Saints 16 Warrington Wolves 8 - Eliminator Review

The drive for five is still…er…alive as the defending champions held off the challenge of Warrington Wolves on Saturday (September 30).

Having missed out on a top two spot in the final regular season standings on points difference Paul Wellens’ side also had to forego the week off and instead host early season pace-setters Warrington. The Wolves had limped into the post season in sixth after a turgid second half of their campaign. For the winner the opportunity to stay on the road to Old Trafford albeit with a daunting looking trip to one of the top two in the semi-final.

Wellens set tongues wagging with his team selection. Having been named in the 21-man squad two days before the game centre Konrad Hurrell was left out on match day. Jon Bennison returned on the wing while Will Hopoate shifted inside to cover the left centre berth. Wellens has explained that Hurrell was not injured - a point backed up by his presence in the starting line-up in the following day’s Reserve Grand Final. Whispers grew of a disciplinary issue. If that was the case then my thoughts are with whichever reserves team regular lost the opportunity to play in the biggest game of their season to accommodate him.

James Bell had missed last week’s regular season finale win over Hull FC through illness but was back for this one. He had to settle for a place on the bench but it wouldn’t be long before he was thrust into the action. Alex Walmsley had already made a miraculous comeback from what had been initially reported as a season ending knee injury but was again held back on the interchange bench for this latest outing. That meant Sione Mata’utia continued at prop with Curtis Sironen partnering Joe Batchelor in the second row.

Hopoate, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and all-time record appearance maker James Roby were all playing their final home game in Saints colours. A loss would mean Roby’s mark would stay at the round figure of 550 games for the club. McCarthy-Scarsbrook was hoping to extend his tally beyond game 371. Hopoate has only managed 30 appearances across his two seasons with the red vee but may yet have a key role before moving on. 

It was a case of good news, bad news for Warrington interim head coach Gary Chambers in terms of his selection. He was able to welcome back England captain George Williams after he missed the recent meeting between these sides with a thigh problem. However, Chambers had to do without Paul Vaughan after he was banned for four games for foolishly attempting to lift Mata’utia back to his feet as the Saints man ran down the final seconds on the clock in Saints’ win at the Halliwell Jones a fortnight ago. The Wolves would miss the go-forward of Vaughan who made more metres in Super League in 2023 than anyone except Leigh Leopards’ Tom Amone and Catalans Dragons winger Tom Johnstone.

Wellens’ plans were hastily reconsidered just five minutes in. A Mark Percival break was supported by Batchelor who handed on to Tommy Makinson in space. Yet as soon as he did so the Saints back rower began hopping his way off the field clutching his hamstring. Makinson continued the movement, forcing a dropout when his kick ahead was knocked dead by Stefan Ratchford who got there ahead of Percival. But the more significant outcome was the loss of Batchelor for the rest of the game and  - if Wellens is to be believed this time - probably the rest of the playoff series. Of course Wellens has previous already this term for erroneously declaring a season ended by injury so…you know…fingers crossed. But it doesn’t look great.

That brought Bell into the fray and he almost had an immediate impact. Firstly he put Morgan Knowles through a hole big enough for the Cumbrian to go 50 metres into Wire territory before being brought down by the rather speedier Matty Ashton. Then later in the attack Bell should have had an assist to his name but his pass to Percival was put down virtually over the line by the Saints centre. 

Williams has only recently been named England skipper for the upcoming series against Tonga this autumn. He will now apparently miss the first Test after picking up a one game ban for a shoulder charge on Sione Mata’utia. Those who have been following this sport for a while will not be surprised to reflect on the fact that the disciplinary protocols allow players to use reserve fixtures to swerve suspensions from club games yet at the same time find a way to rule one of the national team’s most influential players out of what could be a tricky series. 

Williams is guilty of the offence. There was very little arm wrap and quite a degree of force in his challenge on Saints’ makeshift prop. It just astounds me that his own national governing body can see to it that he misses an international for it. Of more pressing concern to Wire was the fact that it was an error which also forced them to turn the ball back over to Saints for the penalty. They had initially won possession through Ratchford snaffling a wayward Makinson offload. 

Moments later Saints took the lead. Bell was again at the heart of it, putting Sironen through a massive hole, haring towards the Warrington line. With only Matt Dufty in any position to stop the inevitable the Aussie back rower turned it back inside for Lewis Dodd to stroll in for his second try in as many games. His eighth of a season in which a combination of his bold statements about playing in the NRL, the lingering effects of his achilles injury and possibly some conservative instructions from his coach have led us all to wonder whether he is going to be the long term answer at halfback. Yet importantly he seems to have saved the best form of his 2023 season for the most beneficial period of it. Percival’s task from in front was among the more straightforward he will face and Saints led 6-0.

Warrington had a presentable chance to respond when Ratchford found Ashton in space on the left wing, but the pacy 25 year-old managed to lose possession in the tackle of Makinson. So instead of having a conversion attempt to tie the scores the visitors soon found themselves further behind when Josh Drinkwater lifted Jack Welsby above the horizontal just short of 40 metres from the Wire line. It was arguably a yellow card offence even if those bastions of justice at the Match Review Panel (MRP) later decided it was not worthy of a charge. It did earn Saints two points as Percival stepped up to land his second goal of the afternoon. That pushed the world champions out to an 8-0 as the teams headed to the break.

A response was badly needed by Chambers’ men and they got it within two minutes of the restart. It was the combination of Drinkwater and Dufty which created the opportunity for Connor Wrench down the Warrington right. He didn’t need asking twice, cruising 50m to the Saints line and bumping off a very ordinary tackle attempt from Welsby on his way to cutting Saints’ advantage in half. It was his third try in only nine firsts team appearances in 2023 but it seemed like nobody in Warrington colours had scored a more important one to that point in the season. When Ratchford was able to convert it from the south stand touchline the game looked well and truly back on at 8-6 in favour of the hosts.

Things got even hairier for Saints when they were reduced to 12 men direct from the kickoff. Jordy Crowther attempted to run the ball away from his own end of the field but was met by two Saints defenders around 10 metres from his own line. Not satisfied that Crowther’s progress had been stopped Walmsley then joined in the defensive effort only to clumsily allow his shoulder to make contact with Crowther’s head. The Saints prop has been handed a fine by the MRP and so has avoided having his season curtailed for the second time following his recent resurrection from a John Asiata-induced knee injury. Yet he didn’t avoid the immediate wrath of referee Ben Thaler who promptly sent him for a 10-minute breather.

Some will feel the ex-Batley man was hard done by given the relatively small amount of force involved in the challenge and yet others will automatically rail against the decision because a) it was against a Saints player and b) it offends them that all head contact is now dealt with in this way given the litigious era we now live in. But that’s where we are now and for very good reasons whatever we think of the motives of those launching lawsuits against the governing body. On that basis there can be few complaints from Walmsley despite the way he trudged off wearing the confused expression of a man being asked to play a sport he hadn’t been brought up on. 

There was more costly high-shot-ery from Saints to come. When it arrived three minutes before Walmsley’s scheduled return the biggest surprise was that Roby was the culprit. The skipper caught Joe Philbin with a bit of a high grab around the ears. This one not worthy of a yellow card but careless enough to warrant a penalty which Ratchford used to lock the scores up at 8-8 with less than half an hour to play. If there was a point in this game when Wire had a little momentum and genuine belief and when Saints’ grip on the situation looked to be loosening a little then this was it. 

Yet no sooner had Walmsley re-entered the fray than Saints re-established some measure of control over proceedings once more. Williams might consider himself unfortunate to have given away another possession deep in his own territory when he got a hand to a Welsby pass intended for Sione Mata’utia but if you take that kind of gamble sometimes you lose. It doesn’t always pay to get handsy, after all. From the resultant set Jonny Lomax, Welsby and Percival created just enough space for Makinson to step inside Currie to score for the 23rd time in 2023. Conversions from wider angles seem to trouble Percival less by the week and so it proved here as he made the extra two points look routine to put Saints back up by 6 at 14-8.

It was at this point that Wellens withdrew Roby and sent Moses Mbye into the action. And so ended the home career of one of the greatest of all Saints. His final game in his home town ended with another typically industrious defensive stint. He made 37 tackles - more than any other Saint - and more than anyone on either side except Matty Nicholson. Roby is not the attacking force that he once was and if we’re being honest the time has come for him to bow out while he is still a top performer. The signs of his decline are now visible. Yet for now he still offers something in every facet of the game. It is this ability to do a bit of everything - and do it better than most others - that has marked him out as not only a legend of the club but of the sport and of sport itself. 

Someone else making an exit- albeit a more temporary one - was Warrington’s former Wigan grub Joe Bullock. With almost eerie echoes of the earlier Walmsley incident the Wire man did not make it further than the first tackle from the restart following Makinson’s try. Matty Lees surged at the visitors line only to be caught high by Bullock. And let’s be fair. Nobody wants to be caught by the Bullocks. Like his opposite number eight - Bullock was invited to sit out the next 10 minutes by Thaler. 

If you’re a Wolves fan you might look back on this as the crucial moment when the game got away. Having just gone a converted try behind this was not the time to be facing Saints’ formidable defence shorthanded. It was a pretty dim effort from Bullock but then when you’ve cut your teeth in Shaun Wane’s system of violence it’s probably more difficult to leave old habits behind. Like Walmsley, Bullock only incurred a fine from the MRP. It was a similar indiscretion though it seemed to involve significantly more force than the Saints man’s effort.

Into the last 10 minutes by now and it was the freshness of Mbye which almost created the opportunity to finish the Wolves off. He took advantage of some tiring defence to burst 50 metres from dummy half. Yet as he reached the Wire 20 metre zone and with support on either side he took longer to make up his mind than it takes a VAR official to realise that goals don’t result in free kicks inside the conceding team’s half. That allowed the Warrington defence to recover. It was a big effort from them to scramble back with a busted line but it had to go down as an opportunity missed for Saints.

They would only have to wait one minute for another one. It arrived in the form of a kickable penalty goal as Bennison was caught high by Matty Russell. Another ex-Wiganer whacking people across the head? What madness is this? The Saints winger had been just 10 metres out and although the position was a little to the left of the posts it was well within Percival’s new and improved range. He duly slotted it over to restore Saints’ two score lead at 16-8. There were still nine minutes left but it was going to take something special for Wire to get back into the contest. The sort of thing that is more commonly inflicted on Warrington rather than by Warrington.

They did create a couple of chances. Most notably when Wrench was threatening on that right edge again after Hopoate and Bell had conceded back-to-back penalties to gift Chambers’ men the field position. But at the crucial moment - when clear heads and composure were a must - Wrench attempted a flicked offload to  Russell which went behind the winger and tamely into touch. 

The very last throw of the dice came when Drinkwater chipped ahead from deep in his own quarter and earned his side a penalty when Duffy’s attempted chase was brought to an unceremonious and illegal end by Mbye. Time had expired giving Wire one untimed play. Williams hoisted high towards the left flank as deep into Saints territory as he could muster but only found Percival waiting to diffuse the bomb. 

A look across the rest of the numbers shows Man Of Steel nominee Welsby leading the way for Saints with 154 metres gained. He was closely followed by Sironen with an excellent 151-metre effort. Hopoate left his mark on his final home performance with 132 while despite his 10-minute sit down Walmsley was back among the centurions with 117. Bell’s return yielded 112 metres with Lomax adding 103 and Makinson 101. For Warrington the sole 100-metre ground gainer was Philbin with 113.

Following Roby’s defensive example for Saints were Knowles with 36 tackles, Sione Mata’utia with 33 and Sironen with 32. Behind Nicholson’s effort for Wire were a 36-tackle performance from Currie, James Harrison with 33, Crowther with 31 and Danny Walker with 30. 

The error count shows the away side looked after the ball more effectively with only nine mistakes to Saints’ 13. An 8-6 penalty count went the Wolves’ way too. These figures would suggest that although they made it difficult for themselves it was the champions who made the better of what possession and territory they had.

Warrington are a side which can burn anyone on their day but they were after all a team in free fall after an explosive start to the campaign. The difficulty level goes up a notch or two next week when the drive for five rolls into Perpignan to face the challenge of the Dragons. It will be a difficult assignment but I don’t necessarily subscribe to the view that winning there is an insurmountable hurdle because of the travelling involved. Far too many routinely write off away trips to France as if they are as unwinnable as an argument with Phil Clarke. If we’re talking about travel time it’s not much different from driving to Hull. Not that Saints fared very well there either this year.

The real obstacle here is the quality of Steve McNamara’s side. They got the better of Wellens’ men in both meetings in 2023, winning 24-12 on home soil in May and 14-12 in St Helens in July. Yet even then, only points difference separated the sides over 27 regular season rounds. There isn’t much between the two sides.

Both are only one step from Old Trafford.

Saints: Welsby, Makinson, Percival, Hopoate, Bennison, Lomax, Dodd, Sione Mata’utia, Roby, Lees, Sironen, Batchelor, Knowles. Interchanges: Bell, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Walmsley, Mbye 

Warrington Wolves: Dufty, Russell, Wrench, Ratchford, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Harrison, Walker, Kasiano, Currie, Nicholson, Crowther. Interchanges: Philbin, Bullock, Peter Mata’utia, Clark

Referee: Ben Thaler