Castleford Tigers 30 Saints 10 - A False Position

You would struggle for adjectives to describe this Saints non-performance. Well I can offer you a couple. Paul Rowley's side went down 30-10 at Castleford after a quite unforgivable and inept display. At least Rowley was honest enough to admit later that there are no positives.

With the greatest of respect Castleford aren't the best side in the world but they were leagues ahead of Saints in this one. They were more cohesive, more physical but more disciplined and more desperate. They fully deserved this win which denied Saints a return to the top of the Super League table. Somehow Saints are still third, which feels like the greatest example of a false position since Milli Vanilli won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1990.

Rowley sprang a couple of surprises with his team selection. Harry Robertson has a slight quad injury but Mark Percival featured for the first time since Saints were hammered 52-10 at Hull KR in March. Kyle Feldt was omitted, meaning starts for all of Owen Dagnall, Deon Cross and Lewis Murphy across the three-quarter line. Noah Stephens returned to the bench but Jake Davies had to be content with a role as 18th man.

Percival was switched from his normal left centre berth to the right while Dagnall followed suit on the wing. This didn't help with cohesion and continuity even if the regular right edge of Feldt and Robertson hasn't exactly been devastating so far this year. Yet it's the inability to fit all of Jack Welsby, Tristan Sailor and Jackson Hastings into the team coherently which is probably the biggest source of consternation. 

Not so very long ago a straw poll among the fans would have suggested that Welsby is indisputably the best fullback in the club. Possibly the league. Not only that, but with Mbye trusted implicitly at halfback Sailor was superfluous. He couldn't play fullback, it was said, because he couldn't tackle the proverbial fish supper. He wasn't imposing himself when he played at 6 either. He was shunted to the wing by former coach Paul Wellens as an uneasy compromise.

One lengthy Welsby injury and the introduction of Jackson Hastings later and the consensus is that Sailor is in the Man Of Steel conversation at fullback. It is Welsby who is now not pulling his weight. A club legend before his 20th birthday, Welsby now cuts a moody, frustrated figure as he tries to impose himself on the team once more. 

Some fans have called for his omission from the 17 and even advocated letting him leave. While it's true your past achievements don't guarantee your future - I'm looking at you Mo Salah - it seems something of a nuclear option to consider cutting loose the finest back division talent we have produced since Gary Connolly. Rowley needs to solve this three-pronged puzzle quickly.

He might be helped in that endeavour in the short term following the news that Hastings has picked up a two-match ban. The former Wigan man was found guilty of a dangerous throw and will sit out the visit to Leeds Rhinos on June 4 and the home game against Warrington a week later. With no game this weekend due to the Challenge Cup final Hastings won't play again at least until Saints face Huddersfield Giants on June 21.

This may bring George Whitby back into the equation. The 20 year-old was recently loaned to Salford in the Championship but could come back into contention for at least a place on the bench at Leeds. He could start, but Rowley has shown a willingness to prefer Jonny Lomax that was beginning to evaporate under Wellens. Whichever of Lomax and Whitby takes the Hastings role one of Welsby or Sailor will need to figure out how to play stand-off.

I have often questioned fans' demand for young local talent to be included. I think we have a tendency to consider any players who break through to be permanently established. But we have seen with some of Whitby's performances and the arguable developmental stalling of George Delaney that it is more nuanced. But I share the fans' bewilderment about the continued omission of Jake Davies. 

Davies made his first team debut in a narrow win over this same opposition last September. When Rowley assumed the coaching hot seat it seemed that Davies was very much part of his plans. After facing Cas again in mid-March he featured in every game until the Challenge Cup semi final defeat by Wigan. He scored tries in four consecutive appearances. He runs intelligent lines, has pace for a back rower and has genuinely added something when he has featured. 

He's not the finished article and I'm not joining the crowd by anointing another youngster before his time. But there is a good argument that he's worth a place ahead of the game but underwhelming Matt Whitley or the solid but hardly impactful Shane Wright. Shite to Wright notwithstanding. Davies could even feature at 13 ahead of Joe Shorrocks. Even if you only have him on the bench he should be an option in the current climate. We're not good enough to leave out players who have shown form. Especially when we persist with plodders who haven't.

On which subject we are arguably a plodder down after it was announced that Agnatius Paasi has left the club. It hasn't been explicitly spelled out but the Tongan's exit seems linked to Saints' pursuit of Canterbury Bulldogs forward Daniel Suluka-Fifita. But before you get too excited take note -  Suluka-Fifita is currently most kindly described as being on the fringes of the Bulldogs first team. It's probably an upgrade, but only because Paasi has regressed so alarmingly since John Asiata wrecked his knee in the 2023 Challenge Cup semi final. 

What's not in doubt is that help is required. Walmsley continues to carry the load when it comes to gaining field position through the forwards. That's a situation which - as long as it continues - almost makes the debate about who plays in the key skill positions behind them irrelevant. Stephens is starting to impose his will on games at this level but he sustained yet another head injury and faces another spell on the sidelines. It's been suggested that he needs a bit of tuition on his tackling technique for his own safety. 

Aside from those two it's questionable what the others are offering at the moment. David Klemmer has had solid games but looks about as much like a former Kangaroo as a butterfly looks like a former caterpillar. His ambling style can make him look disinterested, a suspicion which only grows when your pack is being dominated by Ryan Carr's mob.  

Meanwhile Shorrocks - after putting in a few decent performances - has reverted to the player that Wigan couldn't find room for. It doesn't help him that he is seen as a direct replacement for Morgan Knowles. Which is like when A Question Of Sport replaced its sports star team captains with Sam Quek and Paddy McGuinness.

This visit to the OneBore was an experience to which the word chastening offers no justice. It was an embarrassment. It wasn't like Saints had equal possession and territory but couldn't execute. They couldn't get out of their own half at times. It was way, way short of the standards expected by Saints in the summer era. It's little wonder fans are starting to worry about direction of travel.

The truth is that this performance brutally exposed the fact that Saints are not really the third best team in the country or anything close to it. Matches against Toulouse, York and Wakefield earlier in the season showed that Saints have a weakness for failing to sustain performance for 80 minutes. This one showed what happens if the performance never gets going in the first place.

Following the current trajectory should not be an option.

Unanswered Questions And The Giant Risk

Saints will return to Super League action this week after a catastrophic Challenge Cup semi final shellacking by Wigan which demands introspection.

Paul Rowley's side visit Huddersfield on Thursday night (May 14) sitting second in the Super League table after 10 rounds. But given the chasm between Wigan and Saints last week it is hard to avoid wondering whether we are in a false position.

Saints have won eight and lost only two of those first 10 league matches. Those defeats came at Warrington on the opening day and at Hull KR the week before Easter. Suggestions of flat track bullying are tempting, but we have also beaten both Leigh and Wigan at home and won in France twice. 

The difficulty now is that a win over a struggling Giants side won't answer the question about where Saints really sit in the league's hierarchy. Are we a rung below the three sides that have beaten us in league and cup, or is a tilt at the Grand Final still a realistic proposition? Was it ever that in the first year under a new coach and some hopeful recruitment?

On the flip side of that the game still has high stakes. Defeat is unthinkable . Not only because it might trump last week's embarrassment if we were to lose to a side bottom of the pile with only two wins all season, but also because it would serve as further evidence that Saints' class of 2026 aren't up to it. There's little to gain but quite a bit to lose.

The hope to cling on to is that we haven't yet seen the best version of our team. Matty Lees was injured on the first tackle of the game last week and seems certain to miss the rest of the season. That's in keeping with the theme of absenteeism in the early going of this campaign. 

Saints have suffered injury after injury so far. As well as Lees, Rowley is still without Mark Percival, Nene McDonald, Jake Wingfield, Jacob Host, Agnatius Paasi, Jake Burns and Curtis Sironen. Add Noah Stephens to that list this week. Wingfield won't be back this year but the others should all be viable options for Rowley to include in a match day 17.

One man returning from injury to provide a welcome boost is Jack Welsby. The England international has been dogged with injuries over the last two seasons. Perceived wisdom was that he came back too early last year. Initially ruled out for 16 weeks he actually missed only around 10 before featuring in a 52-4 home pasting of this week's opponents in August. 

This year he dislocated a shoulder in the opening night defeat at Warrington and was only reintroduced for the visit of York at the start of May. His most recent absence has coincided with Tristan Sailor's excellent recent form. Slotting in at 6 against Wigan, Welsby should have improved our creativity but the cohesion between him, Sailor and Jackson Hastings just wasn't there. 

Many have framed this as a permanent decline in the effectiveness of the 25 year-old Welsby. Fan whispers suggest a moodiness from going back to when Kristian Woolf left the club over three years ago. That's difficult to be sure of and even more difficult to interpret. What's not in doubt is that we have seen him play better.

But we are also only a year on from fan wisdom suggesting that Sailor couldn't cut it and should be the one to make way for Welsby. Paul Wellens agreed, often shunting Sailor to the wing. And this was before Jackson Hastings arrived when the halfback alternative to George Whitby was Moses Mbye. It would surprise nobody if the narrative shifted back in favour of Welsby soon. His class is permanent.

Of more concern to me than Welsby's form is the balance elsewhere in the squad. When everyone is fit there's a good case that Mark Percival and Nene McDonald would be Rowley's preferred starting centre partnership. Not necessarily mine, but Rowley's. Percival signed a deal to the end of 2027 recently but has only made three appearances this term. The last of those was that trouncing by Hull KR in March. 

McDonald has been similarly unreliable since arriving from Salford with the rest of Rowley's band. He has managed six appearances but they haven't been anything like the impactful displays we saw from him in a Red Devils shirt. All of which has left Harry Robertson to continue at centre. When considering Percival in particular you can't help but be reminded of the recent one year deal given to Konrad Hurrell who then went on loan and made no more appearances for Saints.

The plus side to the loss of Percival and McDonald is that it means one of the league's best young talents in Robertson continues to get game time. His future is in the spine according to most observers but you wouldn't bet much on Rowley inserting him into that already crowded department just at the moment.

The pack also throws up questions. Notwithstanding the loss of Lees so early in the Wigan game the group started to struggle as it wore on. This is arguably a natural consequence of having to play more minutes. But Alex Walmsley's is ageing and needs managing despite signing for another year, while Daryl Clark doesn't have adequate backup at hooker if Bill Leyland is not around. 

Curtis Sironen has only made four appearances this term and none since mid-March. The three-year deal handed to Joe Shorrocks just 10 games into his Saints career is arguably unearned. It might be a statement from new CEO Abi Ekoku about getting things done but it still feels like the club tightening its belt. All of which points to a lot of responsibility on Stephens in the long term. His loss this week further impacts Rowley's options. His decision to omit Jake Davies last week in favour of another Salford staple in Shane Wright was distinct lead balloon territory. It was the decision of someone reaching for a safety net over trust in form.

For what feels like the first time since he replaced Wellens, Rowley is facing genuine scrutiny. But we may not get answers to our questions this week. Nevertheless, the risk is palpable.

Challenge Cup Semi Final Review - Saints 0 Wigan Warriors 32 - Bruised But Not Broken?

There's no dressing this one up. It's one thing to lose a Challenge Cup semi-final. Another to lose it to your biggest rivals. Being held scoreless while conceding 32 points is a new realm of humiliation. 

Nobody is pretending that this is the greatest ever Saints team. The 1996 vintage that their shirts pay homage to would make short work of them. But there are still standards which need to be met. This performance fell way short of the level deemed acceptable.

But let me clarify. I don't really think that this catastrophic shit show had anything to do with a lack of effort. I find it wearying when fans claim that they don't mind losing as long as the effort is there. They very much do. This 80-minute showing proved to me that you can put a shift in and still produce something of anger inducing atrocity.

Saints haven't been held scoreless since August 2024. That was also against Wigan. Paul Wellens' side went down 20-0 at the Magic Weekend at Elland Road, Leeds. They have not suffered this indignity in a Challenge Cup semi final. 

The identity of the opponent and the added spotlight of free to a air television coverage add to the trauma of the experience. It scarcely gets any worse than this. Perhaps the 1989 Wembley final when Wigan - again - handed down a 27-0 flogging. But at least we could rationalise it with knowledge that Wigan were the only full time professional club in the UK at that time. There is nowhere to hide now.

There was a sign on the opening play that this might be the sort of day endured by Michael Douglas' D-Fens in Falling Down. Only his day wasn't really his fault. But nor was it Matty Lees' fault that he came out of the opening tackle of the game awkwardly and remained on the ground. After a long examination from the medical staff the skipper was helped from the field and didn't return. It didn't look great. He was making only his fifth appearance of the season after picking up an injury in the cup opener at Workington. He will be fortunate if he makes any more in 2026. 

This left Saints boss Paul Rowley with a headache. He was forced to inject 36 year-old Alex Walmsley into the action only one minute in. Having selected Jonny Lomax on his bench Rowley only had George Delaney and Noah Stephens left to rotate into the pack once Walmsley had entered proceedings. Injuries to Curtis Sironen, Agnatius Paasi and Jake Wingfield would now bite that little bit harder. It all made the decision to leave in form back rower Jake Davies out of the 17 that bit more perplexing. But perhaps that's hindsight genius.

The performance and result was certainly something I didn't see coming. League form had been good coming in. Saints haven't lost in the league since the end of March. That run of four consecutive wins has elevated Saints to second in the table. By contrast Wigan's win over Bradford Bulls before this one ended a run of four straight league defeats. They sit fifth in the standings, four points adrift of Saints. None of which mattered here.

The awful truth is that you can win all the regular season games that come your way and it won't earn you the prestige and respect that comes with winning a Challenge Cup. The Super League weekly rounds are largely just manoeuvring yourself into a position from where you can make a charge for the Grand Final. They lack consequence. This was the biggest game of the season so far and Saints failed the test spectacularly. 

It had looked reasonably promising early. Saints had the better of the possession and territory but the alarm bell sounded with how little they did with it. The Jack Welsby and Jackson Hastings halfback partnership was far less than the sum of its parts as Saints repeatedly looked lost when in striking distance of the Wigan line. Their defence was excellent but what was thrown at them often seemed directionless and uninspired. 

By contrast Wigan were clinical. It seemed like they took every opportunity which came their way before half-time. That started with Jack Farrimond's opening try, the product of a wildly uncharacteristic mazy run from Warriors hooker Brad O'Neill. Four Saints defenders missed him as he almost went all the way himself before finding Farrimond on his inside. Adam Keighran's conversion and his penalty soon after gave Wigan an 8-0 lead. 

Two more first half scores followed - both from winger Zach Eckersley - but it was Jake Wardle's opportunist effort just on half-time that erased what remained of our belief. Understandably trying to make something happen Joe Shorrocks tried to find Wright on half way. He could only find Wardle who tore unopposed under the Saints sticks. Saints had come out of a 14-point hole in eight minutes when the teams met a month ago. That made a 16-0 deficit feel within the realms, especially with the entire second half to play. But when Wardle's converted score pushed it out to 22-0 the cup dream felt over.

Which it was. The second half felt redundant. Wigan were comfortable. Even more so when Keighran and Farrimond added late scores. Their decision not to even take the conversion of the latter as time expired was a further blow to the collective ego of Rowley's side. For their part, the attack continued down the same blind alleys and never really threatened to alter the big duck egg on the scoreboard.

It's only one game but the magnitude of it should lead us toward some introspection. Which is a fancy way of asking where this leaves us. We have already taken a 52-10 hammering by Hull KR in the league and now we've been nilled by the neighbours we can't seem to get along with. One Easter miracle is all that separates us from the same problems we had against title rivals in the Paul Wellens era.

The buildup to this one saw new contracts or extension handed out, perhaps signalling the future direction of recruitment under new CEO Abi Ekoku. Shorrocks has had good games and not so good games. He's been better than I expected. But was he really worthy of a new three-year deal 10 games into his existing agreement? Does the erratic Lewis Murphy, who produced only rocks and forgot about the diamonds in the semi final, really justify another three years? 

Then there's Alex Walmsley. One of the finest props in Super League and a big reason for Saints' success over the last decade. He has been given a more sensible one year deal but it should be remembered that he will be 37 shortly after the start of next season. He's already playing greatly reduced minutes and, while he has been effective, you worry about a sudden dip in his form as the body starts to wear. You get the sense Noah Stephens is going to become crucial over the next year or two. 

But that's all for the future. Right now most of us will just be feeling a little hollowed out. A bit like I felt this week when I realised that it was possible for Reform and the Faragistas to take control of the town's council. It stings, as it should. But it is not the end of the fight. Feeling sorry for ourselves for too long is not a good option.

There's a Grand Final to play for.