Saints v Wigan Warriors - Preview

Of the many egg-related Easter traditions such as egg hunting, egg tapping, egg tossing and (it says here) egg dancing the annual egg chasing affair between Saints and Wigan is by far the most important. 

Excitement is building then for the latest instalment of the one true derby as Paul Wellens’ side welcome - ok tolerate the visit of - Matty Peet’s newly crowned world champion Warriors on Good Friday (March 29, kick-off 3.00pm).

Saints have been on a Rhino hunt for the last fortnight, holding Rohan Smith’s Leeds side at arms length in both league and cup without ever threatening to light up the scoreboard. Still, having secured passage through to the last eight of the Challenge Cup and added a fourth league win in five outings in 2024 it was a productive period for the red vee. 

Saints’ only defeat so far came in Round 4 of Super League when the 12 men left behind by Mark Percival’s red card couldn’t hang on to a 14-point lead at home to Salford. Meanwhile Wigan - who themselves progressed in the Challenge Cup with a routine win over Sheffield Eagles - remain the only unbeaten team in Super League so far this term.

If that seems impressive it helps that the Warriors have played a game fewer than all but Leigh Leopards due to World Club Challenge commitments. Peet’s side won that too, seeing off perennial Australian champions Penrith Panthers to take the world title previously held by Saints after their memorable win in Sydney last year. Though there really ought to be a Panorama investigation into the try awarded to Jake Wardle and the one denied the Panthers at the death. One with Liam Moore’s face silhouetted out and an actor’s voice used to deliver his explanation.

Wellens has had personnel concerns to contend with during the course of those two visits to Headingley. It all started when Tommy Makinson got injured in the warm-up ahead of the first meeting with the Rhinos, ruling him out of the second also. Percival was already suspended for both after his Salford dismissal. By the time of the second clash Lewis Dodd had joined the list of injured starters while Morgan Knowles left proceedings early with a hand injury.

Percival is now free to play and happily all of Makinson, Dodd and Knowles have been included in the boss’ 21-man squad. That suggests they have a fair chance of featuring given that the continued absence of all three would leave Wellens with only 18 players. That’s the new bare minimum since the introduction of a concussion substitute this year. Wellens is not known for wild gambling so expect at least two if not all three to play their part.

Percival’s return gives Wellens decisions to make in the back line. Jack Welsby is an automatic selection at fullback as is Percival at centre. A fully fit Makinson takes the right wing spot leaving the two left edge slots to be fought over by Konrad Hurrell, Waqa Blake and Jon Bennison. The latter was a try scorer in both wins at Leeds but may be vulnerable to Wellens’ temptation to keep Blake on the wing and pair Percival and Hurrell at centre should Makinson return.

If Dodd is fit then he starts at halfback alongside stand-off and skipper, the gritter sponsoring Jonny Lomax. If Dodd hasn’t recovered sufficiently from his groin problem then apparently the backup plan as demonstrated last week is Jack Of All Trades Moses Mbye. That scenario would leave Jake Wingfield as the man most likely to spell Daryl Clark at hooker. 

Clark will be participating in his first Saints-Wigan derby and so will be happy to have the experience of Alex Walmsley and Matty Lees around him in the front row. The ex-Warrington hooker has been sin-binned twice already in his short Saints career and will need to be mindful of his discipline as the intensity and atmosphere goes up a notch or two whenever the raiders from the other side of Billinge cross the border. 

With Percival back there should be no need for the use of back rowers in the three-quarters as we saw in both Rhinos games. Matt Whitley operated at centre in the first while in the second it was Sione Mata’utia who was asked to fill in. Whitley should now be among the contenders for a starting second row spot along with Curtis Sironen and the now restored to fitness Joe Batchelor. 

Mata’utia may revert to featuring as one of the options at prop along with Walmsley, Lees, George Delaney and Wingfield. Knowles has also looked comfortable at prop at times this season but is likely to spend more time at loose forward thanks to the suspension of James Bell. The former Toronto and Leigh man has been one of Saints’ form players in the early part of 2024 but copped a one-match ban for an alleged hip drop in the cup win at Leeds. 

The decision to ban the Saints loose forward for tackling a man from behind then failing to disintegrate so as not to land on said player’s legs was appealed but it seems Mike Rush’s card is marked following 2022’s Knowlesgate. On that occasion the Cumbrian was allowed to play in the Grand Final against Leeds despite some glaringly obvious grubbery on Salford’s Chris Atkin in the semi-final. 

Before a ball was kicked in 2024 there was a lot of talk both inside and outside Wigan about how much stronger than everyone else the Warriors would be following their recruitment drive. Their even grubbier Morgan - Smithies - left for Canberra Raiders while Kai Pearce-Paul joined Newcastle Knights. That left cap room to fill which Peet set about doing with the acquisitions of Leeds pair Sam Walters and Kruise Leeming (via a spell with Gold Coast Titans) as well as Catalans Dragons’ goal-kicking centre Adam Keighran. And of course the one which caused the most crowing on the other side of The Great Divide - the arrival of former Saint Luke Thompson after an injury plagued spell at Canterbury Bulldogs. 

All are included in Peet’s selection of 21 and will no doubt be part of the 17 which attempts to keep Wigan’s winning run going. It is now over eight months and 17 games since Wigan tasted defeat. The last team to hand it to them? Championship Wakefield who won 27-26 in a rare highlight of an otherwise dismal season which ended with relegation to the second tier. Albeit temporarily until IGM fix the awkward problem of bad results in a few months time. 

Peet was able to rest one or two for the cup win over Sheffield but will have close to a full strength team to pick from this week. Fullback Jai Field is a real difference maker with his pace alongside stand-off and reigning Steve Prescott Man Of Steel Bevan French while wingers Abbas Miski and Liam Marshall offer further threat out wide. Miski was Super League’s joint top scorer in 2023 alongside the Dragons’ Tom Johnstone with 27. He’s started a little slower this year, crossing only twice in Super League but only the Rhinos’ Ash Handley has more than the six managed by Marshall so far. 

Harry Smith is now a firm fixture in the halfback role alongside French at 6. Smith’s job is basically to get out of French’s way and - if the attack gets that far - take control of the tactical kicking game. And stay away from goal-kicking now that Keighran has arrived from Perpignan. Keighran - whose centre partnership with Wardle looks a good deal more threatening than a Toby King/Iain Thornley combo - has been successful with 13 out of 14 attempts at goal in the early stages of his Wigan career. That’s something which - given the relative chaos and inconsistency around the role in the Saints camp - should make us all feel just a tad uneasy. Sometimes a game comes down to goal-kicking and if this one does then Wigan have a clear edge. Even if that long talked about swoop for local prodigy and rah rah poster boy Owen Farrell hasn’t quite yet materialised.

To the pack now where Thompson should feature and - if there’s any justice - hear a few choice words from the Saints faithful. Here’s a bloke who practicality lives on a mountain of cash in an evil lair and yet - the story goes - forced through a move to the Bulldogs rather than take a pay cut during the pandemic induced suspension of the game in 2020. Now returned to the UK he rocks up at the home of our nearest and dearest. He could no doubt have gone anywhere else. It’s a professional sport and a short career and all that. And it’s not exactly the stuff of Sol Campbell. But don’t be surprised if a certain section of the support choose to voice their disapproval of the career path of a two-time Grand Final winner with Saints. 

With Mike Cooper and Ethan Havard out the other front row options for Peet include Tyler Dupree, Liam Byrne, Harvie Hill and Patrick Mago although loose forward Kaide Ellis is a good deal more ‘direct’ than Ellery Hanley or Andy Farrell ever were. That’s progress for you. Leeming is a quality option at hooker but may have to wait his turn to be introduced behind the latest grub off the lawn Brad O’Neill. 

Somehow 68 year-old Liam Farrell is still turning in top level performances in the back row. With Pearce-Paul gone there may be a weakness in the champions’ ranks here if they have to keep relying on the demonstrably appalling Willie Isa. Saints have back rowers who won’t make the 17 but who are an undisputed upgrade on the abominable Isa. 

The teams met twice only in 2023 which is a low number for two consistent playoff contenders in a sport that still thinks loop fixtures are innovative and cool. The last Good Friday meeting saw the Warriors get home 14-6 at their rented castle, while in June it was Saints celebrating a 34-16 success brought courtesy of try doubles for both Makinson and Welsby. Wigan’s last win at Saints in the Easter fixture was in 2016 when a Keiron Cunningham selection featuring Shannon McDonnell, Matty Dawson, Jack Owens, Lama Tasi and er…Luke Thompson went down 24-16.

There has been a fair amount of jockeying among the fans of both sides for the position of underdogs. Both seem to want to employ the defence mechanism of low expectations. In Wigan’s case this is a late development. As the date has drawn nearer their hubris has collided with the notion that actually they’re up against that lot that won four Grand Finals in a row and who - when all is said and done - are still pretty handy in their own pace-deficient but defensively solid sort of way.

Indeed the stats say that what we have here is the league’s best attack in Wigan (36 points per game) against its best defence in Saints (a fairly ludicrous eight points per game against). It’s possibly a question of which of those two will win out, perhaps complicated by the very real possibility that one or more players will receive yellow or red cards given the new interpretations on foul play. 

It might be closer than a lot of our Wigan fans like to think, but I can’t help but worry about goal-kicking. 

Squads;

Saints;

1. Jack Welsby, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Waqa Blake, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Jon Bennsion, 6. Jonny Lomax, 7. Lewis Dodd, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. Daryl Clark, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Sione Mata’utia, 12. Joe Batchelor, 13. Morgan Knowles, 14. Moses Mbye, 16. Curtis Sironen, 18. Jake Wingfield, 19. Matt Whitley, 20. George Delaney, 21. Ben Davies, 22. Sam Royle, 23. Konrad Hurrell.

Wigan Warriors;

1. Jai Field 2. Abbas Miski 3. Adam Keighran 4. Jake Wardle 5. Liam Marshall 6. Bevan French 7. Harry Smith 9. Brad O’Neill 10. Liam Byrne. 11. Willie Isa 12. Liam Farrell 13. Kaide Ellis 15. Patrick Mago 16. Luke Thompson 17. Kruise Leeming 19. Tyler Dupree 20. Harvie Hill 21. Junior Nsemba 23. Ryan Hampshire 24. Tiaki Chan 26. Zach Eckersley

Referee: Chris Kendall 

Leeds Rhinos 6 Saints 20 - Challenge Cup Review

Saints will be among the last eight contenders for Challenge Cup glory after a second win in as many weeks against Leeds Rhinos at Headingley. 

It was arguably the biggest game of 2024 so far given the knockout nature of it. Yet if anything it was slightly more comfortable than the 18-8 success seven days previously as Rohan Smith’s side again led early before falling in the kind of heap normally reserved for the England batting order.

Already without the injured Tommy Makinson and the suspended Mark Percival there was more bad news prior to kick-off for the visitors when halfback Lewis Dodd was ruled out with a groin problem. That meant Moses Mbye - hitherto the stand-in for Daryl Clark at hooker - had to move into the halves alongside skipper Jonny Lomax. 

On Saints’ last visit Head Coach Paul Wellens filled the Percival shaped hole at centre with former Catalans Dragons back rower Matt Whitley in preference to Ben Davies. This week Davies discovered that not only is he behind Whitley in the pecking order for a place in the three-quarters but he’s also behind Sione Mata’utia. The former Newcastle Knight - who has been playing a lot of his rugby at prop to this point in 2024 - was now being asked to be one of the main creative forces on the edges. It wasn’t quite the equivalent of Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook at centre during some of the darker days of the Keiron Cunningham era but nor was it a particularly inspiring selection.

There was more logic in bringing in Curtis Sironen from the start in place of Joe Batchelor. Sironen missed the win over the Rhinos last week with back spasms but was fit enough to return. That gave Wellens a chance to use Batchelor - who had been out all season until last week - a little more sparingly from the bench. 

Leeds welcomed back former Melbourne and Sydney Roosters centre Paul Momirowski from a shoulder injury. Smith promptly stuck him out on the wing in place of Luis Roberts, meaning Rhyse Martin continued at centre alongside Harry Newman. Up front Sam Lisone was free from suspension so took a place on the bench behind starting props Mikolaj Oledzki and Justin Sangare. Otherwise it was as you were from the league clash with former Saint James Bentley fit to start despite being sawn in half like Debbie McGee by Mata’utia in the last meeting.

Neither team started in particularly impressive fashion. Saints lost their best chance of the opening 10 minutes when Alex Walmsley spilled possession at the play-the-ball close to the Rhinos line. Meanwhile former Huddersfield Giants disaster Matt Frawley managed to hit an unsuspecting Oledzki with a pass on halfway putting paid to the home side’s first promising raid.

Another mental mistake led to the first points shortly after. Bentley was guilty of stripping the ball away from Lomax in a two-man tackle in a very kickable position. Lomax - who in the absence of all of Percival, Makinson and Dodd was the last man standing as far as goal-kicking was concerned - slotted it over and Saints led 2-0.

In short order after that he was able to double Saints’ lead. Andy Ackers lifted Matty Lees above a horizontal position in trying to bring the Saints prop to the ground. Despite the need to deter players from this sort of chicanery lest we get sued out of existence by Nick Fozzard’s lawyers - more on which later - Ackers’ tackle did not attract the attention of the Match Review Panel (MRP). But hey! Wait till you see what did! Ackers’ only punishment was having to watch Lomax push Saints out to a 4-0 lead inside the first 15 minutes.

Leeds started to huff and indeed puff. First Newman had to be wrestled into touch by Mata’utia and Waqa Blake 15 metres from the Saints line before Frawley again displayed some of that Giants form with what is known locally to him as an absolute bludger of a pass. Martin was the intended recipient but couldn’t take it as another attack fizzled out. 

When Leeds did take the lead it was literally against the run of play. Saints had been pressing for a score themselves when Lomax’s attempted long ball to the left edge was snaffled by Newman. The England centre is a hard man to catch even if he is a very easy man to annoy. When all his would be pursuers start the chase facing in the opposite direction it’s never going to be much of a race. The BBC were so unsurprised by the outcome that they found time to focus on the Rhinos fans enjoying what would be the highlight of their evening rather than on the business of Newman dotting the ball down. Replays confirmed to confused viewers that he had, and that he’d left Martin with a simple conversion to put Leeds into a 6-4 lead.

If things had taken a turn for the worse at that point there was further adversity to come. Morgan Knowles left the scene with what Wellens has described as a hand injury. The Wales and England international (that’s rugby league, folks) has not been ruled out of the Good Friday derby yet and will be monitored this week. His exit brought George Delaney into the action and gave free rein to James Bell at the loose forward position.

Frawley’s quest to help Saints out continued five minutes before half-time when he employed nefarious means to stop Sironen scoring a try on his return. The ex-Manly back rower was all but over the line when Leeds’ most bewildering offseason signing ripped the ball away with a teammate in attendance. That looked like giving Lomax a simple opportunity to level the scores but as has often been the case with Saints goal-kickers since Lachlan Coote left the club the chance was glaringly spurned. 

Just when it looked like Saints might go in to the break behind they struck a decisive blow. It seemed like the red vee had spent a lot of the first half in the Rhinos’ 20 metre area without reward so it was some relief when Clark finally made some pressure count. Scooting out of dummy half he made Oledzki, Ackers and Jarrod O’Connor miss on his way to his second try for Saints in all competitions. He’d opened his account in the opening night stroll over London Broncos but this one felt a little more key to the outcome even at the time with 40 minutes still to play. Lomax vanquished the memory of his miss from just moments before to kick his third goal of the night and send Saints in for some Wellens wisdom with a 10-6 lead.

It had absolutely no bearing on the outcome but there was a strange moment early in the second half that is worthy of a mention. If only so one of you can explain it to me. Saints had been awarded a penalty near their own line when Momirowski and Newman pushed the already tackled Waqa The Winger into touch. 

I know. That works better if you say it rather than just writing it. And better still if he were actually a winger and not a centre being banished to the flanks to spare Wellens from having to pick Tee Ritson. But that’s the coach’s decision so @ him about it, not me. 

Back to Waqa and that penalty, then. Mbye - who had taken over most of the tactical and territorial kicking following his emergency flit to the halves - just dabbed the ball into touch only a metre or two from the mark given to him by referee Chris Kendall. That left Saints still having to bring the ball out from around five metres from their own try line. Was this purely because he was fearful of missing touch by going long with such a narrow angle given where the offence occured? Or was there some other brilliant strategy at work which I have managed to miss despite two complete viewings of the full 80 minutes? Though to be fair I was a little bit tipsy during the live broadcast. 

Jon Bennison has copped a lot of flak in recent weeks. Demonstrably not a winger but playing on the wing because that’s what he’s been told to do for the team, Bennison has become the scapegoat for the torturous lack of pace in this side. And while he’s no Usain Bolt he was about to make his mark on this one on what NFL aficionados call ‘both sides of the ball. Firstly he made an important defensive play when he knocked down a pass by Martin that would otherwise have hit Newman in space. Potentially that’s a try saver. 

Before he could make his mark in an attacking sense something fairly predictable happened. All Hell broke loose around Bentley. For once he was not the main aggressor. His role had been to try - and ultimately fail - to get on the end of a Momirowski kick after he had sprinted down the right hand touchline, weighed up his options and plumped for the idea of kicking ahead for the angriest back rower since Ryan Bailey stood on a nail in his garden shed. 

Bentley’s attempts to gather the kick were scuppered by the as yet and most unusually unmentioned Jack Welsby who effected a perfectly timed tackle. This really upset Tom Holroyd who began pushing Welsby towards and over the sideline and into the advertising boards. Seeing this, Clark saw fit to defend his fullback by exacting a kind of instant advertising board revenge on Holroyd. Due to the apathy of the broadcaster this match was only shown on the iPlayer and did not have the benefit or curse that is the video referee. So after some prolonged muttering with his touch judges Kendall dispatched both Holroyd and Clark to the sin bin. A second yellow card of his embryonic Saints career for Clark to go with those two tries since his move from Wolf Hall. Discipline problems? Saints? 

Anyway it could all have been a cunning method of creating more space on the field. God knows that Saints weren’t finding too much of it with 13 on 13. Within a few minutes of the departures of Holroyd and Clark Wellens’ side went over for their second try of the night, bringing us seamlessly back around to Bennison.

Batchelor was into the fray by now and it was his kick which ricocheted off a Leeds defender and into the arms of Mbye. Leeds defenders stood around more in hope than expectation of a knock-on against Batchelor. As they hesitated Mbye quickly fed Konrad Hurrell who moved the ball on to Bennison to go over in the right corner. In five appearances this season he now has three tries. He’s not the answer on the wing but he’ll never let anyone down. He’s a symptom of a wilful abandonment of pace and flair in favour of the grind. He’s not the problem. Lomax produced a clutch touchline conversion to open the gap to 10 points at 16-6. 

Leeds continued to have more problems of their own than solutions. They blew an increasingly rare second half opportunity when Lachie Miller joined the attacking line only to find the sideline on halfway with his attempted shift towards Martin and a virtually anonymous Ash Handley. The error was Miller’s night in microcosm. It never really got going for him. He spent much of the reduced time that he had possession compared to last week running sideways. Threatening to threaten without ever really doing it. It was a performance which lacked the directness of his previous one, certainly in the opening half hour of the league clash. 

It wasn’t long after that debacle that Wellens thrust Walmsley back into the action for the final stages. The big prop’s impact was almost immediate. Bell put in a low kick close to the Leeds line which was touched by the hapless Frawley into Batchelor. It fell kindly for Walmsley who was as likely to be stopped as all of the boring moaning on social media about Sharon Shortle, the BBC’s commentator for the evening. Some of the comments made Joey Barton look like quite the feminist.

Walmsley’s try was his second of 2024 and his 51st in Saints colours since his 2013 debut. It also pretty much settled this issue against a more listless Leeds than had faced Saints a week previously. It scarcely mattered that Lomax missed a conversion that was much easier than his most recent effort following the Bennison try.

Things could have got worse for the hosts as Miller contrived to send the restart out before it had gone the requisite 10 metres. That led to a chance for Mbye which he unfortunately butchered by grounding a perfectly presentable pass from Bell. All of which is indicative of the attacking issues that Saints still have. Yet a side which has now kept opponents scoreless in six out of 12 40-minute periods of rugby league in 2024 was always going to be too strong for a Rhinos side which arguably punched itself out in the first match between these two. Given the choice they probably would not have accepted the rematch.

Their last chance fizzled out when Brodie Croft - a man who deservedly gets even less screen time in this play than Welsby - cut through Saints very late on only to see his inside ball to Cameron Smith put down by the Edward Scissorhanded Rhinos loose forward. To be fair he was probably just knackered at that stage of proceedings,

Now any Saints fan who knows about the match day parking situation at Tesco will know that our friends from the other side of the White Wall that is Billinge are our next opponents. The representatives of their fan base on social media are somewhat drunk on their recent success. They are the Super League and World Champions after all. Even if the latter owed much to two horrendously poor crimes against video refereeing. The talk among them earlier today (Monday) was that any bad weather that might transpire on Friday will be a ‘leveller’. As if Saints are nothing but a plucky non league side facing Real Madrid. That sounds like hubris to me. 

The personnel problems Saints are currently experiencing might be driving the Wiganer’s 1980s-like arrogance to some extent. Although Percival will return for Saints there are still doubts about all of Makinson, Dodd and Knowles. Derby or not, none of them will be risked this early in the season if there is a chance of aggravating something and finding themselves missing from the side in the longer term.

As it stands today Bell will be out having been handed a one-match ban by the MRP for an alleged hip drop in this one. It’s one of those that is easy to miss, mostly because it occurs 40 times in a game without anybody noticing. Bell throws his arms around the Leeds player and then has to leave the ground momentarily before landing on the legs of the opponent as he falls. The only way to avoid this contact would have been to outlaw any sort of tackle from behind if there is already someone else making a tackle from in front. Let’s see how many trophies Wigan win if that rule ever comes in.

Regular readers will know that this column is wholly supportive of the crackdown on head contact in recent seasons and has very little sympathy with players who haven’t taken enough care to avoid clubbing an opponent across the head. Head contact has been heavily linked with degenerative brain diseases like CTE and dementia. If those looking to sue the game for negligence over protection from those conditions are successful it poses an existential threat to the entire sport in this country. We don’t have the millions of the NRL. 

But can we say that same threat exists around alleged hip drops like the one Bell has been found guilty of? The line is that the harsher penalties are in place to show insurers that we are actively making the game safer. But if you’re selling me the idea that potential insurers have looked at Bell’s tackle and decided that it carries - to use the MRP phrase - an unacceptable risk - then I’m not buying. And if it were the case there would be far more players than Bell being picked out this week and they would be handing out lengthier bans. 

The idea that there is a conspiracy against the side that have won four of the last five Super League titles is for the birds, but there does seem to be an inherent randomness to some of these verdicts we see week to week. I’m sure Saints are considering an appeal given the record of crack legal defender Mike Rush. Yet even then there is a chance that his taste for a hearing might work against us, particularly with the shambolic exoneration of Knowles before the 2022 Grand Final. If I was furious about it you can only imagine how fans of other club’s felt. Saints should tread carefully.

As I finish up for now ahead of my preview of the derby coming later in the week news has come through via a terrible, patronising radio presenter and two dart players of the draw for the Challenge Cup quarter-finals. Saints have a home tie with perennial springtime champions Warrington which - despite their habit of starting fast - doesn’t unduly concern me. No team has found as many ways to lose at Saints as Warrington over the course of the Super League era. I feel certain they will do so again. 

Wigan have been drawn away at a Castleford side that looks increasingly Championship ready, while there will be a repeat of last year’s final with Hull KR taking on Leigh Leopards. In the final tie Huddersfield Giants go to Catalans Dragons.

But all that is for another time. It’s Wigan next up at home. A rare opportunity to put the sold out signs up and an even rarer opportunity to act like the underdog and bloody the nose of a side now convinced of its own greatness despite still employing Willie Isa.

It’s going to be a close call and a tough, physical game. But a nice change from playing Leeds away nonetheless.

Leeds: Miller, Momirowski, Newman, Martin, Handley, Croft, Frawley, Oledzki, Ackers, Sangare, Bentley, McDonnell, Smith. Interchanges: Lisone, Roberts, Holroyd, O’Connor

Saints: Welsby, Bennison, Hurrell, Mata’utia, Blake, Lomax, Mbye, Walmsley, Clark, Lees, Whitley, Sironen, Knowles. Interchanges: Bell, Wingfield, Batchelor, Delaney 

Referee: Chris Kendall 

Leeds Rhinos v Saints - Challenge Cup Preview

We go again – as modern sporting types often ill-fatedly declare – as Saints return to Headingley for another tear-up with a recently wounded crash of Rhinos.  Only this time a Challenge Cup quarter-final place is on the line when the two meet on Friday night (March 22, kick-off 8.00pm).

It was a close run thing just six days ago as Paul Wellens’ side managed to overhaul an 8-0 deficit to win 18-8.  After a promising start Leeds were eventually suffocated by the red vee’s granite-like defence which pitched a fifth 40-minute shut-out in 10 halves of rugby league in 2024.  The fact that Saints have kept their opponents scoreless in 50% of the halves of rugby league they have played this season is mind boggling. It has helped enormously with their start of four wins out of the first five league outings while the Rhinos have won only three from their first five. 

Last Friday’s task was made more complicated for Wellens by the late withdrawal of Tommy Makinson with a hamstring injury.  This led to much re-shuffling of the lineup and a particularly rude awakening for Ben Davies when it became apparent that he is not even ahead of back rower Matt Whitley when it comes to the question of who should start at centre if Mark Percival cannot.  Makinson is ruled out this week nice and early, and joins the still suspended Percival on the sidelines.  

Last week’s solution was to move Waqa Blake out to the wing from centre and accommodate Whitley in the three-quarters ahead of Davies.  It’s difficult to see how that won’t happen again, unless Wellens fancies bowing to the mystifying calls from all around him to restore Tee Ritson to the side and so keep Blake at centre with Konrad Hurrell. The boss seems more likely to keep faith with Jon Bennison who was a try scorer in last week’s victory.  Hurrell might be the only one who can be certain of starting in his favoured position. If I were Davies I’d be meeting with my agent.

Questions to answer there, then.  But there are still some things which are close to a certainty in the Saints back line.  That is that Jack Welsby will start at fullback from where he can wreak the most havoc in attack, and that the in-form duo of Lewis Dodd and skipper Jonny Lomax will combine in the halves.  The latter has even started to kick goals in the absence of most of the other candidates for the role. He’s doing a better job of it so far too, popping over a couple of pearlers from the Headingley touchline last week.

Makinson’s replacement in the 21-man squad is not a back but a forward. Curtis Sironen’s absence from part one of this double header was attributed to back spasms but he has been declared fit enough for consideration this week. With Whitley likely to feature at centre and Matty Lees reestablished as the starting prop alongside Alex Walmsley and hooker Daryl Clark the choice for Wellens is of which two of Sione Mata’utia, Joe Batchelor and Sironen form the second row pairing. 

Batchelor played more minutes than he might have reasonably expected on his first appearance of the season due to the late reorganisation so it will be interesting to see if the boss backs him again from the start or else reinstates Sironen. The former Manly man had been going particularly well before the spasms, after all. Also going well is fan favourite James Bell although calls for him to start at loose forward and move former fan favourite Morgan Knowles to the front row have so far been resisted by Wellens.

Rhinos boss Rohan Smith welcomes back two key players into his initial selection. Centre Paul Momirovski missed out on a first taste of a Leeds-Saints dust up with a shoulder injury but looks set to get the opportunity this time. Prop Sam Lisone has been suspended for the last three games but is eligible again. Young back rower Leon Ruan and centre Ned McCormack are the unfortunates to miss out from last week’s 21.

All of which should see unpredictable rugby union 7s star Lachie Miller line up at fullback again. Luis Roberts will probably deputise for the scarcely seen David Fusitu’a on one wing opposite Super League’s top meat pie grabber in 2024 Ash Handley on the other. Momirowski should return to the centres alongside Harry Newman allowing Rhyse Martin to return to the pack. Brodie Croft and Matt Frawley have showed signs of a serviceable combination in the halves in the early weeks of the year and will likely get to try again. 

Lisone will join a prop rotation that also includes England international Mikolaj Oledzki as well as the slightly unreliable Justin Sangare. Tom Holroyd is the man for those with simpler front row tastes. The arrival of Andy Ackers from Salford has meant less time at acting half for Jarred ‘son of Tez’ O’Connor but the latter is versatile enough to contribute elsewhere. Unlike pops who hasn’t diversified from the expression ‘front foot’ since 2017. 

James Bentley survived being folded like a tortilla by Mata’utia late in the last meeting and will no doubt take his place in the second row alongside Martin. James Donaldson and Mikael Goudemand aren’t bad replacements to have in that area. Leeds’ back row looks as strong as anyone’s, except Saints. Cameron Smith is always an entertaining watch not least because if he’s having a stinker you can distract yourself from it by trying to count how many haircuts he has.

There are a plethora of previous Challenge Cup meetings between these two which I could bring up here as if they will have any bearing on this week’s result. They met in two Wembley finals in the 1970s, a time when the West Yorkshire club could not have conceived of one day being named after a horned beast which gorges on carrots. In the first of those finals Saints took the trophy 16-13 in 1972 thanks in part to five Kel Coslett goals, while six years later Leeds gained revenge with a 14-12 win beneath the Twin Towers. 

The last time they were paired together in the Challenge Cup it was Saints who prevailed, winning 26-18 in April 2021. Makinson scored two tries in that match as did Regan Grace, another whose pace and threat on the wing is noticeably absent these days. Saints went on to win the cup that season, ending a 13-year wait to lift the trophy when they beat Castleford Tigers 26-12. The Rhinos’ last cup success was a year prior to that when they beat Salford 17-16 at a national stadium rendered empty by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last week’s tussle is clearly a better guide to what will happen in this one. After a fast start Leeds faded badly in that one. The Saints defence overwhelmed them in the end. Finding enough points to trouble Wellens’ men is going to be Leeds’ biggest problem. If they have a spell on top again they need to capitalise more heavily than they did a week ago. Saints probably won’t need more than 14 points to see themselves through to another last eight tie. And you wouldn’t bet against them getting them. Saints by 12.

Squads;

Leeds Rhinos;

1 Lachie Miller 3 Harry Newman 4 Paul Momirovski 5 Ash Handley 6 Brodie Croft 7 Matt Frawley 8 Mikolaj Oledzki 9 Andy Ackers 10 Tom Holroyd 11 James Bentley 12 Rhyse Martin 13 Cameron Smith 14 Jarrod O'Connor 15 Sam Lisone 16 James McDonnell 17 Justin Sangare 18 Mickael Goudemand 21 Jack Sinfield 24 Luis Roberts 25 James Donaldson 29 Alfie Edgell

Saints;

1. Jack Welsby, 3. Waqa Blake, 5. Jon Bennison, 6. Jonny Lomax, 7. Lewis Dodd, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. Daryl Clark, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Sione Mata’utia, 12. Joe Batchelor, 13. Morgan Knowles, 14. Moses Mbye, 15. James Bell, 16. Curtis Sironen, 18. Jake Wingfield, 19. Matt Whitley, 20. George Delaney, 21. Ben Davies, 22. Sam Royle, 23. Konrad Hurrell, 25. Tee Ritson.

Referee: Chris Kendall