Paul Rowley - Why Didn't It Work? Has He Had Time To Make It Work?

In a shocking, dramatic but entirely Saintsy development the club has announced the departure of head coach Paul Rowley. 

I say departure because it's not quite clear who owns this decision. The club statement quotes chairman Eamonn McManus stating 'the decision was an extremely difficult one for all concerned'. He doesn't identify who exactly was involved in the decision making. Did Rowley walk away or was his employment terminated?

If we are to believe that Rowley was forced out then 19 league games and four Challenge Cup outings doesn't feel like a fair crack. Saints are sixth in Super League - still just about in contention for playoff qualification - and reached the semi-final of the Challenge Cup. Though they were humiliated by Wigan at that stage. 

So was this about results, or performances? That semi-final loss was by a score of 32-0. Saints then lost 46-0 at home to Toulouse - albeit in the middle of an injury crisis. When Rowley's Saints lost, they did so in an ugly way.

There's a good argument that Rowley should not be judged so early. He inherited a flagging squad from Paul Wellens. The former Saints fullback was given three years after taking charge of a squad including several members who had won multiple Grand Finals under Kristian Woolf and Justin Holbrook. By the time Rowley arrived a huge rebuild was required. It was never going to be done in 19 games. 

There are those who will point to the recruitment of several ex-Salford players and raise an eyebrow. Certainly, if you are the head coach of one of the leading clubs in the game and you arrive from Salford closely followed by a number of players from that club - that now desperately struggling club - it's not a great look. But it perhaps should be remembered that Shane Wright arrived before Rowley and Jackson Hastings' stint with the Red Devils pre-dates that of Rowley.

That still leaves competent but constantly injured Deon Cross, ex-Wigan dud Joe Shorrocks and maybe one of the biggest disappointments of all in Nene Macdonald. All of those worked with Rowley at Salford so it's a massive stretch to believe that they were recruited without his approval. 

It's even more difficult to believe that Rowley wasn't behind the new three-year deal given to Shorrocks just a couple of underwhelming months into his stay. Mike Rush previously bore the brunt of the criticism for any transfer miss-steps but he left town in February just as the season was getting under way. Abi Ekoku replaced Rush but until today this has not really been viewed as his mess. 

To understand why Rowley may have been an awkward fit we need to acknowledge that Saints are not an ordinary club. They're a 10-time Super League champion club. The only one which has never missed a playoff series in the Super League era. Rebuild or not expectations were for that run to continue as a minimum. It's part of the job description. It's arguable that results and performances fell way below expectations under Rowley regardless of the need to phase out the old guard. The 46-0 home defeat to Toulouse - a first home league shutout for 46 years - states that case loudly.

But this was not yet Rowley's squad. One of the things which did for Wellens was the number of top performers from the Holbrook/Woolf dynasty who were toppling over the hill. Some of those remain and Rowley might reasonably have expected to be given more time to mould his own team. If he has made mistakes - and I think we can agree that he has - then the club has pulled the trigger very quickly. Bat-shit, foreign cheese fearing Liz Truss was the last high profile boss ousted this quickly. 

The timing is especially bewildering. The announcement was made just over 24 hours before Saints are due to visit Wigan. It's a cliche but the derby is a massive game irrespective of form or league position. With 15 or so players still on the injury list you might argue that Saints faced an impossible task. Nothing is impossible - witness the four tries scored by Saints in eight Good Friday minutes that still haunt Matty Peet's dreams. But it does appear that the almost impossible just got an awful lot tougher.

It has given rise to the idea among the social media fan base that this is Rowley walking away from the job. Possibly after a dramatic fallout either with the board, the players, Ekoku or McManus. Because surely they wouldn't dismiss the coach right before such a significant fixture. If that was the plan, why not do it after the Toulouse debacle? That would still have felt early but it would have had a certain logic to it.

Maybe those involved in making the decision, referred to by McManus in the statement, include Rowley. Maybe some imagine a scenario in which all those around Rowley spent hours persuading him to stay. Well, it's a theory. But I don't think it's my theory. 

When Rowley was appointed there was a lot of excitement. He had led Salford to two playoff appearances before financial Armageddon hit, and did so in a style that was more in keeping with Saints tradition. While Saints had been massively successful under Holbrook and Woolf, they hadn't always dazzled. Woolf's tenure brought three titles in three seasons. You can't really do any better than that. But Woolf did it in a style that was conservative to put it mildly. Lose playing that way and he would have struggled to keep his job too. 

So the expectation was that Rowley would rid us of the energy battle, the process and the grind and bring back some swagger. It just hasn't happened. Saints' attack under Rowley has been as bad if not worse than under Wellens. It's been very lateral, with nobody seemingly possessing the smarts to attract defenders and make space. Part of that is down to a lack of go forward in a flailing pack, but part of it is also down to Rowley. It's almost as if the jump to a club with bigger expectations has seen him abandon any notions of flamboyance and play it safe. Like Thomas Tuchel.

Eamon O'Carroll will fill the void for what is left of the season. He won't be the new man in the long term having already agreed a move to rugby union for next season. That might give him the freedom to release the straitjacket engulfing the players at times this season. The environment will still be demanding but he's unlikely to carry the can if Saints aren't playing knockout games in September. The flip side of course, is that having been in the coaching team under Wellens and Rowley he may inherit their caution. 

After the perceived failure of two English coaches many fans are calling for the appointment of an Australian coach. The path from NRL assistant to successful Super League head coach is a well-worn one. If finances allow this option will surely be explored.

Whoever the new coach is we need to get back to being Saintsy for the right reasons.

Saints 0 Toulouse 46 - The Abominable Slow Men

Horrible. Embarrassing. Dismal. Shambolic. These probably aren’t quite the right words to describe Saints' 46-0 home loss to Toulouse on Sunday but they are as close as the English language gets. It represents the first time Saints have failed to score any points in a home league game since 1980.

On that occasion a side containing the likes of Clive Griffiths, Roy Haggerty and Roy Matthias went down 19-0 to a pre-Viking Widnes. Saints finished eighth that year, a blow softened somewhat by the fact that Wigan were relegated. 

 

There was nothing to temper the humiliation this time. The defeat saw Saints drop to seventh in the Super League table. A place in the top six is a must if Paul Rowley's side are to make the playoffs. If they don't it will be the first time that has happened in the Super League era. And it will be on Rowley's watch. 

 

Before we dissect the Toulouse debacle let's give the French side some credit. Toulouse were superb on the day. They ran in eight tries. Three of those went to back rower Matthieu Jussaume. He, Rob Butler and Tiaki Chan did the hard yards that the Saints pack didn't seem capable of or interested in. Olly Ashall-Bott was a constant threat at fullback while Benjamin Laguerre, Paul Ulberg and Romeo Trobis ran riot. The visitors worked harder, outthought and outfought Saints and were far more clinical.  They handed out a warning by thrashing Catalans Dragons 60-18 in Castres last week.  We probably won’t see them threatening the playoff places this season, but Sylvan Houles’ side are an improving outfit.

 

Saints were not without their problems coming into this one.  Rowley was without 12 of his first team squad.  Yet the lineup he was able to select was full of Super League experience and should have been good enough to at least compete with Toulouse.  It was a lineup I certainly believed was capable of getting the win, even if there were reasons to doubt it.  Jack Welsby, Nene Macdonald, Tristan Sailor, Jackson Hastings, Jacob Host, Joe Shorrocks and new arrival Jed Cartwright all featured, with Curtis Sironen entering from the bench.  Add those names to a crop of exciting youngsters like Harry Robertson, Owen Dagnall, Jacob Douglas and Jake Davies and it was fair to expect so much better. 

 

Sadly the injury list got even worse, though it did so long after the game was lost.  Late in the second half Dagnall was tackled into touch and did not get up.  He lay prone just over the touchline right in front of where I sit in the north stand.  I am at the top of the first tier so I wasn’t particularly close to it.  But I could hear his screams of pain loud and clear.  It is not often you can hear a rugby league player react like that to an injury.  It was horrific.  The stretcher arrived but somewhere along the line the decision was taken to let him hobble off with the aid of two medical people to support him.  It has since been confirmed that he has suffered an ACL injury, which puts paid to any hopes of seeing him again this season.  Let’s hope his rehab goes well and he comes back strongly.

 

But injuries were not the problem here .  From the first whistle Saints seemed to lack sufficient energy.  There was an error in the very first set which set the tone.  By the end we had coughed up possession 15 times.  Coming into the game we averaged 11 errors per game.  That’s not all that flash,  but it is not 15.  And it was the manner of the mistakes which was most alarming.  Saints didn’t drop the ball so often because they were trying to play a kind of dazzling, expansive rugby league that we may have all hoped for when Rowley was appointed.  There isn't enough pace in the side for that to work.  They dropped them because of what at best can be described as a lack of concentration.  At worst they could be accused of apathy about the outcome of the game.  It was a performance which ran out of steam way before it reached anything resembling acceptable.  It was an abomination.

 

Still, one defeat does not define a team or a coach.  This one took place just a week after Saints came within a missed penalty goal at the hooter of taking Wigan to extra time in the Magic Weekend derby.  Mighty, exalted Wigan.  Wigan who are crowned champions by the media (and one or two of their fans) even when they don’t win.  Competing with the likes of them as well as Leeds, Hull KR , Leigh and Warrington is what we expect.  Last week we showed that we could.  It is still very early in Rowley’s tenure, but there have been those on social media and others muttering on the bridge back into town after the game that their patience with the ex-Salford boss has expired.  Some are already calling for change.

 

That is a little extreme for my tastes.  Rowley came to Saints with a good enough pedigree.  He had led Salford to two playoff seasons and one semi-final.  That’s Salford.  Perennial strugglers who for a period – albeit one also greatly contributed to by Ian Watson as head coach – challenged the very biggest names in Super League.  They did so by playing an exciting brand of rugby that was fun to watch, except when you were on the wrong end of it.  Rowley just hasn’t brought that to Saints as yet.  The attack is even worse than it was under Paul Wellens.  Regardless of the personnel it goes side to side until we eventually run out of room.  Nobody seems capable of straightening it up and grabbing the attention of a defender to create space for someone else.  We must be the most predictable attacking side in the league.  And we are slow with it.  Although he has Lee Briers there to assist him, that is ultimately on Rowley.  He has to find a way to make us more of a threat, especially if the defence is going to break down as it did in this one.  We cannot afford to fritter away possession cheaply and give teams more opportunities to come at us.  Frankly, our players aren’t good enough to compensate for that kind of profligacy.

 

With Wigan, Hull KR, Leigh and in-form, real deal Wakefield still to play in the final nine games the task of making the six looks pretty daunting.  Many of the injuries are not of the type which will allow players to come back quickly.  We may have to continue with more or less what we have.  So Rowley must get a tune out of them.  Missing the playoffs in itself isn’t a sacking offence from my point of view, but there will be plenty who disagree.  And if you are Rowley, whether you are going to get dismissed or not, you just wouldn’t want to be the one who helped make that particular piece of music stop. The sun comes up in the morning, the birds sing, and Saints make the playoffs.  It just is.

 

If I can be optimistic for a second – and those who know me know that it will only be a second – this could be a turning point.  After all, how can it get worse than this?  More chastening?  More embarrassing?  It probably can’t.  Without wishing to go all Yazz and the Plastic Population on you the only way from this game really is up.  The coach and the team have to be galvanised by it.  Make it a red line where they say enough is enough and we will never be this bad again.  The performance against Wigan a week previously was not exactly edge of your seat scintillating, but something closer to that could still rescue our hopes of scraping into the playoffs. 

 

Saints host Catalans Dragons this coming Friday night.  It will be interesting to see what the response is.  And what changes Rowley makes.  He is limited in what he can do by the injuries but there is a chance that both Alex Walmsley and George Delaney could return after missing this one due to concussion protocols.  Walmsley is a leader by example which should help.  His ability to get Saints down the other end of the field might also take a little bit of the pressure off. 

 

But it is another must win.  Another performance like this one against Toulouse and pressure will ramp up on Rowley.

Saints 14 Wigan Warriors 16 - Blunt Truths

The blunt Saints attack was exposed again as they went down 16-14 to Wigan at Hill Dickinson Stadium. 

Paul Rowley's side had plenty of possession and territory. What some call 'good ball'. But they weren't able to do enough with it. They crossed for only two tries, one from Jack Welsby and another from Jake Davies. More often than not they lacked ideas when close to the Wigan line. They made it easy for a defence which is only ranked seventh in Super League this year by points conceded. It's just not good enough.

This attacking impotence is not a new thing. Saints have scored only 69 tries this season. That's an average of just over four a game. Five Super League sides have scored more and another - Leigh Leopards - can match it. This is not the kind of problem that we expect to have. We might not always win but it has been rare that we have carried so little threat. Until the last few seasons that is. That's not all on Rowley, but he's not improving the situation as yet.

There were factors at play in this one which made fluency more difficult. Despite the fan revisionism of late Jack Welsby is our most creative player. To have him spend two separate periods in the sin bin is not helpful. The second of those looked harsh. 

Referee Chris Kendall had just warned both sets of players after the latest in a series of flashpoints involving most players on both sides. The game had started that way when straight from the kickoff David Klemmer needlessly pushed Brad O'Neill in the back. This time Welsby just happened to be the next player goaded by uber grub O'Neill who walked with the Saints man.

Welsby's first yellow card was for delaying the restart by throwing the ball into the crowd after it had gone dead from his kick. That Jai Field had picked up another one and seemed ready to restart doesn't change the fact that a rule was broken. Welsby needs to be smarter there. It was costly as Adam Keighran crossed for Wigan's first try while Welsby was off the field. Jack Farrimond had half of Liverpool to run into before handing on to Keighran as Saints' defensive organisation collapsed. These are things that decide big matches.

Welsby wasn't the only one deserving of a yellow card during the battle. How Farrimond escaped one for a shoulder to the head of Jackson Hastings is something only Kendall and video referee Liam Moore will know. Whether there is anything in it or not Moore's Wigan connection will always start innuendo whenever he makes a boneheaded call in the Warriors' favour. It continues to baffle me that the game's authorities don't take him out of these huge games involving his home town. 

The decision to ignore Jake Wardle's blatant elbow to the face of Owen Dagnall was worse. It looked fully intentional. Even if you dispute that, the lack of regard for Dagnall's safety is surely a greater boil on the backside of the game than Welsby's gentle lob of the ball into the stand earlier. So too Oli Partington's hit on Dagnall as the Saints winger fielded a high ball in his own territory. That escaped punishment completely despite obvious head contact, intentional or not.

As did similar contact on Daryl Clark which saw the Saints hooker leave the field. No penalty was awarded which not only caught me out but also Rowley who was seen signalling to Hastings to take the two points. Wigan scored through Field in the next set. That's potentially an eight-point swing, though it is also true that just because you feel wronged by a decision doesn't mean you have to fail to defend the next set so spectacularly.

Whoever was officiating might have been slightly perplexed by the interchange chaos that befell Saints late in the game. Both George Delaney and Alex Walmsley failed head injury assessments, while Clark had a facial injury. The injury situation was so desperate that when Saints' final free HIA substitution became a permanent one there wasn't an interchange available. That meant that Saints had to withdraw a player and finish the game with 12 men. 

To Saints' credit this didn't quite finish them off. As the hooter sounded Harry Robertson won a penalty after he was obstructed by Partington - funny how the same names keep coming up in relation to cherry and white housery - while following his own  desperation dribble. Partington's lobotomy offered Saints one last chance to take it to extra time with a shot at goal but Hastings' effort never threatened the uprights.

There are some fans starting to question Rowley after just over half a season in the job. That's not really to my taste. I think coaches need time, especially those coming into the kind of recruitment mess that has been made in recent years. But you can understand the fan frustration. Injuries explain only part of the issue. Previously I have wanged on about how our lack of go forward limits how expansive we can be. But that was not a problem here. 

There were plenty of opportunities but the play was too slow, with nobody seemingly capable of drawing a defender out of position. When we made long range breaks through Welsby and Nene Macdonald the lack of support was glaring. Like the rest of the team just wasn't fast enough to catch up. There remains a palpable lack of pace in this side. 

Which is not terribly convenient when you're trying to push for a playoff place. I need not remind my fellow Saints - or anyone else who follows rugby league for that matter since we mention it enough - that Saints have never missed a playoff series in the Super League era. We are the only club who can say that. Yet this loss - notwithstanding the punch to the ego that derby defeat brings - leaves us in the sixth and final playoff spot. An improving Leigh Leopards side are breathing down our necks, just two points behind. 

You wouldn't want to be the coach for whom a missed playoff series occurs on your watch. Upcoming home games against the French duo of Toulouse and Catalans Dragons are matches that Rowley dare not lose. Leigh face basket cases Castleford and Hull FC in that period. If Adrian Lam's side win those we could - even with wins in the next two - travel to Wigan on July 24 in real danger of falling outside the six. 

Let's be clear this wasn't just a loss against Wigan. That may stir the emotions but I would suggest not quite as much as the prospect of spending the weeks leading up to the Grand Final at home watching others fight it out. If the attack doesn't improve you still don't see where a win against a fellow playoff contender is coming from. After Wigan we still face Leigh, Leeds and Hull KR before the end of the regular season. 

To be blunt. We must somehow find a way to stop being...er...blunt.