Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
It really is starting to feel like I am writing the same article every week as the same old flaws stand out in each passing Saints performance, win or lose. Those flaws led to the end of Wembley dreams for another year as Saints bowed out of the Challenge Cup at the quarter-final stage with a 20-12 defeat at Warrington on Sunday (April 6).
Saints came into this one off the back of a 14-13 win at Catalans Dragons. An early head injury to Harry Robertson in that one ruled him out, so Matt Whitley partnered Mark Percival in the centres. Curtis Sironen returned after missing the trip to France so he moved into Whitley’s slot in the second row alongside Joe Batchelor. It would all change before too long.
Matty Ashton returned after he was missing from the 16-14 win over Leeds Rhinos in Wire’s previous outing. Rodrick Tai replaced Stef Ratchford in the centres but there was still no Toby King so Ben Currie continued to deputise. Paul Vaughan started having also missed the visit of Leeds.
Not that he lasted very long either. Not initially at any rate. He may have wished he hadn’t been deemed fit to return when he sustained what looked a nasty finger injury inside the first minute. There was blood and presumably a significant amount of pain as he broke away from an attempt to tackle Alex Walmsley. By the end of minute two he had gone down the tunnel for further investigations.
Following that early slice of drama it was a cagey opening 15 minutes. Both sides were managing to hold on to the ball well but neither were causing their opponents’ defence too many problems. That is until George Williams opened Saints up on 16 minutes with a dazzling inside ball to Matt Dufty who had a clear run to the line. Morgan Knowles and Joe Batchelor had both slid across to try to shut Williams down as he threatened the line but Walmsley was unable to fill the gap left.
The big prop was barely in the same time zone as the Wire fullback when he took possession or even by the time Dufty dotted it down for the game’s first try. Marc Sneyd is becoming automatic from almost anywhere and his conversion gave the home side a 6-0 lead.
Despite that score Saints were still continuing to hold their own. Yet it was still staggering when former dual code superstar Jonathan Davies – Jiffysaurus to rugby league followers – suggested that Saints’ kicking game was their one weakness.
I knew Davies was out of touch with modern rugby league. I have often wondered whether – being a union man – he even watches rugby league in between his occasional commentary stints for the BBC. I didn’t know he couldn’t count. We have many other weaknesses but if I list them all here it might all get a bit too much for you. So I will leave it at an inability to go forward leading to desperately ineffective attack, being led by a conservative disciple of a superior former coach and - on this day - fielding a patched up back-line that was so bad that if I and a few of my old wheelchair basketball teammates had wheeled onto the Halliwell Jones turf and rolled straight at Ashton it would barely have made a difference to what was already on offer.
The forward pack was about to get weakened too. Sironen had to leave the field when he picked up a head knock while trying to bring Lindop to ground. Fortunately he would return. For the moment he was replaced by Jake Wingfield who had again managed to be selected ahead of the possibly less aerodynamic but palpably more effective Noah Stephens.
Wingfield’s first carry ended in disaster. He ran straight at Williams and Tai and as he fell towards the ground there was contact between the Wire stand-off and Wingfield’s head or jaw area. It wasn’t intentional from Williams but it looked like the contact had been made with his arm. This was a nailed on yellow card last season but on this occasion it didn’t even move referee Liam Moore enough to award a penalty. Meanwhile Wingfield looked very unwell as he lay on the ground before he was also taken from the field for an HIA. He did not return and will not be available for this weekend’s visit of Wakefield Trinity. Noah must play, right?
Saints were unfortunate not to force a repeat set deep in Wolves territory when a Jonny Lomax grubber was almost grounded by Tristan Sailor. The former Brisbane man seemed to knock the ball onto the foot of Dufty before it went dead in-goal. However when Moore asked video referee Tom Grant to have a look - largely to determine how the game should be restarted - the latter ruled a knock on against Sailor. It was a truly atrocious call which - more importantly for Saints - meant a rare opportunity had been lost.
If Jiffysaurus wanted evidence of another Saints weakness he could have added their handling of the high balls that were rained down on them by Sneyd. There were numerous examples of this, the first of which came when Jon Bennison left the responsibility to Sailor who was then forced to try and catch the ball over his shoulder. It wasn’t costly in terms of points on the scoreboard but it was a warning.
Which Saints mostly failed to heed. Another such moment lead to a third HIA for Saints and the loss of Percival. The centre was the one member of Saints’ starting three-quarter line who would have been there had everyone been fit. Yet after Bennison flapped at Sneyd’s crossfield kick Warrington were awarded a penalty as the ball had been touched by Sailor in an offside position. Saints held out defensively as Lindop failed to hang on to a Williams pass but Percival’s head collided with Currie’s hip, forcing the Saints man out of the game.
Ordinarily that’s a mandatory 11-day absence which rules Percival out of Friday night’s clash with Trinity (April 11). Yet the centre - who turns 30 in a few weeks - has a worrying history of head injuries. Last time he sustained one he was held back and was ultimately inactive for three weeks. You’d have to think that the club would err on the side of caution with his health despite huge clashes with Wigan and Warrington following the meeting with Daryl Powell’s men. They and Percival have to prioritise his longer term health despite what negative results could mean for Head Coach Paul Wellens.
Before Wellens could think about that he had some reshuffling to do in that banged up three-quarter line. Bennison and Dayon Sambou remained on the wings but Whitley had a new centre partner in the Hull-bound, maybe not as good as he was under Kristian Woolf Batchelor. Waka Waka indeed. Knowles filled Batchelor’s second row spot while Daryl Clark spent some time at loose forward. Up against Ashton, Tai, Lindop and Currie Saints were bringing the proverbial pen knife to a gunfight.
Which made it all the more surprising that they were level by halftime. Clark punched a hole in the Warrington defensive line before Lomax found a second well weighted attacking kick following on from the one which lead to Grant’s replay howler earlier. This time Sailor got there in time and touched down ahead of Lindop. Grant made the right call this time and Bennison - stepping in for the departed Percival to take over the goal-kicking - ensured Saints went in level at 6-6 at halftime.
We know that Ashton has an absurdly good try scoring record against Saints. In his 13 appearances against the red vee prior to this one he had crossed the whitewash nine times. The mere presence of his name on the teamsheet strikes fear into the hearts of every Saint. Especially with a backline which would struggle to score points in the NCL. That Ashton did not add to his frankly quite greedy tally in this one was down largely to Saints fullback and brightest star Jack Welsby.
Five minutes into the second half the former Swinton flyer broke from inside his own half and scorched 75 metres down the field. As he crossed into the Saints 20 metre zone he was faced with only Welsby and had - one would have thought - enough real estate to allow his pace to tell. Welsby is not slow by any means. At least not slow enough to make it into Wellens’ re organised back line. Yet he used great game intelligence to narrow down the space and bring Ashton down.
Sighs of relief all round then, until Saints were caught offside later in the set. That gave Sneyd a simple opportunity to add another two points to his name and put the Wolves back in front at 8-6.
He may not be anyone’s idea of Bradman Best - so good they named him after two sports legends - but Batchelor almost became a hero within five minutes of Sneyd’s latest goal. A Joe Philbin error gifted Saints good field position which allowed Lomax to find the makeshift centre. He cut inside and reached out to ground the ball as he just made it to the line. Unfortunately the inevitable video review confirmed Moore’s initial hunch that Batchelor had lost possession in his attempt.
Sam Burgess’ side had a close call of their own soon after. On the very next play following Batchelor’s near miss Saints thought that their defence created another great chance. Lord knows the attack struggles to do it by itself. The ball came free from the grasp of Tai under pressure from Moses Mbye and Moore ruled that the Wire man had knocked it on. However, a captain’s challenge persuaded Grant on review that Mbye had helped nudge the ball out. Grant was right, too.
There has been some fume about this from Saints fans and not just among the ref blaming community. The absence of a stripping motion by Mbye has been enough to convince some that this was just the latest in a series of absolute disgraces designed to stop Saints winning. I mean, do we really believe that anyone within the game’s hierarchy thinks that this Saints team need to be stopped that way?
Mbye’s hand clearly made contact with the ball which - when applied to tackles in which possession is retained by the ball carrier - invariably leads to set restarts. How many times have you heard a referee shout ‘six again - hand on ball’? It was an infringement from which the ball came loose in a two-man tackle so a set restart could not be awarded. It had to be a penalty.
Grant was not able to adjudicate on Wire’s next try claim from the resulting possession. Within seconds of Vaughan returning from his early finger injury Ashton went in at the left corner from Currie’s pass. Yet Moore was on hand to correctly rule that the pass had been forward. This could not be reviewed nor challenged - although knock-ons continue to be immune to the logic which prevents forward passes from being scrutinised. It would have made no difference to Moore’s call if it had been looked at.
Though Currie was unable to provide his winger with a try he grabbed one for himself three minutes later. Again Saints allowed a kicked ball to bounce and this time it did so in a way which demonstrated exactly why that is such a dangerous situation. Williams’ chip ahead took an evil bounce away from the covering Welsby straight into the arms of Currie. It was clever play from Williams, a tad unfortunate for Welsby and easy for Currie. Sneyd tagged on two more for a 14-6 lead. The first time the home side had the breathing space of a two score advantage.
As poor as their long kicking game is Saints were still threatening with their shorter efforts. Lomax had two in the first half - one successful and one scuppered by a bad video referee call - and now Bennison joined in the fun. Raging against the dying of the light and a dodgy hip, Clark went over against his former colleagues just five minutes after Currie’s four-pointer.
Bennison’s low dab bamboozled Jordy Crowther whose scissor-handed foolery offered Mbye possession close to the Wire line. He shuffled it back inside to Clark who went in while copping a fearful whack from a Warrington defender. Moore wanted to check offside from the kick - don’t they always? - but it was A-OK. Or hey lads hey if we’d been unfortunate enough to have had Jon Kear on commentary as well as Davies. What does this mean anyway? Bennison converted to bring the deficit back to two at 14-12. A scoreline we’d seen very recently between these teams. We wouldn’t be seeing it by the end.
Stopping Ashton in open space is difficult enough to do once, but few could manage it twice as Welsby did in the second half. The winger travelled even further this time, breaking the line and going 85 metres before the Saints fullback reeled him in again. The drama was partially ruined by Davies who - appointing himself lead commentator - began barking ‘take two!’ over the top of Dave Woods’ description of the action. Wide To West, By The Barest Of Margins and They Think It’s All Over it was not.
That Welsby then found the energy to make a 40 metre break of his own was a testament to his powers. Sadly his was a somewhat lone furrow. The only support was provided by Matty Lees on his inside but with 40 metre still to go Welsby decided to hang on initially. He eventually released the pass when he was on his way to ground in the grasp of the covering defence and was lucky not to be pulled up for a forward pass. But there’s only so much you can do on your own if an opposition defence makes the effort to funnel back.
Retreating defenders were notably absent when Williams crossed for the decisive try with just over 10 minutes to go. Spotting a huge gap in the left edge of the Saints defence the ex-Wigan and Canberra man motored through it. He looked like he might hobble over the line by the end but found another spurt of energy to end any hope of Sailor making an unlikely tackle.
It echoed Ashton’s effort in the recent league meeting between these two in that it started when a Welsby pass went behind its intended target and was pounced upon by the Wolves. It was a fantastic try from their point of view but pretty bad from a Saints perspective. It had mercilessly exploited the red vee’s patched up edges. It’s unclear whether Davies noticed this particular weakness in the Saints side by this point. Sneyd tacked on another two to put Warrington eight clear at 20-12.
And that was pretty much that. The hours after a defeat like that are an emotional time. There were plenty of observers who considered the whole season a write-off. They advocated dropping everyone and letting the kids loose. Yet in a competition which allows any of its top six a shot at the title you still retain that annoyingly faint chance of glory. Saints almost certainly aren’t good enough to reach let alone win the Grand Final this year but that won’t stop them trying. And should they still be involved come September they are likely to have a far stronger set of backs to choose from.
Not to say that Wellens is safe from the sack before any of that. Saints face an improving Wakefield side this week under Daryl Powell. Where once upon a time you’d rock up to this one knowing Saints were going to win, it now looks genuinely in the balance ahead of kick-off. If you squint a little you might be able to see why that is A Good Thing for the sport. But ultimately I guess most fans would rather watch an easy Saints win - most of which they spend on Tik-Tok - than go through the fraught drama of a tight contest which Saints might actually lose.
Saints have only named a 20-man squad. The suggestion was that they were leaving a vacancy in case a deal was done for Salford back and one time junior Saint Deon Cross this week. The Salford man has been heavily linked with his hometown club this week but will likely turn out for the Red Devils against Leeds on Thursday night (April 10). Yet if a deal can be done he’s a better option going forward than Bennison and could deputise for Percival should he require a longer layoff than is mandatory for a head injury.
The options at Wellens’ disposal may also include former Wakefield man Lewis Murphy. He made his Saints debut in the opening weekend non-event at home to Salford but has been out injured since. Meanwhile there has been a clamour for the inclusion of George Whitby at halfback amid suggestions that Lomax may have developed an unspecified, face saving ‘knock’.
Clark has been ruled out so Jake Burns may share hooking responsibilities with Mbye. Wingfield’s place in the 17 must surely go to Stephens but you might have high hopes if your name is Bell, James Bell. For all the criticism you can justifiably throw at them Saints are still in the top three in Super League. A win over Wakey will consolidate or improve that position. Though quite what the fixture planners were doing in offering up a second meeting with Wakefield in seven rounds when Saints have yet to play any of Wigan, Hull FC, Leeds, Leigh or Huddersfield is anyone’s guess.
Wigan are next on the schedule after Trinity before a second league meeting with Warrington before any of FC, the Rhinos, Leopards or Giants figure in the plans. If Wellens oversees losses to Wakefield and Wigan then it may be that none of the rest of it is his problem.
Warrington: Dufty, Lindop, Tai, Currie, Ashton, Williams, Sneyd, Musgrove, Walker, Vaughan, Fitzgibbon, Holroyd, Harrison. Interchanges: Powell, Philbin, Crowther, Yates
Saints: Welsby, Bennison, Whitley, Percival, Sambou, Sailor, Lomax, Walmsley, Mbye, Lees, Sironen, Batchelor, Knowles. Interchanges: Paasi, Wingfield, Delaney, Clark. Bell activated as 18th man.
Referee: Liam Moore
Video Referee: Tom Grant
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