Warrington Wolves v Saints - Challenge Cup Quarter Final Preview

The stakes raise considerably this weekend as Saints travel to Warrington Wolves in the quarter-final of the Challenge Cup on Sunday afternoon (April 6, kick-off 2.30pm).

There are only two recognised major trophies for Super League clubs to play for in a season.  I will spare you the rant about how the League Leaders Shield should be a third.  Given that, the knockout nature of rugby league’s grand old competition takes the tension up a notch or 10 from the weekly Super League rounds. 

We are currently foaming at the mouth after a first win over Catalans Dragons in France since April 2022.  A win which is likely to have zero influence over our prospects of winning the Grand Final.  What will the mood be like if we are bounced out of the cup by a long-standing and local rival?   

That’s mostly Head Coach Paul Wellens’ problem. In his bid to avoid having to worry about it he has made just one change from the squad which was selected ahead of the trip to Perpignan.  Curtis Sironen missed that journey as he was expecting the birth of a child, but is included in the 21-man party for this one.  He replaces Harry Robertson - who despite the false hope offered by Sky commentator Stuart Pyke – misses out due to concussion protocols. 

Robertson – who has been shining brightly at centre for Saints this year – was forced out of the win over the Dragons in the opening minutes and subsequently failed a head injury assessment.

With only one change to the 21 we should probably not expect too many changes to the starting line-up or even the match day 17.  Wellens will no doubt stick by the vast majority of those who earned the win over in France, irrespective of the fact that his team’s performance was riddled with flaws.

Expect Sironen to come in to the second row.  With Robertson out there is a vacancy there anyway as Matt Whitley will likely be required to fill in at centre as he had done in Perpignan.  Joe Batchelor will no doubt operate on the opposite edge with Morgan Knowles at loose forward.  Both of those two will be playing their trade elsewhere next season and so are embarking on a final opportunity to win the Challenge Cup with Saints. 

Knowles may be facing a last opportunity to win it again with anyone after he agreed to join the Dolphins in the NRL from the start of 2026.  The NRL haven’t yet taken over the running of the allegedly ailing Super League, so the chances of an Australian club winning the famous old trophy at Wembley are still something akin to that second Grand Slam title for Emma Raducanu. After this year Knowles' best chance of winning the Challenge Cup again will be if he joins the current trend of players heading to Australia and then heading back home rather abruptly in the manner of the famous Abe Simpson gif.

The front row of the pack came in for some fierce criticism on these pages following the Catalans win.  Alas we have absolutely no influence over Wellens’ thinking so alongside the still immense Alex Walmsley will be Matty Lees, with George Delaney and Jake Wingfield set for places on the bench.  Delaney as not been a consistent performer but has shown glimpses of his potential during his 56 first team appearances.  Wingfield has played only one fewer and would probably have more were it not for injuries.  Yet he hasn’t shown me that he has anything like the same potential.  Frankly, I’m not sure he’s up to it.  Meanwhile Noah Stephens awaits a first opportunity since the 20-10 home defeat by Hull KR on March 7.

The pack should be completed by hooker Daryl Clark.  The former Wire man was demoted to the bench after injuring his hip in the 14-12 defeat to the Wolves a fortnight ago.  Yet the pedestrian, ponderous performance of Moses Mbye from the start against Steve McNamara’s side should see the two swap places again. 

If Robertson is replaced by Whitley the rest of the back division is likely to remain unchanged.  George Whitby is in the 21 and there are plenty of fans who believe that now is the time for him to replace the fading, sometimes frazzled Jonny Lomax in the halves.  Yet my feeling is that as long as Wellens is the one making the decisions it will not happen. 

Lomax is the team captain and – since the retirements of James Roby and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook – its most experienced campaigner.  He has made 357 appearances for the club across a 16-year career.  And despite the problems with the last of those a week ago he still ended the night as the hero.  A pair of late Lomax drop goals saw Saints sneak past the French side by a single point as Sam Tomkins’ missed conversion of the second of his brace of tries arguably cost his side the game.  In a game of this magnitude where it is win or go home the skipper plays ahead of any budding youngster.  Especially when his mate and former playing colleague is the one who is making that call.

Tristan Sailor will play alongside Lomax in the creative department which struggles to create.  Perhaps Saints best creative force is fullback Jack Welsby.  In the absence of injured wingers Kyle Feldt and Lewis Murphy Wellens is likely to stick with Jon Bennison on the right wing while offering a third first team start to Dayon Sambou.  Whitley’s centre partner – all things being equal – should be Mark Percival, a veteran of 250 Saints games himself.

Stephens is among those who will hope for a bench spot but it would be a surprise if Wellens veered away from last week’s incumbents Wingfield and Delaney, probably Mbye rather than Clark and offloading beacon of hope and inconsistency Agnatius Paasi.  Since the announcement of his impending move to Hull FC James Bell appears trapped in the eternal Hell of 18^th man responsibilities, doomed not to see action unless more than one Saint gets their swede bashed in.  More chance of Greg/Gary checking out of the White Lotus. 

Warrington’s squad selection includes some of those who missed last week’s 16-14 win over Leeds Rhinos.  Matty Ashton’s long range effort sealed the win at Saints a fortnight ago and his may get another opportunity to add to the nine tries in 13 games he has racked up against Saints.  If he scores in this one it will be for the sixth game in a row against the red vee.  I can’t be the only Saints fan hoping he isn’t quite ready.  As well as Ashton Head Coach Sam Burgess has selected both Toby King and Rodrick Tai in his 21-man squad.

Matt Dufty is another with the kind of pace that Saints are crying out for and he should start at fullback.  That’s something of a double edged sword though as – to put it mildly – there are better defensive fullbacks out there.  Josh Thewlis has been relieved of the goal-kicking duties since the arrival of Marc Sneyd from Salford Red Devils but is still a major threat on the right wing. 

In the halves the combination of Sneyd and George Williams was instrumental in getting Wire over the line against Saints on the former’s debut and has the potential to be among the best in the league.  Being brutally honest you would probably take it over the pairing of the speedy, free-scoring if slightly headless Sailor and the physically and mentally battered Lomax. 

There is quality in the front row too where former NRL star Paul Vaughan is the talisman alongside Zane Musgrove.  Danny Walker spent a number of years as understudy to Clark at 9 but since the latter joined Saints Walker has shown that he is now ahead of his former mentor.  Ben Currie and Lachlan Fitzgibbon are the likely second row partnership while Luke Yates – who missed the recent clash between these two – is now fit and could challenge James Harrison for the starting loose forward role.  One of those two should feature on a bench that could also include prop Adam Holroyd, ex-Wigan plodder Sam Powell and either Joe Philbin or Max Wood. 

Saints failed to beat Warrington in four attempts in 2024 and were knocked out of both Challenge Cup and Grand Final contention by Burgess’ men.  Saints' losing streak against the Cheshire side now stretches to five matches after this season’s narrow reverse.  Saints’ last win over Wire was a 16-8 success in September 2023.  If you are travelling to the Halliwell Jones Stadium for this one you might be doing so in hope rather than expectation.  Yet the last two defeats against Wire have come by a combined total of only three points. The margins are fine which makes that hope more than justified.  It will probably be tight even if Warrington go in as favourites. 

The last cup meeting between the two wasn’t close as Warrington hammered Saints 31-8 on their own patch at the last eight stage almost exactly a year ago.  It was also the quarter-final which saw Warrington knock Saints out 20-18 in 2020.  The pair met in the final in 2019 with Wire again coming out on top 18-4 at Wembley in a game in which Clark was a try scorer for the primrose and blue. 

Saints haven’t beaten Warrington in the Challenge Cup for 17 years when two tries from Willie Talau and further scores from Ade Gardner, Francis Meli, Lee Gilmour, Chris Flannery and Paul Clough sealed a 40-34 win.  The only man involved in that one who will play a significant if very different role for Saints on Sunday is Wellens. 

If you are looking for a good omen to add to your hope consider that Saints went on to lift the trophy that year as they defeated Hull FC 28-16 at a national stadium that had only been reopened a year previously.  The win over FC secured the second of three Challenge Cup wins in a row under Daniel Anderson. 

Will we still be involved in this  year's competition when your alarm wakes you up for work on Monday?  It’s toss of a coin stuff and while I remain hopeful, I wouldn’t say I’m expectant. 

Squads;

Warrington Wolves;

1.      Matt Dufty 2. Josh Thewlis 3. Toby King 4 Rodrick Tai 5. Matty Ashton 6. George Williams 8. James Harrison 9. Danny Walker 10. Paul Vaughan 11.  Ben Currie 12. Lachlan Fitzgibbon 13. Luke Yates 14. Sam Powell 15. Joe Philbin 16. Zane Musgrove 17. Jordan Crowther 21. Adam Holroyd 24. Max Wood 28. Jake Thewlis 33. Aaron Lindop 35. Marc Sneyd

Saints;

1. Jack Welsby, , 4. Mark Percival, 5. Jon Bennison, 6. Tristan Sailor, 7. Jonny Lomax, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. Daryl Clark, 10. Matty Lees, 11. Curtis Sironen, 12. Joe Batchelor, 13. Morgan Knowles, 14. Moses Mbye, 15. James Bell, 16. Matt Whitley, 17. Agnatius Paasi, 18. Jake Wingfield, 19. George Delaney, 21. Noah Stephens, 22. Ben Davies, 27. George Whitby, 29. Dayon Sambou.

Catalans Dragons 13 Saints 14 - Review

It was another close one but this time with a more favourable result. After being edged out at home by two points by Warrington a week ago Saints sneaked home by a point against the Catalans Dragons in Perpignan on Saturday night (March 29).  It was Saints’ first win in France since April 2022.  It leaves Paul Wellens’ side fourth in the Super League table after six rounds, overtaken on points difference by Wigan and trailing early pacesetters Hull KR by four points as the competition gets set to take a break for the quarter finals of the Challenge Cup. More on which later.

Wellens was without the ever reliable Curtis Sironen who was awaiting an imminent new addition to his family. His place in the second row was taken by Matt Whitley. The only other minor tweak to the lineup saw Moses Mbye move up from the bench to start at hooker with regular starter Daryl Clark among the interchanges. Clark had suffered a hip injury against his former club last weekend.

The Dragons have started the season in underwhelming fashion, now sitting ninth in the table with just two wins from their first six outings. Head Coach Steve McNamara will therefore have been relieved to welcome back two former Saints into his 17 after they had missed last week’s 26-4 win over the Castleford Tigers. Tommy Makinson faced his former club for the first time since ending his 14-year stay with Saints while Theo Fages also returned. Fouad Yaha and young halfback Guillermo Auspuro-Bichet made way. Curtis Sironen missed out on the chance to go up against his brother Bayley as the latter came in for Benjamin Garcia. Paul Seguier and Franck Maria replaced Jordan Dezaria and Romain Navarrete on the bench. 

Not being an away traveller these days and therefore relying on TV I missed the first five minutes of this one. It had been scheduled for one of the main recordable Sky Sports channels earlier in the week but at the last minute they decided to hide it behind the red button on Sky Sports+. You can’t record that so I had to try and make it home from taking my mum out for a mother’s day meal. The Sandpiper if you want to know and doing it on Saturday instead of Sunday was entirely my sister’s idea. S’alright, she won’t be reading.

I made it back just as the players were preparing to walk out on to the field. But nature called. No matter, I thought. Just pause it. The lesson from that is that the few minutes it takes to have a tinkle is enough to send a paused Sky Sports+ into meltdown. I returned to a black screen and had to come out of red button mode and then go back in. By the time I did that and the heap of shit had stopped buffering I had missed over four minutes of game time. 

By which time Saints centre and newest potential superstar Harry Robertson had left proceedings. Having watched it back (but only on Saints TV because I couldn’t find a downloadable version of Sky’s coverage on my system) I now know what happened. But I spent the first 30 minutes of the live viewing experience in a state of confusion as commentator Stuart Pyke continually referred to Whitley as Whitby. I’d seen the Saints lineup on Twitter when I was at the pub and so I knew that George Whitby was not in the match day 17. Nor was he 18th man because of course that honour currently belongs almost exclusively to James Bell. Just what the fuck was going on? It was only later when I saw a close up of Whitley that the penny dropped.

Pyke then informed us that although Robertson had failed his HIA and would not return to the field there may be hope that he would still feature in next week’s Challenge Cup visit to Warrington. His logic was that there were eight days between this match on Saturday and the Wire game this coming Sunday. It might have been a fever dream but I’m almost certain that they increased the mandatory period of inactivity following failed HIAs to 11 days a couple of seasons ago. I’d love to be wrong but I think we are going to be facing Sam Burgess’ side with either Whitley or Ben Davies at centre. Though there is a bloke called Konrad Hurrell still on the payroll.

Not long after I’d finished battling with Sky+ Saints took the lead. There were only five minutes on the clock when Jack Welsby shrugged off a weak attempted tackle by Reimis Smith to break down the right. The Saints fullback then found Tristan Sailor in support on his inside and he did the rest. Mark Percival’s conversion made it 6-0. 

Three minutes later Sailor was in again. Again it was Welsby doing the damage, this time popping up on the left and cruising down the field. He was everywhere at this point. He could perhaps have put Percival away when the cover arrived but took the tackle instead. On the next play Jonny Lomax took advantage of a scattered defensive line, finding Alex Walmsley who handed on to Sailor to go over under the posts. It was the former Brisbane Bronco’s sixth try of his debut Super League season and his eighth in all competitions. He is Saints’ top scorer in Super League and only Wigan’s Jai Field and Hull KR’s Mikey Lewis have more. Percival’s second goal of the night made it 12-0. Saints were going along at better than a point a minute at that stage. Which makes it all the more disappointing that they never created a chance worthy of the name for the rest of the first half. 

The home side got back into the game on 14 minutes. Some writers might refer to 36 year-old Sam Tomkins as evergreen. This one can’t bring himself to say anything that nice about him and regrets to report that it was the former Wigan man who crossed for the try which got his side off the mark. He ended up scoring all but one of his side’s 13 points. The first four came after one time Canberra Raiders and Canterbury Bulldogs man Nick Cotric broke down the left. The Dragons kept it alive with some neat offloads before Makinson arrowed in from the right and placed an accurate chip into the in-goal which Tomkins was able to gather and ground in one movement. He added the extras himself to reduce the arrears to 12-6.

Cotric almost created another score 10 minutes later, this time for ex-Sydney Rooster Luke Keary. Cotric flicked the ball back to Reimis Smith on the left touchline before the ex-Canterbury and Melbourne Storm centre handed on to Keary to cross. Yet after referee Jack Smith called for a review with an on-field decision of no try it became evident from the replays that Cotric had stepped on the touchline before managing to release the ball.

I am not going to break the habit of a lifetime by suddenly becoming a ref blamer. It’s a desperate defence mechanism for those not prepared to accept the inadequacies of their own team. But how the actual fuck did Wigan educated grub Ollie Partington avoid a yellow card for a late hit on Lomax just a minute after Keary’s no try? There are some who don’t want to see yellow cards for late hits unless they contain the kind of excessive violence that Gangs Of London would balk at. But if you have watched the game over the last couple of seasons you will have to have come to accept that late hits are usually seriously frowned upon. Even if there isn’t much force. 

During that period I have seen tackles nowhere near as late as Partington’s earn the perpetrator a spell in the bin. Yet video referee Liam Rush decided that no further action beyond the penalty already awarded was necessary. But having obviously seen it surely Jack Smith could have autonomously shown yellow. Have we now reached the point were on-field officials can’t show cards without reference to the man in the booth? 

With 10 minutes left until the break Saints had a golden opportunity to push their precarious lead out to two scores. Since I’ve already explained that they created precisely zero try scoring chances in the final 32 minutes of the half you will have ascertained that I’m talking about a goal-kicking opportunity. The Dragons were caught offside 15 metres from their own posts. But instead of taking the shot at goal Saints chose to run it. Colour me bamboozled. Ok, so it was a very windy night. Tomkins had already had trouble teeing up his attempt at goal following his earlier try and you could see the posts swaying in the gale. But still it looked an easy two for Percival.

It was a bonkers decision for which Lomax as skipper has to take responsibility. To make matters worse it was the veteran half who made the error in the ensuing set which ensured that the lead remained at just a converted try. Lomax has to make better decisions with the ball too. Why does he step inside so much instead of keeping the ball moving wide? It’s as if he still thinks he has the pace of Cody Walker when in fact he has the pace of geriatric Annie Walker who used to run the Rovers Return in Corrie when I was a nipper. 

The natives are getting restless with Lomax as his powers wane. He will be 36 by the time his current deal ends at the conclusion of the 2026 season. There are plenty that want change now, while still acknowledging his status as a club legend and one of the greats of the Super League era. Yet despite the flaws that are now creeping into his game he would end this night as the hero. 

And how we needed him to be. Seven minutes from halftime Tomkins dragged his side closer. Though as it turned out, not as close as he could and should have dragged them. He bagged his second try as he crashed through the tackle of Welsby to just about ground the ball. Jack Smith believed he had scored but sent it up for review just to be sure. Tomkins was duly awarded the 165th try of his Super League career. That puts him 14th on the all time list, three behind the late Rob Burrow, former Wigan and Hull KR winger David Hodgson and the still active Tom Briscoe. You wouldn’t bet against Tomkins ending the year in the top 10. He’s just five behind Luke Dorn and eight adrift of ex-Saints and Bradford great Leon Pryce.

Nor would you expect Tomkins to do what he did immediately after his try. He had touched down not very far to the left of the posts and should have brought the scores level at 12-12 as a matter of routine, windy or not. Yet somehow he managed to miss. This proved to be the key moment in the game if you look solely at the margin of Saints’win. Of course if he kicks it then perhaps everything else in the game changes thereafter. Sliding doors and all that. But on the face of it at least Tomkins’ uncharacteristic miss has helped paper over some fairly sizeable cracks in Saints’ performance.

Though first half try scoring chances dried up early for Wellens’ men they almost went in barely a minute after the restart. Dayon Sambou made a promising, try-scoring debut against Warrington last week and thought he had his second in as many games when he took Sailor’s pass and went in at the left corner. Yet the score was reviewed at the request of Jack Smith whose view was that it was no try due to an offside. Rush concurred that Sailor was in front of Lomax when the captain hoisted the bomb which bounced fortuitously into Sailor’s arms. It may not have counted but it was more encouraging.

Pyke had barely had to call the name of Jon Bennison in the first half but the Saints man finally got involved shortly after Sambou’s fruitless effort. Following a rare foray down the right touchline into Dragons territory Bennison tried to throw the ball back inside as he was forced into touch. His lack of involvement is highlighted by his 11 carries for just 69 metres. Those 11 carries are right at his average across his 5 Super League appearances in 2025 for a total of 55. By comparison wingers Tom Davies, Liam Marshall, Lewis Martin, Adam Swift and Riley Lumb all have over 100.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Saints haven’t gone to Bennison all that often. He’s just not a winger. With Robertson out that right edge becomes even less potent with Whitley filling in at centre. When Robertson is there it is often largely unnecessary to pass to Bennison. When Kyle Feldt was available the loss of Makinson didn’t seem insurmountable. Since then it’s been felt - no pun intended after those in the last two editions of this feature.

Tomkins did manage to tie the scores going into the last quarter. He notched a penalty goal after the teams had differing fortunes with captain’s challenges. First Catalans earned a reprieve when the original call of a ball steal by Fages on Percival was overturned. Saints fared rather less well when Sambou was deemed to have knocked on from Elliott Whitehead’s kick. That set up the position from where Saints’ defence were caught offside on their own 10 metre line. Tomkins wasn’t going to miss again. 

With Curtis Sironen out the family still very nearly made a telling contribution to proceedings. Bayley thought he had his first try of the season when he latched on to Reimis Smith’s smart kick on the Dragons’ left edge. Yet despite an on-field call of a try Smith’s namesake Jack wasn’t completely convinced and sent it up to Rush for a second look. The ball had come out of Tevita Pangai Junior’s possession awkwardly and perilously close to the ground as he was tackled. 

After what seemed like an infinite amount of replays, made worse by the TV director’s failure to understand what needed checking and inability to listen to basic requests from Rush, the latter decided that Pangai Junior’s ball carrying arm had hit the ground before he was able to release the ball. It wasn’t relevant in the end but it also looked like Keary might have knocked on when he picked it up before handing it on to Reimis Smith. Anyway, is it too much to ask for rugby league TV directors to have at least a rudimentary understanding of the game?

As we headed towards the final stages Saints had their own near miss. It didn’t require video scrutiny - mercifully for anyone who had a flight to Liverpool to catch before Wednesday - but Welsby would certainly have crossed had Walmsley not run straight at a Dragons defender, bowling him over like The Jesus knocks down pins in The Big Lebowski. 

After a night which could most generously be described as mixed it was time for Lomax to shine. A set restart enabled Saints to force a goal-line dropout. In the next set Clark - who by now was on for a somewhat ponderous Mbye - found Lomax who coolly slotted it over to put Saints back in front at 13-12.

Not that the lead lasted very long. Makinson - who had already created Tomkins’ first try - threatened to come back to haunt us when his short restart was batted back to Tomkins by Reimis Smith. By the end of the set it was Keary and not Tomkins who potted the one-pointer. Six minutes remained before the spectre of golden point extra time would come into view but we were already into a drop goal contest. 

Which Saints eventually won. They looked to have blown their chance when a wayward offload gifted Catalans possession deep in their own territory. But Saints’ next set was appropriately conservative given the situation and the way they had played for the previous 78 minutes. Again Clark found Lomax 20 metres out and again he was calm under the pressure. Without doubt his drop goaling (is that a legitimate rugby league term?) was the best part of his game on the night.

Like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction Steve McNamara’s side still wouldn’t die. Incredibly, they were offered one more chance when a Matty Lees error was swiftly followed by a penalty as Agnatius Paasi caught Tomkins around the neck area. The wind persuaded Catalans that they should tap it rather than kick for territory. Although Reimis Smith briefly threatened to make a potentially decisive break it was Tomkins who was finally forced to hit and hope into the night sky. Could there be one more miracle from the ageing star?

No. The wind ensured it went virtually nowhere as it blew into the arms of Fages. He was brought to ground to end a game that was always tense, exciting and dramatic but not of the quality that some say they witnessed. Among them was Sky summariser Terry O’Connor but it’s his job to big up the game and so he’s never actually seen anything but a classic. 

So why do I say it was poor quality? Saints’ attack was horrendous for large parts. They are massively over reliant on Walmsley. Although it was Lees who led the way here with 131 metres - 10 more than Walmsley - it is the big Yorkshireman who sits fifth in the league for metres made with 913. Lees has a comparatively piffling 486. Which given his efforts in this one means he only managed 355 metres across his previous four appearances. That’s an average of only just over 88 metres per game. By contrast Walmsley averages over 152 metres per game. Too often, when Walmsley is not on the field there is nobody to get us down the other end unless Welsby, Percival or Robertson can make a break. The situation is exacerbated by a truly woeful kicking game. 

In his post game interview Wellens identified his side’s failure to stop the offloads from Pangai Junior and Julien Bousquet. Between them the Dragons props managed seven. Between Walmsley and Lees they managed er….one. Overall Saints were outdone in this department by 16 to eight. They just never had the field position for the green shoots of expansive rugby that have sometimes been visible since the arrival of Lee Briers to make an appearance.

And so it is on to Warrington and that Challenge Cup last eight tie next week. Getting Curtis Sironen back will be a big help but a probable right edge of Whitley and Bennison raises concerns both offensively and defensively. A lot may depend on whether the likes of Matty Ashton, Toby King and Rodrick Tai - all of whom missed the Wolves’ 16-14 win over Leeds Rhinos last time out - can make it back into the lineup. Saints can compete with Warrington as they showed last week but it is an awful long time since they beat a top five team. 

Sunday (April 6) would be a great time to do it.

Catalans Dragons: Tomkins, Makinson, Laguerre, Smith, Cotric, Keary, Fages, Pangai Junior, Da Costa, Bousquet, Sironen, Whitehead, Partington. Interchanges: Romano, Satai, Seguier, Maria

Saints: Welsby, Bennison, Robertson, Percival, Sambou, Sailor, Lomax, Walmsley, Mbye, Lees, Whitley, Batchelor, Knowles. Interchanges: Wingfield, Paasi, Delaney, Clark.