It started superbly. It fell a bit flat after half-time. But ultimately Saints can be happy with a 36-12 win over Castleford Tigers.
It could have been so much more emphatic. Saints led 30-0 at half-time against a side
which – let’s not forget – had beaten us 30-10 at the OneBore Stadium in May.
Saints were sensational in the first half. Interim coach Eamon O’Carroll – keeping the seat
warm for incoming Australian Kangaroos Head Coach Kevin Walters – stuck with
the positional change from the win at Wakefield which saw Tristan Sailor
operate at fullback with Jack Welsby in the centres. O’Carroll has hit upon something which is
working well for now.
Both Sailor and Welsby were outstanding in attack in that
first 40 minutes, each racking up over 200 metres by the end of the game. Welsby scored a scintillating interception
try inside the first five minutes while Sailor also got his name on the list of
try scorers a few minutes before the half-time turning point. More on which later. Others to cross in that period were the much
maligned Shane Wright, young winger Jacob Douglas and deputy hooker Tom
Humphreys.
Castleford – who had Director Of Rugby Chris Chester in
temporary charge after the departure this week of Head Coach Ryan Carr for ‘personal
reasons’ - had no answers as they slumped to a 16th defeat in 24
Super League outings, It leaves them 10th
in the table with three games left to play.
All of which makes you wonder how Saints managed to lose to them but we
are where we are.
About that turning point.
Events took a turn for the worst when Jackson Hastings was given a red
card by referee Tom Grant just as the first half was about to end. Grant made some strange decisions – including
his failure to pick up on at least one and probably two forward passes which
led to Castleford tries in the second half – but he had no option but to send
Hastings packing.
The Saints halfback got into a spat with another ex-Wigan
man in Tyler Dupree on the other side of the field to where play was
focused. It all ended with Hastings
landing a right cross on the visage of Dupree.
For his part, Dupree was sin-binned and was still not issued with a red despite
his willingness to carry on the shenanigans on the sideline afterwards. Meanwhile, the West Stand suffered an irony
bypass in singing about Dupree’s Wigan past while ignoring that of Hastings. On the field and in the stands, it was all
very undignified.
The red card ruined the game. Perhaps understandably, Saints were nowhere
near as effective with 12 men as they had been with 13. The second half fizzled
out into a bit of a non-event. The highlight
reel rugby disappeared while there was never any realistic chance of the Tigers
working their way back into the game. By
the end, Saints had 10 men as both Alex Walmsley and Chris Matagi saw yellow
inside the last 10 minutes. Yes it was a
slightly fraught performance from Grant but O’Carroll will not have been
impressed by his side’s discipline. These
things kill you in closer games, which we have already seen at times this year.
Hastings has been handed a three-match ban which rules him
out of the rest of the regular season.
It also causes O’Carroll a massive headache as he will have no fit
specialist halfback to call on against Leeds, Leigh or Hull KR in the
run-in. Which is particularly
frustrating because the last two wins against Trinity and Castleford, coupled
with Hull KR’s late season wobbles, have opened up a slight opportunity to
sneak into the top six.
Optimism is increasing among the fans that Saints could pull
it off. But the fixture list is particularly
unkind before you even consider the absence of Hastings or the injured George
Whitby. Hastings has been criticised by
some and he certainly let the side down in this one, but he hasn’t been the
total disaster that some would have you believe.
He has 29 assists while operating in one of the most bang
average Saints sides in living memory.
Only reigning Man Of Steel Jake Connor has more. Imagine how many Hastings could have if he
had been playing in a team which hadn’t been a bit of a basket case for most of
the year.
This is a team which has been all but ejected from playoff
contention by a combination of their own lack of quality and their ludicrous injury
situation. On that note, it feels like we get one player back only to lose
another. Deon Cross returned for this
game but only because Lewis Murphy suffered a quad injury last week.
If Saints don’t qualify for the playoffs then it is possible
that Hastings has played his last game for the club having joined on a one-year
deal. The thinking behind it from former
Head Coach Paul Rowley was probably that he could act as a useful mentor to
Whitby – some might say stop gap - before the youngster is ready to take over the
responsibility of leading the side around the field. But Whitby’s ACL injury rules him out of a
decent chunk of 2027 as well as the end of this campaign. If Saints don’t retain Hastings they are going
to need to recruit another 7. And if
Whitby is still their man then you are looking at another temporary fix. Perhaps even a loan in keeping with our ‘identity’.
But maybe Whitby isn’t the man anyway. Many fans have expressed doubts about whether
he is the real deal. His injuries –
especially this latest and most serious episode – have instilled grave
doubts. The rumour regarding a return
for Lewis Dodd persists, although that would be a little too regressive for my
tastes. We have seen that movie
before. He too is a halfback with historic
injury concerns. They are still casting
a shadow over his development. Some
point to a limited kicking game also, although others blame his penchant for
persistent bombing on former coach Paul Wellens.
Daniel Suluka-Fifita arrived to a few groans having failed
to establish himself in the Canterbury Bulldogs first team at the start of the
year. However, he is now finding his
best form and has been an integral part of these last two wins. He again topped Saints metre-making charts among
the forwards with 121. That adds to the
163 he managed at Wakefield last week and shows that he is capable of getting the
team down the field. That is going to be
crucial as Walmsley’s career winds down.
Next year will surely be his final year and with Matty Lees also leaving
at that time Saints are going to need others to step up. Noah Stephens is also going to be hugely
important in that if he can stay injury free next term.
And so the season remains alive, albeit on life support
going into the final three weeks. It is
perhaps testament to how well they have played in the last two weeks that there
is even the merest sniff of a chance to make the six. But if – as I suspect – we don’t make it then
those defeats to York and Hull earlier this month take on a whole new level of
frustration. As poor as we have been at
times this year, it didn’t need to be this way.
The hope will probably kill us but there are just one or two
signs – not least a spectacular coaching appointment for 2027 and beyond – that
Saints are not going to be out of the picture for very long.
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