It was a case of back on the metaphorical horse for Saints as they put their Challenge Cup exit behind them to record a fifth win from their first seven Super League outings. Paul Wellens’ side made a hot start against Daryl Powell’s Wakefield Trinity side before the inertia kicked in and they limped to a 26-14 victory.
It was good enough to keep Saints in the top four, just two points behind current pacesetters Hull KR. It’s tight at the top. Meanwhile the Trin are in eighth spot after this loss, but they too are in the playoff mix just two points off Leeds Rhinos in sixth.
Wellens made changes for this one, some forced, some maybe not. Something had to be done differently after the cup loss to Warrington last week and a string of other unconvincing performances. The headline was that captain Jonny Lomax missed out. There had been some talk earlier in the week that the 34 year-old had taken a knock. Yet the thought that he had been stood down after some recent insipid performances was irresistible. As we will see later Wellens’ post game comments did not eliminate those suspicions. Eighteen year-old George Whitby came in to replace the skipper.
That may or may not have influenced the coach’s decision to switch Jack Welsby and Tristan Sailor around. Welsby has been the regular fullback since Lachlan Coote’s departure but many have long felt that he would be a better fit at stand-off. All of which ignores the fact that he has won three Grand Finals, a Challenge Cup and a World Club Challenge in the number one position. England coach Shaun Wane has used him at stand-off at international level and who is That Saints Blog to argue with a man who has violently rampaged his way to three Grand Final wins and a humiliating World Cup semi final defeat to Samoa?
Sailor has some experience of playing fullback with Brisbane Broncos so it’s not seismic change for Wellens to make. Yet to observe most people who advocated the switch it seemed to be based more on getting Welsby’s hands on the ball more at six than on getting the best out of Sailor. I hope there isn’t a blast from Wendell on its way. He has previous for that. It’s deck chairs on the Titanic stuff for me but fine - whatever works.
Mark Percival was missing after sustaining another head knock at Warrington but that loss was arguably offset - for a while at least - by the return of Harry Robertson. Lewis Murphy - who hadn’t been seen since the opening day’s phoney war with Salford - started against his former club. He took Dayon Sambou’s spot on the wing but the inclusion of the latter among the interchanges was a heavy suggestion that Murphy might not be fit enough for 80 minutes. Nobody puts wingers on the bench without good reason. Not even Wellens.
Daryl Clark missed out with that troublesome hip of his but it was utility man James Bell rather than specialist nine Jake Burns who made the bench and looked the most likely alternative to Moses Mbye at dummy half. The selection of Sambou meant no place on the bench for Noah Stephens. He would have hoped to get a chance with Jake Wingfield on concussion protocols but it was left to Agnatius Paasi and George Delaney to back up starting props Alex Walmsley and Matty Lees.
Russells Matty and Olly were out for the visitors but Lachlan Walmsley returned. Jay Pitts was pressed into a Jon Wilkin-esque stint at halfback alongside Mason Lino while Josh Rourke continued at fullback in the absence of the excellent Max Jowitt. There was a debut at second row for 20 year-old Seth Nikotemo while Renouf Atoni came in at loose forward. I did the Renouf-Sailor joke when we played Trinity in Round 3 so we’ll move on.
With Lomax not involved Morgan Knowles was skipper for the night. It took only four minutes for the armband to inspire him to his fourth try of this Super League campaign and his 34th in Saints colours. Wakefield had been under some early pressure and took an ill-advised decision to try a short dropout. It had all the accuracy of a Bryson Dechambeau approach shot on the back nine at Augusta. Yet the way Tom Johnstone managed to nudge it back over his own try line as he challenged for it in the air with Murphy was still bewildering.
It fell straight into the arms of Knowles who despite the attentions of Pitt managed to fall over the line. Video Referee Aaron Moore was asked by on-field whistler Tom Grant to look firstly at the challenge between the wingers and then to check for a double movement by Knowles. Replays showed that Pitt had just fallen off the tackle which was enough to allow the new sheriff in town to make the second effort to score. Whitby took over the goal-kicking from Percival but was not successful with his first attempt.
Yet Whitby made a very telling contribution less than 10 minutes later. Receiving possession on the left from Sailor the young half offered up a delicious pump fake before planting a perfect short ball on to the chest of Matt Whitley. Playing as a makeshift centre the ex-Widnes and Catalans man just had to dive over the line for his first Super League four-pointer of 2025. He has two other efforts in Challenge Cup ties but if Percival and/or Robertson are out for any significant length of time he will be well placed to add to that tally. Particularly if the service is going to be as good as it was for this one. Whitby followed his magic trick with his first goal of the night and Saints led 10-0.
A quarter of the way into the game Saints were in again. A classy step by Welsby created the space for Robertson to fend off a defender to touch down. The position was set up by a Sailor break from near his own line after Isaiah Vagana had failed to hang on to a Lino pass just as Powell’s men were threatening to get onto the scoreboard. There was also a mesmeric offload by Curtis Sironen just before Welsby took matters into his own hands. Who says Lee Briers hasn’t had an influence? Whitby’s second goal pushed the lead out to 16-0.
One of the main sources of outrage - including on these pages - when Saints limped to victory at Catalans Dragons recently was the decision not to take an easy two points when leading by a converted try at 12-6. That criticism seems to have been taken to heart. Wellens’ men opted for two Whitby goals before halftime to keep the score ticking over. The first came when Trinity were caught offside near their own line following Delaney’s surge through the defence to within a whisker of grabbing a try. It was routine for Whitby. Saints’ lead was now 18-0.
The second arrived six minutes later and for a similar defensive infringement albeit from further out. I guess the logic of this one is that it was an opportunity to turn a three score lead of 18-0 into a four score lead at 20-0. But should we be worrying about that with such a sizeable lead at home against opposition that - despite our flaws - we would still expect to beat? Some would argue that the two penalty goals were over compensation for a poor decision in Perpignan which almost cost us.
In between the two goals Saints’ already battered back line suffered another catastrophe. Robertson succumbed to a leg injury picked up a few minutes earlier and did not return. It was subsequently confirmed as a quad injury. It seems unlikely to disappear fast enough for the Saints youngster - upon whom Saints are increasingly dependent for an attacking spark - to face Wigan in the derby on Good Friday.
Sambou came off the bench to fill Robertson’s centre berth. So much for managing Murphy’s comeback. But Sambou’s availability did at least limit the damage caused by the reshuffle. Almost as if Wellens had foreseen it.
Murphy would be withdrawn with around 10 minutes to go, leaving a back division of Jon Bennison, Sambou, Whitley and Sironen. You wouldn’t win the Championship with that and I bet Wellens did not foresee it. As much as Saints have stunk the gaff out at times this year they have also had some cruel luck with injuries. It feels as if as soon as one key player gets back to fitness another goes lame. If there is anything the medical team or the coach can do with the training or preparation to reduce the likelihood of injuries in this area of the team it needs to be done yesterday.
The last opportunity of the first half came as a result of the one glaring error in the Whitby performance. His kick went out on the full inside the final minute giving the away side a couple of plays to try to register before the break. Fortunately they couldn’t do it.
That error hasn’t been massively talked about which is probably about right. Whitby was always going to be judged by a different standard to Lomax. He’s a teenager making his third first team appearance. Lomax is the club captain, a veteran of 16 years and over 300 appearances in the red vee. If he shanks one into the stand it will be highlighted if the team is underperforming. Even if he then does something to win the game as he did in France with his two late drop goals. Whitby should enjoy the honeymoon period that being young and inexperienced affords.
Lomax’s deputy - Mr Knowles of Barrow Island - was close to setting the worst kind of example early in the second half. The loose forward swung an arm wildly in the direction of Rourke’s head and was fortunate that a penalty was the only sanction. Basically Knowles was saved by the fact that he missed the Trinity fullback. Had he made any kind of contact he would have been walking off for at least 10 minutes and possibly the 35 that remained.
Knowles will leave the club a the end of the season to join the NRL’s representative of nowhere - ex-Saints’ boss Kristian Woolf’s Dolphins. There are many reasons why Saints will miss Knowles when he goes. His work rate, his consistency, his leadership qualities. His recurring grubbiness is not on that list. There will be many who argue that if you take that side of his game away then he is not the same player. Maybe even that you need that kind of ‘enforcer’ in your team to be successful. Those same people never made that defence of Kelvin Skerrett or Neil Cowie. Ask your grandad.
Still I’m not too concerned with the fact that a player with a propensity for recklessness is the captain while Lomax is elsewhere. Captaincy is a largely ceremonial role apart from decisions on when to go for goal at penalties and the recent and ludicrous addition of captain’s challenge. And who cares about them, right? Great sides have leaders all over the park and great players know how to take responsibility for their own game. Welsby has been mooted as a possible long term successor when Knowles goes and if Lomax can’t find a route back into the team. Which is fine because he’s a great player who could lead by example in the way that James Roby did. And because I don’t much care.
Now on the subject of deciding what to do with penalties within kicking range the philosophy changed after the break, just like the level of performance. No more nudging the lead out by small increments and adding to Whitby’s goal tally. Clearly 20-0 was now a big enough lead to stop worrying about this stuff. Saints turned down the sort of gift they had lapped up in the first half and it soon paid off.
Whitley went in for his second try - his eighth in 32 appearances for Saints - and it was comfortably the highlight of the night. Welsby lobbed one up to the right corner where it was plucked out of the air by Bell. The eternal 18th man - set to join Hull FC for 2026 and beyond - produced an inspired no-look, over the shoulder offload to Whitley who again had very little left to do. It was sublime by Bell. But yeah, Jake Wingfield… Whitby added his fifth goal of the night for a 26-0 lead.
Another high ball was the first in a sequence of events which completely changed the way the wind was blowing. Lachlan Walmsley and Bennison competed for a crossfield bomb close to the Saints line which was originally deemed to have come off the Wakefield winger before rolling into touch. Wakefield challenged the call. After an interminable delay during which Moore took more looks than I have at Blackadder II, the video ref decided that the ball had last hit Bennison instead and the challenge was successful.
It may have, it may not have. But if it takes so long and has to be viewed from more angles than Frank Lampard was prepared to shoot from in his Chelsea pomp doesn’t that suggest that maybe the evidence is inconclusive? In those circumstances the video ref would stay with the on-field call.
There were consequences which - while never really threatening to undo all of the work that Saints had done to that point - certainly took away their focus. Within a couple of minutes a penalty and a set restart conceded by Saints flipped the field position. Lino was involved as Nikotemo found a gem of a cut out ball for Johnstone who hit Oliver Pratt on his inside. Wakefield were on the board at last but Lino’s failed conversion left them 22 points adrift at 26-4.
Five minutes after that it was Lino who was crossing for a try. Atoni ran a superb line to break the Saints defensive line before handing on to Lino on his left shoulder. The halfback was able to convert this time and Trinity had achieved a degree of respectability at 26-10.
And that wasn’t all. Lachlan Walmsley went close but came up short when he tried to dive in at the right hand corner post. That was realistically the end of Wakefield hopes but not the end of their scoring. With three minutes left Pratt picked up his second. Rourke broke down the centre of the field before placing a well weighted kick to the left corner. Pratt beat Bennison to it and although Grant again deferred to Moore to check a possible offside from the kick and the validity of Pratt’s pick up and grounding the try was annoyingly fair. It wouldn’t have mattered in terms of the result but Lino missed another conversion as the hosts held on to win by 12, 26-14.
To the individual numbers then and a dominant first hour translated to five Saints eating up more than 100 metres. Leading the way was Sailor with 150 while Knowles added 131. Lees racked up 107, Delaney 105 and Sironen 104. All of which subdued Alex Walmsley to the point where he only managed 92.
Knowles worked equally hard in both facets of the game, edging out Moses Mbye for Saints top tackler honours with 40 to the stand-in hooker’s 39. Nobody really needed to match those efforts although had the game gone on another 10 minutes you get the sense that there would have been more Saints with 30+ defensive efforts. Either that or Knowles and Mbye would have hit 70 apiece. But if my auntie had balls etc…
For Powell’s side only Johnstone (156) and prop forward Caleb Hamlin-Uele (103) topped a century of metres made. Vagana led all tacklers with 44 while England forward Mike McMeeken and youngster Harvie Smith were also busy with 35 and 30 stops respectively.
The win could have been more convincing but ultimately the result was vitally important given what’s on the horizon. Saints will no doubt go into the Easter derby as underdogs against a Wigan side that has shown its fallibility at times this year but still looks like one of the favourites for the competition. After that it’s the final act of the trilogy with Warrington which - unlike the third Ashes Test at Headingley in November - has no chance to be a dead rubber. Then it’s an improving Leeds Rhinos at Magic at the neutral territory of Newcastle’s St James’ Park. If Saints are still in the top four at the end of that trio of assignments then things won’t look so bad after all. I realise that ‘if’ did a lot of heavy lifting there.
Wellens has a decision to make regarding whether to bring back Lomax. In his post game presser the boss said that he identified this Wakefield clash weeks ago as an opportunity to give Whitby a shot. In face saving mode for his old teammate he then claimed that Lomax has an ankle injury, though he did also suggest that Lomax would have played through it if selected.
Elsewhere there are doubts about Robertson, Bell and Batchelor and the remaining question of whether Percival will need more rest to protect his oft-thudded head. And what of Clark’s hip? And will a much talked about move for centre Deon Cross from Salford finally transpire? If not, is Pratt available?
Saints: Sailor, Bennison, Robertson, Whitley, Murphy, Welsby, Whitby, Walmsley, Mbye, Lees, Sironen, Batchelor, Knowles. Interchanges: Paasi, Delaney, Bell, Sambou
Wakefield Trinity: Rourke, Walmsley, Scott, Pratt, Johnstone, Lino, Pitts, McMeeken, Hood, Hamlin-Uele, Nikotemo, Vagana, Atoni. Interchanges: Rodwell, Cozza, Smith, Faatili
Referee: Tom Grant
Video Referee: Aaron Moore
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