Saints and Salford produced another Super League epic as Paul Wellens’ side finally got the better of the Red Devils on Thursday night (August 8).
Paul Rowley’s men had beaten Saints twice already this season. The first of these was back in March and was Salford’s first win in St Helens since 1980. They didn’t manage to repeat it on this occasion but it was a seriously close run thing. Increasingly, Salford are proving to be a very irritating opponent. And there’s still a chance we’ll see them again at playoff time.
Their awkwardness makes this win all the sweeter since the two sides were separated by just two points on the league table before kick-off. Moses Mbye’s extra time, golden point drop goal saw Saints leapfrog the visitors into fourth in the table. That could yet be crucial as fourth and fifth at the end of the season will play each other in the first round of the playoffs, with the team in fourth holding the home advantage. Catalans’ one-point win over Huddersfield Giants shunted Salford down a place to sixth but all three of Saints, Salford and the Dragons have 26 points from 21 games. All three seem as likely to finish fourth, fifth or sixth or else miss out altogether.
Wellens was able to welcome back another of his long time absentees for this one. Alex Walmsley had not played since the Challenge Cup defeat to Warrington in April but was able to take a place on the bench. He joined Joe Batchelor, James Bell and Jake Burns among the interchanges to give Saints a much stronger looking set of reinforcements.
That meant that young prop Noah Stephens missed out on the 17 for the first time since making his debut in a 60-4 thrashing of Castleford in May. Agnatius Paasi and Matty Lees started at prop with Daryl Clark at hooker. Curtis Sironen and Matt Whitley were the starting second rowers ahead of loose forward Morgan Knowles.
Mark Percival returned from a one game suspension to fill his regular role in the centres. Waqa Blake was given the other centre berth to allow Tee Ritson to remain on the wing opposite Tommy Makinson. Harry Robertson continued at fullback with Jack Welsby out and Mbye and Lewis Dodd remained in the halfback roles as Jonny Lomax served the second of his three game suspension.
Rowley was without strike centre Tim Lafai through suspension so Chris Hankinson came in to the starting 13. In the only other changes from the team which beat Leeds Rhinos 22-16 last time out Joe Bullock got the start at prop ahead of Loghan Lewis while Gil Dudson occupied the place on the bench vacated by Hankinson.
Getting Makinson back has been one of the keys to Saints improved results over the last two weeks. The winger - who will be in the colours of the Dragons next year - opened the scoring just seven minutes in. He was the beneficiary of an incisive pass from Mbye but rather than produce his trademark one handed flying finish Makinson cut back inside the sliding defence and burrowed low to go over.
It was sent up for review by referee Chris Kendall who had given a soft signal in the affirmative but wanted to check for a possible double movement. Video referee Jack Smith took his time about it but eventually agreed that Makinson’s momentum had taken him over and there was no attempt to promote the ball after the tackle was completed. Percival could not tack on the extra two but Saints led 4-0.
They might have added to that lead 10 minutes later had it not been for the desperate skullduggery of Joe Shorrocks. Most players who leave Wigan do so with a PhD in shithousery and the Salford man - playing hooker at the moment ahead of two more graduates of the same school in Cade Cust and current Barrow loanee Amir Bourouh - showed what he’s learned when Blake’s half break put Mbye in the clear. Clark set off in support but was pulled back by Shorrocks, denying his opposite number a try scoring opportunity in the opinion of Kendall.
We’ve seen very recently how Saints can struggle against a shorthanded side. No doubt you’re still having flashbacks to their wretched failure to trouble the Warrington defence when they were left with 12 and then 11 men a couple of weeks ago. They toiled just as much while Shorrocks was off the field. They ended up losing the 10-minute period 2-0, though they did create one opportunity as Ritson saw his try ruled out by the video referee.
There was nothing fancy or original about it. You’d have been forgiven for thinking you’d seen this movie before as a Dodd bomb arced towards the left hand corner of the Red Devils’ goal-line. Ritson challenged for it with Ethan Ryan but neither could grab it cleanly. As it bounced it fell kindly into Ritson’s arms for an easy walk-in. Upon sending it up for review - because there aren’t nearly enough painstaking video reviews in sport these days - Kendall thought that Whitley was offside from the kick but also wanted to check the aerial contest between the two wingers.
Whitley was not offside but after what felt like the 13th or 14th look video referee Smith ruled that Ritson had knocked the ball forward into Ryan. My eyes aren’t what they used to be but it seemed possible that Ryan had got there first. That would have given Saints another set close to the Salford line. Instead the visitors went down the other end and halved the deficit.
Salford had gained possession when Whitley coughed it up on halfway. That error was compounded by Sironen who was late on Sneyd as the halfback dabbed another fiendish kick into the Saints in-goal. The penalty was deemed sufficient but was exactly the sort of challenge which has seen the Australian sidelined for a game or two in the past. The next time Sneyd’s boot made contact with the ball was when it was notching Salford’s first two points of the night from the ensuing penalty.
Sironen’s discipline - or lack thereof - was partly responsible for gifting Sneyd the chance to level the scores just after the half hour. He was originally picked out by Kendall for having a hand on the ball as a Salford player got up to play it, and then for offering the referee his assessment of that decision. That gave Rowley’s men field position but it was Walmsley who transgressed next to offer the shot at goal that levelled the scores.
The giant prop had a largely outstanding game, particularly when you consider that he was making his first appearance for four months. Yet there was bound to be elements of rustiness in his game. In one such moment he was slow to get up after making a tackle on Jayden Nikorima. As the ball came out Walmsley was penalised. It was one of those calls which could have gone either way. We’ve all seen them interpreted as a failure of the player in possession to stand up and play the ball. It’s a messy, gray area. This time it went against Walmsley and Sneyd did the rest to lock the scores up at 4-4.
It stayed that way until half-time and - given the way that things ended - the Red Devils will be rueing their inability to get a drop-goal attempt away in the last few seconds of the half. They’d enjoyed a spell of possession near the Saints line but as the last 10 seconds ticked down Shorrocks was tackled with the ball when Sneyd was in position for the attempt. The lack of a recognised hooker in the Salford ranks was ultimately decisive. Rowley might well reflect that this would never have happened in Andy Ackers’ day, or that letting Bourouh out on loan had proved costly in this instance.
The start to the second half was not for the squeamish. Particularly not Lewis. On his first carry from the kick-off he was met with a shuddering, literally sickening but perfectly legal hit by Bell. The last time I saw someone vomit on a sports field was in the build-up to a Bruce Springsteen concert at Wembley some years ago. On that occasion some poor, unfortunate but slightly dim soul was escorted out of the national stadium an hour prior to the gig after redecorating it with the contents of his lager infested stomach. Unlike that chap Lewis would return after a spell on the sidelines.
Meanwhile Kendall - who had restarted the game once Lewis had left the field - had to call a halt to it again a couple of minutes later so that somebody could perform the cleanup operation on our hallowed turf.
Shortly afterwards Saints retook the lead. Again Mbye was involved, finding Sironen on the right edge. He bumped off Sneyd - who is decidedly better with the ball in his hands than he is when trying to stop whoever has it in theirs - and then timed his pass well for Blake to cross on the right. It was the much maligned Fijian’s 11th try of the season, putting him just one behind the stricken Welsby on Saints’ top try scorers list for 2024. Only eight men across the whole league have scored more than Blake. Percival’s first goal of the night put Saints up 10-4.
The lead didn’t last very long and when it disappeared it was in slightly controversial circumstances. Ten minutes into the second half another Sneyd low kick found its way beyond the Saints defensive line and into try scoring territory. First to it was Hankinson, though the grounding looked far from convincing. On a night when it felt like even in the ground you had watched most of the game on a screen due to the high volume of reviews, Kendall again asked for a second opinion. His view was that Hankinson had grounded the ball.
Smith agreed, but it’s difficult to describe the touch that Hankinson got on the ball as controlled downward pressure. One angle seemed to suggest he had got nowhere close to it while another showed that there had been a fingertip on it. Much like the interference at the ruck from Walmsley earlier we have all seen examples like this which have been turned down. Sky commentator Dave Woods used the example of Ryan Hall’s no try against Australia in the 2014 Four Nations.
You can argue that by the letter of the law Hankinson’s effort was a try but another video referee on another day would have considered his touch insufficient. None of which troubled Salford or Sneyd, whose second conversion and fourth goal of the night saw the game all tied up again at 10-10.
Saints were next to go close with more big screen chicanery required after Makinson went over. Nobody in the Red Devils ranks took responsibility for a Dodd bomb which consequently bounced kindly for Blake. He batted it to himself before swiftly finding a wide open Makinson for what he thought would be his second try of the night. Kendall disagreed, calling no try before asking for another TV check. This time offside and a possible knock on by Blake were among the reasons to chalk it off. There was no knock on but it turned out that Blake was offside from Dodd’s original kick. He’ll be getting Hell on the socials for that.
By the time the clock ticked around to the hour mark Burns had replaced Clark. After making a huge impact with two tries against Hull FC last week Burns was an influence again as Batchelor got over the line. An excellent, elusive run by Robertson put Saints in range and from just a few metres out Burns was able to draw the attention of the one defender who remained before finding Batchelor with a simple but hugely effective pass. It was Batchelor’s first try since the 58-0 evisceration of Hull FC in April and only his second of the 2024 season, though he has only made 12 appearances due to injuries. The conversion was an easy one for Percival who moved the score on to 16-10 in Saints’ favour.
Saints held this advantage for the next 10 minutes until - with 10 minutes left - chaos descended. Knowles had been widely praised for the way in which he had led the team defensively at Hull and deservedly so. Unfortunately he seems to have an evil twin who shows up all too often. In his haste to shut down a Salford attack which had advanced to within 10 metres of the Saints line he came in arm swinging - not wrapping - over the top of Mellor, making some direct contact with the head of the ex-Wigan and Leigh man.
Cue the usual boring debate about how the game has gone if you’re not allowed to take someone’s head off. Even in the week of the shocking and sad CTE diagnosis of former Saint Josh Jones there are still fans who want this sort of challenge to remain unpunished. Even if you accept that as a valid, sensible philosophy - taking the view that players agree to the risks - the fact is that those aren’t the rules these days. You can’t judge an incident on what you think the rules should be. You have to judge it on what they are. This from Knowles was an automatic yellow and could conceivably have been a red.
I’m not sure what the record is for the shortest period between two separate sin-binnings for the same team but Saints came up with a contender once Knowles had departed. Thirteen seconds of game time was all that had elapsed when Batchelor followed Knowles off the field.
He can possibly consider himself a little unfortunate. He was trying to get around Lewis to make a tackle on another Salford player but was being obstructed by the green-gilled Red Devils man. The contact was high and that is his responsibility but a penalty should probably have been given against Lewis. Maybe that doesn’t negate Batchelor’s offence but it was never taken into account as any sort of mitigation. I guess head contact is head contact and if you’re serious about player welfare you have to legislate against it.
Having dispatched two Saints to the naughty step Kendall seemed to suddenly reflect that he was about to preside over a game of 13 on 11 and a potential mis-match. Doesn’t he remember refereeing Saints at home to Warrington a few weeks ago? Nevertheless he wasn’t prepared to risk it again so found himself a Salford man to dismiss. And who better than wretched grub and Shaun Wane disciple Oliver Partington?
It’s not totally clear what Partington’s offence was. There was a melee following the Batchelor incident but then there had been one after Knowles clubbed Mellor around the head. Nobody from the Salford side was asked to leave at that point. Just before issuing the yellow card to Partington Kendall explained to Red Devils captain Kallum Watkins that he had warned him at the last melee that someone would be going if it happened again.
But who? How had he decided? It’s possible that Partington said something out of turn or was seen by an official doing something not picked up on camera. But equally it’s possible that Kendall just threw all of the Salford names into a big, fat tombola of his mind and selected one at random. Or maybe he’s like me and just can’t stand the sight of anyone who has played prop for Wigan. And he’d already got rid of Shorrocks once.
Salford still had the numerical advantage and capitalised on it almost immediately. Nene McDonald found his way over after a passage of play that Whitley will want to forget. I’m sure he’s not reading so it’s ok to let you know that after failing to secure possession from a ricocheted kick and so conceding another set of six he then came up with a poor tackle attempt on McDonald as he spun over from close range from Mellor’s pass. Another Sneyd goal and we were back level at 16-16.
As you might expect the outnumbered Saints defence had to produce a couple of big plays to get through to the end without conceding a potentially match winning score. First Ritson showed us that his pace can come in handy occasionally as he chased down McDonald from behind. The ex-Leeds man had made a break from well inside his own half, making it all the way to the Saints 20 before the ex-Barrow winger dragged him down.
Then over on the other side of the field it was Deon Cross who had the final opportunity of regulation time. Nikorima, Watkins and Sneyd moved the ball left to Cross but he ended up in touch after a textbook try saver from the ubiquitous Mbye. It would not be his final or even his most important contribution.
That came in golden point extra time which followed. Wellens’ interviews suggest he would have really enjoyed the extra five minute period as it was nothing but a risk free, set for set snoozefest as both sides worked on trying to get into range for a one-pointer. I’m a lone voice in disliking this type of rugby. The tension is massively high so fans, commentators and pundits alike convince themselves that they are witnessing something inspiring. It would actually be pretty drab if you took the emotion out of it.
Golden point is often like that which is why I’m not a big fan of it. I am not too sure why we are so worried about allowing a game to finish in a draw with both sides taking a point each. Quite often it makes the league table more interesting. Certainly more interesting than a grinding drop-goal competition. And why shouldn’t you earn a point if you’ve gone 80 minutes and your opponent hasn’t managed to beat you?
In any case the current search for a winner in Super League games isn’t limitless. If you get through five minutes of extra time without any further scoring then somehow the league deems a draw acceptable in that scenario. We were less than a minute from calling this one a draw when Burns found Mbye 30 metres out and his kick - though a little low - crept over the posts dead centre to give Saints a crucial win. The contribution of Robertson should also be pointed out here. He set Saints on their way to getting in range when he fielded a low kick deep in his own territory before evading a couple of tackles and setting the field position back in Saints’ favour.
It was the second time this season that the red vee had edged a home game by a single point. Lomax produced similar heroics against Huddersfield back in April, though that one-pointer was landed within the 80 minutes. What that says about the current state of things depends on how full your glass is. For some it will be a sign that Saints are a gritty, battle hardened side who are going to be tough for anyone to beat while for others it will be an indication of how far we have declined.
Salford and Huddersfield at home were routine assignments not so long ago. Looking at Huddersfield in particular right now it’s tough to make the argument that the league is stronger than it was in those halcyon days. We are indisputably in decline in my view, but are fortunate to be playing in a competition structure which allows teams to be rubbish at regular intervals so long as they turn up at the start of autumn. As bang average as we have become we still have a chance of winning it all.
That probably won’t happen if we don’t improve our discipline. Moan and bleat at officials and rule changes all you like, at some point these players as well as Wellens are going to have to learn and take responsibility. With injuries ravaging the squad at certain times this season you just cannot afford to have players sitting it out alongside the casualties on match day because they’ve been suspended again. The rules are what they are. There’s no point looking back all misty eyed to when you could hit someone with a snooker ball in a sock and all have a good laugh about it afterwards. They’ve got to wise up and do it fast.
On the subject of injuries Saints lost both Paasi and Dodd along the way in this one. Paasi came off for an HIA in the first half and never returned despite having been cleared. It transpires that he did not have an instrumental mouth guard which is now a requirement of the concussion protocols if you leave the field for an HIA. Meanwhile Dodd picked up a left arm injury which forced him off just before the hour. He will be getting a scan this week.
In the context of playing the last quarter with a halfback combination of Mbye and Bell Saints have done well to come up with a win against a very good side. Shades of the 2014 Grand Final when Mark Flanagan was running around in the halves with Sky Sports foghorn Jon Wilkin. Mind, Saints’ opponents that day were a load of old crap and had a disciplinary problem that would mortify even Knowles.
What happens to Dodd fitness wise this week will be key to our chances of competing with the 2024 version of Wigan at Magic at Elland Road next weekend. Just as important will be the adjudication of the Match Review Panel this Monday. Knowles and Batchelor will both be feeling nervous. For all their disciplinary issues they are very important to Saints. It is hard to see Saints beating even a currently out of form Wigan without these two given the other injuries that persist. Dodd too given that Welsby and Lomax won’t feature.
Saints v Wigan is always important but a meeting at this stage of the season with both needing a win for their own playoff-related reasons takes on even greater significance. It won’t decide the fate of either but now that Saints are back in the land of the living and Wigan have slipped back towards the pack it looks a better matchup than it did when they met in Wigan a month ago. And that turned out to be close. It could be again.
Draw, anyone?
Saints: Robertson, Makinson, Blake, Percival, Ritson, Mbye, Dodd, Paasi, Clark, Lees, Sironen, Whitley, Knowles. Interchanges: Walmsley, Bell, Batchelor, Burns
Salford Red Devils: Brierley, Ryan, McDonald, Hankinson, Cross, Nikorima, Sneyd, Bullock, Shorrocks, Singleton, Stone, Watkins, Partington. Interchanges: Dudson, Wright, Lewis, Mellor
Referee: Chris Kendall
Video Reveree: Jack Smith
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