It was something of a slow burn but Saints again piled on the points as they returned to action with a 40-10 humbling of Leeds Rhinos on Friday night (May 24).
It’s a result which sees Paul Wellens’ side go back to the top of the Super League table, albeit only points difference separates them from both Warrington and Wigan, with the Warriors still having that game in hand from their World Club Challenge exploits at the start of the year. Even so, Saints’ performance so far in 2024 is not too shabby considering that they are a team in relative decline. It’s not that long since a Sunak-esque panic was setting in after that bad defeat to Hull KR.
Meanwhile Rohan Smith’s Rhinos continue to struggle like Nigel Farage at the ballot box. This was their sixth league loss out of 12 and leaves them outside the top six playoff places, two points behind Salford Red Devils who occupy the final playoff berth.
Wellens is in the midst of arguably his toughest period since taking over the Head Coach role in 2023. While results are generally good the manner of defeats to Warrington at home in the cup and Rovers in the league recently have cranked up the pressure on the former fullback. Coming into this one he had to deal with a clutch of injuries - a situation which worsened as the game wore on - with several key pack men unavailable.
Jake Wingfield was recently ruled out for four months while Matt Whitley - acquired from Catalans Dragons at the start of the year - will likely miss three months. Both have had shoulder surgery. Morgan Knowles is expected to miss around six weeks with a groin problem while despite making his comeback for the reserves last weekend Agnatius Paasi wasn’t considered ready to step back up to Super League level for this one.
All of which added up to another run out at prop for Sione Mata’utia with Curtis Sironen and Joe Batchelor forming the second row. James Bell stood in for Knowles at loose forward. Accompanying backup hooker Moses Mbye on the bench were young prop duo George Delaney and Noah Stephens as well as Ben Davies. The centre made the 17 for only the third time this season after what has seemed an interminable period as 18th man. Stephens was making only his second Saints appearance having debuted in the 60-4 rout of Castleford a fortnight ago.
Smith gave a Leeds debut to Matty Russell - signed on loan from Warrington recently. He replaced Alfie Edgell on the wing while Brodie Croft returned to renew his halfback partnership with Matt Frawley at the expense of Rhinos fans’ preferred candidate Jack Sinfield. Harry Newman was available again at centre allowing Rhyse Martin to revert to the second row alongside James McDonnell. Twenty-one year-old prop Tom Nicholson-Watton made the bench for a Rhinos side still missing David Fusitu’a, Paul Momirovski, Tom Holroyd and former Saint and 2020 Grand Final winner James Bentley.
Newman has already been first to go close having just failed to ground Croft’s dab to the in-goal when Saints ran into more injury problems. Just over five minutes had been played when Batchelor fell victim to what Wellens later described as an ankle ligament injury. He has since suggested that the back rower is looking at two months on the sidelines. The former York man faces more time out after Luis Roberts - deputising at centre for Momorovski - landed his full body weight on Batchelor in what looked suspiciously like a classic example of a hip drop.
The Match Review Panel (MRP) acknowledged that something was amiss with Roberts’ effort, handing him a £250 fine for what they decided was dangerous contact. They also explained that the Leeds youngster applied pressure to the limb or limbs of the Saints player in a way that presented an unacceptable risk of injury to him. And yet they declined to suspend Roberts. All of which is fairly baffling in the context of what we have witnessed this season and in terms of the prevailing mood in the game since the threat of lawsuits from ex-players emerged.
Batchelor is likely to be unavailable for a couple of months which presents Wellens with a bit of a headache in a position in which Saints had looked almost too deep before now. Mata’utia could make the transition back to the back row from prop fairly smoothly as he did here, but with Alex Walmsley still out that would probably mean big minutes consistently for Delaney and maybe even Stephens at least until Paasi is reintroduced to the first team’s match day 17.
A couple of minutes on from Batchelor’s exit the Rhinos went in front. Saints had turned the ball over in what we are consistently told is the best place possible - right on the opponents try line and close to the sideline. Forced into this undesirable corner Leeds improvised. Croft placed a measured kick over the Saints defensive line and out to the left wing where it was taken in stride by Ash Handley.
The Leeds winger surged all the way down to the Saints 20 before he was hauled down by Tommy Makinson. Not one to rest on his feathered cap Handley stayed alert and finished the job on the next play. The ball was moved out to him through Mikolaj Oledzki, Croft and Martin with just enough space to squeeze in at the left corner. The play was sent up for review by referee Liam Moore whose initial hunch that a try had been scored was confirmed by video referee Tom Grant. Martin’s 35th goal of the campaign had the visitors 6-0 up.
By this time it had been far too long since Waqa Blake had done anything to bring attention to himself. The winger won his side a penalty when he ran directly at McDonnell who was then a little slow to let Blake get back to his feet. On receipt of the decision in his favour the former Parramatta man clapped sarcastically in the face of McDonnell, whose general expression is that of a man who takes some amusing. Predictably Blake’s actions didn’t paint a smile on McDonnell’s face. It was taunting, which other sports take a rather more dim view of. It’s probably one of a couple of things in the Blake character that Wellens could do without.
Yet in winning the penalty Blake had set his side up for what could have easily been their first score of the night. In the ensuing set Dodd’s short ball hit Sironen at pace just yards from the Rhinos line. The former Manly man crashed over but Grant was called upon again and ruled that Sironen had grounded the ball short initially before losing control.
Anyone who saw any of Frawley’s spell at Huddersfield Giants won’t have been massively surprised at his involvement in getting Saints on the scoreboard and back in the game. Just as the clash entered its second quarter Frawley went from the sublime to the ridiculous as Leeds’ slim advantage disappeared.
First of all he plucked a Jack Welsby kick out of the air close to his own line and began tearing up the field towards Saints territory. However, soon realising that he wouldn’t quite make it that far he started to look for support. Sheer panic appeared to take over at that point as his wayward offload missed all of his teammates and was instead secured by Makinson 25 metres out. From that position it was left to Konrad Hurrell to power out from dummy half and find Mata’utia on the right edge. He didn’t need any further instruction, crashing through the attempted tackles of Martin and Roberts to bring Saints level at 6-6 once Percival had slotted his first conversion of the night.
Saints could have been forced to turn to one of their many other part-time goal-kickers soon after as Percival was involved in the incident which brought Russell’s debut to a premature end. As the winger received the ball he was met with a shuddering hit from the Saints centre. It was not high but with the natural delay while Russell received treatment before he was eventually helped off the field it was hard not to think that Grant might be taking a close look at the Percival technique.
Safe to say the Percival challenge did not feature much in the way of arm wrapping. It was mostly body to body with a soupcon of shoulder thrown in. A style not that dissimilar to that which saw Percival depart early from the home defeat by Salford in March. The fact that it was not high is probably what saved Percival from at least a spell on the 10-minute naughty step given the current climate. Yet this was one occasion this season when a lengthy delay didn’t lead to disciplinary action. Moore didn’t even award a penalty.
With both sides having lost a player to injury Saints soon went ahead in that unwanted statistic. This time it was the skipper and chief playmaker Jonny Lomax leaving the action. The four-time Grand Final winner came out of a tackle clutching a hand. After receiving treatment on the field but later being helped off he was not seen again for the rest of the night.
The prognosis from Wellens is that his captain has fractured his hand. The boss gave has since suggested that Lomax will miss around four weeks of action. He will be replaced as captain by Welsby, who lets not forget has worn the armband at international level when George Williams was unavailable for England. Yet for both his leadership skills and his ball playing abilities the thought of going into this week’s meeting with Catalans Dragons without Lomax is a distinctly unappetising one.
He was replaced by Mbye who would automatically come into Wellens’ thoughts as he tries to find a new halfback partner for Dodd for a month or so. Another option might be to move Welsby alongside the South Sydney Rabbitohs-bound Dodd and restore Jon Bennison to the side at fullback. Welsby and Dodd would - on paper at least - be a halfback partnership to envy but their union is made less likely by what we have seen previously from Wellens in regards to Bennison. The youngster has fallen out of favour since being yanked from the action in the 13-12 home win over Huddersfield at the end of April. It doesn’t look like Wellens has much trust in him at the moment.
That makes Mbye favourite. His kicking game is arguably better than what we already have in Dodd. If the former NRL man can take that responsibility on then it may free Dodd up to be more creative as a runner with ball in hand during his last few months with the club. It’s a nice thought and Heaven knows we need one if we are to be forced to contemplate Lomax’s absence for the foreseeable. It just doesn’t seem all that likely, both because of Wellens’ small ‘c’ conservatism and Dodd’s desire to stay healthy ahead of his big career move.
Another string to the Mbye bow - it turns out - is scoring tries. Just minutes from half-time he gave Saints the lead. Roberts made very hard work of a Dodd bomb, flapping at it unconvincingly before it bounced kindly for Blake. From that position Saints went right where Matty Lees produced a strange but effective looped offload to Mbye who got there despite the attentions of two Rhinos defenders. A second Percival conversion of the night sent Saints into the break with a 12-6 lead.
Leeds began to cause their own problems early in the second half. Sam Lisone was adjudged to have played the ball incorrectly and when the Rhinos then gave away a repeat set Saints were in prime position. They put daylight between themselves and Smith’s beleaguered troops when Daryl Clark went over from short range after a smart offload by the outstanding Sironen. That left Percival with another easy two and Saints led 18-6.
Saints sides of old were masters at scoring quick fire tries. Scoring tries in clusters of two, three or even four was not uncommon. This side were able to do that almost at will at Castleford and they managed it again here. No sooner had Percival popped over the conversion of Clark’s try than he was lining up another one as Welsby got over.
There didn’t seem to be a huge amount of danger when Dodd launched another air raid of a kick towards the Rhinos line. Most fullbacks at this level would probably have dealt with it and then set about the task of getting their side off their own line. Yet Lachie Miller had no more success under the high ball than Roberts had experienced earlier.
Instead of securing it and starting off the hard yards for Leeds he was beaten to it by Welsby. The new skipper soared above Miller and in one fluid movement turned away from him to touch down. It was his 10th try of the campaign and his 11th followed later in proceedings to put him level with former Saint Adam Swift and just one behind league leader Liam Marshall. Another Percival goal pushed Saints out to a 24-6 lead. A once close contest was all but done.
Roberts had been having a fairly desperate evening but it was he who gave the Rhinos a flicker of hope 10 minutes later. The ball was worked right by Frawley, Croft and Miller to Roberts who just managed to get in at the corner despite the efforts of Blake. The former Eel was not inclined to clap that effort but when Martin missed the extras from out wide it still left Leeds three scores behind and in a 14-point hole at 24-10.
Blake was having much more fun soon after. He cut through the dawdling Rhinos rearguard from inside his own 30m area and just kept going and going until he found Percival in support. Yet the centre had cut inside towards the Rhinos slowly arriving cover and was brought down by Miller. If Percival had stayed outside Blake he may well have earned himself a walk in. As it was Saints needed one more play the ball for Clark to find Sironen who was not about to miss out as he had done earlier.
It was only his ninth try in his 54 appearances for Saints. His last had been in the 58-0 rout of Hull in April and before that you have to go back to an 18-6 win at Warrington on the penultimate day of the 2023 regular season. This one capped what might just be his best performance for Saints since arriving from the Sea Eagles at the end of the 2021 season. The lead ballooned to 20 at 30-10 after Percival added two more with the boot.
Of course the week began with the announcement that 2024 will be Makinson’s last campaign for the red vee party. While there is an appreciation from many that the wear and tear on his body has slightly reduced his effectiveness there is still a sadness at the prospect of losing a player who has done so much over the last 14 years. But anyone who begrudges him a couple of years in the south of France at the end of his career hasn’t been paying attention to what he has given to us during that period of almost a decade and a half.
He hit another milestone in this one, crossing for his 200th Saints try. He is only the eighth man to achieve this feat and joins an exclusive club which features the likes of Tom Van Vollenhoven, Alf Ellaby, Roy Mathias, Anthony Sullivan and Wellens. In many ways the legendary names not on that list highlight what an achievement it is. Makinson joined the club when Clark and Dodd combined to find Welsby whose sublime cut out pass allowed Makinson to dive over untouched. He celebrated with a little nod of the head to the TV camera before Percival was off target for the only time all night to keep the lead at 34-10.
Percival then had a big part to play as the new leader had the last word in terms of scoring. Put clear on the left edge by a perfectly timed Clark pass the Widnesian tore down the field before finding Welsby on his inside to finish the job. Percival’s sixth goal of the night put him on 34 for the season, behind only Martin, Arthur Mourgue and Marc Sneyd in all of Super League.
This 40-point haul means that Saints have now scored a century of points in their last two outings. Even against sides of the caliber of this current Leeds side and Castleford that takes some doing when you lack pace and guile. Clearly the veterans in this Saints team still know a few tricks in attack.
Yet it is noticeable that 80 of those 100 points came in the second halves of those games. Are Saints becoming a classic second half team? The 52 they racked up at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle after the break is a number virtually unheard of in a single half of Super League rugby league. And for all their faults, 28 in the second 40 isn’t a bad return against the Rhinos either. It’s looking like Saints extroardinary levels of fitness which played such a part in their success under Kristian Woolf and Justin Holbrook is still allowing them to cut loose offensively as the games wear on.
They’re going to need that more than ever in these next few months. The pack is all but decimated so the support cast needs to contribute consistently. Happily Delaney showed in this one that he can fill the void, leading his team with 135 metres on 16 carries. That bettered even Sironen, who managed 123 to go with his try. Delaney also found time to make 31 tackles and statistically was probably the game’s leading player.
Other Saints to carry the egg for over a century of metres were Percival with 147, Blake with 133 and Hurrell on 120. Oledzki gained exactly 100 for Leeds while Handley bettered that with 126. There was little support in blue outside those two.
As well as Delaney’s effort Lees was Saints’ busiest defender with 38 stops while Clark made 35. Cameron Smith wasn’t the threat that he should be given his talents but he did lead Leeds defensively with 35 tackles. McDonnell managed 34 while Jarrod O’Connor put in another worthy shift with 31. It’s more the missed tackle count that should concern Rohan Smith as Leeds fell off 45 times. Roberts alone was guilty of nine of those.
Leeds made a suicidal 15 errors with ball in hand while Saints were around the league average with eight.
Both these sides will have a week off in a fortnight as we all get set to become Warrington fans on Challenge Cup final day. Before that Saints have another home test. Catalans Dragons are likely to provide much higher quality opposition than what we saw from the current incarnation of the Rhinos. Without Lomax and a clutch of forwards the task ahead of Wellens and his men is even harder. A win against Steve McNamara’s side would be huge in the circumstances.
Saints: Welsby, Makinson, Hurrell, Percival, Blake, Lomax, Dodd, Lees, Clark, Mata’utia, Sironen, Batchelor, Bell. Interchanges: Mbye, Delaney, Davies, Stephens.
Leeds: Miller, Russell, Newman, Roberts, Handley, Croft, Frawley, Oledzki, O’Connor, Sangare, McDonnell, Martin, Smith. Interchanges: Ackers, Lisone, Goudemand, Nicholson-Watton.
Referee: Liam Moore
Video Referee: Tom Grant
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