So where were we? Ah, Saints had just sleepily brushed Castleford aside 22-0 to end the month of June. Despite the ease of that success over Andy Last’s freefalling Tigers Wellens’ side had already suffered six league defeats. Yet they were still in with a decent shout of finishing if not top of the pile and defending their League Leaders Shield then at least in second to guarantee a home semi-final in the playoffs. Can a Tiger freefall? If it ever did you wouldn’t want to be in its path of descent.
July
A Wolf can definitely freefall, as evidenced by Warrington’s continuing shambolic state after being declared champions elect following a blistering start to the campaign. They would provide the first barrier to be hurdled in July. Saints were able to field an unchanged 17 from the one which saw off Castleford. Tommy Makinson, Joe Batchelor and Curtis Sironen remained the significant absentees.
Warrington had arguably more troubling personnel problems. They were so bad that Daryl Powell felt compelled to play Peter Mata’utia in the halves alongside Josh Drinkwater in the absence of George Williams. If Mata’utia has a place at Super League level – and let’s be honest there is a conversation to be had there – then it is in the centres. His move away from that slot left Greg Minikin to partner Stefan Ratchford. Gil Dudson even got a game. Surely Saints couldn’t blow this one?
They didn’t, but it was close. Mark Percival scored Saints’ first try after a picture perfect tip-on pass from Jack Welsby, that after Ratchford had opened the scoring with a penalty. Wire levelled it up through Matty Ashton before James Bell was the beneficiary of some high level Wolf-shredding by Welsby. The fullback cut through the home defence before handing on to Jonny Lomax to deliver the final ball to Saints unsung hero Bell. Unrung, maybe. Suit yourself.
Ashton grabbed his second when Welsby channelled his inner Jake Connor and threw a rather sloppy interception while trying to find Will Hopoate on the right edge, and it got worse before it got better for Saints. Warrington produced an outrageous, length of the field movement involving Ben Currie, Drinkwater and Ratchford. It was finished off by dummy-buying speedster Matt Dufty and suddenly Saints were in a bit of a hole.
Thankfully by this point in their season Warrington were excelling at offering their opponents a shovel with which to dig themselves out of any holes they may find themselves in. Jonny Lomax was next to score, carving his way through the defensive line and exchanging passes with Welsby to go in under the posts. Predictably, the fullback was involved when Saints finally went back in front to stay.
With under fifteen minutes remaining he produced a pass to Lewis Dodd, the direction of which might most kindly be described as iffy, but which was good enough to send the halfback in for the score which saw Saints sneak home 24-20. The sun shines, the birds sing, and Saints win at Warrington. Some things in life just are…
Yet another unchanged Saints 17 took on Catalans Dragons the following Thursday night in front of the TV cameras. We didn’t know it then but it would prove pivotal in deciding which of these sides would earn the top two spot and that all-important home semi-final.
A tight, scoreless first quarter was lit up by Tom Johnstone’s length of the field effort. Lomax had put an attacking lob up towards the Dragons’ line but it when it came down it did so in favour of Adam Keighran who handed on to Johnstone. It took the ex-Wakefield man a little while to hit top gear but when he did the remaining 70 metres to the Saints line were a formality. Like winning at Warrington.
A Keighran penalty stretched the visitors’ lead to 8-0 but Saints were on the board before half-time when Percival latched on to Dodd’s clever little grubber close to the line. Some uncharacteristically ropey sliding defence helped Matt Ikuvalu crash through Welsby and Dodd to slide over on his back to widen the gap to eight points once more at 14-6 but there would be no late recovery this time. After all, this wasn’t Warrington that Saints were up against.
Hopoate went close to scoring but just put a foot in touch on his way over. By the time he created the game’s final try for Dodd there were only seven minutes remaining. The conversion narrowed the gap to two points at 14-12 but that was as close as Saints would get. A seventh league defeat of the league campaign may have been a narrow one but you felt even then that it could be a potentially damaging one in the context of any top two aspirations.
A break from league matters might have been just what we needed. Or it might not. Saints headed back to Warrington for the semi-final of the Challenge Cup. This time Saints’ lucky ground was neutral territory with newly promoted, upstart playoff chasers Leigh Leopards the opponents. Despite the over-achievements of Adrian Lam’s side Saints were still heavily fancied for a return to Wembley having missed out in 2022.
It didn't quite pan out that way. Joey Lussick managed the only score of a tight first half when he burrowed over from dummy half close to the line. Yet Leigh were back in it shortly after the restart when Lachlan Lam's short ball created the space for Oliver Holmes to surge over.
Then came the first controversy of a match-up which is still causing tensions between the two clubs. It used to be such a cordial relationship, back when Leigh were rubbish. The Leopards went in front through Zak Hardaker as he was first to Lam's smart low grubber. Yet Hardaker was only first to it with the dubious help of team-mate Tom Briscoe. The winger barrelled Tee Ritson off the ball as the pair hunted it down ahead of Hardaker, who arrived late on the scene for an easy put down.
Bafflingly, video referee Marcus Griffiths repeated several times that the blatantly illegal challenge by Briscoe was a 'contest' for the ball. With nobody with the authority to correct him that was the message he sent back down to the on-field referee Chris Kendall and the try was awarded. Ben Reynolds failed with the conversion but he was soon stretching the lead after Saints' season long love affair with walloping kickers long after they have parted company with the ball reached new heights. Sione Mata'utia is the usual suspect in this regard and it was he who earned himself a yellow card once more. The two points left Saints a converted score behind.
More controversy arrived when John Asiata put two Saints players out of action for the long term with his abominable tackling style. Alex Walmsley played on after having his knee assaulted by Asiata's head-first, arms-free 'technique' but following the game he was not seen again until the final week of the Super League regular season in late September.
Even less fortunate was Agnatius Passi who has not featured since his knee was obliterated by Asiata. A return date for Passi is still not quite clear. Incredibly, despite the evidence in front of their own eyes, the game's authorities decided to allow players carte blanche to copy Asiata's violence for the rest of the season by refusing to outlaw a tackling style mid-season. These are the same authorities who - mid season - outlawed throwing the ball into a grounded defender who had not cleared the ruck quickly enough in order to earn a mean spirited penalty. Clearly that was one thing, but mindless violence could wait to be cleared up.
The champions left it late but they did give themselves a chance when Lomax feinted his way through the Leopards defence to touch down. It all came down to the conversion from Makinson with just moments remaining. He could take it into extra time. He had resumed the kicking duties after returning to the side for this one but he was unable to add the crucial extra two points leaving Wellens' side to come up just short. What was I saying about Saints always winning at Warrington?
Leigh would go on to defeat Hull KR at Wembley to win the Challenge Cup for the first time in 52 years. It might be even longer since a newly promoted side carried off that particular piece of silverware. Veteran fans feel free to put me right on that one.
For Saints there was no time to sulk. Six days later they faced the final act of what had turned out to be an epic series with Leeds Rhinos. Hurray for loop fixtures and the trilogies they throw up, Leeds v Cas notwithstanding!
Saints would face the Rhinos without Lussick though. The ex-Salford man had been the subject of speculation around his future for a number of weeks before he eventually made the move back to Parramatta Eels where he had spent the 2021 season before joining Saints. It all happened quite suddenly and it left the suspicion that Lussick and Wellens may not have been seeing eye to eye.
In his place came Moses Mbye, a much travelled operator both in terms of the number of NRL clubs on his CV - three - and the number of positions he had played during those spells with Canterbury Bulldogs, Wests Tigers and St George-Illawarra Dragons. At least the design on his shirt wouldn’t have to change much for his next move. The plan was for Mbye to come straight into Lussick’s role as a backup nine for the ageless Roby. Safe to say there were doubters. And still are.
Welsby created Saints’ first try on Mbye’s debut when he dribbled through the defensive line into the path of Hopoate but Rhys Martin got Leeds back into it from Ash Handley’s inside ball. Aidan Sezer then showed a glimpse of what Leeds must have thought they would get regularly when they signed him from Huddersfield, timing a perfect short pass to allow Sam Walters to slice through. Yet Saints were back in it again on the stroke of half-time when Hopoate delivered a suspiciously forward pass to put Ritson in at the left corner.
Just four minutes of the second half had elapsed when Welsby crashed over from Hopoate’s offload, but Leeds were back in front when rarely seen winger David Fusitu’a picked up Richie Myler’s ugly bounce pass to squeeze in at the corner.
Yet inevitably it was Welsby who settled matters. Roby and Lomax combined to give the fullback all the space he needed to race away from the Rhinos defence and seal a 22-18 win.
August
Next up for the Walmsley-less, Paasi-defficient Saints was a trip to Salford where despite choosing to dress up as Pilkington’s Recs the Red Devils raced into a 15-2 lead thanks to tries from Kallum Watkins and Ryan Brierley and a Marc Sneyd drop-goal. Matty Lees then scored one of the season’s strangest tries, picking up a ball that had been knocked loose from the grasp of Morgan Knowles and plunging over.
Tommy Makinson began the comeback as well as a personal hot streak which would see him score 12 tries in his next six games. Percival’s conversion from the touchline brought Saints to within a point before Welsby - who else? - surged through the defensive line to earn Saints a narrow three-point win at 18-15.
While everyone but Challenge Cup finalists Leigh Leopards and Hull KR took a week off for the big day at Wembley Saints and Huddersfield Giants were pressed into action to make up the league game they had missed at the start of the campaign when the red vee were in Penrith becoming world champions.
George Delaney made his third consecutive start. Ben Davies continued to deputise for Konrad Hurrell who had suffered a calf injury in the win over his old Rhinos team-mates. Makinson - who had crossed for four tries when the sides met in Newcastle - helped himself to a first half hat-trick to give Saints a healthy 20-6 advantage.
The Giants had scored through Matty English and they were able to close to within two points as both Ash Golding and Kevin Naiqama got over. But the game swung back in Saints’ favour when Joe Greenwood - once of this parish - was sent off for the use of a forearm while in possession. No doubt Giants boss Ian Watson would have deemed that a coach killer which is definitely not part of his process.
The imbalance allowed Saints to dominate to such an extent that Mata’utia produced a grubber kick on the run to set up a try for Lewis Dodd in the kind of role reversal that Tom Hanks and that kid from Vice Versa would have thought too fanciful. Wellens’ men finished off the scoring at 32-18 through another effort from Welsby, who by now was starting to look like he was playing a different sport to the rest of Super League whenever he turned on the switch.
Five days later Saints were playing hosts again - this time to a Hull KR side still reeling from its golden point loss to the Leopards at Wembley. Lachlan Lam had broken Rovers hearts and Willie Peters’ side never looked like recovering in time to trouble the world champions.
The only try of the first half was a Mata’utia effort which was among the scruffiest ever seen at the new stadium. Saints went further ahead when Percival - who had opened the scoring with a penalty - put Makinson in down the right flank.
Mbye then scored his first try as a Saint when Mikey Lewis fielded a long kick by the sideline but then coughed up possession to allow Joe Batchelor to present the new boy with a gift. Makinson’s second preceded another Percival penalty before Lewis made some amends for his earlier gaffe, kicking ahead smartly for Ethan Ryan and then supporting the winger to take a return ball and dive over. Yet it was the home side who had the last word as Lomax put Ben Davies in to round off a 28-16 win.
Milestone, anyone? The next item on the agenda was a trip to Castleford team who by this time were mired in a relegation battle with Wakefield Trinity. Percival was the man picking up the personal landmark when his opening score took him past 1,000 points for the club.
There were two more scores for Makinson while Jon Bennison notched his first four-pointer since the 22-0 win over the same opponents back at home in June. Batchelor also crossed while Makinson picked up a second before Lomax put Saints 34-0 up. Cas had the last word through former Saints Grand Final winner Jordan Turner but the gulf in class between the two sides seemed big enough for the Tigers’ top flight status to remain in real peril.
September
Avoiding cliches about there being no easy games it was nevertheless helpful that the following week saw September start with a trip to Trinity - the only team still appearing to be demonstrably worse than Castleford.
The return from suspension of Lees was timely as Morgan Knowles - who had been deputising at prop - was ruled out with a groin injury. Hurrell was back after a calf injury but immediately suffered a recurrence which would be a major contributing factor in him only being seen once more in Saints colours in 2023.
The game itself presented slightly more of a challenge than had been offered at Castleford but still raised few alarms. Hurrell created the first try for Lomax but Trinity got back into it when Matty Ashurst crossed against his old club. Makinson then grabbed the first of his brace before Roby picked up the one and only try of his final season as a professional. Bennison also got in to give Saints a healthy 20-6 cushion at the break.
Bennison then created a score for Dodd and although Lee Kershaw scored twice for Wakefield either side of Makinson’s second it was a comfortable enough 32-16 victory for Saints. It stretched the unbeaten run to six games following the Challenge Cup exit to Leigh, who just happened to be the next side due in town.
Asiata was conspicuous by his absence following his reckless conduct in the semi-final. Knowles would have ordinarily been his opposite number at 13 but although the Cumbrian returned from his injury lay-off he started at prop which pushed George Delaney back to the bench. Curtis Sironen was still out alongside longer term casualties Walmsley and Paasi.
Saints dug out the brown and sky shirt last seen at Magic Weekend for this one. Yet considering the visitors turned up in blue with black leopard print the champions were still somehow the better dressed of the two sides. Not that it helped early on as Oliver Gildart - the latest from the Wigan production line of unsuccessful NRL wannabes - scored the first try of the night. Gildart was on loan at Leigh for the back end of 2023 after having a fever dream about making it down under with Wests Tigers. He will spend 2024 with Hull KR.
Makinson had finished off a brilliant length of the field team try at Magic and perhaps the shirt had something to do with it as he repeated the trick with help from Welsby, Percival and Batchelor. The winger’s absurd scoring streak showed no signs of slowing when he got over again early in the second half. Roby had been there first to capitalise on Gareth O’Brien’s inability to diffuse a Dodd bomb and the skipper had the vision and the presence of mind to find Makinson in space out wide.
Lomax then held up a confused Leigh defence for long enough to shimmy through on the inside of Zak Hardaker, but Leigh didn’t go away. Rob Mulhern went over to reduce their arrears to 16-12 and they could have gone ahead had Joe Mellor not got the slightest fingertip to Mata’utia’s intended pass to Davies. The loose ball was pounced upon by Briscoe who took it all the way for what looked like the go ahead score before video evidence rumbled Mellor.
We’ll never know if they would have hung on, but what we do know is that as it turned out Saints scored again through Batchelor to seal the win. The back rower had the easiest of tasks in picking the ball up and falling over the line when it was ruled to have been lost backwards by Bell close to the try line.
By now it was clear that Saints would be keeping up their proud record of being the only club to reach the playoffs in every season since they were reintroduced in 1998. Yet there was still that nagging feeling that if they didn’t make it into that top two the road to Old Trafford would become a significantly steeper hill to climb. Finishing third would mean not only an extra playoff fixture that the top two need not concern themselves with, but also a semi-final away from home against either Wigan or Catalans.
All the champions could do at this stage was win their last two regular season games and hope that one of the other two would slip up before the knockout games began. To that end Saints rolled into Warrington once more, with the home side also desperate as they clung to the sixth and final place in the playoffs.
Sironen made his first appearance since early August and had an immediate impact when he took Lomax’s pass to crash over on the left. Welsby then produced a sumptuous double pump and short ball to Percival for Saints’ second try.
Daryl Clark - who will be wearing the red vee in 2024 - got Wire back into it by pinching one close to the line from dummy half and for a while the result looked in the balance. But Mbye had clearly been taking notes on Clark’s example, producing a serviceable replica as time expired to seal a 16-8 victory.
Saints’ final regular season assignment saw them host Hull FC. Despite pulling off the coup of securing the services of Grand Final winning head coach Tony Smith following his departure from city rivals Hull KR it had been another season of underachievement for the black and whites. Their playoff hopes were already in the can well before this one, leaving them with only a bit part role in deciding who would make the top two.
It would not be FC who got in Saints’ way. The hosts received a boost before kickoff as Walmsley was named in the 17, albeit on the bench. Yet considering he had been ruled out for the season after Asiatagate in July his presence was an unexpected bonus.
Percival scored the only try of the first half - not the first time Saints had struggled in the opening stages at home. Wellens’ Saints are a side who are in no hurry to rip opponents apart, reasoning instead that they have the quality to eventually wear them down. That process started when Dodd just about got to Lomax’s lob to the very edge of the in-goal area.
Hull briefly flickered as Lewis Martin finished off a length of the field movement, but when Mbye helped Lomax crash over and Knowles put Welsby in the jig looked up for FC. They found a little bit of life when Cameron Scott intercepted Welsby’s pass and went all the way despite an heroic chase from Batchelor but the Saints fullback would have the last word.
His 70-metre stroll to the line which capped the win was almost serene. Like there was never any doubt in his mind about the outcome from the moment he received the ball. The trademark celebration - kicking the ball disdainfully into the crowd - just seemed to scream ‘what else did you expect?’. Whatever else 2023 has brought it has seen Welsby arrive at a level that can now be considered truly world class.
Unfortunately for Saints they did not get the help they needed to sneak into the top two. Had a Gildart try not been controversially disallowed it might have been different for Leigh against Wigan but in the event the Warriors secured a 10-6 win which was good enough to earn them the League Leaders Shield. Meanwhile Catalans went to Salford and negotiated a tricky obstacle in winning 19-8 to take the runners-up spot.
That meant Saints had to settle for third. A reunion with Warrington just a fortnight after the last time the two met was now pencilled in. Only this time on home soil.
Saints lost Batchelor early, his hamstring succumbing to the demands of breaking into a sprint to help set Makinson free on the edge. Percival then somehow dropped the ball over the line in a fashion that would make Mark Elia blush before the deadlock was broken by Dodd. The halfback supported Sironen’s break and earned himself a fairly simple walk-in. A Percival penalty pushed the lead out to eight points.
Wire showed a bit of spirit at that point as Connor Wrench slipped out of an ordinary tackle attempt by Hopoate and then demonstrated that cover tackling isn’t the strongest part of Welsby’s game as he rounded the Saints fullback to score.
Walmsley was then sin-binned for use of the shoulder in the tackle and the scores were level when Stef Ratchford was able to add a penalty to the Wire tally. Yet they fell behind again when quick offloads by Welsby and Percival put Makinson over in the right corner. When Matty Russell was guilty of going high to stop Bennison making progress it allowed Percival to open up an eight-point lead once more at 16-8. It would prove to be enough to put Saints into a semi-final, but they’d have to travel to Perpignan for it.
October
A lot of the pre-game focus for Saints’ visit to the home of the Dragons was on veterans Roby and Sam Tomkins. Both stepped on to the field knowing that defeat would bring down the curtain on their storied careers.
Even without that factor you’d expect a semi-final to be tense. And this was no different as the opening 27 minutes passed without any need to trouble the scoreboard operator. The closest either side had come to getting off the mark was when Tom Johnstone was first to a Mitchell Pearce dab towards the in-goal. However, the winger was adjudged to have pushed Lomax as the pair scrambled to get to the loose ball. It was a fair enough decision from the video referee. As a Saints fan you couldn’t help but reflect on why a similar call had not been made on Hardaker’s try for Leigh in the cup semi-final. But yeah, we were over it.
The first points came from the boot of Adam Keighran. The Aussie was another contemplating his last run out for the Dragons having agreed to join Wigan for 2024. He was able to convert a penalty awarded when Mata’utia planted a high, pretty cheap shot on the head of Tomkins. The Saints man was lucky to stay on the field so falling two points behind but keeping a full compliment of 13 felt like a reasonable result.
It stayed that way until after the break when Saints used a ploy that we all thought - and maybe hoped - had been consigned to history when Justin Holbrook replaced Kieron Cunningham at the helm. But maybe the bog standard drop-off play was all about timing all along. On this occasion it was Welsby shuffling across the face of the defence before dishing it to Hopoate.
The Tongan - another leaving his current employers at the end of the year and who has subsequently announced his retirement- ran a perfect line to enable him to squeeze through the line and grab the first try of the game.
It remained tight, and it got even tighter when Keighran reduced Saints’ advantage to 6-4 after Mbye had caught Johnstone high. That remained the state of play as the clock ticked around to the last 10 minutes. As it had in the first half with Mata’utia, and as it had far too regularly at various points of the season, discipline was about to let Saints down.
Johnstone was at the centre of it again, cutting in from his wing to surge towards the line but being repelled by a combination of Lees, Knowles and Dodd. Lees failed to release Johnstone so both could regain their feet. He waited…and he waited…and he waited, trapping Knowles in the ruck in the process.
Referee Kendall took a dim view of Lees’ actions, dispatching him to the sin-bin. The Dragons chose to level the scores a 6-6 through Keighran’s third penalty goal but perhaps the bigger issue was that the champions would have to play the remaining eight minutes with 12 men.
With just 90 seconds left we had long since reached the point when the value of a drop-goal was the subject of massive inflation. That prospect must have been uppermost in Saints minds when Tomkins received the ball 20 metres out. It certainly was in my mind. Of course, the experienced Tomkins knew that everybody was having the same thought. He had it confirmed when the Saints defenders rushed out to him as he took possession.
So he did something else. Seeing that they had over committed, the ex-Wigan man stepped away from their line of approach, danced around Walmsley and glided over for a match-winning, heartbreaking dagger of a score.
To rub salt in the already gaping wound he embarked on his little backwards jog of celebration before he was hauled down by his team-mates. There was barely enough time for Keighran’s conversion to matter but in the interests of housekeeping and administration he landed it to give the Dragons a 12-6 victory and a ticket to Old Trafford.
It gives me no pleasure to remind you what happened to Tomkins, Keighran and company in that Grand Final against Wigan so I won’t. This is about Saints and their season after all.
The Drive For Five fell short, then. That’s a fact that some of our fan base hold Wellens responsible for and are already grappling with their jerking knees on the subject of his future. And while there were certainly some tactical issues - particularly in attack - in Wellens’ first season in charge it could also be argued that he had inherited a squad with an age profile which meant that this was always going to happen to them sooner or later.
Those who backed his appointment fully and scoffed at the comparisons with Cunningham probably owe it to the coach to wait and see what he does with the rebuild that will be necessary over the next couple of seasons. Clark and Catalans’ Matt Whitley have been added to the squad while retirees Roby and Hopoate have been joined by Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook. All of Makinson, Walmsley, Lomax, Hurrell, Sironen and Mbye are the wrong side of 30 with Percival and Bell reaching that landmark during 2024.
There is youth in the shape of Welsby and Dodd but both continue to be linked with the NRL. Delaney is a ray of hope after a great breakthrough season while Bennison looks set to develop into a dependable presence if not a superstar. Tee Ritson has been given another two years to prove his worth after a season-long loan which has so far underwhelmed. As well as the new recruits the likes of Knowles, Batchelor, Lees and Mata’utia are going to be crucial over the rebuilding period.
There’s a better chance of that period being a successful one if Saints can keep the NRL wolf from the doors of Welsby and Dodd. The latter has already announced a desire to try his luck in Australia. The only thing in his way is the regression of his own form since returning from a difficult achilles injury. Yet he’s still vital to Saints and more than good enough at Super League level. As for Welsby, we can only hope.
So that was 2023, much of which is documented on these pages on an individual game by game basis, save for those lost weeks early in the campaign when I was hallucinating. There’ll be more of that next year (the articles not the hallucinations) when things get under way again in February but don’t be surprised if That Saints Blog pops up on your Twitter or Facebook feed with something new before then should there be a seismic transfer story or other significant happening. Or just if the writing bug strikes, as it is wont to do.
Until then thanks for following in 2023 and here’s to starting a new winning streak and knocking Wigan off their temporary perch in 2024.
It could happen. And if it does, or even if it doesn’t you’ll be able to read about it here should you be so kind as to choose to do so.
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