If you had told me before the start of the season that Saints would sit fourth in the table after 13 rounds I would have taken it. It's about what I would expect given the arrival of new Head Coach Paul Rowley and the squad he inherited from Paul Wellens.
Yet it feels a long way from satisfactory. That’s not because of league position or even
results but because of how we have got there.
Performances have been inconsistent, as have team selections. There have been periods when you think Saints
can mix it with anyone and others when you think they might never score another
point. The harsh reality might be that
we do not have a squad that is among the top two or three in the league. But this is Saints, so that doesn’t mean
there won’t be scrutiny.
Rowley inherited much of this squad. It is not yet entirely his. There is an argument that 13 league games and
a few cup outings is not enough of a sample size to judge him. The truth is that he has a tough job. But it is reasonable to ask whether we are
moving in the right direction. Is Rowley
improving us in terms of style if not results?
Has the modest amount of recruitment he has been able to get involved in
improved the squad or are we stagnating?
Pulling on that thread first, there has
been a lot of scepticism about some of the new arrivals. Ex-Salford boss Rowley has leaned heavily on
players who once represented his former side.
Deon Cross, Nene MacDonald, Joe Shorrocks and Shane Wright all played
for him in the red of Salford. Wright
was signed before Wellens left and Jackson Hastings’ time there pre-dates
Rowley’s, but the association with a club that is now a byword for collapse is
inescapable.
If fans were underwhelmed by this job lot of players arriving – and they were – that sense was heightened when Shorrocks received a new three-year deal barely 10 games into his first season with the club. I remember being fairly outraged at his arrival. To my mind he is an average player who – when employed as the starting loose forward – could be seen as a sticking plaster to cover the gaping wound left by the departure of Morgan Knowles to the Dolphins in the NRL.
His Wigan connections didn’t help.
But to be fair you have to give a player time to surprise you. Early on he did. Which is to say that he played fairly
well. But not well enough to be handed
such a deal so early in his time with the club.
It felt like cost cutting.
None of which is Shorrocks’ fault. He never came here proclaiming himself to be an adequate replacement for Knowles and he is not going to turn down a three-year deal with what we think is still one of the biggest clubs in the rugby league world. He is a symptom of a wider malaise.
Apart from one indelible
moment at Leeds last year Wright has not shown himself to be the elite back
rower that say…Sione Mata’utia was.
Rowley’s preference for selecting him regardless is becoming a bug bear
among fans. Especially with Jake Davies
showing great promise in the opportunities he has been afforded. Meanwhile Macdonald – a player who has been
known to be absent at previous clubs – has barely been seen in the red
vee. Which leaves Cross and Hastings,
relative successes but again not quite enough to elevate the side back among
the elite.
Like many Super League coaches Rowley has also had to grapple with absenteeism. His latest squad for Thursday night’s game against Warrington is shorn of Harry Robertson, Hastings (suspended), Matty Lees, Jacob Host, Noah Stephens and Jake Wingfield.
Without wingers for the trip to Leeds last week he delighted many observers by restoring Jack Welsby to the fullback role and shunting Tristan Sailor out to fill one of the vacant flank spots. But Rowley admitted in his pre-game interview that playing Welsby at fullback had not been the plan until Owen Dagnall withdrew late through illness. With Dagnall in the 21 this week as well as Cross it is going to be fascinating to see how Rowley organises his spine of 1, 6 and 7.
It would surprise nobody if Sailor was restored
to the last line of defence which would mean choosing two of Welsby, Jonny
Lomax and George Whitby and leaving the odd man out. A bench role for Lomax could see Welsby
partner Whitby in the halves but there has been deep satisfaction – seemingly also
from the player himself – about Welsby’s effectiveness at six.
Since there isn’t an obvious specialised nine to back up Daryl Clark the most obvious selection is to start Lomax on the bench with the aim of filling in for the former Castleford and Warrington man. That doesn’t solve the problem of whether Welsby can play at six but it does give you options.
Sailor has just been given a new two-year deal so does not seem to be going anywhere out of Welsby’s way any time soon. Which raises the question of how long Welsby – for so long a hero of the Saints faithful but who has recently become the victim of some rather rampant revisionism – will stick it out at the BrewDog. His contract ends at the end of 2027 and the only thing comforting me about Saints’ ability to keep hold of him is that the NRL doesn’t really tend to bother with English spine players. It’s more about the forwards we produce.
Even so, if he is unsettled and misused there
would be nothing to stop him from joining a Super League rival at the end of
his Saints contract. Like that based in
his home town. That would be
considerably more difficult to stomach.
Solving the Welsby conundrum is one of the most important and
challenging tasks in Rowley’s in-tray.
Partly because of the injuries to Lees, Stephens, Host and Wingfield the Saints pack hasn’t been making life easy for the spine and the three-quarters to function. This week they are boosted by the arrival of Daniel Suluka-Fifita from Canterbury Bulldogs.
I say boosted, but there is more scepticism around his arrival and by extension of Rowley’s recruitment strategy. If indeed it is his and not that of recently appointed CEO Abi Ekoku. After all, previous incumbent Mike Rush got most of the credit and the blame in that department.
Suluka-Fifita
has not been good enough to break into the Bulldogs first team this season but
that doesn’t automatically mark him down as a bad addition. There are so many variables when recruiting from
the NRL clubs that there is nothing to be done except wait and see. Some players arrive in England unknown and
become gems. Others – like our very own
Josh Perry in 2011 – arrive with big reputations as Origin and Test stars and morph
into Championship players. I would
expect Suluka-Fifita to make a debut against Warrington but that is about as
much as can be reasonably assumed about him.
Whoever trots out in the red vee on Thursday night has one obvious obligation in light of recent performances. Don’t just play for half a game. In no fewer than five recent games Saints have failed to score a try in an entire half of rugby. They didn’t score in either half of the Challenge Cup semi-final against Wigan. Saints. The entertainers.
That is just not good enough and speaks to a wider problem, be it fitness, motivation, lack of game changing options etc. That is a problem for Rowley to fix and it has to have been playing on his mind in recent weeks. When it happens once it feels like an aberration. Twice, three times, four times, five times, it becomes a real structural barrier to improvement.
And it is hard to blame it only on available
personnel. Saints have often looked
better when they have had a longer injury list.
Almost as if having options complicates things and upsets the balance of
the side. Rowley criticised Wellens
during a punditry stint last season for not quite knowing his best team. On the available evidence so far the new man
hasn’t got any closer to figuring it out.
If he isn’t able to do that then not only do we face an
uphill task to beat Warrington – who by the way were equally as woeful as
Saints last week when they scraped past Hull FC – we also have a fight to stay
in the top six. Every Saints fan is
proudly aware of our record of having never missed a playoff series in the
Super League era. Being involved in the
end of season knockout games is the absolute minimum requirement. Even if it is your first season in the job
and you haven’t got a top two squad.
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