With playoff aspirations finally, mathematically absent, Saints were able to focus on beating a scratch Hull KR side and saying goodbye to two modern giants on Friday night.
For too long now the faint hope of maintaining our ever-present record in Super League playoff series has provided a false media narrative. It was somehow liberating to forget about that and instead shine the spotlight on the retiring Jonny Lomax and Mark Percival.
Perhaps because Saints were the only club to qualify for the playoffs in every Super League season since its inception in 1996, the media had rather more faith in that run continuing than we did. Strained mathematics kept hopes alive, but anyone who watched this admittedly injury-ravaged mob perform every week knew that the run was ending some time ago. Probably after back-to-back defeats at York and at home to Hull in late July and early August. Playoff teams don't lose 46-0 at home to Toulouse.
Given how poor we have been, a visit from the Super League and world champions threatened to be a punishing way to bid farewell to Lomax and Percival. Rovers haven't found quite the same form so far this year but still have the weapons to brutally take down one of the weakest Saints teams in a generation. Yet that all changed 48 hours before the game when Robins coach Willie Peters decided to leave the vast majority of his title-winning squad at home.
Unlike Saints, Peters' side have managed to sneak into the playoffs, albeit in the sixth and final slot. At the end of a season which has involved that World Club Challenge epic against Brisbane, a trip to Las Vegas and a run to the Challenge Cup final, he was taking the opportunity to rest his stars for what was - pride notwithstanding - a dead rubber.
I'm not a fan of that strategy. I have screamed when Saints coaches of the past have done it. This season it ruined both league meetings between the Grand Finalists of the last two years as Wigan fielded their supporting cast when they met Rovers a week before the Wembley cup final. Rovers did likewise when they met Wigan again two weeks ago.
In truth, any format which decides the champions with a one-off game at the end of a playoff series is vulnerable to tactical squad tinkering. Super League needs to look at its scheduling to at least ensure that marquee fixtures like Grand Final repeats are not scheduled one week out from a cup final that will very likely feature at least one of those teams.
Lomax and Percival haven't always been in the Saints side during their final season. Injuries have limited Percival to just nine appearances while Lomax has played only 13 of his 391 games in the Red Vee in 2026. Five of those have been off the bench, as both Paul Rowley and interim coach Eamon O'Carroll have grappled with the question of how best to use Jack Welsby, Tristan Sailor and Harry Robertson as well as Jackson Hastings. But with the latter's Saints career ended by suspension and Nene Macdonald and Owen Dagnall injured, both Lomax and Percival featured from the start here.
It all ended in emotional celebration of the careers of both, but not before Saints endured a characteristic wobble just after half-time. O'Carroll's side had been electric late in the first half, racing into an 18-0 lead. Lomax and Percival combined well for two of those three tries.
First Lomax provided the pass from which Percival squirmed over, before the centre gifted his long-time colleague a try by passing on the try line when he could so easily have scored himself. Lomax added another before the break, leaving Saints with not only a handsome lead but one engineered almost entirely by their two departing heroes.
And so to the wobble. Bill Leyland has previous on this ground. He is possibly the only Saints player to achieve legendary status in just two appearances following his Good Friday heroics against Wigan. Getting a rare opportunity for his parent club in this one he went over from dummy-half to get Rovers on the board. With the playoffs gone and a 12-point lead still intact it was tempting to applaud him as enthusiastically as the Rovers fans did.
Rovers' next trick was not so acceptable from a Saints perspective. Warrington product Flynn Holden was making his debut for Rovers, capping it with a sensational individual try. He beat several Saints defenders on his way to the line and suddenly the visitors were in striking distance of an unlikely win, only six points down at 18-12.
At that point something in Saints seemed to awaken. They couldn't risk losing to Rovers' reserves and academy squad in the final game of two of their greatest servants. Deon Cross, Jacob Host and Harry Robertson all crossed to restore a bit of order to the party. The last two tries were converted by Lomax and Percival respectively, which was a nice touch. Yet given that they have kicked 516 goals between them for the club it wasn't quite like memories of Paul Anderson at home to Leeds in 2006.
And so it was a fitting send-off of sorts. We'd all prefer them to have bowed out on the winning side in the October 3 Grand Final but that has never felt like a serious possibility in a trying 2026. The club has already moved to ensure a level of improvement in 2027 and beyond with the appointment of current Australian Kangaroos coach Kevin Walters on a three-year deal. But even he will need better luck with injuries.
He's made his first significant contribution with the signing of St George-Illawarra Dragons winger Christian Tuipolutu. He will strengthen the backs with Percival gone and if, as expected, Nene Macdonald also leaves. Hastings is on the list of those departing also with Canterbury Bulldogs' Sean O'Sullivan set to replace him. Like Hastings last year, O'Sullivan is likely to sign a one-year deal as the club waits on the recovery of George Whitby from his recent ACL injury. At hooker, Tom Humphreys' ability to build on what for him has been a breakthrough year could be compromised if Sam Verrells arrives from Gold Coast Titans. He already has according to his Wikipedia, as has O'Sullivan, yet the club has so far kept quiet about both.
The much needed rebuild has seemingly begun.
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