Despite the excitement and anticipation brought about by a new head coach and several new key signings, the opening week of Super League 2026 did not go well for Saints.
A pretty abject first half showing saw Paul Rowley’s side
fall 18-0 down at the break. That
translated into a 24-14 defeat by the end of proceedings at the Halliwell Jones
Stadium.
Fortunately the weekly churn of Super League offers Saints a
quick opportunity to respond when they host Leigh Leopards this weekend. But it will be far from easy against one of
the best teams in the competition since they returned to the top flight in
2023. Can Rowley and Saints find a response
and raise our spirits?
The turmoil wasn’t just on the field last week. A few short days after the defeat to
Warrington it was announced that Mike Rush would be stepping down from his
position as CEO after 13 years in the role.
Few people believe that the plan was always to step down after one game
of the new season. Consequently an air
of uncertainty hangs over Saints as they enter this one.
It’s been exhaustively well documented that Leigh are one of
the teams with whom Saints had so much trouble throughout 2025. The Paul Wellens incarnation of the side
could not beat any of the Leopards, Hull KR or Wigan throughout the campaign. You can add Warrington to that although had
we been fortunate enough to run into them during their post-Wembley meltdown
there’s a reasonable chance we could have got over the line.
With this in mind facing Adrian Lam’s side when the front
row is in a state of disrepair is far from ideal timing. Leigh are a very physical – some would say violent
– side. Saints are unlikely to be
visibly intimidated but are they going to be able to make enough metres to
allow what should be an improved back line to operate? And defensively the loss through injury of
skipper Matty Lees has already been felt.
Not to mention the void left by Morgan Knowles who left the club at the
end of last season. Someone has to stand up for Saints but you look around and
you don’t see who it will be.
There was a time when you could leave that to Alex
Walmsley. His magnificence over the
successful years has served to mask the fact that our other props aren’t
providing enough go forward. Lees and
Knowles were great defensively but even they didn’t light up the stats sheet
with their metre making. With Lees out
and the almost 36 year-old Walmsley now limited to almost performing cameos
from the bench we need more from new signing David Klemmer and home grown
talent George Delaney.
It’s unfair to judge Klemmer after one league game and one
Challenge Cup game but Delaney has appeared to go backwards in the last year or
so. He was an exciting prospect for a
time but he doesn’t yet have that ability to lay waste to a defensive line and
help speed up the ruck. Hooker Daryl
Clark is still quick out of dummy half but he is the only experienced hooker
still in the building. Jonny Lomax has
been employed as a relief option and although he has done a serviceable job it
is more as a distributor than as a runner.
The same is surprisingly true of Joe Shorrocks who has nominally
replaced Knowles, while second rows Matt Whitley and Shane Wright didn’t really
see enough of the ball against Warrington to make the difference.
While Saints were toiling at Warrington, Leigh were opening
their campaign with a 26-14 win over Leeds Rhinos. Brad Arthur’s side came home with the wettest
of sails in 2025 until they ran into the un-Wellens-like ‘Right To Wright’
miracle in the Headingley playoff which saw Wright cross for the winning score
on the last, post hooter play of the game following the award of a
penalty. Yet Lam’s men handled them fairly
easily, scoring five tries to two against a side you can expect to contend once
more. It was a result which also laid
down a marker that Leigh will be in amongst the playoff contenders again in
2026.
Rowley has made one enforced change to his 21-man squad in
preparation for this test of his side’s collective mettle. Jack Welsby was forced off the field last
weekend and it transpires that he will miss around four months with a
dislocated shoulder which requires surgery.
That could leave a straight choice between Harry Robertson and Tristan
Sailor for the fullback role, with the other perhaps occupying the stand-off
role alongside Jackson Hastings at seven. However George Whitby is also named and could
be handed another first team opportunity earlier than maybe he had feared.
Replacing Welsby in the squad isn’t the still injured Mark
Percival – the subject of much conjecture about whether he really was offered
that two year deal as claimed by Jon Wilkin immediately prior to Rush’s
departure, but utility forward Curtis Sironen.
The ex-Manly Sea Eagle doesn’t solve the problems in getting the ball
down the field but he might just bring a level of defensive steel and work rate
that was largely absent in the first half of the Warrington showing.
Another pack body in the 17 wouldn’t be a bad thing. Discounting Lomax’s part-time hooking role
the head coach only had two forwards on the bench last time out. He found room instead for centre or winger
Owen Dagnall. That was less a statement of intent to play expansively and
worry less about grunt, and more about a lack of available personnel. Some have suggested that Sironen was
available and not selected, which if true is fairly staggering. Whichever way you slice it Saints need more
forward impact off the bench than Walmsley and Jacob Host. Dagnall may miss out, though he remains a
credible candidate to replace Robertson at centre if the youngster is the
chosen one to step into Welsby’s shoes.
So just how does Rowley go about winning this one? Well there were visible signs of improvement
after the break at Warrington. Saints
were much better defensively and managed to put tries on the board through
Welsby, Sailor and winger Kyle Feldt. If
they can start faster and match Leigh early on – particularly physically – then
maybe they won’t have to dig themselves out of a hole later. Being at home will help. The most obviously important factor has to be
making sure that the defence gets back to what it was even under Wellens – for all
the other problems – and not what we saw in Warrington last week. The absences of Lees and Knowles were
glaringly obvious when the Wolves made breaks through the middle of the field where
Saints are ordinarily impregnable. Get
back to that and Saints will be in the contest.
There is an excitement surrounding this one. An intrigue about just how Saints respond to
last week. And about how they can
compete with the teams who effectively obliterated their season last year. Much will depend on how that defensive line
holds up, especially early. And on
solving the conundrum of getting the ball down the field safely to allow the
backs to do their jobs later.
So I am saying there’s a chance. But only if there’s an improvement from round
one.
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