrington in July. That denied Paul Wellens’ side a trip to Wembley for a shot at more silverware. It also saw props Alex Walmsley and Agnatius Paasi ruled out for the rest of the year with knee injuries caused by the tackling ‘technique’ of John Asiata.
The third act of this trilogy was missing it’s arch villain as Asiata was not included in the 17 selected by Lam. Not that his absence did anything to ease palpable tensions between the two sides, particularly in the early going when mere tackling was not sufficient and demand was high for big hits. In Asiata’s absence Matt Davis started at loose forward while there was a surprise omission in the backs with Super League’s top try scorer Josh Charnley also missing. Oliver Gildart - on loan from Wests Tigers on his way to Hull KR for next year - moved over to the wing and Ed Chamberlain stepped into the centre berth.
Wellens also made two changes to his 17. Konrad Hurrell’s comeback in the win at Wakefield last time out was marred by both a suspension for a late hit and a recurrence of the calf injury that had kept him out of the previous four games. That meant a recall for Ben Davies and a switch back to the right edge for Mark Percival. In the pack Morgan Knowles returned to the side, filling in at prop for concussion victim Dan Norman as George Delaney dropped to the bench.
Before we get started on the drama I feel compelled to have a moan about the visuals. Saints were wearing their 150 year heritage kit which they describe on the website as brown and sky hoops. I get why we would want to celebrate 150 years of the world’s greatest rugby league club but when the opposition - who have apparently ditched their traditional colours completely since the Bet Lynch rebrand - turn up wearing a light blue and black number the whole ensemble is enough to bring on seizures. Could we not have chosen a different opponent for our heritage celebration? Or else politely asked Derek if he could see to it that his team turned up in something which contrasted a little better?
Ok, back to the more important business of the game itself. That Tommy Makinson chap just keeps rolling on, doesn’t he? He had scored 10 tries in his last five outings before this one and he picked up another double here. That took him to 22 for the season, just three behind the league’s leading pair of Charnley and Catalans Dragons’ Tom Johnstone. Wigan’s Abbas Miski also has 22 after scoring in their 50-0 larruping of Leeds Rhinos yesterday (September 9).
Yet when you consider that Makinson only reached double figures for 2023 when he scored against Wigan in June it’s quite the late season surge from the England winger. He has another move up the all-time Super League try scorers list in his sights as he is now only 10 behind seventh placed Ryan Atkins. Although if Atkins had been awarded every try he claimed during his career he would have smashed Danny McGuire’s record of 247.
It was Makinson who pulled Saints back into the game when he finished off a sweeping move which started in Saints’ own half. Percival found a glorious flick pass to Makinson who streaked down the south touchline before switching it to Jonny Lomax on his inside. He handed on to Joe Batchelor who had the composure to get the ball back out to Makinson to cross. Percival’s ever improving goal-kicking was on display early and Saints had squared the game at 6-6. They had fallen behind to a Gildart try after Edwin Ipape, Ben Reynolds and Lachlan Lam shifted the ball left for Gareth O’Brien to put Gildart over in the left channel.
If you are a social media user you will have noticed that there is barely a game played, a try scored or even a tackle made without mass scrutiny of the part played by the officials. In this case the heat was on Chris Kendall. Like most of his colleagues Kendall has been accused at various times by the Twitterati (Xati just isn’t going to work, Elon) of being a Saints fan and also of being part of a conspiracy to stop the champions winning. A glance at the recent record books will show you that if he is in the latter camp then he is completely incompetent. As is Paul Cullen of the Match Review Panel (MRP) if he’s trying to help Warrington win games by banning players from their upcoming opponents. Warrington had won their last two ahead of today’s golden point loss to Salford Red Devils (September 10). Prior to that they lost seven in a row and nine of the previous 10. Kendall and Cullen might get things wrong or make decisions which the woefully unqualified disagree with, but they are not corrupt.
The question Kendall had to answer regarding Makinson’s first try was whether or not Batchelor’s assist had been forward. I must admit that from my vantage point on the north side of the ground at the 30m line nearest the end where the try was scored I was a bit worried that Kendall might call it back. Yet there is an argument that it travelled backwards out of Batchelor’s hands. It was one of those which could have gone either way. Perhaps it was a bit fortunate but it was by no means a scandal.
If there is anything to beef with Kendall about it is his interpretation of what constituted interference at the ruck. And even then only in the context of what we have seen in other games so far this term. He went a little bit rogue in allowing both sides to lie on for longer than is normally permitted these days. As a result the ruck was often slow but I don’t necessarily subscribe to the view that a slow ruck makes for an inferior spectacle. On the contrary, it was quite refreshing to see both teams try to come up with something different from the pass averse shuttle rugby we see so often when the play-the-ball is quick. In those circumstances we very often see one team dominate and the game becomes uncompetitive. Especially in the era of set restarts which take all of the petrol out of the tank of the defending team.
On this evidence a slower ruck helped the spectacle. Which means that in tweaking how he would normally referee the game Kendall was being inconsistent with what we have seen from him and others previously. But all fans want is consistency, right? Well, not me if contests like this one are what you get when referees deviate from the norm.
Despite the excitement of the first Makinson try there were still issues with the attack, particularly in the first half. One-time Saint and now Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin talks an increasing amount of arsewash compared with his early BBC days - back before he was auditioning to take the James Cordon route into hosting his own chat show stateside - but I thought he made a pretty solid point during the TV coverage when I watched it back the next day.
He suggested Saints are often too patient with their attack, focusing only on getting through the set without making errors. As we saw during the coaching tenure of Keiron Cunningham that will only get you so far. Usually to an endless stream of goal-line dropouts. If Matty Smith ever writes an autobiography the chapter on his spell at Saints under Cunningham should be entitled Playing For Dropouts.
At some point you have to do something which challenges the defence. Percival did that for Makinson’s opener but it is still far too common for Saints to rely on Jonny Lomax or Jack Welsby to conjure up a piece of individual skill. That happens enough to get Saints through most games especially with what is still an excellent defensive unit (the joint best in the division alongside Wigan’s). But will it be enough to separate us from Wigan, Catalans or even this Leigh side in a big playoff game in the coming weeks? The jury will return…
All of which makes contributions like Percival’s deft flick to Makinson vital. His imagination had brought about Saints’ only try of the first half but shortly after he could have left his side in a bind. As the hits were piling up - encouraged by a loud element of the crowd who were relishing the extra physicality on show - the Saints centre caught Leigh prop Tom Amone high. This sparked a bit of a coming together of players on both sides. They weren’t going to need much of an excuse given the recent history of the fixture and the crackling atmosphere emanating from the stands.
Kendall acknowledged the high shot but made a point of explaining that he had given the penalty against Saints for an offside immediately prior to the tackle. He then summoned both captains to let them know that any more meetings of minds after the whistle would not be tolerated. He didn’t speak to Percival about the offending challenge and he didn’t sit him down for 10 minutes. For which the Saints man can maybe consider himself a little fortunate. This was definitely Kendall in lenient mode. Quite what the MRP will make of that decision on Monday remains to be seen. This is the bit where someone points out that Saints are playing at Warrington next week.
The work of the MRP may also be of interest to James Bell this week. A couple of minutes after Percival’s boundary-pushing lazy arm Bell put a fearful shot on Amone which brought the house down and has remained the talk of the people who witnessed it live all weekend. It seemed like the Scotland international had been fired out of a cannon when he hurtled into the Leopards front rower. Kendall saw nothing wrong with it but as we know that is no real indicator of what the MRP will make of it. From my point of view both inside the ground and on TV it seemed like mostly shoulder but not late and with no head contact. Under the current interpretations a penalty would probably have been justified but that doesn’t mean you have to agree with the rules. I have no real issue with shoulder charges away from the head. Indeed, their loss from the modern game is one of the few physical aspects of it which I feel is rightly lamented.
Ten minutes into the second half Saints regained the lead. Again it was Makinson putting the points on the board, Gareth O’Brien shelled a bog standard Lewis Dodd bomb inside his own 20m line. James Roby - who had provided much of what attacking spark there had been from Saints in the opening half - was in the right place to capitalise as he collected the loose ball and gave Makinson a clear run to the line. It was checked for offside at the kick, for Roby’s pick up and for Makinson’s grounding and was awarded by the video referee. There was evidence that Makinson had grounded the ball short initially but there was no promotion of the arm after that by Makinson as his momentum saw him slide over. Another impressive Percival conversion opened up a six-point advantage at 12-6.
When Saints extended that lead it suggested that we would be denied any real drama. Or spared it depending on your state of mind whenever Saints get mixed up in a close finish. Lomax had been enduring one of his more testing nights until in the 57th minute he showed his class. The man who turned 33 four days earlier received a pass from Dodd on the left, faked to Davies and Jon Bennison on his outside before serenely gliding over for his 10th four-pointer of the season. That class I mentioned is permanent.
Percival missed his conversion for the first time on the night - still a little work to do there perhaps. I did say he was improving, not perfect - but a 10-point lead at that stage looked handy. For all their endeavour the Leopards hadn’t been creating much beyond Gildart’s opening score. They had been hanging in there throughout the first half, kept in the game by the limitations of the home side’s attack. It seemed unlikely that they would score another 10 points in the final quarter of the game. And they didn’t as it turned out. But they came awfully close.
Within six minutes of Lomax’s effort Lam’s men had cut the deficit to four, ipape was the architect, beating both Moses Mbye and Knowles before moving it on to Robbie Mulhern for the finish. The conversion was fairly straightforward for Reynolds and suddenly it was 16-12 with over 15 minutes still to play.
More controversy followed. The video referee was called on again when Davies dabbed the ball into the Leopards’ in-goal area but collided with Zak Hardaker as he tried to follow it up and touch down. Kendall sent the decision up as no try but wanted confirmation of whether it was firstly an obstruction by the former Wigan man and secondly - if it was - would Davies have scored the try without the contact. We didn’t get as far as hearing the video referee’s thoughts on whether Davies would have got there. Instead he ruled that Hardaker had merely stood his ground and was unable to get out of Davies’ way as he chased through.
It would have been difficult to award the penalty try. There was a very short distance between Davies and Hardaker as the ball left the Saints centre’s foot. That left too much guesswork in assessing his chances of getting to it and effecting the grounding. Yet Saints might be entitled to feel a little bit aggrieved to see the game restart with a Leigh tap on their own 20 and a seven-tackle set. Hardaker’s feet were planted but there seemed to be just the slight whiff of a movement of his shoulder towards the path Davies was about to take. Who among us would be surprised to learn that Hardaker knew what he was doing? But again, it was just one of a number of marginal decisions which could have gone either way and which have to be made.
Leigh remained alive, then. And not only that but it seemed that they had hauled themselves back level with a conversion attempt to come when Tom Briscoe picked up a loose ball and strode away from the chaos to touch down. Bell - who had hitherto been excellent particularly in defence - lost possession in contact. As it broke to Knowles he was allowed to play on with the drop from Bell having been ruled to have travelled backwards. Knowles shifted it out to Dodd who found Sione Mata’utia. His pass to Davies was a little off target and ended up on the ground where Briscoe scooped it up and galloped away from a Saints team all facing upstream.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Kendall had spotted something many in the ground had not. Namely, that Knowles’ pass to Dodd had been touched forward in flight by Joe Mellor. The replay left little doubt and the try was chalked off. Sighs of relief all around. The question of whether Bell had lost the ball forward originally remained. The awkward elephant in the room. From facing the prospect of standing behind their own posts waiting for a Reynolds conversion which would have given Saints about seven minutes to save themselves, they instead avoided that and also found themselves in possession.
If the mood of those of a Saints persuasion swung wildly in those moments it was nothing compared to what Briscoe was about to experience. Barely two minutes after celebrating in front of the Leigh fans at the eastern end of the ground he found himself the loneliest man around in the western end. On Leigh’s next set from the kickoff the ex-Leeds winger was trying to help his side get down the other end for another shot at the game tying - potentially winning - score when he succumbed to his fatigue. Standing up wearily to play the ball a staggering Briscoe lost control of it, gifting Saints possession just a few metres from the Leigh line and leaving him to write the book on going from hero to zero in the metaphorical blink of an eye.
Saints took full advantage. Again Bell was involved and again his contribution was somewhat accidental. The ex-Leigh man lost the ball close to his old club’s line but again was adjudged to have lost it backwards out of the tackle. Fortunately, Batchelor was on hand to pick up the scraps and stroll over to settle the argument. It was checked upstairs again to see if it was knocked forward by Bell or even stripped by one of the defenders. Yet none of it mattered given that this time it seemed fairly conclusive that the ball had gone backwards when it was separated from the Saints loose forward’s grasp. Percival added his third conversion to restore the 10-point lead Saints had held less than 15 minutes earlier. As you were, only the journey had gone around the houses in a fraught, manic last leg.
A 10-point win has kept Saints level on points with both Wigan and Catalans but it may also have gone a long way to establishing a genuine competitive rivalry with the Leopards. It is possible these teams will meet again in the playoffs but even if they don’t the three meetings we have seen between them in 2023 have seen battle lines drawn. Leigh have two victories to one in their favour but the epic trilogy has thrown up an aggregate score of 44-44.
Mata’utia- celebrating his new deal to the end of 2024 at least - has been Saints’ most effective forward of late, stepping up to pick up the workload which can’t be completed by absent friends. He did so again here, leading Saints with 180 metres gained. The only other Saints forward to break 100 metres was Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook. He ended up with 102, around a quarter of which were made during a thrilling passage at the end of the first half when he took Bell’s pass all the way to within a few metres of the Leigh line only for the Leopards defenders to hold him down long enough for the hooter to sound before he could get the ball back in play.
There were a couple of notable contributions from the backs as Welsby rattled off 131 metres and Makinson added 100 to his two tries. Not a single Leigh player reached 100 which says everything you need it to about the strength of Saints’ defence in such a tight match. Matty Lees was his usual industrious self in that area with 35 tackles while Batchelor came up with 31. As a consequence of allowing Saints to dominate them territorially early on the Leopards needed Mulhern to make 44 tackles, Davis 32 and Ipape 30.
We are well and truly at the sharp end now, at least as far as the regular season is concerned. Just a trip to Warrington and a home date with Hull FC remain on the schedule before playoff time. Wigan’s shellacking of Leeds hasn’t done Saints any favours. Wellens’ side are highly unlikely to overhaul the Matty Peet Buffet Boys on points difference. Theirs is 99 better than that of the world champions. The Warriors have Castleford at home next before a trip to Leigh. The Tigers appear to have made their escape from relegation after beating Hull FC this weekend but it could still go a bit Daniel Khalife if Wakefield can win against both Leigh and Hull KR. Nah. Me neither.
Saints are only 13 points behind Catalans on the for and against ledger but Steve McNamara’s side get to host Leeds next. Maybe we can expect more help from Salford in the final week of the regular season, especially if Paul Rowley’s men still need something from that game to make the top six. Yet all the signs are that Saints will need one of Wigan or Catalans to lose one of their remaining two in order to sneak into the top two or even win the League Leaders Shield.
Saints will go to Warrington another forward down as Delaney failed an HIA during this seventh consecutive league win. With Walmsley, Paasi and Jake Wingfield already out the prop forward cupboard is becoming ever more bare. McCarthy-Scarsbrook - a man who wouldn’t fit in many cupboards and wouldn’t keep quiet about it if he did - may have to move up to the starting line-up one last time before his expected retirement. Meanwhile it is to be hoped that Norman has recovered from his own concussion issues sufficiently to make the bench.
Wire will be desperate. But then it has been fair to describe them as desperate in one way or another since Tesco started selling Easter eggs.
Saints: Welsby, Makinson, Percival, Davies, Bennison, Lomax, Dodd, Knowles, Roby, Lees, Mata’utia, Batchelor, Bell. Interchanges: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Royle, Mbye, Delaney.
Leigh: O’Brien, Briscoe, Chamberlain, Hardaker, Gildart, Reynolds, Lam, Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, O’Donnell, Hughes, Davis. Interchanges: Mellor, Nakubuwai, Halton, Wardle.
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