There was a distinct absence of Magic as Saints went down to defeat at the annual Newcastle shindig on Saturday night (May 3). Paul Wellens’ men were beaten 17-4 by an improving but still pretty average Leeds Rhinos side. In doing so, Saints slumped to a third successive league defeat after reverses at Wigan and Warrington in recent weeks.
The result leaves the red vee clinging on to the last playoff place in sixth, with all of Catalans Dragons, Wakefield Trinity and Warrington Wolves joining them on 10 points from five wins and five losses in the opening 10 rounds. It is too early to panic just yet but the prospect of missing out on the playoff series for the first time in the Super League era seems a very real one at the moment.
Meanwhile Leeds not only leapfrogged Saints but also Hull FC who fell to a surprise defeat to Huddersfield Giants following Liam Knight’s first half dismissal. Brad Arthur’s Rhinos side now sit fourth in the standings, but still six points adrift of leaders Hull KR. If there is a gap between the top nine and the bottom three there is also one beginning to form between the top three of Rovers, Wigan and Leigh and those between fourth and ninth.
Wellens has preferred George Whitby at halfback to Jonny Lomax in recent weeks but decided to include both in the 17 for this one. And he did so without leaving out either of the other two potential halves in the side – Jack Welsby and Tristan Sailor. Lomax was given a place on the bench with Sailor at fullback and Welsby and Whitby starting in the halves. The days of backs starting on the bench disappeared in the early 2000s so it always seemed an eccentric selection. It arguably caused more problems than it solved.
Deon Cross joined the club from Salford Red Devils this week and made a debut in the centres. He’s a good option in the continued absence of Harry Robertson and Konrad Hurrell through injury but does he play if one or both of those are available? He could end up being shoehorned on to the wing with Jon Bennison the most likely to make way if the events of this one are anything to go by.
Agnatius Paasi earned a start ahead of Alex Walmsley who was left on the bench. He was accompanied by Daryl Clark who still somehow fails to convince Wellens that he is a better man for the starting hooker job than Moses Mbye. Clark has had a hip injury of late but if he is fit to play then he should surely start with Mbye a passable option to spell him when it is absolutely necessary. Instead it feels like Mbye is Wellens’ man which is further evidence of the Head Coach’s current brain scramble.
With Lomax taking up a bench spot it meant no place for Noah Stephens who – besides Walmsley – looks like the only front rower in the first team squad capable of making the metres required on a consistent basis. He didn’t even make it as far as 18th man. That honour went to Jake Wingfield, just back from a few weeks out due to concussion protocols.
Ryan Hall was not fit for the Rhinos so Arthur went with a wing pairing of Alfie Edgell and Riley Lumb. Jack Sinfield – miraculously not suspended after his shenanigans against Hull KR last time out – was the preferred halfback partner to Jake Connor with Matt Frawley missing out. Jarrod O’Connor returned at hooker with one time England centre Kallum Watkins named at loose forward following his move from Salford Red Devils.
It took just two minutes for Saints’ right edge defence of Matt Whitley, Cross and Bennison to be shredded for the first try. Ash Handley made the break, finding Morgan Gannon who kicked ahead cleverly for Lumb to win the race to touch down. Fullback Lachlan Miller is currently the designated goalkicker but could not find the target with his first effort.
Within 10 minutes of that effort Miller was in for a try of his own. He combined well with Harry Newman and Edgell on the right flank before cutting inside past the slipping fullback Sailor to score. This time he managed to convert the extras and Leeds had a double digit lead at 10-0 with less than 15 minutes played.
There has been a lot of discussion among Saints fans about Sailor and his position in the team. There are those who are open to the idea of Lomax being reintroduced to the starting 13 but only at the expense of Sailor. They say that he has been underwhelming since his move from Brisbane Broncos at the start of 2025. It’s fair to say that there are many sides to him. After slipping and therefore blowing any opportunity he had to stop Miller scoring he did manage to prevent Lumb extending the lead when he bundled the Leeds winger into touch following Connor’s pass.
My own feeling is that a team like Saints – with an attack as bad as it currently is – cannot afford to jettison someone with the pace of Sailor. He has shown several times this season that once he breaks the line or supports a team mate who has done so it invariably ends in four points. You need that speed threat in your side. It was what Saints were sorely lacking last season and the son of Wendell has been brought in to address exactly that problem. To give up on him now seems an awful lot like going back to what didn’t work in the past.
Now hands up who would be surprised to learn that some indiscipline from Morgan Knowles almost cost Saints another two points? He has had more than a few brushes with the disciplinary panel during his storied Saints career and it was he who was guilty of a tip tackle which gave Miller the opportunity to add two more points from the penalty.
It wasn’t hugely dangerous from Knowles, but it was unnecessary and all a bit scatterbrained. For everything else we will miss about him when he leaves to join the Dolphins in the NRL at the end of the year his discipline – or lack thereof – is not one of them. Fortunately Miller made an excellent case for Sinfield to take over the goalkicking responsibility by spurning the very presentable chance he had been gifted.
Soon after that came the moment that illustrated Wellens’ current confused thinking. Having named Lomax on the bench he sent him into the fray after half an hour. Yet it was not one of the other potential halves who made way but Bennison on the wing. Lomax went into the halves alongside Whitby with Welsby reverting to fullback. Sailor was the one shunted out to the right wing. Bennison was visibly and understandably upset with this decision. It looked a lot like scapegoating him when he had not really done too much wrong.
Any one of those three players on that right edge could have been hooked for their display in the first 10 minutes. Yet Wellens explained later that although it may have looked like scapegoating Bennison it was instead just a way of injecting Lomax’s experience and leadership into the game. Because it has given us so much so far this season, right? Frankly the whole thing feels a bit barmy and it is only going to make selecting the team for the Catalans Dragons game in a week or so even more difficult. Whoever is left out it might be best if the bench could be populated with four forwards for that one. We can’t persist with backs on the bench in the modern game of multiple interchanges.
One of the hardest things to accept about this whole sorry affair was the showboating. Leeds are a bang average side despite their recent upsurge in form and should not be feeling cocky enough to engage in this sort of thing with Saints. Yet chief shithouse Connor began the second half by holding the ball in one hand like an orange as he scanned all around him for a telling offload. It came to nothing but the very principal of it irked. As it had earlier when Lumb was visibly smiling on his way to the try line before Sailor intervened and made him look mug-like.
Arthur doesn’t strike me as the sort of coach who allows his players to indulge in this level of hubris. Misplaced hubris in Lumb’s case. That they did so in this one is indicative of where Saints are right now. Disrespected. Not seen as anything like the threat they once were or should be. This should alarm everyone, especially the coaching staff. Sport is cyclical and you can’t keep winning Grand Finals every year. But you don’t have to turn into a team to be patronised by another which has won nothing since David Cameron was Prime Minister.
Six minutes into the second half Saints registered their only points of the evening. Found by Whitley on the right Matt Whitley dummied to Sailor – now playing on the right wing in Wellens’ berserk reshuffle – and cut inside to score. It was the former Catalans Dragons man’s fifth try of the season and his ninth in Saints colours. Yet Whitby couldn’t add the extras so the deficit remained a converted try at 10-4.
Whitby is thought by those who regularly see reserve grade rugby to be a prolific goalkicker. Yet he has not transferred that to the first team yet. His 64% success rate with nine goals from 14 attempts in his four Super League appearances this season has not exactly solved Saints’ goalkicking problem. Previously, Mark Percival was up around 70% with 26 goals from his 37 attempts. Arguably this is also not quite good enough and someone else needed to get a shot. But the improvement many foresaw with Whitby taking over has yet to materialise.
Sailor was soon back in the action – performing feats that will again divide the fan base. Leeds would have scored a potentially game sealing try through Lumb if Connor’s pass had found the winger but it was instead plucked out of the air by Sailor. He set off on a journey down the full length of the field but was caught by Handley with surprising ease. The Leeds centre’s tackle attempt didn’t match his speed but he slowed Sailor down enough for first Miller and then Sam Lisone to halt his progress.
This was a confusing development. It is only a few short weeks since Sailor was holding his own in a sprint with Warrington’s Matty Ashton. You wouldn’t have thought that Handley was in that class as a sprinter yet here he was making ground on Sailor with every stride after the first 30 metres or so. It’s not a Tee Ritson situation where the fabled speed turns out to be somewhat overstated, but it is just possible that Sailor’s electric pace is not something which lasts very long. Over a short distance he probably would not have been caught. But over the entire length of the field he was comfortably reeled in. Perhaps wing is not the best place for him, then.
Saints enjoyed their best spell of the game over the next 10 minutes or so. They were camped in the Leeds half without ever really looking all that threatening. It spoke volumes about the limitations of the attack. It all ended pointlessly, with the game turning again following the bizarre decision to yellow card Lewis Murphy on the hour. The winger was competing with Edgell for a Welsby high ball. The Leeds man barely left the ground which meant that Murphy’s knee was at Edgell’s head height as he tried in vain to catch the ball.
Inevitably, Murphy’s knee collided with Edgell’s head. Referee Jack Smith explained that he and video referee Ben Thaler did not believe it was deliberate but contact with the head still brought with it a spell in the sin-bin. If we thought we had left behind those dark days of accidental clashes bringing game changing punishments – Nu Brown, anyone? - we might want to think again. Yet the biggest issue is probably that the same thing could happen in a game next week and no yellow card be shown. I’m not personally in favour of accidents yielding yellow cards although I am massively in favour of protecting players from head injuries. But if it is a yellow then let it be a yellow for everyone. And if it is not a yellow then let it not be a yellow for everyone. That doesn’t seem that difficult to achieve.
The numerical disadvantage more or less did for an already struggling Saints outfit. From the ensuing set following the penalty Leeds marched on together down the field and helped themselves to a Sinfield drop goal. That psychological barrier of a seven point deficit, where more than a converted try is required, knocked out whatever stuffing had been in Saints in the first place. Which wasn’t a huge amount if we are being honest with ourselves.
Lumb thought he had absolutely sealed it when after a link up between Miller and Connor he dived over in the left corner. It is not known whether he was wearing a smug, misguided smile as he crossed this time but what we do know is that his foot was on the sideline before the ball was grounded and so the try did not stand.
Saints last glimmer of hope was removed when Cross had a debut try ruled out soon after. He was first to Sailor’s knock down from Whitby’s hurried, somewhat improvised Crossfield kick, rounding the covering defenders to touch down. However, Thaler ruled that Sailor had knocked the ball forward in the contest in the air. He may or may not have. It was pretty difficult from the angles shown to determine which direction the ball was travelling in. Yet since referee Smith had sent the decision up as no try there was not enough evidence to overturn that call.
Can’t really argue with that. Yet it was a shame that Cross was denied on what was a reasonable debut. He and his colleagues on the right edge struggled badly in that first 10 minutes but he grew into the game and looked dangerous enough on the rare occasions that the Saints attack was able to get the ball to him in space. There is potential there but I am probably not the only one who will feel more comfortable when Robertson is back in that position.
We will never know what would have happened had that effort stood but as it was Leeds crossed again anyway. With three minutes to go Morgan Gannon – another Morgan who is NRL bound in 2026 - crashed through the tackle attempt of Welsby, Matty Lees and Whitley to touch down. The ball disappeared under the pile of bodies for a while but the try was confirmed by Thaler on review. Miller’s conversion ended the scoring at 17-4.
Wellens might prefer not to but he again fronted up to the press in the aftermath of this latest debacle. He confusingly kept referring to Welsby’s ‘preferred’ fullback position. If that is where he prefers then why was he moved to stand-off in the first place? I don’t know that he does prefer it and I don’t know that he is more effective there either. It is hard to gauge when the rest of the team is malfunctioning so much, especially in attack.
The Head Coach then reiterated his belief that this group of players can be successful. At this point that is either some kind of rabid delusion or it is just a responsible Head Coach keeping his players onside. After all, he is going to have to continue to rely on them for as long as his worsening tenure is allowed to run. He admits to being under huge pressure which feels like something of an understatement. Like a dolphin complaining of being a bit wet. Adding to his own seeming inability to find solutions to all of Saints problems is the fact that recruitment opportunities will be limited to non-existent between now and season’s end. He may not make it that far.
He rightly dodged the question about stories regarding a fan approaching him aggressively after the game. If true this is way beyond the pale. Whatever else he is Wellens is a club legend after a stellar 17-year playing career. He won every honour in the game more or less and in any case, a bad result or three does not warrant any personal abuse or disrespect. This happened to Keiron Cunningham. It was a disgrace then and it is a disgrace now. If you are abusing Wellens or any of the players or thinking about approaching them then please have a word with yourself. Criticism is fine. Nobody wants to be a blind happy clapper who insists everything is fine in the face of this shit show, but let’s keep it civil.
His last point was in response to a question about the Murphy yellow card. He again suggested that he should not be the one to answer for referees decisions and that it should be referees chief Phil Bentham’s job. I don’t know if it is coincidence but it is a while since I have read or heard anything from Bentham. Steve Ganson was never this quiet whether you liked him or not.
Saints have some time to reflect now. They don’t play again until May 15 when Catalans Dragons come to town. The Challenge Cup semi-finals take centre stage this week and you or I do not need reminding that Saints will not be involved. Last time Saints met the Dragons a couple of Lomax drop goals proved the difference in a 14-13 win in Perpignan. Will the skipper play a full part in the next meeting or will we see a repeat of the muddled thinking that saw him come off the bench at the expense of an incandescent Bennison in this one?
Don’t rule anything out during the Wellens reign. Except perhaps a Grand Final win.
Saints: Sailor, Bennison, Cross, Percival, Murphy, Welsby, Whitby, Paasi, Mbye, Lees, Sironen, Whitley, Knowles. Interchanges: Walmsley, Lomax, Delaney, Clark
Leeds Rhinos: Miller, Lumb, Newman, Handley, Edgell, Sinfield, Connor, Oledzki, O’Connor, Palasia, Gannon, McDonnell, Watkins. Interchanges: Holroyd, Lisone, Bentley, Jenkins
Referee: Jack Smith
Video Referee: Ben Thaler
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