In a surprising turn of events it transpires that Wigan are not the all-conquering, invincible immovable objects of their own delusions. This was proven in the traditional Easter skirmish as Saints got home by a score of 12-4 on Good Friday (March 29).
Matty Peet’s side suffered a first defeat in16 league matches as late tries from Tommy Makinson and Konrad Hurrell upset the champions’ pie trolley apple cart. The Warriors have beaten everyone during that run except Saints, and their defeat to Paul Wellens' side saw them overtaken at the top of the table by the red vee. Both sides have lost one league game so far in 2024 but Saints have played a game more due to Wigan's involvement in the World Club Challenge.
Saints went into this game without James Bell. The back rower had been handed a one game suspension for an alleged hip drop during last week's Challenge Cup victory over Leeds Rhinos. Yet there was better news for Wellens with the return of Makinson who missed both Leeds clashes after getting injured in the warm-up for the first one on March 15.
Mark Percival was also available again after serving a two-match suspension following his red card in Saints' home defeat by Salford on March 8. Wellens kept faith in Jon Bennison on the wing which meant no place in the 17 for former Parramatta Eel Waqa Blake. Lewis Dodd returned from a groin problem which forced him to miss the cup meeting with the Rhinos a week ago so Moses Mbye - who had stood in for him at halfback on that occasion - reverted to a spot on the bench.
Despite the loss of Bell it was a strong looking Saints pack. So much so that with Sione Mata'utia, Jake Wingfield, Joe Batchelor and Mbye on the bench there was no place in the 17 for George Delaney. The 20 year-old missed out for the first time since last season's playoff win over Warrington at the end of September.
Peet selected the same starting 13 which had somewhat fortuitously beaten Salford Red Devils in their last Super League outing but made two changes on the bench. Former Huddersfield and Leeds hooker Kruise Leeming came into the 17 alongside 19-year old forward Junior Nsemba. Harvie Hill and Tom Forber were the pair to miss out.
Saints had an early escape when the normally reliable Bennison made a hash of a towering bomb from Harry Smith. That would have set Wigan up with good field position deep inside the Saints half but referee Chris Kendall ruled that the chasers had been in front of the kicker.
The home side's first chance came when Morgan Knowles hit Alex Walmsley at the line which allowed the England prop to find a sensational offload to Dodd. The Saints half scampered towards the south east corner but was run down by Warriors fullback Jai Field. There was nothing wrong with Dodd's effort but given the identity of the Wigan defender in pursuit it might have been more prudent to cut back inside. Very few Super League players win a straight race with Field. Regardless, Dodd pinned back his ears but his attempt to throw the ball back into play as Field made a great cover tackle only resulted in it rolling out of play.
Having created that opportunity Walmsley was next to go close. Saints had been given a couple of repeat sets thanks to the Wigan defenders' inability to get off the tackled player quickly enough for Kendall’s liking. That set Saints up a few metres from the line but Walmsley lost possession in trying to take the shortest route to the try line.
Daryl Clarke was next to look likely to score, bursting out of dummy half and knocking off several Wigan defenders before being halted by Field 25 metres out. Yet the scoreline remained blank until the visitors conceded a penalty within kicking range. Dodd put up another of his overly familiar skyscrapers which was spilled forwards by the overworked Field.
Kaide Ellis covered it up for Wigan before any Saint could lay hands on it. Unfortunately for Wigan, Ellis had been in front of Field when the fullback fluffed the catch and was therefore offside. Saints elected to take the shot at goal and the returning Percival slotted over the first two points of the game.
It had been intense if not exactly loaded with incident to that point, but things were about to get somewhat livelier. Firstly Matty Lees crunched into ex-Saint Luke Thompson with what would at one time have been deemed a textbook bell ringer. Yet these days it is frowned upon if there is head contact, accidental or otherwise.
Lees was not punished by Kendall at the time. The referee didn't even give a penalty. Yet the Match Review Panel (MRP) have seen fit to give the Saints prop a two-match ban as a result of the incident. He will now miss the trip to Perpignan to face Catalans Dragons this weekend (April 6) and the Challenge Cup quarter-final at home to Warrington on April 14.
After being checked out by the medical staff Thompson carried on playing for several more minutes before finally submitting to a head injury assessment (HIA). He subsequently passed that examination, allowing him to return to the fray. Strong Chris Hill vibes from the two-time Grand Final winner who was deservedly booed every time he went near the ball, which to be fair to him was often and pretty effectlively.
Booing isn’t to everyone’s tastes. After all, grown adults sitting or standing around shouting the word ‘boo’ at another grown adult does have a touch of the absurd about it. But there are few legal ways for fans to express their displeasure at a former favourite joining an unpopular rival.
We know all the arguments about short careers in a professional sport but if you make that choice - particularly when it is perceived that you don’t need the money and particularity after you have been the only one of the squad to refuse a pay cut during the pandemic and instead forced a move to the NRL - then you should be prepared to cop a bit of push back from the fans you leave behind.
There wasn't really time to think about Lees’ potential ban and Thompson’s pieces of silver at this point. On the very next play things really started to go off. Tyler Dupree took the next carry after the Lees/Thompson clash and did so with an elbow raised in the direction of Lees, who was again involved defensively.
It looked for all the world like Dupree had made direct contact with the head of Lees with his Fozzard-esque 'bumper' technique. Several television viewings haven't convinced me of it, but the general consensus is that Dupree initially made contact with the chest of Lees rather than the head. This meant that he was only issued with a yellow card when video referee Ben Thaler took another look.
This might be one of those cases where I just don't like the rule rather than the decision being an incorrect one. But for me if you go into contact with the ball with your elbow raised that high and with the intention of using it to scatter whatever comes into your path then that is intent to endanger an opponent and should be a red card.
How can the authorities barf on about player welfare and future proofing the game, worrying about whether or not insurance companies will deal with us if we don't come down hard on foul play, and then let this kind of chicanery off with just a 10-minute spell in the sin-bin? What is more, although Dupree has picked up a one-match ban from the MRP this week it is for a different incident. They deemed that there was no case to answer with this one.
All of which beggars belief. The Saints players certainly thought there should be sterner repercussions on Dupree as several of them ran in and a bit of a melee ensued before the game could restart. Watching it back on television you will see that Sky Sports pundits and former Good Friday derby day protagonists Jon Wilkin and Sam Tomkins thought that a yellow card for Dupree was the right decision. I'd suggest a rule change in that case but as we have seen with John Asiata at Leigh you can change whatever rules you like, it doesn't mean that new interpretations will actually be enforced.
After all of that everybody needed to calm down. But Jack Welsby didn't get the memo soon after when he endeavoured to deal with a low kick towards the in-goal from Smith. He hauled it in well enough but then - realising that he was soon to be acquainted with the fans on the first row - he threw the ball back towards Percival. The centre got a hand to it and had a bit of a juggle but was eventually left floundering as the ball hit the deck. Thankfully Saints iron curtain of a defence repelled the ensuing Wigan raid and the lead remained in tact.
Dodd almost joined Dupree on the sidelines when he got into a bit of a tangle with Field. The Wigan fullback had gathered in a low kick near his own line and sped past a couple of would be defenders before he was halted by Dodd in a manner which had nothing to do with the halfback's arms or hands.
You wouldn't call it a deliberate trip - and Kendall didn't hence Dodd stayed on the field - but it was more by good luck than good judgement that the Saints man survived without punishment. There was a lack of intent on his part but it was a clumsy manoeuvre of the type for which cards are very common at the moment.
Field should also have faced some sort of consequences for his part in that little coming together. Clearly feeling that Dodd had deliberately upended him the Wigan man gestured to Kendall with his palms open to indicate 10 minutes in the sin bin. The rugby league equivalent of waving the imaginary yellow card which is so prevalent in football. It's one of the things we don't need to be borrowing from the round ball game and is highly unsavoury.
Kendall let Field know what he thought of it but didn't go as far as to take any real action on it. I once saw Jonny Lomax do something similar some years ago and this column was typically scathing about it. So if there is a message from That Saints Blog to rugby league players thinking of making a habit of this then it is very clearly that they should knock it on the head. It's grim behaviour which should be beneath them.
Considering that they had a man advantage for 10 minutes close to half-time Saints weren't exactly carving Wigan up. The best chance they created while Dupree was off the field fell to Percival, who found himself in a bit of space down the left edge of the attack. The England centre has always been one for going for it himself wherever possible rather than relying on his winger. If you want something doing, do it yourself is the Percival mantra.
It was some surprise then when he released the pass to Bennison. Ultimately it was a stinker of a pass which didn't give Bennison much chance to make anything of it. In the event he couldn't take it in at all and a promising situation vanished.
The second half began equally tightly. Leeming lost a good position when he was deemed to have lost possession in the Saints half, although the involvement of Clark was more than a tad suspicious. The Saints hooker just pulled the ball out from the grasp of Leeming, whose protests were ignored.
Yet at least Kendall was consistent on this one, disregarding claims by Konrad Hurrell that he had been dispossessed unfairly moments later. That decision was to have far greater consequences for the red vee. Saints thought they had won the resultant scrum against the head but Kendall rebuffed those claims, explaining that the scrum would have to be re-formed after the ball exited the scrum at the same point that it went in. What could have been the first scrum won against the head in a Good Friday derby since Wigan were relegated to the second division instead set up the position from which the Warriors took the lead.
When the first try of the game came along it was Bevan French - generously referred to in the post-match ramblings of Jenna Brooks as a genius - who provided the spark. He took Smith's pass on the right edge of the Wigan attack and weighted a fine kick into the Saints in-goa area.
French then ran around his marker and beat both Dodd and Welsby to the touch down. Clearly not totally sure of himself when it came to the grounding, Kendall asked for a review but sent the decision up to Thaler as a try. Thaler could find nothing wrong but that was mostly because the replay at the correct angle offered only an amateurish, out of focus shot which revealed very little. Certainly it was not possible to pick up any separation between French's fingers and the ball.
The best angle was probably from the side, one not dissimilar to the one I had when watching it live from inside the stadium. Even at full speed it didn't look right. Let's just say there was a slight whiff of the stand-off having bounced it down rather than plonking it down with controlled downward pressure. Yet with nothing conclusive to go on and forced to take into account Kendall's on field call Thaler had little choice but to award the try. Crucially, Smith could only find the upright with the conversion so Saints trailed only 4-2 at that point
When the game swung back towards Saints it was with the help of another disciplinary shit show for which The Wigan Club - to use the phrase offered without irony by Sky Sports' Kyle Amor during the commentary - are notoriously infamous.
Percival was doing Percival things, carrying the ball out from his own end and waiting for someone significantly bigger than him to shorten his career. One particular carry was halted by the shoulder of pointless Wigan grub Liam Byrne.
Now remembering that intent is now an irrelevance this was a stonewall red card. In my opinion it was not in the same league as the Dupree assault as a piece of needless violence, but there was a lot of force in Byrne's shoulder which made direct contact with Percival's head.
Meanwhile in the commentary box Amor and irritating interrupter Dave Woods were relaying to us the fact that Thaler considered the offence worthy only of a yellow card. However, when Kendall got around to having the now familiar pre-card chat with the offending player he explained that there were no mitigating factors and produced the red card.
I have to be honest and say I am not sure what the rule book says about the on field referee ignoring the advice of the video referee. I mean, if we are going to do that - and while we are at it if we are going to rely on out of focus replays to rule on groundings - we might as well do away with video replays altogether. What utopia that would be.
Whether he broke a rule or not I think Kendall came up with the right decision. And so did Wilkin and Tomkins when they were asked about it after the game. And look, if Sam Tomkins thinks a Wigan player was correctly sent off there's a good chance that said Wigan player has disembowelled someone.
If this game lacked flowing rugby due to the defensive prowess of either side it was not without talking points. Another arrived when Saints made a spectacular mess of managing their interchange situation.
Batchelor had come from the field for an HIA (as it turned out as a result of the challenge for which Dupree will now sit out Wigan's match with Leigh Leopards this week) but was passed fit to return. However, Saints did not get the former York forward back on to the field within the allotted 15 minutes of the HIA and so had to count his exit as one of their interchanges. Effectlively losing a substitution.
Quite how that was allowed to happen is a difficult question to answer but the Saints decision makers should be asking themselves exactly that this week so that it does not happen again. The ability to make that extra change can often be crucial late in the game and you can't really afford to throw the opportunity away. You might say that in the end - in this case at least - they got away with one.
Back on the field the normally conservative Saints sensed their opportunity with a man extra and began to move Wigan defenders around. Mata’utia was almost a beneficiary as the home side shifted it quickly to the left but the former Newcastle Knight lost it 30 metres out in the tackle of French and Adam Keighran.
When Saints came again Welsby couldn’t find the right ball for Makinson inside Wigan’s 20. The fullback’s pass was too far in front of the England winger for him to reel it in and was very probably forward in any case. Man advantage or not the Saints attack - which even the most myopic Saints fanatic agrees is currently lacking in pace and imagination - just couldn’t find the right play to climb back in front.
Until they finally did. It wouldn’t have been possible without the outstanding Walmsley. Taking a Knowles pass just inside the Wigan half the giant prop got rid of French, Brad O’Neill and Field as he rumbled all the way down to within 15 metres of the Wigan line.
The ball went right to Hurrell but the big centre was quickly wrapped up. Suddenly it was all on Dodd. All of the space was to his left but rather than plant a conventional bomb across the field he opted for a little lob on the short side. In a great big poke in the eye to the likes of me who accuse him of having no variety in his kicking game he found something inspirational.
The ball looped towards the Wigan try line with unerring precision where it was plucked out of the air by the advancing Makinson. He soared above Field on his way to a 196th try in Saints colours. There were definite echoes of his effort in the 2014 Grand Final against the same opponent. Violent shithousery was thwarted that night, too.
It had been confirmed that Percival would not return to action after failing his HIA. That left the goal-kicking responsibility on Lomax but the stand-off sent his conversion effort wide. With around seven minutes left Saints had wrestled back the lead but it was an achingly slender one at 6-4.
Percival will now almost certainly miss this weekend’s trip to Perpignan to face Catalans Dragons but his failed HIA raises further questions regarding the ever popular Peet. As Saints fans queue up to point out what a nice man the 39 year-old is he’s busy blaming Percival for Byrne’s red card.
Peet opines that incidents like that involving Byrne and Percival are only scrutinised when the player on the receiving end stays down. As if it’s a deliberate ploy to get an opponent into trouble and there’s no actual injury. Yet as Amor said on commentary Percival is not a player to stay down without good reason. And he’s been battered that much in his role as an auxiliary prop down the years that it’s a small wonder he ever manages to get up.
For the record, Byrne has received a four-match suspension at a tribunal.
And so to the denouement of this ultimately glorious saga. Four minutes from time Bennison found himself under pressure gathering another turf hugger of a kick deep in his own half. Not only did the winger deal with that he then set off on a 25 metre jaunt, beating French and O’Neill and only being stalled by Field.
That gave Saints some breathing space but it was yet more indiscipline which put the Warriors in real difficulty. Smith went high on Lomax and suddenly Saints were back in scoring position. Wigan just didn’t have time for this.
Peet’s men were put out of their misery when Mbye, Lomax and Welsby combined to find Hurrell. The Tongan left it late to make an impact but his crash through Jake Wardle and Field to score the 100th try of his career was pretty decisive.
Pretty decisive, but not fully. If Lomax missed the conversion then the Warriors would have a handful of seconds to execute a short restart, get the ball back and score a converted try to force golden point extra time. From a difficult angle to the right of the posts the Saints skipper nervelessly thrust the final dagger into Wigan hearts. All that was left was for Welsby to collect the restart and belt it into the south stand.
Walmsley’s 132 metres are evidence of yet another heroic display. He led all players on both sides in that category with Welsby a close second on 130. It’s testament to the quality of the Wigan defence that Knowles was the only other Saint to break 100 with 107. Saints don’t often rack up big scores due to the limitations of their attack but they usually make big metres. Not here.
It’s a similar story for Wigan for whom Abbas Miski made 120 metres, Thompson 101 and Wardle 100. Amid my disdain for his career choices I have to grudgingly accept that Thompson was one of Wigan’s best on the day.
Defensively both sides made much more of an impression. O’Neill made 54 stops for the Warriors with Ellis adding 47 and Liam Farrell 42. Thompson also reached 30.
For Saints the top tackler was Knowles with 36. Matt Whitley managed 34 in his first derby while both Sironen and Lees contributed 33. Another derby debutant - Clark - ended the day with 31 defensive efforts.
In the days since the game the talk has been of how it was by far the best in Super League so far in 2024. Certainly it’s hard to think of a performance by another top flight club this year which would have been good enough to live with let alone beat either of these sides. But excellence is not the same as entertainment. Give me the chaos of Hull’s late win over London or Salford’s self destruction against Wigan over set for set grinds like this one. It’s the tension of supporting one of the teams involved that makes it.
On the subject of supporters there is never so much as a terse word exchanged on the north stand platform from which I watch Saints matches. That’s largely because it’s an away fan free zone. This being Good Friday they had to let Wigan fans into this sacred territory with some surprisingly unsavoury results.
A female Wigan fan near me managed to be one of a party of four including two children. I’m never allowed more than one person in near me and if I ever turn up alone the steward regards me with great suspicion, like I’m Andy Pipkin from Little Britain. Anyway said woman turned somewhat sour faced as Saints began to turn things around, and managed to get into an argument with a blue bobble-hatted man a row or two in front.
I’ve no idea what he said to her in fairness but I’m sure that whacking him across the head was not the appropriate response. The stewards came over to investigate but didn’t seem to be interested in ejecting her from the stadium. That was left to Lomax whose conversion of Hurrell’s try instigated the Wigan Walk.
And so to next week, then. This tough month which has already featured two meetings with Leeds and a very intense derby is rounded off with a clash with the Dragons in their own back yard. That’s a big enough task but with Lees suspended and Percival under concussion protocols it becomes that little bit tougher. On the plus side Bell will return from suspension.
At the start of this testing month many of us would have taken three wins out of four. Yet now it feels like defeat in France would take much of the gloss off this success against the Warriors. Especially if the world champions can beat out of form Leigh in the Thursday night game to reclaim top spot. When you’re a serial winner in the hunt for trophies year on year, a big game is just followed by another one.
Yet at least we have all learned a valuable lesson from the Easter match-up. And that is that Wigan are ordinary.
Saints: Welsby, Makinson, Hurrell, Percival, Bennison, Lomax, Dodd, Walmsley, Clark, Lees, Whitley, Sironen, Knowles. Interchanges: Wingfield, Mata’utia, Mbye, Batchelor
Wigan: Field, Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall, French, Smith, Byrne, O’Neill, Thompson, Isa, Farrell, Ellis. Interchanges: Leeming, Dupree, Mago, Nsemba
Referee: Chris Kendall
Video Referee: Ben Thaler
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