Saints’ unbeaten start to 2025 came to a juddering halt when they went down to visiting 2024 Grand Finalists Hull KR on Saturday (March 7).
It was an interesting build-up to the game for Saints and Head Coach Paul Wellens. Already having to digest the news that Morgan Knowles will head to former boss Kristian Woolf’s Dolphins in the NRL for 2026 and beyond Saints then saw two more impending departures announced. There was a strange silence on both from the club but the Hull media were very keen to declare that Hull FC have captured the signatures of both Joe Batchelor and James Bell from next year also.
The online Saints fan base rarely misses an opportunity for blind panic so it was somewhat inevitable that the socials were chock full of users queuing up to pronounce Saints a spent force on the brink of financial meltdown. How else could you explain first team regulars choosing to leave this Saintly ground?
Well. Both players have three-year deals with the black and whites and good luck to them for all that. They have been fine players these last few years. But the reality of it is that both turn 31 this year which always made contracts of that length somewhat risky. Batchelor in particular has been troubled by injuries of late and has consequently displayed signs of a visible decline from his 2022 peak. It’s possible he could overcome them and return to that form but is it a risk that would be wise to take? And with Knowles also leaving Bell’s impending exit does at least make it clear to Saints’ recruitment bods that there is a vacancy for a loose forward. Though good luck finding a real one in today’s biff and bash, subtlety deficient league.
So there are reasonable arguments for not matching Hull’s offer to either player and instead choosing to look elsewhere. So before we raise the alarm and signal the death of the club might we instead wait and see what Saints do in terms of recruitment for next year? The Super League era has largely shown that they deserve our trust on this one. They get it right more often than they get it wrong and mixed with the club’s freakish consistency in bringing through excellent youth stars it’s been a recipe for almost three decades of success. Keep the faith, eh? Even if we have just lost to one of the best sides in the competition.
On which subject, back to matters concerning Hull’s other Super League presence and Wellens made two changes to his 17. The first was the return of Knowles after he picked up a head knock in the win at Castleford a fortnight earlier forcing him to miss the trip to Wakefield. The second was enforced as Matty Lees missed out through a minor injury which we are assured will not keep him out of action for longer than a week. George Delaney stepped into the starting lineup from the bench with Noah Stephens taking a place among the interchange options while it was Bell who made way for Knowles.
Rovers Head Coach Willie Peters had to make alterations also from the side which walloped troubled Salford 42-0 last time out. Niall Evalds got knocked out of that game early so Jack Broadbent moved from centre to fullback with Peter Hiku flitting from the halves to take that centre berth. All of which made the return of Tyrone May and Mikey Lewis very timely with former Saint Danny Richardson missing out on the chance to perform at his old stomping ground. Goal-kicking back rower and headline signing Rhys Martin has been ruled out for four months so his place in the starting lineup was taken by Dean Hadley. Not for long, however, as the unfortunate ex-FC man failed a head injury assessment in the first half and was consequently withdrawn.
Watching the first 30 minutes of this one almost makes you wonder how the final margin of Rovers’ victory was only a couple of scores. The Robins dominated possession and territory. Saints did not manage a play-the-ball inside their opponents 20-metre zone until the 26th minute. Alex Walmsley - who is the league’s top metre maker through the first four rounds - was ploughing a largely lone furrow in terms of go-forward. Couple that with some especially woeful territorial kicking and it is easy to see how a quality outfit such as Peters’ side were able to dominate.
Yet that wasn’t showing on the scoreboard with just an unconverted Lewis try and a 4-0 lead to show for their endeavours. That had come early, with only nine minutes on the clock when Kyle Feldt flapped at May’s crossfield bomb to allow the reigning Steve Prescott Man Of Steel to pounce. It was one of three errors on the night from the ex-North Queensland Cowboy out of a team total of 10. Yet to this point he has not made a habit of it. They are the only three errors he has made in this campaign so far so perhaps we can put it down to a difficult night that will not become the norm. Lewis resumed the goal-kicking duties from the absent Martin but was unable to turn four into six.
It was ironic given the issues Saints had endured kicking the ball that their first points were created with the boot. Once they got a foothold with that first foray to within spitting distance of the Rovers line they didn’t take long to engineer an unlikely lead. Jack Welsby profited from enterprising offloads earlier in the set from Agnatius Paasi and Batchelor to place a perfect low kick towards the Rovers line which bounced up perfectly for Curtis Sironen to score the 12th try of his 68-game Saints career to date. It was his second of this season having been one of many who crossed in the farcical 82-0 crushing of Salford’s volunteers on the opening weekend. Mark Percival retains the goal-kicking responsibilities and landed his first attempt for a 6-4 lead.
Penalties also caused Feldt and his new colleagues some problems, fair or otherwise. Four minutes before halftime the winger was penalised by referee Jack Smith for supposed hands in the ruck. It looked a particularly poor call by Smith, if anything it looked like an incorrect play-the-ball by Lewis. Yet before we leap to castigate Smith for his mistake let’s remember that 2025 is the beginning of the age of Captain’s Challenge in Super League. It’s still very new to the league but Feldt is used to using it in the NRL where it has been in operation since 2020. Between them, why did he and skipper Jonny Lomax not ask for a review of the incident?
The duo’s inaction proved costly. In the next set after the penalty Tom Davies went over for the visitors’ second try. May and Broadbent combined to provide the space in which the former Wigan and Catalans man squeezed over. It was reviewed to make sure he had not set foot in touch but there was never any real drama with it. Lewis was on target with the conversion this time and Peters’ men went to the break with a 10-6 lead.
Rovers weren’t any more effective in their use of Captain’s Challenge. Early in the second half Sam Luckley was judged to have knocked on in the tackle of Tristan Sailor. Lewis had also been in attendance and - master of shithousery that he is - talked skipper Elliot Minchella into disputing the call. Yet Lewis was banged to rights when the replays showed that it was he - and not Sailor - who had ripped the ball from Luckley’s grasp. Used properly Captain’s Challenge can perhaps right a few wrongs and eliminate the odd howler. But when you see it misused you can’t help but suspect that it’s an unnecessary extra level of forensic scrutiny which has been killing the spontaneity in the game since 1996. Other sports too as the cancer of ‘innovation’ spreads.
Feldt has shown great composure and prowess under the barrage of high balls he has faced early in his Super League career. Yet a rare lost duel was instrumental in Rovers stretching their advantage inside the first 10 minutes of the second period. Lewis fired the ammunition this time as Joe Burgess managed to outjump Feldt to claim possession right on the Saints try line. The former Wigan and Salford man could probably have scored himself as he spun away from Feldt but chose instead to offload to Oliver Gildart who was supporting closely on his outside. It was an easy put down for the centre for his second Super League try of 2025. Lewis couldn’t find the extras but crucially it was now a two score lead at 14-6.
Gildart’s third of the campaign was not long in arriving and it was a good deal prettier. Just three minutes after his last scoring contribution he found another. Kelepi Tanginoa - arguably the best back rower on either side - found Burgess in space on the left touchline and he streaked away before hitting Gildart on his inside with a clear run to the line. This time he was able to improve the angle for Lewis who nudged his side out to an ultimately decisive three score advantage at 20-6. In truth Saints hadn’t looked very much like scoring three tries all night. They only had half an hour to do it at this point. It was looking bleak.
In his post match wafflings Wellens returned to the old 2024 staple of accusing his players of impatience in attack. Of trying to score on every play. While it was hard to agree with this as an overall assessment there was an example of it when Percival put the ball out of play trying to tip a Lomax pass on to Jon Bennison. In mitigation Saints did need points quickly at that point but it was still a little hasty and a tad careless.
Yet despite a clearly visible willingness to turn in the tackle and offload more since the arrival of Lee Briers as an assistant to Wellens it is not as if Saints were recklessly gung ho for the majority of the game. You can still see the imprint of Wellens’ lower level tribute to Woolfball. There’s a balance to be struck but you get the feeling that despite the addition of Sailor Saints are still slightly hamstrung in attack by a lack of pace. Especially with Lewis Murphy out injured for a couple of months after making just one league appearance.
Braver use of the interchange bench may also help freshen things up. Stephens and Matt Whitley were made to wait until the 60-minute mark for their introduction to proceedings. Walmsley and Paasi were two of Saints’ best but there may be a way of making better use of the reserves of energy of both if there is a little more trust in others. Even when he emerged from the bench Stephens had a strangely short stint on the field. It’s not clear whether he took a knock or not but if not - and if he has only limited trust from the coach when it comes to the number of minutes he can play - then perhaps someone else should be in the 17 instead.
Fifteen minutes from time Saints flickered into life. Fed by Sailor 15 metres out on the Saints right, Welsby effortlessly glided past Gildart - whose defence on the play possibly hinted at why he didn’t quite cut it in the NRL. Welsby’s third try of the season - to go with his 10 try assists which is three more than his nearest challenger in the category George Williams - brought Saints back to within 10 at 20-10. It remained unconverted by Percival and was to prove the last of the scoring on the night.
Subsequent raids on the Rovers line became ever more desperate. One ended in a quite chaotic kick on the last tackle by Paasi while as the clock ticked down the home side resorted to trying barge overs from anywhere within five metres of the line. Imagination was in short supply in attack as something which was either panic or resignation set in.
If Wellens wants to instill any learnings to his players from this defeat beyond the normal post match quotes about game management then perhaps the kicking game is a good starting point. Rugby league is largely a battle for territory and Saints’ boot work for field position was woeful, particularly early on which proved costly in the final analysis.
No surprise to see Walmsley featuring prominently in the metres made stats. The veteran talisman made 128 and is now 18 metres clear of his nearest challenger in the league so far this season who just happens to be Welsby. The fullback led all players in this game with 171. Feldt chipped in with 107 of his own though this was the first time in Super League this term that he has failed to cross for a try.
Knowles showed what Saints will be missing next year as he topped the home side’s tackle count with 49. Daryl Clark was worked almost as much with 46 while Delaney made 40. Sailor was targeted defensively by the smart thinking Peters to the extent that he was called upon to make 33 stops. The ex-Brisbane man missed five which would appear to justify the Rovers’ coach’s logic. It’s a slight concern that other coaches might try something similar as we go through the year.
Errors are still an issue for Saints whether you are of the belief that this year’s style is more open than last year or not. Only three teams have made fewer than Saints’ 33 errors in 2025 so far of which 10 were committed in this one. Offloads were down from the 16 managed at Wakefield. There were nine this week which is much closer to what we had come to expect from Wellens’ Saints before the arrival of Briers. Paasi was responsible for three of those nine thus doubling his tally for the campaign.
Rovers had three men over the 100 metre mark. Davies had 161, Broadbent 141 and Hiku 117. The other Batchelor brother on the field - James - made 46 tackles while Minchella made 44. There were 35 each for Jai Whitbread and Jez Litten. Burgess matched Paasi’s three offloads and the Robins made one fewer error than Saints with eight. By those measures you might summise that this was a very close contest but - and despite the scoreline - there was little doubt about which side was the superior of the two.
Super League takes a break this week just when you were starting to think that it had gathered early momentum. That’s because the last 16 of the Challenge Cup takes centre stage with Saints at home to traditional heavyweights but current strawweights Leeds Rhinos. Brad Arthur’s side were truly abysmal in losing 11-0 in Perpignan last time out. It was the third year in a row that they have failed to score a single point at the home of the Catalans Dragons.
Fourteen errors on the stats sheet looks suspiciously like somebody lost count and gave up, such was the abject nature of the Rhinos’ handling. Catalans weren’t much better but won almost because it would have been difficult not to in the face of such rank incompetence. Saints might be a little short to beat a title contender like Hull KR at the moment but they should have way too much for Leeds to even think about halting their progress to the last eight.
Saints; Welsby, Feldt, Robertson, Percival, Bennison, Lomax, Sailor, Walmsley, Clark, Delaney, Sironen, Batchelor, Knowles. Interchanges: Whitley, Stephens, Paasi, Wingfield
Hull KR; Broadbent, Davies, Hiku, Gildart, Burgess, Lewis, May, Sue, McIlorum, Warea-Hargreaves, Hadley, Batchelor, Minchella. Interchanges: Litten, Tanginoa, Luckley, Whitbread.
Referee: Jack Smith
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