The bleeding has finally stopped. For now.
Saints put an end to their worst run of form in 38 years with a free scoring 46-6 win at Hull FC on Saturday afternoon (August 3).
Paul Wellens’ side ran in eight tries at the MKM Stadium, racking up almost as many points in this 80 minutes as they had in the five defeats which preceded it combined. It’s a win which lifts them up a place into fifth courtesy of Catalans Dragons’ inexplicable 12-10 defeat in London. There’s much more work to be done but at least what was starting to look like an inexorable slide out of playoff contention has been halted for the time being.
Hull stopped thinking about playoffs some time ago. The black and whites got off to a dreadful start which led to the rather left field arrival of Richie Myler as Director Of Rugby and the departure of Head Coach Tony Smith. The squad was overhauled too. Names like Nu Brown, Jayden Okunbor, Tex Hoy and Franklin Pele have come and gone.
Brown’s major contribution remains the red card he received for a head clash in a loss against Warrington in the opening weeks of the season. Meanwhile Okunbor was tipped to star in Super League by that shy and retiring fountain of knowledge Phil Gould. Okunbor is currently on loan at Bradford Bulls.
The changes at Hull have seen some improvement. Under interim Head Coach Simon Grix they have beaten Wigan and Leeds in recent weeks. Even the losses are usually a lot closer than they had been earlier in the year. Until this one.
Not only is the margin a concern for FC but their league position may be starting to cause some anxiety. IMG have ensured that finishing bottom of Super League is meaningless but it will not sit well with Hull fans that the Broncos’ win over Catalans has seen them creep to within two points of the black and whites
Injuries have been partly but not wholly to blame for Saints’ recent run of defeats. Wellens’ side should have done much, much better in most if not all of them but it doesn’t help when you have 75% of your salary cap watching on from the stands or a hospital bed, albeit they haven’t helped themselves with poor discipline. Wellens will have been relieved to be able to call on Morgan Knowles and Joe Batchelor for this one. Following on from the returns of Tommy Makinson and Matt Whitley in recent weeks there is seemingly light at the end of a very dark tunnel when it comes to absenteeism.
Jack Welsby is perhaps the greatest loss and he was replaced by Harry Robertson in Wellens’ selection. With Mark Percival suspended along with Jonny Lomax and Konrad Hurrell out for the season Waqa Blake moved in-field to centre and Tee Ritson came in on the wing. That meant another start for Ben Davies at centre also. It’s hard to think of a centre pairing less popular than Blake and Davies. It’s not exactly Iro and Newlove.
Moses Mbye was again switched into the halves and with Welsby and Lomax out it would have beggared belief had Wellens not picked Lewis Dodd. The boss was keen to point out that he was not forced to pick Dodd and that the Rabbitohs-bound halfback has addressed the issues that have often seen him left out in recent weeks. Wellens did not elaborate on who he might have picked instead of Dodd but I’ll bet Jon Wilkin was standing by his phone just in case.
Knowles was catapulted straight into the starting line-up despite missing the last nine games while Whitley earned a first start since his comeback. Batchelor had to settle for a place on the bench as Agnatius Paasi partnered Matty Lees in the front row and Curtis Sironen continued in the second row. Batchelor was joined among the interchanges by James Bell in what looked a much stronger set of replacements than in recent weeks. As it happened they would all be upstaged by Jake Burns.
FC were without several of their regulars too. Liam Sutcliffe, Herman Ese’ese, Danny Houghton and Ligi Sao were among those unavailable to Grix. Youngster Logan Moy operated at fullback while there was youth on the wings too in the shape of Harvey Barron and Lewis Martin. Carlos Tuimavave was partnered in the centres by Tom Briscoe while in the halves regular fullback Jack Walker played alongside Jake Trueman.
Up front Yusuf Aydin and bad fashio… Brad Fash started at prop either side of hooker Morgan Smith. Jordan Lane and Ed Chamberlain were the second rowers with Will Gardiner at loose forward. Loanees Tiaki Chan and Leon Ruan occupied the bench with Matty Laidlaw and Denive Balmforth.
Even this comfortable win was something of a slow burner. Wellens has let it be known how proud he is that his side can go set for set with RL luminaries like Leigh Leopards even if a total capitulation follows. For 20 minutes his troops toiled against an equally unadventurous black and whites outfit until Lees claimed the game’s first try. He claimed it but didn’t get it. He had gone over from a Daryl Clark pass which seemed good enough for referee Liam Moore who sent it up for review as a try.
There wasn’t an angle which proved that Lees had grounded the ball but nor was there one which proved he hadn’t. In such circumstances the video ref is meant to stick with the on-field call. Video referee Marcus Griffiths had his own ideas and the game stayed scoreless.
That is until five minutes later when Dodd went over. Again Clark was behind it as his half break was supported by Robertson before the youngster found Dodd on his left shoulder with an open run to the line. With Percival out the goal-kicking responsibilities fell on Makinson once more and he tagged on the extras for a 6-0 lead.
When he’s not lugging the ball out from under his own posts on tackle one or two Makinson is renowned more for his try scoring than his goal-kicking. He added the 202nd of his Saints career and his 186th in Super League with seven minutes left before the break. Clark found Mbye inside the Hull 10 metre zone and he in turn moved it on to Sironen. The Australian forward timed his pass perfectly to Makinson who was able to somersault over. Well, he’s never been one for grounding the ball simply and conventionally.
He was off the mark with the conversion but his try had taken him into seventh on the overall list of Super League try scorers above Ryan Atkins. Of course if Atkins - not Atkinson Stu - had been given all of the tries he claimed throughout his career then Ryan Hall would still have some way to go to break the record. The miss was Makinson’s only one of the afternoon. His 18-point haul on the day gives him a points tally of 1369 during his 14-year career with Saints.
Though it was refreshing to have a fairly comfortable lead at the break the first half showing had not really suggested the blowout that followed in the second. Yet it took only two minutes for the lead to increase. Sironen was having a particularly creative spell, this time breaking the line and finding Dodd in support for another clear run to the line. It was his seventh try of the season and his 30th in Saints colours since his 2020 debut.
With only seven regular season games remaining and no guarantee of a playoff spot it’s not outrageous to suggest it could have been Dodd’s last. Welsby’s injury should see Dodd selected often enough to add to his tally but we won’t be playing Hull every week. The effort from Hull as Sironen burst through was not a masterclass in how to play good defence. Another Makinson goal pushed Saints’ lead out to 16-0.
More poor defending helped Clark bag the try that his earlier endeavours deserved. Blake had made a strong carry to leave the defence scattered and allow Saints a quick play-the-ball. It was all Clark needed. A couple of fakes here and there and he was able to get over with spectacular ease. Makinson’s third goal of the game saw Saints go up 22-0.
Around the hour mark Hull decided that they hadn’t quite made things easy enough for their guests as Fash went the extra mile. His late challenge on Bell was the kind of thing that might have incurred no more than a penalty in days gone by. However it’s a sin bin offence these days, forcing Fash to take his Pat Sharp hairdo off the field to have a think about what just happened sportingly and sartorially.
Further punishment was almost instant. Having failed so miserably to exploit their numerical advantages against Warrington before being shown the way by Leigh last week Saints finally got the memo. This time it was Robertson providing the pass as Whitley went over from close range to the left of the posts. The former Catalans and Widnes man scored three tries in his first two appearances for Saints at the start of the season but this was his first score in 12 appearances since. Makinson added two more points for a 28-0 lead.
Despite the injury problems of the last couple of months Burns is one young player who has still found his opportunities limited. If you don’t count the recent trip to Wigan where he was a non-playing sub this was only Burns’ second appearance for the first team. He was about to light it up. With Saints close to the Hull line again he got into dummy half - faked Ruan out of the way to the extent that he never even seemed to contemplate making a tackle - and scooted over for his first senior try.
The skills certainly caught the eye although anyone wanting to play hooker for Saints has got a lot to live up to. As a fan base we need to tone down the hyperbole. Yet what was really noticeable about Burns’ try was the genuine delight of his teammates. At one point it looked like they might carry him off in triumph like something out of an old Roy Of The Rovers comic.
He’s clearly a popular member of the squad and his is quite a story having been working as an accountant up to 18 months ago. Another Makinson conversion saw the lead blow out to 34-0 with a quarter of an hour still left to play.
Paasi has played 70 games more than Burns but he only has three more tries than the young hooker. He doesn’t get over that often, let’s say. However he is experiencing what for him is something of a purple patch. His try was a rare highlight in the abject defeat to Warrington a fortnight ago and he added his second in three games here.
Again it was helped by some less than stout defending by the hosts. Paasi took a pass from Knowles around 20 metres out and shrugged off a weak challenge from Lane to go over under the posts. Paasi has been out for a long time following that infamous assault by John Asiata in last season’s Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Leigh but has come back relatively prolific in the try scoring department. I don’t know what they had him doing in his rehab but it’s paying off. Makinson’s penultimate goal of the day saw Saints hit 40 without a response from Grix’s side.
They weren’t quite finished. Specially Burns wasn’t quite finished. His second try was one of those you could adequately describe with the old cliche that it needed scoring. If cliches were in any way adequate. Instead we’ll agree he had plenty to do when he took possession.
Another Robertson offload gave Burns the opportunity 10 metres out. The ease with which he passed Moy was as impressive from one point of view as it was comical from another. Makinson’s final scoring contribution of the day moved the lead on to 46-0.
Whenever you have a lead of that nature the conventional wisdom is that the rest of the game becomes all about keeping the opponent scoreless. Had Saints managed it this time it would have been their third of the campaign and their second against Hull FC in 2024.
Yet it was the home side who had the last word as Trueman’s kick to the in-goal was pounced upon by Walker for his side’s solitary try of the day. Lane added the conversion denying us the symmetry of having lost 46-4 last week and won 46-4 this week. But given how long it has been since we got any type of win we’ll settle for 46-6.
Normally at this point I highlight a few of the statistical efforts of the players. However this week I’m not sure I can trust the evidence. Whoever has been working on the stats section of the Super League website claims that Bell ran for 203 metres on 27 carries. I can’t prove this to be false but having watched the game back twice it feels like Kwasi Kwarteng has been doing the sums.
The stats also suggest that no Saint needed to make as many as 30 tackles which seems much more realistic given their dominance. But do I believe that after Aydin’s 46 tackles for FC the next best was the 30 managed by Smith? It’s possible I suppose since most of their efforts were missed.
One stat that I can corroborate is the one which says that in winning this match Saints won the Steve Prescott Cup by what might be a record margin. The aggregate score over the two games - no loop fixture to complicate things - was 104-6 in Saints’ favour.
I’ll stop short of going full Mourinho and claiming this as a major trophy but I am sure Ste would have approved of the quality in Saints’ attacking play in what was genuinely a very good performance notwithstanding the miserable efforts that have come before it. You can only beat what is put in front of you and well…Leeds and Wigan failed to do that when faced with Grix’s side recently.
If I’m going to be churlish about something - and regular readers will know that I’m almost contractually obliged - it would again be some of the post match pearls of wisdom from Wellens. He highlighted Saints’ 90% completion rate which is always a red flag because - as Saints and others have shown on numerous occasions - holding on to the ball isn’t always a precursor to scoring actual points. Happily it was on this occasion but I still rue the day when some statto decided to record completion percentage.
I did raise an eyebrow when Wellens went on to describe how his side had stuck to the game plan for once, playing a simple style of rugby. While it must be nice to tell yourself otherwise the style of play is always simple and the game plan is always adhered to as far as I can see. It isn’t failure to grasp any complexities that caused five losses on the bounce. Quite the opposite. The game plan - such as it is - is very much the problem.
The win - however it was meant to happen - should give the side a little more confidence going into the regular season run in. That starts with a visit from Salford this Thursday evening (August 8). The same Salford who have beaten Saints twice already in 2024. Alex Walmsley is back in contention this week having not played since the Challenge Cup defeat by Warrington in April. He and Knowles are transformative for the pack and turn Saints into a completely different proposition.
Percival will also return from his ban and - while there will still be people mashing their keyboard with rage at the ‘injustice’ of suspending Percival for walloping a player who was only vaguely in the vicinity of the ball - the week off at this stage of the year might have been exactly what Percival needed to refresh and go again for the final few weeks. Let’s just hope his discipline remains steady. Remember his red card was heavily influential when the Red Devils won at St Helens earlier in the season.
If we still have designs on the top four at least then it’s not really a game we can afford to lose. A Salford win would put them four points clear of Saints with only six games left to play before the knockout fun begins.
It feels like there’s slightly more chance of Saints being involved in that fun after this win.
Hull FC: Moy, Barron, Tuimavave, Briscoe, Martin, Walker, Trueman, Fash, Smith, Aydin, Lane, Chamberlain, Gardiner. Interchanges: Laidlaw, Balmforth, Chan, Ruan
Saints: Robertson, Makinson, Davies, Blake, Ritson, Mbye, Dodd, Paasi, Clark, Lees, Sironen, Whitley, Knowles Interchanges: Bell, Batchelor, Burns, Stephens.
Referee: Liam Moore
Video Referee: Marcus Griffiths
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