In the end my fears were unfounded.
After last week’s humbling at Hull KR and Castleford Tigers’ creditable draw at Leigh Sports Village I feared that Friday night’s trip to the Mend-A-Hose Jungle (May 10) had been transformed from a gimme into a potentially awkward assignment. And for 40 minutes it was a little testing. But going in at only 8-4 up at halftime Saints then ran in a quite absurd 52 points in the second half as Craig Lingard’s men disintegrated.
All of which put Saints back on top of the pile until Wigan’s 48-6 win at woeful Huddersfield Giants the next day. Still, sitting second in the Super League table as the competition takes a break for the Challenge Cup semi-finals is a more than decent position to be in. Especially for a club which was in crisis a week ago.
For the Tigers the feeling is pretty much the opposite. After the optimism of last week’s close encounter with the Leopards this was their worst defeat of a mostly rancid 2024 so far. It topped the 50-8 home loss to the Giants in March and leaves them with just five points in 10th place. Another club grateful that it won’t be wins and losses which determine Super League status in 2025.
Saints were without Morgan Knowles and Matt Whitley through injury but welcomed Tommy Makinson back after he missed the trip to Rovers with chickenpox. His return would be a temporary one. Also featuring in the 17 was young prop Noah Stephens. The 19 year-old has been named in several of Head Coach Paul Wellens’ 21-man squads in 2024 and finally made the transition to the match day squad here.
Curtis Sironen came back into the starting lineup to replace Whitley while James Bell was the natural stand-in for Knowles at loose forward. Daryl Clark started at hooker with Moses Mbye reverting to the bench.
The only two changes for Castleford came on the bench were Sam Hall and Brad Martin were replaced by George Griffin and Wigan loanee Sam Eseh. Martin would still see action as 18th man as it turned out as the Tigers’ concussion issues mounted.
The early signs were good for Saints as they took the lead as early as the third minute. Lewis Dodd is often criticised for having a one dimensional kicking game but on this occasion - and many others as the night progressed - the bomb did the trick. Tex Hoy has brought much to Castleford since escaping from Hull FC and Tony Smith’s Shit List but he was culpable here. He flapped at the high ball which bounced kindly for Sione Mata’utia. The Saints man accepted the gift from his former Newcastle Knights team-mate to cross for the opening score.
As he did so he was clubbed around the head by Jacob Miller. The try had been given on the field by referee Jack Smith but referred to video referee Liam Rush. He had instructions only to check for offside from Dodd’s kick and to make sure it hadn’t gone forward off Jack Welsby in the contest in the air with Hoy. There was no mention of Miller’s head shot nor was it ever mentioned by Rush in the deliberations available to the TV audience.
It was only after the restart following Mark Percival’s missed conversion that Sky commentator Mark Wilson advised us that an eight-point try had been considered but not given because Miller’s foul was deemed a genuine attempt to make tackle. It was a desperate, arguably hopeless situation for the Castleford man but since when did intent have any influence on what constitutes a high tackle? All season long we have seen players not only penalised but collecting red and yellow cards leading to bans for high tackles with little or no intent.
It may not have been an eight-point try. But if it wasn’t then it’s because Mata’utia was still in the act of jinking inside Miller and not of touching down rather than the Castleford man’s intentions. The fact that Mata’utia eventually scored the try made giving a penalty try superfluous, so it seems that the incident was therefore ignored despite being arguably the second worst offence in a game which went on to feature two red cards. The first example of a series of behaviours from Rush that were somewhat strange.
The first of those red cards arrived 10 minutes later. Still holding their own at this stage Cas launched an attack at the Saints right edge defence which had been so brutally exposed at Hull KR. The ball was shifted out to Innes Senior via Paul McShane, Miller and Hoy. The winger appeared to ground the ball but Smith asked for guidance from Rush on whether he’d stayed in the field of play. Having established that Senior’s legs were in touch as he dived towards the corner for the put-down, our man Rushie advised us that he was checking the contact of Makinson on Hoy as the Tigers fullback made the final pass. This never ends well.
After what seemed like an interminable delay Rush somehow came to the conclusion that Makinson had hit Hoy in the head with a shoulder with significant force and with no mitigation. The only part of that which Rush got right was the significant force. It was a solid hit by Makinson, but it didn’t seem high even on the 20th replay and his arms were wrapped around Hoy as the contact was made. Hoy had seen it coming and was losing height in his attempts to evade the hit and get the pass away. That’s mitigation. At least it has been all season. It didn’t turn out that way but this wholly laughable decision meant that Saints faced the prospect of playing with a numerical disadvantage for 67 minutes. Not really what you need when your attack has been stinking the whole league out.
I’m the first to accept it if my team is on the end of a minger of a decision from an official. It’s not corruption. It’s humanity. These things happen. Even if you get 20 looks at several different angles at a variety of speeds. The call smacked of panic from Rush, which isn’t exactly mitigation for his howler - see what I did there? - but is at least understandable for a young, inexperienced official. What I can’t quite get my head around is the decision of the Match Review Panel (MRP) to back Rush’s call and hand Makinson a one match ban.
I’m not really concerned with whether he serves that ban in a reserve fixture as Saints sit out next week’s Challenge Cup semi-finals. The point is that it’s on his record and it almost certainly shouldn’t be. If you didn’t know better you might think that the MRP were sticking by their man. By banning Makinson they’re publicly declaring that they don’t consider that the decision was a howler. Nothing to see here. Sit out your one game and get on with it. Or don’t if you can use the reserves as a loophole. After all, it didn’t cost you anyway in the end, right? But you can’t do that. You can’t double down on mistakes to save face.
Makinson wasn’t the only one leaving the scene. Barely five minutes later Alex Mellor was slow to get up after a Clark tackle. There was no foul play involved but nevertheless the former Leeds Rhino was sent for a Head Injury Assessment (HIA) which he subsequently failed.
Joe Batchelor was fortunate to get away with lifting the leg of Eseh before Saints struck a second scoring blow. The prop forward lost possession in Batchelor’s tackle which also included Jonny Lomax and Bell. That set up the field position from where Lomax set Percival free down the left before receiving a return pass to crash over despite the attentions of Hoy and Rowan Milnes. Again Percival was unsuccessful with the extras but Saints led 8-0. To make matters worse for Cas the influential Hoy was shaken up in his attempts to stop Lomax. He followed Mellor out of the game due to those pesky, persistent concussion protocols by now plaguing the Tigers and forcing them to activate Martin.
If the Tigers weren’t having much luck with injuries it wasn’t long before some of that bad karma rubbed off on Saints. Jake Wingfield was only returning to action having missed the last four with a shoulder injury when he seemed to suffer a recurrence of the problem when carrying the ball into contact with Milnes and Cain Robb. It didn’t look great for the versatile forward and it was confirmed on Tuesday (May 14) that both he and Whitley will be out for an extended period as both require shoulder surgery.
The Tigers weren’t creating a huge amount but the best chances they had seemed to fall to Corey Hall. On loan from Hull KR, the centre was first caught offside from Milnes bomb which was batted dead by Percival. Then, with Cas threatening down their right edge Hall interfered with a Milnes pass that was probably meant for Louis Senior only to knock it forward to the winger and spurn the opportunity. Milnes’ pass may well have been forward in any case but that wasn’t the reason that Smith ended up blowing the whistle.
Another try before halftime could have made things comfortable for Saints at the break and they almost managed it. Griffin had been penalised for lifting the leg of Konrad Hurrell giving Saints a full set near the Tigers line. From there Dodd found Welsby who eased through the defensive line to touch down. However, Smith spotted that Bell had not gone through the defensive line with his dummy run, instead standing in the way of Liam Horne. The Cas man was only too happy to overplay the impact of the obstruction but it was the correct call. Welsby’s scoring contributions would come.
Louis Senior was next on the scoresheet. McShane, Joe Westeman, Cain Robb and Elie El-Zakhem all combined to give Senior just enough space to jink away from Welsby and touch down before Dodd could retrieve the situation. Again Smith referred the decision up to Rush with a recommendation (guess?) of a try. Senior was close to the sideline and Smith’s view of the grounding wasn’t completely clear but Rush could find no issues on either count. Milnes could not land the conversion but as the halftime hooter sounded the hosts were right in it at only 8-4 down.
Which is the point where Saints moved up several gears and Cas fell in an embarrassing heap. Saints were dominating the opening exchanges and basically having their way with Cas long before Horne’s red card made this a 12 v 12 affair. By the time of the dismissal Saints had already added another try to lead it 14-4.
That sequence began in somewhat farcical circumstances as Percival allowed Milnes long, towering kick to bounce on the Saints 10 metre line but was able to gather it after a fortunate bounce. A couple of tackles later Clark burst out of dummy half from just inside Saints territory, trailling defenders in his wake before leaving the rest to Welsby supporting on his inside. Clark was a Man Of Steel winner during his final season with the Tigers in 2014 when destructive runs like this one were a regular sight at the Jungle. Not so enjoyable when you’re on the other end of it particularly since another Percival conversion had the Tigers down 14-4. Even those of us who had doubts coming in to this one were starting to think that we needn’t have worried.
In his post match interview Sky Sports player of the match Matty Lees revealed that he’d been on the end of what Alan Partridge might have called great banter from Welsby for winning the award despite not scoring a try in what turned into a 60-point rout. But he almost did. Well, sort of. On Saints next visit deep into Tiger territory Lomax aimed a deft lob towards the posts where Dodd looked favourite to collect it and touch down. Yet he was unable to control it before it rolled towards Lees who completed the grounding.
Smith was not alone in being pretty sure he’d seen a knock on but wanted the opinion of Rush all the same. In what can only be described as a triumph for Sky Sports’ coverage of the game there wasn’t a single angle which proved conclusively that Dodd had got a hand to the ball before it went forward. It was clear it had hit some part of his anatomy - most probably his hand - but there was nothing which showed it clearly. Rush stuck with the on-field call in one of his less controversial moments of the evening and Lees was denied.
Rush had a highly significant moment just a few minutes later as Horne sportingly helped even the numbers. He’d already been involved in stopping Bell’s progress when he inadvisedly flipped the Saints man like a lightweight partner on Strictly. Only he didn’t do Bell the favour of catching and readjusting him before he hit the deck in a position which was far too close to vertical for comfort.
A long delay ensued during which the commentators hinted very strongly that the Cas man would only see yellow. Yet when Smith called Horne to him following the usual wait which follows any foul play in the VR era he explained what seemed obvious to most of us. Specifically that Horne had placed Bell in a ‘really, really dangerous position’. Despite claims from the commentators - who had heard what the TV audience hadn’t from Rush - that the latter had recommended a sin-binning Smith produced the red card. This implies that the decision to upgrade it was Smith’s.
Is this a thing? Are referees able to overrule video officials? We never seem to see it. Not that we know of anyway, although if this example is typical then there could conceivably be any amount of information being relayed from the video referee to the on-field referee and the commentators that viewers aren’t party to. And if Smith had overruled Rush then what the actual fuck was the video referee looking at? It was a red card of the kind often referred to in the broadcasting trade as stonewall. Especially because in the tackle immediately prior to the one on Bell Horne had done exactly the same to George Delaney before thinking better of it and putting him down safely.
The addendum to all this is that Horne has received a one match ban. So exactly the same sanction as has been handed down to Makinson. So rugby league is now a game in which a brutal but legal tackle receives exactly the same punishment as a wholly unlawful potential spine masher. These things are not of equal weight and it’s little wonder that fans - for all their myopia and what General Melchett called a pig headed refusal to look facts in the face - are confused.
Twenty-four players on a rugby league field rather than the customary 26 affords a lot more space. Saints had already began to dominate but from that moment on they raised merry hell. For their part Cas looked like a team who had figured that the one-man advantage was the only thing they had going for them and that now that it was gone they might as well go home. They all but did just that over the next half hour of carnage in which Saints - who have been fairly criticised on these pages and elsewhere for their poor attacking displays - racked up 46 points.
Two of those arrived from the boot of Percival and the penalty awarded for the Horne incident as Saints strangely elected to go for goal. The next try scorer was also Percival. Robb botched another Dodd skyscraper inside his own 10 metre line which set Lomax up to plant a testing low kick into the in-goal area. There was a contest for it between the Saints centre and Louis Senior which the latter won initially, getting a hand to it first. However, he could not ground it and instead was only able to push it limply towards the dead ball line. Before it could reach that destination Percival - still prone from his diving effort to get to it before Senior - managed to apply downward pressure to it. This time both referee and video referee were in agreement and the Saints lead eased out to 20-4 as Percival failed with the conversion.
Blake then began his try scoring exploits, bagging a hat-trick in around 27 minutes. Playmakers Lomax and Welsby combined to put Hurrell clear down the right hand edge. No Tigers defender even looked like getting a hand to the rampaging Tongan who almost made it all the way himself before wisely handing on to Blake to finish the job. Percival landed this conversion to stretch the lead to 26-6.
Anyone who chose that moment to quench their thirst or answer a call of nature would have seen nothing of Saints’ next score. It looked eerily similar as the Tigers left edge defence collapsed into a sorry old state once more. Dodd, Welsby and Lomax again found Hurrell who by now was looking like prime Brian To’o, ripping up metres at will. Again he made the right decision at the end, putting Welsby in for his second try of the night. The Saints fullback now has nine Super League tries in 2024, more than anyone except Innes Senior (yes, really), Adam Swift and Liam Marshall. Percival’s latest goal made it 32-4.
This is the point at which Wellens launched Stephens into his first experience of Super League action. On nine carries the big lad landed one metre short of a century at 11 metres per clip. There can’t be many 19 year-old debutants who have made 100 metres in their maiden Super League outing but the youngster came close. With Alex Walmsley out and Agnatius Paasi only making a comeback for the reserves this week - and for all the endeavour of Mata’utia and Knowles playing largely out of position in the front row - a big prop who takes defenders backwards and makes big metres is exactly what Saints need. That could help open up avenues which can make this attack - which let’s be honest is only really aspiring to be average most of the time - far more effective. Yet with youth you inevitably get inconsistency and mistakes so part of Wellens’ job is to recognise that and judge the best moments to use his newest asset.
Inside the last 20 minutes the massacre continued with the first of two tries for Bell. Another Dodd aerial assault was batted back by Batchelor to Lomax who looked certain to be tackled by Milnes. Yet the skipper managed to keep his ball carrying arm off the floor to produce a majestic flick to the Saints 13 who crossed with ease. Percival’s latest goal saw the scoreline blow out to 38-4.
By the way, if you haven’t done so already I’d recommend you take a listen to Lomax’s recent appearance on BBC 5 Live’s Rugby League Podcast. It’s a bit light on the sporting details of a stellar career but it’s a remarkable story of overcoming adversity. It’s well documented that Lomax suffered a very serious head injury as a junior and that he has twice had to rehabilitate from ACL injuries but it is nevertheless compelling and insightful to hear the man himself offer his thoughts on it. We wheelchair users don’t like inspiration porn but this is not that. This isn’t others celebrating someone’s ability to go to the shop by himself or wipe his own arse. This is someone who has achieved genuinely remarkable things in a tough sport. The things he’s had to deal with in order to do that just add to the achievements.
Back to the rout then, where Bell added a second five minutes after his first. Taking Welsby’s pass 10 metres out he jigged around three challenges which it would be kind to describe as half arsed before spinning out of another lamentable non-effort to touch down. Knowles must have been looking on in envy at this point. It was becoming clear that if you wanted to boost your stats and add to your try scoring tally this was not the game to miss. It wasn’t doing Percival’s points haul any harm either as his next two-pointer pushed the lead out to 40 at 44-4.
Lomax was inevitably involved in the move which brought Blake his second try nine minutes from time. Mbye, Dodd and Welsby were also complicit in shifting the ball out to Waqa’s wing before the Fijian produced a flying finish of which the departed Makinson would have been proud. Percival couldn’t find the extras from out wide this time but a 48-4 lead was rendering conversions pretty much irrelevant to the outcome.
Dodd’s major contributions so far had been through his kicking game. Predictable it might be but it created a fair chunk of Saints’ tries on the night whether directly or indirectly by forcing a mistake to put his side in a position to attack. It was now time for him to get in on the try scoring act. Much of the damage had been done on the Saints right through Hurrell but this time it was Percival who was found by Welsby on halfway and Dodd who played the supporting role to receive the scoring pass. Percival couldn’t miss from in front, landing his seventh goal to tick the score over to 54-6.
Saints’ previous best tally over 80 minutes in 2024 was the 58 they scored without reply against a depleted Hull FC side in mid April. That mark was bettered before the end as Blake completed his first hat-trick for the club. There was a touch of flair about it too as Dodd chipped over the defensive line for Welsby to regather. He then switched it right to Hurrell whose pass to Blake wasn’t the best but the winger made light of it by snatching it off his boot laces to touch down.
The ex-Parramatta Eel is now Saints’ second top scorer behind Welsby with seven and - given the celebration from some quarters of his much talked about extra curricular activities earlier in the season - is becoming something of a cult hero. Even if it is partly for the wrong reasons. If he continues scoring tries at this rate fans will forgive most forms of dubious behaviour. Within reason. Just as long as he doesn’t start retweeting Joey Barton.
Of course it wasn’t just offensively that Saints sparkled, though given what we had seen before from it the attack was always going to be the focus after scoring over 50 points in a single half. Still, it should be noted that the second half of this one was yet another 40 minute period in which Wellens’ side avoided conceding even any points. Not one. That’s now 10 halves of rugby league in which the opposition has been shut out by Saints this term. They have only completed 22 such periods in Super League, which means that almost half the time you can expect to play an entire half against this Saints defence without scoring. Despite the caning at Hull KR it is a defence which is still only conceding an average of 10.36 points per game.
Turning to individual stats and a special salute to Hurrell who achieved the rare feat of topping 200 metres with ball in hand. The Tongan managed 203, denying Lees the honour of topping the Saints list after he made 189. On another day Welsby’s 147 would have stood out while Sironen was only one behind him on 146. Hat-trick man Blake managed 130, Percival 128 and Bell 123. Further centurions were Mata’utia with 113 and Lomax with 110. One more metre from Stephens would have given Saints 10 players over the 100 mark. For context, Castleford had none with Sam Wood’s 85 the best anyone could muster.
The home side were naturally much more active when it comes to tackling. Griffin topped the count with 35 while George Hill made 33. Both El-Zakhem and Liam Watts made 31. The only Saint required to reach 30 was Lees who effected exactly that many.
The error count was fairly even with Cas just the more wasteful with 11 to Saints 9 but that is partly down to how little ball the hosts saw in the procession that was the second half. Perhaps the most telling stat is that of missed tackles. Saints made only 19 whereas Cas failed to stop the ball carrier on no fewer than 48 occasions. That’s going to translate to a heavy defeat more often than not.
At the end of all that it’s difficult to really know what to make of it. There’s no doubt that Saints were outstanding after halftime. That much criticised attack was clinical but most pleasingly relentless. There was no putting the metaphorical cue on the rack as the breaks and the tries just kept coming.
Yet it should still all be seen in the context of a major regression by the Tigers in comparison to their creditable performance a week earlier at Leigh. The spirit seemed to visibly escape from their beings during that second half. Some of the tries scored featured the level of defensive resistance you’d expect to see from an amateur side faced with top level Super League opposition.
It’s unlikely that all the problems with the attack which were highlighted after the Hull KR game - a lack of pace and guile, few new ideas, predictable tactics and kicking - have gone away because of one magnificent performance against a side which if it had been a boxer would have quit on its stool. We should enjoy the win but Saints will face far, far tougher tests.
Not this week, however. Having failed to make the last four of the Challenge Cup the feet will go up for a week before Leeds Rhinos at home on May 24. A week off can go either way but a chance to recharge at this stage of what will be a long campaign hopefully extended until October 12 might not be a bad thing. Yes we’d all rather be involved in this weekend’s scrap for places at Wembley but if it helps at the back end of the year it might be a fair trade off. It’s certainly in contrast to last year when having made the semi-finals of the cup and started the season with a trip to Australia Saints’ only week off was for the England v France international at the end of April.
Which will probably be only slightly more competitive than this one was. Funny how often things are not as bad as you expect them to be.
Castleford Tigers: Hoy, Louis Senior, Hall, Wood, Innes Senior, Milnes, Miller, Watts, McShane, Westerman, Mellor, El-Zakhem, Hill. Interchanges: Horne, Robb, Eseh, Griffin. 18th man (activated) Brad Martin
Saints: Welsby, Makinson, Hurrell, Percival, Blake, Lomax, Dodd, Lees, Clark, Mata’utia, Sironen, Batchelor, Bell. Interchanges: Wingfield, Delaney, Stephens, Mbye. 18th man: Davies.
Referee: Jack Smith
Video Referee: Liam Rush
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