Saints hope to make it seven wins in a row to start the 2019 BetFred Super League campaign when they visit the Mend-A-Hose Jungle to take on Castleford Tigers on Friday night (March 22, kick-off 7.45pm).
Justin Holbrook’s side were challenged for the first 40 minutes of last week’s clash with Huddersfield Giants but proved far too strong in the end, running out 40-12 winners after a strong second half display. That followed wins over Wigan, Wakefield, Leeds, Salford and London which see Saints sit two points clear of the Tigers and Warrington at the top of the table going into this one. It’s a crucial opportunity to open up a bit of daylight over Daryl Powell’s side who are one of the sides heavily fancied to be in the play-off shake-up by the end of the season.
Holbrook has kept faith with the exact same 19-man squad that travelled to Huddersfield. That means no place for Danny Richardson, with the only selection posers seemingly at prop. Jack Ashworth got the nod last week but was sparsely used and he, Matty Lees, Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook will all compete for game time alongside the established starters Luke Thompson and Alex Walmsley. James Roby is likely to be the only recognised hooker if as expected Aaron Smith doesn’t make the final 17. Look for Morgan Knowles to fill in there at certain points along the way should the England star need a rest in his much anticipated duel with Castleford’s Paul McShane.
Dominique Peyroux had a fantastic game at the John Smith’s Stadium last week and he will line up in the second row alongside Zeb Taia with Knowles likely to start at loose forward. Joseph Paulo will alternate for any of those three from the bench.
Lachlan Coote has been earning high praise for his performances this year so far, so much so that the memory of Ben Barba fades more with each passing week. Coote will be the last line of defence again for Saints and will offer his eye-catching array of passing skills in attack. That could lead to opportunities for wingers Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace outside of the centre pairing of Mark Percival and Kevin Naiqama. In the halves, Theo Fages has been linked with a move to the NRL when his Saints contract runs out at the end of the current season. It could just be agent talk, but whether or not Australia beckons expect the Frenchman to continue to get the nod at scrum-half with the excellent Jonny Lomax alongside him at stand-off.
The big news coming out of Castleford this week is the release of utility back Ben Roberts. The New Zealand and Samoan international has been out of the Tigers side through injury for some time and it was decided mutually between the player and the club that he should be released from his contract. One of Roberts’ most famous moments in a Cas shirt arrived when he dropped a late goal at the Jungle to send Saints to a damaging defeat in 2015. A fit Roberts would have been a threat again here but there has to be doubts now about whether another Super League club will take a chance on the 33-year-old.
With Luke Gale and Jamie Ellis also out long term it has meant that Jake Trueman’s time as a regular first team starter has come a little earlier than he might have expected, while the experience in the halves comes from former Hull FC man Jordan Rankin.
Roberts couldn’t solve Castleford’s fullback problem when Zak Hardaker’s troubled private life blew a hole in the Tigers’ 2017 title aspirations but since then Peter Mata’utia has come in from Leigh and made the position his own. Out wide Greg Eden is again the top scorer in the competition in the early weeks but with James Webster having departed at the end of last season Greg Mikinin or Alex Foster will operate at centre with James Clare in contention for a spot also. Former Saint Michael Shenton is still a classy presence at left centre and will no doubt give Naiqama all that he can handle defensively.
It should be a fascinating battle up front as McShane is flanked by England hopeful Liam Watts and the returning Grant Millington. The latter was suspended for two games after being involved in an altercation in the win over Hull KR in early March. Having sat out the loss to Warrington and last week’s return to the winner’s circle over Salford Red Devils Millington will be a key figure if Castleford hope to contain Walmsley, Thompson and Roby. Mike McMeeken is still missing from the second row which is a blow for Powell but in Oliver Holmes, Jesse Sene-Lefao, Nathan Massey and Adam Milner the former Leeds coach still has plenty of back row options. Junior Moors, Tuoyo Egodo and recent pick-up Chris Clarkson complete the Tigers 19-man selection.
This should be Saints biggest challenge yet. The Tigers have lost just that one game against Steve Price’s in-form Warrington outfit and are always a difficult proposition on home soil. Yet Saints defence has been outstanding this term, with four of their six opponents so far having failed to register a single point in the second half of their meetings with Holbrook’s men. If Saints can produce that kind of desire to defend their line and keep Castleford’s wide-running attackers out of the game then they should have more than enough to extend their unbeaten record. Yet off nights happen, and if Saints were to produce one here it would be likely to prove costly.
Two tries from Knowles and Fages helped Saints to a 40-18 win on their last visit to Castleford in Super League last May, while they also knocked Powell’s side out of the Challenge Cup thanks to some cape-wearing chicanery from Barba. Their last defeat at the Jungle was that never to be forgotten play-off semi-final in 2017 when Gale’s drop-goal secured a Golden Point win to get the Tigers to Old Trafford where they were Zak-ed into defeat by Leeds Rhinos.
It could be that close again, but if it goes to form then Saints punishing defence should see them home by the odd score or two. Saints by 10.
Squads;
Castleford Tigers;
1. Peter Mata’utia, 2. James Clare, 3. Greg Minikin, 4. Michael Shenton, 5. Greg Eden, 6. Jake Trueman, 8. Liam Watts, 9. Paul McShane, 10. Grant Millington, 11. Oliver Holmes, 13. Adam Milner, 14. Nathan Massey, 15. Jesse Sene-Lefao, 16. Junior Moors, 17. Alex Foster, 18. Matt Cook, 25. Tuoyo Egodo, 32. Jordan Rankin, 33. Chris Clarkson.
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 19. Matty Lees, 20. Jack Ashworth, 21. Aaron Smith, 23. Lachlan Coote.
Referee: James Child
Hunte & Sullivan Destroy Cas - 1994
Saints made a disastrous start to the 1994/95 season. Eric Hughes’ side went down to a 20-29 home defeat to a Doncaster side inspired by future Saints cult hero Vila Mata’utia. It was a miserable result on a balmy August afternoon. Saints followed that disappointment with a 31-10 reverse at Warrington a few days later, when Mark Forster grabbed a hat-trick and Jonathan Davies scored 11 points with the boot.
So with their title challenge already faltering Saints needed a spark. A win at Halifax got them off the mark for the campaign, before Salford were narrowly edged out 34-28 at Knowsley Road. Next came a trip to Cumbria, Saints winning 30-25 against Workington Town at Derwent Park thanks to an Ian Pickavance try-double and 10 points from Bobbie Goulding.
By the time Castleford arrived in mid-September there was hope rather than expectation that title hopes could be revived. The losses had been painful and even the wins had been a little scrappy and less than convincing. It wasn’t until the arrival of John Joyner’s Cas side that Saints really showed their attacking prowess. Joyner’s men arrived at Knowsley Road unbeaten. All of Widnes, Workington, Hull FC and Sheffield Eagles had been vanquished as the Wheldon Road side set the early pace alongside perennial title favourites Wigan. Eighty minutes in the St Helens sunshine was all it took to have the Yorkshire side hastily re-assessing their prospects for the season.
This column consistently bemoans the lack of old fashioned wing play in the modern game. Too many sides employ battering rams on the flanks whose main role is to get their team out of their own end of the field. They still score a volume of tries but today’s wingers tend to do so once good field position has been established. They are less of a threat from deep than the early 90s wingers of my mind’s eye. This match was a perfect example of the damage that could be caused by genuine flyers out wide.
One such flyer, Anthony Sullivan, had somehow not managed to score a single try in any of the matches leading into this Castleford clash. In fact it had been a sluggish star to what turned out to be a glorious Saints career for the Welshman. Having arrived in the 1991/92 season Sullivan didn’t get into double figures for a campaign until 1993/94 when he crossed 20 times. By the time of his departure from Saints in 2001 he had scored 235 four-pointers for the red vee and was widely regarded as one of the greats of his era. The three he scored in this game were an indication of why Sullivan would go on to be held in such high esteem. The combination of speed, balance and poise was breath-taking and something you so rarely see in today’s more robotic Super League.
On the opposite wing Alan Hunte had crossed five times before this one and would almost double that tally by the end of a vintage Saints performance. It was Hunte who went over first, taking Goulding’s pass to tiptoe down the touchline to open the scoring. At around 3 minutes 10 of the clip you can see how Goulding had created the space by running across the face of the Castleford defence, committing defenders before firing a quick pass out to Hunte. Arriving from Widnes earlier in 1994 Goulding would eventually prove one of the catalysts for Saints march towards a first league crown in 21 years in 1996 when they also went on to win the Challenge Cup.
It wasn’t until the stroke of half-time that Sullivan opened his try-scoring account for the season. A grubber kick towards the Saints in-goal area was expertly scooped up by fullback Steve Prescott, who jinked, hopped and stepped away from his own line before unloading a quite sublime flicked pass to Sullivan on his inside (around 6 mins 35 into the clip). It was over before Sullivan even crossed the half-way line, the amber shirts floundering in pursuit of Saints elegant number 5. By the time he crossed the try-line Sullivan was able to dot the ball down with the utmost nonchalance.
Which is a good word to describe how Saints dealt with Castleford the rest of the way. The home side were a different outfit in the second half, and their wide men caused seven kinds of havoc as they ripped the visiting defence apart. Sullivan’s try close to the break had given Saints a fairly slender 15-8 half-time advantage, but within four minutes of the restart Saints were over again. Chris Joynt was halted on the left hand side and as the ball was switched to Goulding by hooker Sean Casey the halfback placed a picture-perfect cross-field kick into the space ahead of Hunte on the opposite side of the field. Hunte got there ahead of his opposite number Simon Middleton and slid over to put Saints in total command of the game at 19-8 (8 minutes in).
Just before the hour Hunte’s hat-trick arrived (8.36). It was a messy affair, but highlighted the opportunistic skills of the former Wakefield man. Richard Goddard had been introduced from the Castleford bench but soon found himself in a comical tangle after Scott Gibbs’ attempted pass over the top towards Hunte went to ground. In trying to pick the ball up Goddard could only succeed in kicking it towards his own try-line in the manner of an old man letting his grandchildren win in a back garden game. Goddard performed this unlikely trick twice, allowing the ball to roll over the try-line for a grateful Hunte to grab his third try of the afternoon. He wasn’t done there.
Five minutes later, from a scrum on Saints own 20-metre line they were at it again (9 mins 30). Goulding ran at the defence once more, drawing men to him before handing on to Shane Cooper who moved the ball on to Prescott. Going through the gears, Prescott was leaving opponents standing before deciding that actually the quickest way to the try-line was to hand on to the supporting Sullivan. Ball tucked, bolt-upright and with a peerless running style Sullivan made light of racing away from the cover as Tawera Nikau and Graham Steadman gave a forlorn chase. Steadman’s desperate attempt to tap the ankles of Sullivan as he gets close to the try-line just gives the thing an even greater aesthetic pleasure. A try you could watch over and over and wonder why they don’t make them like this any more.
Casey was making a rare appearance for Saints. He managed just 14 games for the club between 1990 and 1994. Here he was deputising for the second game running for a young Keiron Cunningham. The latter, and even today’s great number nine James Roby would have been proud of Casey’s involvement in Sullivan’s hat-trick try. Scooting out from dummy half on the left hand side of the field Casey held off three Cas defenders before freeing an arm to slip the pass to Sullivan who crossed for the easiest of his three tries on the day (10 minutes 21). It was a dazzling piece of skill from Casey, and exactly the sort of thing that Saints fans would come to take for granted from the likes of Cunningham and Roby over the next quarter of a century.
From the ensuing kick-off (11 minutes 15) Goulding set Hunte free once more down the right hands side and though his gallop down the touchline came to an end before he could cross for a fourth (that would have to wait), Hunte did had done enough to set up the position for Goulding to work a little more of his magic. Faking a pass out to the left where much of the space was, Goulding stepped back inside and found Gibbs who went over untouched to put Saints 39-8 up. Goulding’s conversion saw Saints break the 40-point barrier, the halfback dropping to his knees in mock-unworthiness of the by now delighted home suport.
There was still time for Hunte to have the last word, latching on to a loose pass deep inside Castleford territory to earn a simple walk-in for his fourth of the match, and his ninth of that season by that point (13 minutes 40). After a tense first half Saints had run out 47-14 winners with the kind of display that the term 'champagne rugby' was invented for.
Unfortunately there were not too many reasons to pop the cork on the champagne bottle during the rest of 1994/95. Inconsistency plagued Hughes' side, who could only manage an 18-18 draw at Oldham a fortnight after this win and would go on to lose a further seven times in the league. They finished fourth, which was a place behind Castleford as it happened, as Wigan went on to claim yet another crown. Leeds finished runners up but they were a distant seven points behind the Central Park outfit for whom Martin Offiah scored a quite ridiculous 53 tries and Frano Botica kicked his way to 408 points.
Barely two years later Hughes was gone, replaced by Shaun McRae as the Australian went about the business of delivering that first title in almost a quarter of a century. Sullivan and Hunte would remain integral parts of that team in 1996, as would Goulding, Gibbs, Prescott and Joynt. Others moved on, Casey replaced by the indomitable Cunningham while Paul Loughlin and Sonny Nickle were makeweights in the deal which brought Paul Newlove to Knowsley Road. Bernard Dwyer also headed to Bradford in that deal. The kind of rugby we had been given a glimpse of in this win over Castleford became a more regular occurrence as Saints finally broke the domination of their local rivals from over the lump.
So with their title challenge already faltering Saints needed a spark. A win at Halifax got them off the mark for the campaign, before Salford were narrowly edged out 34-28 at Knowsley Road. Next came a trip to Cumbria, Saints winning 30-25 against Workington Town at Derwent Park thanks to an Ian Pickavance try-double and 10 points from Bobbie Goulding.
By the time Castleford arrived in mid-September there was hope rather than expectation that title hopes could be revived. The losses had been painful and even the wins had been a little scrappy and less than convincing. It wasn’t until the arrival of John Joyner’s Cas side that Saints really showed their attacking prowess. Joyner’s men arrived at Knowsley Road unbeaten. All of Widnes, Workington, Hull FC and Sheffield Eagles had been vanquished as the Wheldon Road side set the early pace alongside perennial title favourites Wigan. Eighty minutes in the St Helens sunshine was all it took to have the Yorkshire side hastily re-assessing their prospects for the season.
This column consistently bemoans the lack of old fashioned wing play in the modern game. Too many sides employ battering rams on the flanks whose main role is to get their team out of their own end of the field. They still score a volume of tries but today’s wingers tend to do so once good field position has been established. They are less of a threat from deep than the early 90s wingers of my mind’s eye. This match was a perfect example of the damage that could be caused by genuine flyers out wide.
One such flyer, Anthony Sullivan, had somehow not managed to score a single try in any of the matches leading into this Castleford clash. In fact it had been a sluggish star to what turned out to be a glorious Saints career for the Welshman. Having arrived in the 1991/92 season Sullivan didn’t get into double figures for a campaign until 1993/94 when he crossed 20 times. By the time of his departure from Saints in 2001 he had scored 235 four-pointers for the red vee and was widely regarded as one of the greats of his era. The three he scored in this game were an indication of why Sullivan would go on to be held in such high esteem. The combination of speed, balance and poise was breath-taking and something you so rarely see in today’s more robotic Super League.
On the opposite wing Alan Hunte had crossed five times before this one and would almost double that tally by the end of a vintage Saints performance. It was Hunte who went over first, taking Goulding’s pass to tiptoe down the touchline to open the scoring. At around 3 minutes 10 of the clip you can see how Goulding had created the space by running across the face of the Castleford defence, committing defenders before firing a quick pass out to Hunte. Arriving from Widnes earlier in 1994 Goulding would eventually prove one of the catalysts for Saints march towards a first league crown in 21 years in 1996 when they also went on to win the Challenge Cup.
It wasn’t until the stroke of half-time that Sullivan opened his try-scoring account for the season. A grubber kick towards the Saints in-goal area was expertly scooped up by fullback Steve Prescott, who jinked, hopped and stepped away from his own line before unloading a quite sublime flicked pass to Sullivan on his inside (around 6 mins 35 into the clip). It was over before Sullivan even crossed the half-way line, the amber shirts floundering in pursuit of Saints elegant number 5. By the time he crossed the try-line Sullivan was able to dot the ball down with the utmost nonchalance.
Which is a good word to describe how Saints dealt with Castleford the rest of the way. The home side were a different outfit in the second half, and their wide men caused seven kinds of havoc as they ripped the visiting defence apart. Sullivan’s try close to the break had given Saints a fairly slender 15-8 half-time advantage, but within four minutes of the restart Saints were over again. Chris Joynt was halted on the left hand side and as the ball was switched to Goulding by hooker Sean Casey the halfback placed a picture-perfect cross-field kick into the space ahead of Hunte on the opposite side of the field. Hunte got there ahead of his opposite number Simon Middleton and slid over to put Saints in total command of the game at 19-8 (8 minutes in).
Just before the hour Hunte’s hat-trick arrived (8.36). It was a messy affair, but highlighted the opportunistic skills of the former Wakefield man. Richard Goddard had been introduced from the Castleford bench but soon found himself in a comical tangle after Scott Gibbs’ attempted pass over the top towards Hunte went to ground. In trying to pick the ball up Goddard could only succeed in kicking it towards his own try-line in the manner of an old man letting his grandchildren win in a back garden game. Goddard performed this unlikely trick twice, allowing the ball to roll over the try-line for a grateful Hunte to grab his third try of the afternoon. He wasn’t done there.
Five minutes later, from a scrum on Saints own 20-metre line they were at it again (9 mins 30). Goulding ran at the defence once more, drawing men to him before handing on to Shane Cooper who moved the ball on to Prescott. Going through the gears, Prescott was leaving opponents standing before deciding that actually the quickest way to the try-line was to hand on to the supporting Sullivan. Ball tucked, bolt-upright and with a peerless running style Sullivan made light of racing away from the cover as Tawera Nikau and Graham Steadman gave a forlorn chase. Steadman’s desperate attempt to tap the ankles of Sullivan as he gets close to the try-line just gives the thing an even greater aesthetic pleasure. A try you could watch over and over and wonder why they don’t make them like this any more.
Casey was making a rare appearance for Saints. He managed just 14 games for the club between 1990 and 1994. Here he was deputising for the second game running for a young Keiron Cunningham. The latter, and even today’s great number nine James Roby would have been proud of Casey’s involvement in Sullivan’s hat-trick try. Scooting out from dummy half on the left hand side of the field Casey held off three Cas defenders before freeing an arm to slip the pass to Sullivan who crossed for the easiest of his three tries on the day (10 minutes 21). It was a dazzling piece of skill from Casey, and exactly the sort of thing that Saints fans would come to take for granted from the likes of Cunningham and Roby over the next quarter of a century.
From the ensuing kick-off (11 minutes 15) Goulding set Hunte free once more down the right hands side and though his gallop down the touchline came to an end before he could cross for a fourth (that would have to wait), Hunte did had done enough to set up the position for Goulding to work a little more of his magic. Faking a pass out to the left where much of the space was, Goulding stepped back inside and found Gibbs who went over untouched to put Saints 39-8 up. Goulding’s conversion saw Saints break the 40-point barrier, the halfback dropping to his knees in mock-unworthiness of the by now delighted home suport.
There was still time for Hunte to have the last word, latching on to a loose pass deep inside Castleford territory to earn a simple walk-in for his fourth of the match, and his ninth of that season by that point (13 minutes 40). After a tense first half Saints had run out 47-14 winners with the kind of display that the term 'champagne rugby' was invented for.
Unfortunately there were not too many reasons to pop the cork on the champagne bottle during the rest of 1994/95. Inconsistency plagued Hughes' side, who could only manage an 18-18 draw at Oldham a fortnight after this win and would go on to lose a further seven times in the league. They finished fourth, which was a place behind Castleford as it happened, as Wigan went on to claim yet another crown. Leeds finished runners up but they were a distant seven points behind the Central Park outfit for whom Martin Offiah scored a quite ridiculous 53 tries and Frano Botica kicked his way to 408 points.
Barely two years later Hughes was gone, replaced by Shaun McRae as the Australian went about the business of delivering that first title in almost a quarter of a century. Sullivan and Hunte would remain integral parts of that team in 1996, as would Goulding, Gibbs, Prescott and Joynt. Others moved on, Casey replaced by the indomitable Cunningham while Paul Loughlin and Sonny Nickle were makeweights in the deal which brought Paul Newlove to Knowsley Road. Bernard Dwyer also headed to Bradford in that deal. The kind of rugby we had been given a glimpse of in this win over Castleford became a more regular occurrence as Saints finally broke the domination of their local rivals from over the lump.
5 Talking Points From Huddersfield Giants 12 Saints 40
McGillvary Brain Fart Turns The Tide
If you just look at the 40-16 score-line this looks like a routine win for Saints. Yet it was anything but for 55 minutes or so as the Giants belied their position at the bottom of the Super League table. The turning point came early in the second half when, just moments after a Lachlan Coote penalty goal stretched Saints lead to six points at 18-12, England international winger Jermaine McGillvary suffered what is commonly referred to as a brain fart.
A Coote kick looked like going dead in-goal before it took a wicked hop backwards and came to rest just inside the dead ball line. McGillvary was forced to pick it up and try to run it back into the field of play. Surrounded by Saints defenders he should have taken his medicine and had the game restart with a goal-line drop-out. Huddersfield would still have been under pressure but at least they would have had an opportunity to see another set of six out defensively and then regroup. Inexplicably, Mcgillvary chose instead to try to offload the ball to a team-mate behind his own line. The pass went to ground and the first player to react to it as it bobbled along the grass was Mark Percival who reached out to touch down for his second try of the match. Just before half-time Percival had grabbed a crucial score, touching down from Jonny Lomax’s kick to give Saints a slender 16-12 lead at the break. This time his try put 10 points between the sides, and that became 12 when Coote slotted over the extras.
From that point on the Giants were never really in the game. As their belief and energy wilted that of Saints grew and grew, scoring three more tries through Regan Grace, Dominique Peyroux and Lomax to hit the 40-point mark for the first time in 2019.
Are Saints A Second Half Team?
Thursday night wasn’t the first time during Saints opening run of six consecutive wins that they have taken a hold on the game after the break. Huddersfield joined Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos and London Broncos in failing to score a single point against Saints in the second half of games this term, albeit only by the width of former Saint and 2014 Grand Final winner Jordan Turner’s foot. The ex-Hull and Canberra man looked to have crossed for a late consolation for Simon Woolford’s side only for replays to show that his boot had made contact with the touchline before he went over.
Saints scored 24 points without reply in the second half of this one to add to their 10 without a response against the Warriors, Broncos and Red Devils. Saints were also locked at 10-10 at half-time away at Wakefield in Round 2 and although the second half of that one was a much tighter affair they still managed to hold off the challenge of Chris Chester’s wayward, inconsistent mob to emerge with a 24-18 win. Against the Rhinos Saints scored 17 unanswered points to win 27-22 having trailed 22-10 at the interlude. I don’t know if there is something in the oranges handed out by the Saints staff at the break during their games so far this season but whatever it is they are feeding them, or whatever it is that Justin Holbrook is telling them, is working like the proverbial charm. Saints visit Castleford next week and if I could offer one piece of advice to Daryl Powell now it is that he should make sure his side have a comfortable lead after the first 40. Otherwise there is likely to be nothing down for them.
Peyroux Shines
Lomax was named Sky Sports Man Of The Match and for once I found myself agreeing with the motley crew of hastily assembled ex-Wiganers responsible for judging these things. The stand-off was at the centre of everything Saints did offensively, ably assisted by the increasingly magnificent Coote. Lomax scored one try, had one assist, four tackle busts and made 90 metres on 12 carries with only one handling error. Defensively he contributed 21 tackles as Saints shut the door on their hosts in the second 40.
For his part Coote was almost faultless at fullback, contributing an assist for Grace’s try and troubling the Giants all night with his kicking game. In defence he seems to read everything so much quicker than everyone else on the field. You get the feeling that the former North Queensland Cowboy could also slot into the halves should we find ourselves with a problem in that area, although nobody should probably mention that to Danny Richardson at the moment. An average performance by Theo Fages against the Giants may have given the youngster hope, but Holbrook will certainly judge the Frenchman on what he has done so far over the season and not on one slightly underwhelming effort here.
Ask around a little among the Saints faithful about the star performer on the night and you will get plenty of shouts in favour of Dominique Peyroux. The Samoan international had his best game of the season so far for Saints, jointly topping the tackle count with Morgan Knowles on 27 while helping himself to his second try in consecutive games after crossing against the Broncos last week.
His return of 77 metres is surprisingly underwhelming but what is impressive about Peyroux is not only his defensive output but the way in which he has managed to all but eliminate the errors from his game. He has not made a handling error since the visit to Wakefield in early February. Offensively he suffers along with Tommy Makinson and Kevin Naiqama from the inability of our more creative players to pass the ball from left to right more effectively, but when called upon Peyroux is one of the side’s most potent attacking threats. All of which is a long way from how he was perceived on his arrival at the club, when against the backdrop of former coach Keiron Cunningham insisting that Peyroux would become a fans favourite the general consensus among the fans was that he was somewhere around Championship standard.
Peyroux has just turned 30 so should still have a good two or three years in him. If those years are spent under the excellent guidance of Holbrook then we may still see even more improvement in a man who seemed unwanted two years ago.
The Team Should Follow Peyroux And Cut Down The Errors
Peyroux may be making less errors these days but dropped ball is still a problem for the team as a whole. The first half of this one was so tight largely because Saints missed a plethora of chances to score through poor handling. Percival allowed the ball to squirm out of his grasp as he crossed the line early on while Grace bamboozled the Giants defence on a mazy run downfield before dropping the egg cold just when it looked as if he had clear daylight in front of him.
Lomax was next to waste a good situation and even the usually unflappable James Roby caught the disease, tearing through the Giants defence only to see his pass to a wide open Alex Walmsley knocked down by Huddersfield’s best performer on the night Darnell McIntosh. If even half of those chances had been converted Saints might well have found themselves out of sight by the break.
A look at the overall picture shows that only the Broncos and the Rhinos have made more than Saints 67 handling errors this term. As much as we can argue that this is symptomatic of a more expansive style brought in by Holbrook it is still evidence that Saints need to take better care of the pill if they are going to get the best out of their attacking weapons. Seven teams offload the ball more often than Saints in 2019 so it is not as if their style of play, as much as it has improved under Holbrook from the dark days of the Cunningham Grind, is too high risk. More likely these are just concentration issues, with the added caveat that Saints have played in some fairly miserable weather conditions early in the season. The report card would probably say ‘could do better’.
Ashworth Or Amor?
Matty Lees came back into the side after he was unavailable for the London game last week, so that meant that either Jack Ashworth or Kyle Amor was set to miss out. In the event Holbrook chose to go with Ashworth and leave out Amor. No doubt this was a popular decision among most fans, who believe that of the two Ashworth is by far the most dynamic runner and more likely to look for an offload to create the second phase of play. Amor is now almost famed for his eagerness to ‘find his front’ once his stutter-step in front of the defensive line fails to open up a running lane. Many fans believe the former Wakefield man is past his sell-by date and that Holbrook should be looking to the younger Ashworth and Lees more regularly.
Amor’s recent comments on the situation were instructive. He revealed that he was given the opportunity to go elsewhere but chose instead to stay and fight for his place. If nothing else that takes some courage and determination, given that it is a choice he has made despite being told in no uncertain terms by Holbrook that his involvement was likely to be reduced in 2019. To his credit he had fought his way back into the side in recent weeks but was stood down against in favour of Ashworth for this one.
Yet a quick look at Ashworth’s stats do nothing to suggest that he gets any more involved than Amor. He had just three carries against the Giants for 29 metres. This represents a pretty handy average of 9.67 metres per carry but three carries in a game which saw Luke Thompson unused after the break is a pretty meagre return. Ashworth himself may have a slight injury concern but if not his sporadic use could be a reflection of the fact that Holbrook has reservations about whether he is really ready to contribute significantly at this level. Lees appears to be ahead of both Amor and Ashworth in the pecking order and with Walmsley and Thompson around and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook making over 100 metres in this one the two A’s are finding themselves a little on the fringes. Ashworth has already spent time on dual registration with Leigh and we may see a little more of that as the season wears on. All of which possibly makes Amor a more valuable asset than he is given credit for.
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If you just look at the 40-16 score-line this looks like a routine win for Saints. Yet it was anything but for 55 minutes or so as the Giants belied their position at the bottom of the Super League table. The turning point came early in the second half when, just moments after a Lachlan Coote penalty goal stretched Saints lead to six points at 18-12, England international winger Jermaine McGillvary suffered what is commonly referred to as a brain fart.
A Coote kick looked like going dead in-goal before it took a wicked hop backwards and came to rest just inside the dead ball line. McGillvary was forced to pick it up and try to run it back into the field of play. Surrounded by Saints defenders he should have taken his medicine and had the game restart with a goal-line drop-out. Huddersfield would still have been under pressure but at least they would have had an opportunity to see another set of six out defensively and then regroup. Inexplicably, Mcgillvary chose instead to try to offload the ball to a team-mate behind his own line. The pass went to ground and the first player to react to it as it bobbled along the grass was Mark Percival who reached out to touch down for his second try of the match. Just before half-time Percival had grabbed a crucial score, touching down from Jonny Lomax’s kick to give Saints a slender 16-12 lead at the break. This time his try put 10 points between the sides, and that became 12 when Coote slotted over the extras.
From that point on the Giants were never really in the game. As their belief and energy wilted that of Saints grew and grew, scoring three more tries through Regan Grace, Dominique Peyroux and Lomax to hit the 40-point mark for the first time in 2019.
Are Saints A Second Half Team?
Thursday night wasn’t the first time during Saints opening run of six consecutive wins that they have taken a hold on the game after the break. Huddersfield joined Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos and London Broncos in failing to score a single point against Saints in the second half of games this term, albeit only by the width of former Saint and 2014 Grand Final winner Jordan Turner’s foot. The ex-Hull and Canberra man looked to have crossed for a late consolation for Simon Woolford’s side only for replays to show that his boot had made contact with the touchline before he went over.
Saints scored 24 points without reply in the second half of this one to add to their 10 without a response against the Warriors, Broncos and Red Devils. Saints were also locked at 10-10 at half-time away at Wakefield in Round 2 and although the second half of that one was a much tighter affair they still managed to hold off the challenge of Chris Chester’s wayward, inconsistent mob to emerge with a 24-18 win. Against the Rhinos Saints scored 17 unanswered points to win 27-22 having trailed 22-10 at the interlude. I don’t know if there is something in the oranges handed out by the Saints staff at the break during their games so far this season but whatever it is they are feeding them, or whatever it is that Justin Holbrook is telling them, is working like the proverbial charm. Saints visit Castleford next week and if I could offer one piece of advice to Daryl Powell now it is that he should make sure his side have a comfortable lead after the first 40. Otherwise there is likely to be nothing down for them.
Peyroux Shines
Lomax was named Sky Sports Man Of The Match and for once I found myself agreeing with the motley crew of hastily assembled ex-Wiganers responsible for judging these things. The stand-off was at the centre of everything Saints did offensively, ably assisted by the increasingly magnificent Coote. Lomax scored one try, had one assist, four tackle busts and made 90 metres on 12 carries with only one handling error. Defensively he contributed 21 tackles as Saints shut the door on their hosts in the second 40.
For his part Coote was almost faultless at fullback, contributing an assist for Grace’s try and troubling the Giants all night with his kicking game. In defence he seems to read everything so much quicker than everyone else on the field. You get the feeling that the former North Queensland Cowboy could also slot into the halves should we find ourselves with a problem in that area, although nobody should probably mention that to Danny Richardson at the moment. An average performance by Theo Fages against the Giants may have given the youngster hope, but Holbrook will certainly judge the Frenchman on what he has done so far over the season and not on one slightly underwhelming effort here.
Ask around a little among the Saints faithful about the star performer on the night and you will get plenty of shouts in favour of Dominique Peyroux. The Samoan international had his best game of the season so far for Saints, jointly topping the tackle count with Morgan Knowles on 27 while helping himself to his second try in consecutive games after crossing against the Broncos last week.
His return of 77 metres is surprisingly underwhelming but what is impressive about Peyroux is not only his defensive output but the way in which he has managed to all but eliminate the errors from his game. He has not made a handling error since the visit to Wakefield in early February. Offensively he suffers along with Tommy Makinson and Kevin Naiqama from the inability of our more creative players to pass the ball from left to right more effectively, but when called upon Peyroux is one of the side’s most potent attacking threats. All of which is a long way from how he was perceived on his arrival at the club, when against the backdrop of former coach Keiron Cunningham insisting that Peyroux would become a fans favourite the general consensus among the fans was that he was somewhere around Championship standard.
Peyroux has just turned 30 so should still have a good two or three years in him. If those years are spent under the excellent guidance of Holbrook then we may still see even more improvement in a man who seemed unwanted two years ago.
The Team Should Follow Peyroux And Cut Down The Errors
Peyroux may be making less errors these days but dropped ball is still a problem for the team as a whole. The first half of this one was so tight largely because Saints missed a plethora of chances to score through poor handling. Percival allowed the ball to squirm out of his grasp as he crossed the line early on while Grace bamboozled the Giants defence on a mazy run downfield before dropping the egg cold just when it looked as if he had clear daylight in front of him.
Lomax was next to waste a good situation and even the usually unflappable James Roby caught the disease, tearing through the Giants defence only to see his pass to a wide open Alex Walmsley knocked down by Huddersfield’s best performer on the night Darnell McIntosh. If even half of those chances had been converted Saints might well have found themselves out of sight by the break.
A look at the overall picture shows that only the Broncos and the Rhinos have made more than Saints 67 handling errors this term. As much as we can argue that this is symptomatic of a more expansive style brought in by Holbrook it is still evidence that Saints need to take better care of the pill if they are going to get the best out of their attacking weapons. Seven teams offload the ball more often than Saints in 2019 so it is not as if their style of play, as much as it has improved under Holbrook from the dark days of the Cunningham Grind, is too high risk. More likely these are just concentration issues, with the added caveat that Saints have played in some fairly miserable weather conditions early in the season. The report card would probably say ‘could do better’.
Ashworth Or Amor?
Matty Lees came back into the side after he was unavailable for the London game last week, so that meant that either Jack Ashworth or Kyle Amor was set to miss out. In the event Holbrook chose to go with Ashworth and leave out Amor. No doubt this was a popular decision among most fans, who believe that of the two Ashworth is by far the most dynamic runner and more likely to look for an offload to create the second phase of play. Amor is now almost famed for his eagerness to ‘find his front’ once his stutter-step in front of the defensive line fails to open up a running lane. Many fans believe the former Wakefield man is past his sell-by date and that Holbrook should be looking to the younger Ashworth and Lees more regularly.
Amor’s recent comments on the situation were instructive. He revealed that he was given the opportunity to go elsewhere but chose instead to stay and fight for his place. If nothing else that takes some courage and determination, given that it is a choice he has made despite being told in no uncertain terms by Holbrook that his involvement was likely to be reduced in 2019. To his credit he had fought his way back into the side in recent weeks but was stood down against in favour of Ashworth for this one.
Yet a quick look at Ashworth’s stats do nothing to suggest that he gets any more involved than Amor. He had just three carries against the Giants for 29 metres. This represents a pretty handy average of 9.67 metres per carry but three carries in a game which saw Luke Thompson unused after the break is a pretty meagre return. Ashworth himself may have a slight injury concern but if not his sporadic use could be a reflection of the fact that Holbrook has reservations about whether he is really ready to contribute significantly at this level. Lees appears to be ahead of both Amor and Ashworth in the pecking order and with Walmsley and Thompson around and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook making over 100 metres in this one the two A’s are finding themselves a little on the fringes. Ashworth has already spent time on dual registration with Leigh and we may see a little more of that as the season wears on. All of which possibly makes Amor a more valuable asset than he is given credit for.
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Can Grace New Deal Help Him Join Welsh Saints Legends?
We may only be a month into the 2019 season but already Saints have one eye on the long-term future as Regan Grace extends his contract with the club to the end of the 2021 season.
The Welsh international winger’s current deal was set to expire at the end of this season but he has now committed himself to the red vee for a further two years. Grace has been an ever-present in the side since breaking into it on Good Friday 2017 under the interim coaching team of Derek Traynor, Jamahl Lolesi and Sean Long. The trio were placed in temporary charge after the departure of Keiron Cunningham and one of their first acts was to promote Grace from the under-19s side into the first team. Grace made an immediate impression, running all over the Wigan defence that day to the tune of 160 metres on 15 carries and a debut try. He was unfortunate to be on the end of a 29-18 defeat as Saints lost Kyle Amor early to a fairly dubious red card decision.
Since when Grace has scored 33 tries in 62 appearances for the Saints. He is the club’s leading try-scorer in 2019 so far with four and looks to have convinced Holbrook that he is ahead of Adam Swift for that left-wing berth. Swift is currently injured but has been very much a back-up option since the emergence of Grace. Swift is out of contract at the end of this season and while it would be nice to retain both of them the decision to put such faith in Grace may leave Swift questioning whether he wants to commit or look for first team rugby elsewhere.
Yet even after nearly 60 games Grace divides opinion among the Saints fans. He still has flaws in his game. He is vulnerable under the high ball and often has problems coping with the physical demands placed upon him. Along with opposite winger Tommy Makinson and centres Mark Percival and Kevin Naiqama Grace is often tasked with carrying the ball out from deep inside his own half early in the tackle count. All of which means getting acquainted with forwards who are significantly bigger than the slightly built Grace. It takes a toll, and led to costly errors in his own half early in his career. Latterly Grace seems to have ironed those out of his game but it is still fairly wince-inducing when he flies in to the line of defence while prop forwards playing 20 minutes a week trudge back onside. It’s not the modern way, but it would be lovely to see Grace get instructions to keep the chalk on his boots out wide and leave the hard yards to the bigger guys.
Grace’s relationship with Percival on that left side is a perplexing one at times also. Quite often the pair look as though they are meeting on a staff away day for the first time. Often you get the feeling that if one were asked to fall backwards to let the other catch him a serious injury would ensue. There seems to be little cohesion between them, either because Percival misjudges when to release the ball or because Grace has got caught in a bad position in support. Yet when it clicks between them it is undeniably one of the most exciting sights in the sport. Very few players have the raw speed of Grace over a short distance and so invariably when Percival or Zeb Taia do manage to get the ball to him in space he leaves defenders in his wake. He still has a tendency to look around him while in space, waiting to see who is around to give him the next whack of his young career, instead of pinning his ears back and sprinting away.
Again this is something that he has improved upon so far in 2019 but you still wouldn’t categorise him with former Saints greats like Darren Albert or Anthony Sullivan for whom half a yard of space led to widespread gate-shutting and the turning out of lights. Grace has all the speed and elusiveness he needs to be a success at Super League level but to fulfil his true potential he needs to add that ruthless streak to his finishing. At this stage of his career it is even arguable that Swift is the better finisher of the two but you get the feeling that Holbrook feels he can improve that part of Grace’s game.
Grace’s critics also point to his slighter frame as a reason to believe that he is not as reliable defensively as he could be. Yet the 22-year-old has missed only five of his fairly modest 21 tackle attempts to far this season. Considering he has directly squared up to the likes of Tom Davies, Ben Jones-Bishop and Tom Briscoe so far this season his defensive efforts have been solid enough. It is not so much the physical act of tackling that he has issues with but rather his decision making at times. He is still prone to flying out of the line to leave others exposed but that is a trait of many of the three-quarters currently plying their trade in Super League. It’s a high risk strategy. If it works and the play is shut down you’re a hero, but if you get it wrong and leave your opponent with a walk-in you get some rather less enjoyable attention. In many ways you may have to live with that with Grace throughout his career, but under the tutelage of Holbrook he should make some improvements in this area. We should see him get it right more than he gets it wrong as his young career progresses.
Last week’s announcement of the return of the Great Britain Lions brand should serve as a huge incentive to the likes of Grace. He has been one of the few players identified as a candidate for breaking up what will probably be the English dominance of the squad which tours New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in the autumn. If not this tour then he has time on his side to make future tours and could, if his new deal at Saints works out as planned, become one of the all-time great Welsh players in Saints history alongside the likes of Sullivan, Scott Gibbs, Kel Coslett, Roy Mathias and of course Cunningham.
The Welsh international winger’s current deal was set to expire at the end of this season but he has now committed himself to the red vee for a further two years. Grace has been an ever-present in the side since breaking into it on Good Friday 2017 under the interim coaching team of Derek Traynor, Jamahl Lolesi and Sean Long. The trio were placed in temporary charge after the departure of Keiron Cunningham and one of their first acts was to promote Grace from the under-19s side into the first team. Grace made an immediate impression, running all over the Wigan defence that day to the tune of 160 metres on 15 carries and a debut try. He was unfortunate to be on the end of a 29-18 defeat as Saints lost Kyle Amor early to a fairly dubious red card decision.
Since when Grace has scored 33 tries in 62 appearances for the Saints. He is the club’s leading try-scorer in 2019 so far with four and looks to have convinced Holbrook that he is ahead of Adam Swift for that left-wing berth. Swift is currently injured but has been very much a back-up option since the emergence of Grace. Swift is out of contract at the end of this season and while it would be nice to retain both of them the decision to put such faith in Grace may leave Swift questioning whether he wants to commit or look for first team rugby elsewhere.
Yet even after nearly 60 games Grace divides opinion among the Saints fans. He still has flaws in his game. He is vulnerable under the high ball and often has problems coping with the physical demands placed upon him. Along with opposite winger Tommy Makinson and centres Mark Percival and Kevin Naiqama Grace is often tasked with carrying the ball out from deep inside his own half early in the tackle count. All of which means getting acquainted with forwards who are significantly bigger than the slightly built Grace. It takes a toll, and led to costly errors in his own half early in his career. Latterly Grace seems to have ironed those out of his game but it is still fairly wince-inducing when he flies in to the line of defence while prop forwards playing 20 minutes a week trudge back onside. It’s not the modern way, but it would be lovely to see Grace get instructions to keep the chalk on his boots out wide and leave the hard yards to the bigger guys.
Grace’s relationship with Percival on that left side is a perplexing one at times also. Quite often the pair look as though they are meeting on a staff away day for the first time. Often you get the feeling that if one were asked to fall backwards to let the other catch him a serious injury would ensue. There seems to be little cohesion between them, either because Percival misjudges when to release the ball or because Grace has got caught in a bad position in support. Yet when it clicks between them it is undeniably one of the most exciting sights in the sport. Very few players have the raw speed of Grace over a short distance and so invariably when Percival or Zeb Taia do manage to get the ball to him in space he leaves defenders in his wake. He still has a tendency to look around him while in space, waiting to see who is around to give him the next whack of his young career, instead of pinning his ears back and sprinting away.
Again this is something that he has improved upon so far in 2019 but you still wouldn’t categorise him with former Saints greats like Darren Albert or Anthony Sullivan for whom half a yard of space led to widespread gate-shutting and the turning out of lights. Grace has all the speed and elusiveness he needs to be a success at Super League level but to fulfil his true potential he needs to add that ruthless streak to his finishing. At this stage of his career it is even arguable that Swift is the better finisher of the two but you get the feeling that Holbrook feels he can improve that part of Grace’s game.
Grace’s critics also point to his slighter frame as a reason to believe that he is not as reliable defensively as he could be. Yet the 22-year-old has missed only five of his fairly modest 21 tackle attempts to far this season. Considering he has directly squared up to the likes of Tom Davies, Ben Jones-Bishop and Tom Briscoe so far this season his defensive efforts have been solid enough. It is not so much the physical act of tackling that he has issues with but rather his decision making at times. He is still prone to flying out of the line to leave others exposed but that is a trait of many of the three-quarters currently plying their trade in Super League. It’s a high risk strategy. If it works and the play is shut down you’re a hero, but if you get it wrong and leave your opponent with a walk-in you get some rather less enjoyable attention. In many ways you may have to live with that with Grace throughout his career, but under the tutelage of Holbrook he should make some improvements in this area. We should see him get it right more than he gets it wrong as his young career progresses.
Last week’s announcement of the return of the Great Britain Lions brand should serve as a huge incentive to the likes of Grace. He has been one of the few players identified as a candidate for breaking up what will probably be the English dominance of the squad which tours New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in the autumn. If not this tour then he has time on his side to make future tours and could, if his new deal at Saints works out as planned, become one of the all-time great Welsh players in Saints history alongside the likes of Sullivan, Scott Gibbs, Kel Coslett, Roy Mathias and of course Cunningham.
Huddersfield Giants v Saints - Preview
Unbeaten Saints look to stretch their winning streak to six to open the 2019 season when they visit the John Smith’s Stadium to face Huddersfield Giants on Thursday night (March 14, kick-off 7.45pm).
Justin Holbrook’s side are the only team with a 100% record in Super League so far this term after their 26-0 victory over London Broncos was coupled with Castleford’s 24-10 defeat at Warrington. It means a two-point lead at the top of the table for Saints and an early chance to establish themselves as the team to beat this term.
To do that Holbrook has selected all but one of the 19 who were originally named for the win over the Broncos. The only change to the squad sees Aaron Smith replace James Bentley. Smith was drafted in from outside the 19 last week to start the match against Danny Ward’s side in place of the slightly niggled James Roby. Roby is expected to return this week but it will be interesting to see whether Smith’s promising performance has been good enough to earn him a place in the match day 17.
The back line seems fairly well established now. Scotland international and GB Lions tour candidate Lachlan Coote has been imperious at fullback so far since joining from North Queensland Cowboys, while Kevin Naiqama made an impressive return to the side against the Broncos having missed the win over Salford and all but two minutes of the victory over Leeds a week previously. Naiqama is joined in the centres by Mark Percival while Tommy Makinson will start at right wing opposite Regan Grace. The Welshman has this week penned a new deal with Saints until the end of the 2021 season and is the side’s leading try-scorer this season so far with four. He and Percival often operate as if they have just met, but between them they possess all the physical skills needed to create havoc in opposition defences.
Theo Fages has taken his opportunity at halfback particularly well, earning another man of the match gong in the win over the London side. Danny Richardson seems further away from a recall than ever as Fages’ halfback partnership with Jonny Lomax improves week by week. Expect those two to be at the centre of everything Saints create.
If Smith gets the nod to start on the bench then one of Saints many prop forwards will miss out. Unless there are any slight niggles this week the players to miss out won’t be either Alex Walmsley or Luke Thompson, so one of Kyle Amor, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Matty Lees or Jack Ashworth could find themselves in the stands or preparing to be part of Leigh Centurions' match day squad with Luke Douglas. Alternatively, Holbrook could go with four props on the bench against a physical Giants pack. That would be harsh on Smith who showed enough to convince me that it could be time to draft him in more regularly to help reduce Roby’s workload.
The back row is unlikely to change. Dominique Peyroux and Zeb Taia get through a lot of work between them and are a potent threat in wide areas, while Morgan Knowles is preferred at loose forward to Joseph Paulo. Knowles was questioned on these pages last week for his lack of offensive output but there can be no doubting his value to the side defensively. And since the side’s recent success has been built on conceding just four points in their last 200 minutes of rugby there is no reason to suggest that Holbrook would want to do without the Welsh international. Paulo will see action as his fellow forwards tire and perhaps when his greater ball skills could come to the fore late in the game.
The Giants earned only their first win of the season when they beat Wigan 14-6 last weekend, and as things stand Simon Woolford’s side sit bottom of the Super League table on points difference. The Danny Brough era is over in Huddersfield with the Scottish international now turning out for Wakefield, so Matt Frawley and former Saint Lee Gaskell are in charge of playmaking duties. Their backline includes exciting prospect Darnell McIntosh but is mostly reliant on more experienced campaigners like England international Jermaine McGillvary, ex-Saint Jordan Turner and former Newcastle Knights flyer Akuila Uate.
The Giants pack has experience in the form of Oliver Roberts, Joe Wardle and Ukuma Ta’ai while Woolford has added to his options with Suaia Matagi and given more minutes to youngsters like Matty English. Alex Mellor is another key for Huddersfield, as is Sebastine Ikahihifo and the veteran Michael Lawrence. Yet is looks a workmanlike forward group rather than an explosive one of the kind you would need to trouble Saints in-form defence.
The Giants were victorious when the teams last met in August. A McIntosh double and a Mellor try secured a 16-12 win over Saints who could only reply through Thompson and some truck driver from Darwin. Saints last visit to Huddersfield had an altogether happier ending for Holbrook and his men as they got up 26-12 last February. Jon Wilkin, Roby, Taia and Percival all crossed for Saints that night while Brough and Roberts were the try-scorers for Huddersfield.
With Brough no longer around it is hard to see how the Giants can trouble what has been a ferocious and miserly Saints defence in recent weeks. Holbrook’s side concede an average of only just over 11 points across their first five outings and we haven’t seen anything in Huddersfield so far this term to suggest that they have the firepower to significantly alter that record. McGillvary is the x-factor for the Giants. On top form he can rip apart any defence but with few really frightening weapons around him he is more likely to face a tough day at the office against the early pace-setters. Saints by 24.
Squads;
Huddersfield Giants;
1. Darnell McIntosh, 2. Jermaine McGillvary, 4. Jordan Turner, 5. Akuila Uate, 6. Lee Gaskell, 7. Matt Frawley, 9. Kruise Leeming, 10. Suaia Matagi, 12. Alex Mellor, 13. Michael Lawrence, 15. Oliver Roberts, 17. Ukuma Ta’ai, 19. Matty English, 20. Jake Wardle, 25. Colton Roche, 26. Sebastine Ikahihifo, 29. Sam Hewitt, 32. Innes Senior, 35. Joe Wardle.
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 19. Matty Lees, 20. Jack Ashworth, 21. Aaron Smith, 23. Lachlan Coote.
Referee: Scott Mikalauskas
Justin Holbrook’s side are the only team with a 100% record in Super League so far this term after their 26-0 victory over London Broncos was coupled with Castleford’s 24-10 defeat at Warrington. It means a two-point lead at the top of the table for Saints and an early chance to establish themselves as the team to beat this term.
To do that Holbrook has selected all but one of the 19 who were originally named for the win over the Broncos. The only change to the squad sees Aaron Smith replace James Bentley. Smith was drafted in from outside the 19 last week to start the match against Danny Ward’s side in place of the slightly niggled James Roby. Roby is expected to return this week but it will be interesting to see whether Smith’s promising performance has been good enough to earn him a place in the match day 17.
The back line seems fairly well established now. Scotland international and GB Lions tour candidate Lachlan Coote has been imperious at fullback so far since joining from North Queensland Cowboys, while Kevin Naiqama made an impressive return to the side against the Broncos having missed the win over Salford and all but two minutes of the victory over Leeds a week previously. Naiqama is joined in the centres by Mark Percival while Tommy Makinson will start at right wing opposite Regan Grace. The Welshman has this week penned a new deal with Saints until the end of the 2021 season and is the side’s leading try-scorer this season so far with four. He and Percival often operate as if they have just met, but between them they possess all the physical skills needed to create havoc in opposition defences.
Theo Fages has taken his opportunity at halfback particularly well, earning another man of the match gong in the win over the London side. Danny Richardson seems further away from a recall than ever as Fages’ halfback partnership with Jonny Lomax improves week by week. Expect those two to be at the centre of everything Saints create.
If Smith gets the nod to start on the bench then one of Saints many prop forwards will miss out. Unless there are any slight niggles this week the players to miss out won’t be either Alex Walmsley or Luke Thompson, so one of Kyle Amor, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Matty Lees or Jack Ashworth could find themselves in the stands or preparing to be part of Leigh Centurions' match day squad with Luke Douglas. Alternatively, Holbrook could go with four props on the bench against a physical Giants pack. That would be harsh on Smith who showed enough to convince me that it could be time to draft him in more regularly to help reduce Roby’s workload.
The back row is unlikely to change. Dominique Peyroux and Zeb Taia get through a lot of work between them and are a potent threat in wide areas, while Morgan Knowles is preferred at loose forward to Joseph Paulo. Knowles was questioned on these pages last week for his lack of offensive output but there can be no doubting his value to the side defensively. And since the side’s recent success has been built on conceding just four points in their last 200 minutes of rugby there is no reason to suggest that Holbrook would want to do without the Welsh international. Paulo will see action as his fellow forwards tire and perhaps when his greater ball skills could come to the fore late in the game.
The Giants earned only their first win of the season when they beat Wigan 14-6 last weekend, and as things stand Simon Woolford’s side sit bottom of the Super League table on points difference. The Danny Brough era is over in Huddersfield with the Scottish international now turning out for Wakefield, so Matt Frawley and former Saint Lee Gaskell are in charge of playmaking duties. Their backline includes exciting prospect Darnell McIntosh but is mostly reliant on more experienced campaigners like England international Jermaine McGillvary, ex-Saint Jordan Turner and former Newcastle Knights flyer Akuila Uate.
The Giants pack has experience in the form of Oliver Roberts, Joe Wardle and Ukuma Ta’ai while Woolford has added to his options with Suaia Matagi and given more minutes to youngsters like Matty English. Alex Mellor is another key for Huddersfield, as is Sebastine Ikahihifo and the veteran Michael Lawrence. Yet is looks a workmanlike forward group rather than an explosive one of the kind you would need to trouble Saints in-form defence.
The Giants were victorious when the teams last met in August. A McIntosh double and a Mellor try secured a 16-12 win over Saints who could only reply through Thompson and some truck driver from Darwin. Saints last visit to Huddersfield had an altogether happier ending for Holbrook and his men as they got up 26-12 last February. Jon Wilkin, Roby, Taia and Percival all crossed for Saints that night while Brough and Roberts were the try-scorers for Huddersfield.
With Brough no longer around it is hard to see how the Giants can trouble what has been a ferocious and miserly Saints defence in recent weeks. Holbrook’s side concede an average of only just over 11 points across their first five outings and we haven’t seen anything in Huddersfield so far this term to suggest that they have the firepower to significantly alter that record. McGillvary is the x-factor for the Giants. On top form he can rip apart any defence but with few really frightening weapons around him he is more likely to face a tough day at the office against the early pace-setters. Saints by 24.
Squads;
Huddersfield Giants;
1. Darnell McIntosh, 2. Jermaine McGillvary, 4. Jordan Turner, 5. Akuila Uate, 6. Lee Gaskell, 7. Matt Frawley, 9. Kruise Leeming, 10. Suaia Matagi, 12. Alex Mellor, 13. Michael Lawrence, 15. Oliver Roberts, 17. Ukuma Ta’ai, 19. Matty English, 20. Jake Wardle, 25. Colton Roche, 26. Sebastine Ikahihifo, 29. Sam Hewitt, 32. Innes Senior, 35. Joe Wardle.
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 19. Matty Lees, 20. Jack Ashworth, 21. Aaron Smith, 23. Lachlan Coote.
Referee: Scott Mikalauskas
Saints Memories - Cunningham Departs After Giants Draw
Saints Memories – Saints 14 Giants 14 – 2017
Things look pretty good for Saints right now. There they are, perched proudly atop the Super League table with five wins out of five to start the 2019 Super League season. They are the only team to remain undefeated in the top flight this term and won’t be feeling too worried about a trip to basement-dwelling Huddersfield Giants this weekend. The Giants remain at the foot of the table despite earning their first win of the season against floundering Wigan last time out.
Yet it is not that long ago that the Giants caused 17 kinds of uproar and turmoil right through the Saints organisation. Rick Stone brought his side to Langtree Park for an early season Super League clash on April 7 2017 having seen his side win just two of their first eight games, though they did manage a creditable 16-16 draw at Wigan in mid-March. Stone couldn’t guide his side to a win at Saints either, but the draw they earned was enough to see the legendary Keiron Cunningham ousted from his position as head coach within a couple of days.
Saints had made a fairly rocky start to 2017 by the time the Giants rolled into town that night. Cunningham’s men had a losing record after seven games, with just three wins and four losses to start the campaign. They had played a game less than Huddersfield’s eight owing to the Giants earlier participation in the Challenge Cup. When Saints did win against Leeds on opening night (6-4), Catalans on March 18 (28-24) and Warrington a week later (31-6) it was against the backdrop of some pretty loud dissatisfaction from the fans. The style of play was dull and boring, five drives and a kick grinding tedium which only ever threatened points through sheer weight of possession and field position. That conservatism might have seen Cunningham get a pass had the team been winning regularly, but having already lost at Leigh, Hull FC and Salford as well as at home to Wakefield Trinity there was considerable pressure on the coach heading into the match.
It started well enough. Fresh from his magical flicked pass to Jack Owens which won the game for Saints in the south of France, Theo Fages helped himself to two first half tries. The second was a magnificent effort as the Frenchman twisted the blood of Giants youngster Darnell McIntosh to go over in the south west corner. Adam Swift added another on that side of the ground to help Saints build what looked like an unassailable 14-0 lead at half-time. Even in the darkest of days Saints rarely blew such a significant half-time advantage at home. Even the sides of the 1980s which would regularly trail in 10-15 points behind the league winners would have felt safe with a 14-point lead at home at the break. The more professional, highly decorated Saints of the Super League era should have breezed it.
With 20 minutes to go they still held that advantage. Yet their lack of imagination with ball in hand had seen them unable to add to their own points tally. It would prove costly when McIntosh emulated Fages by grabbing a quick double, and then when Sam Wood sneaked in at the north west corner. Had Danny Brough managed to land the conversion from the touchline Stone’s men would have earned a remarkable win. As it was the spoils were shared, and Cunningham was a man heading for the gallows.
The weekend was full of rumour and counter-rumour about Cunningham’s future on social media. By the Monday, Saints announced his departure after a two-year stint. It brought to an end his 24-year association with his home town club as player and coach. While it was still early in the 2017 campaign, and although Cunningham had reached the playoffs in each of his two full seasons in charge since taking over from Nathan Brown at the end of the 2014 season the parting of the ways didn’t seem unjust or untimely. Only the top four would make the playoffs at the end of the 2017 season under the Super 8s structure. There were real fears that the sleep-inducing an often ineffective rugby on show would see Saints miss out for the first time since playoffs were introduced to Super League in 1998.
Cunningham, for all his brilliance as a player, had shown a dogged unwillingness to adapt his tactics or to embrace the playing style that had long been a tradition of the club. The teams the great man played in bore no resemblance to the one he put together as coach. The likes of Owens (who did not play against the Giants but was often held up as the poster boy for Cunningham’s failures), Matty Dawson (ditto), Matty Smith, Tommy Lee and Adam Walker were considered well short of the quality expected at Saints. The fans had grown tired of Cunningham extolling the virtues of what were largely ordinary players and the atmosphere at home games had become toxic. It was truly tragic that one of the greatest players ever to wear the red vee was becoming something of a villain. Some of that anger remains among the more forgetful Saints fans who have by now dismissed Cunningham’s achievements as a player and only seem to remember the stale fare offered up by Cunningham the coach.
If you look solely at the players involved Cunningham’s legacy is not all bad. Ten of the 17 on duty against the Giants have been regularly involved for Saints this season under Justin Holbrook and an 11th is still at the club but out injured in Adam Swift. The counter-argument to the idea that Cunningham helped build the team we see today is probably that despite having sufficient tools at his disposal in terms of personnel he could never mould them into an exciting, functional and consistent unit. From the moment Holbrook walked through the door a few weeks after the Huddersfield draw it became apparent that it was possible to get a tune out of the very same players who had looked so bedraggled at the end of the Cunningham tenure.
An interim team of under-19s coach Derek Traynor, assistant coach Jamahl Lolesi and legendary halfback Sean Long took on the role until Holbrook was appointed and settled in and already it looked like the change had done the squad some good. A battling performance at Wigan a week after the Giants draw saw Saints go down 18-29 but with Kyle Amor unluckily dismissed early in the game for an alleged high tackle it was felt that there were some green shoots of hope. That feeling was backed up even further when Saints shocked runaway league leaders Castleford Tigers at Langtree Park on Easter Monday. It was never going to be a long term solution, however, and despite winning at home to Leigh defeats at Widnes, Warrington and a 53-10 Challenge Cup humiliation at Castleford in early June meant that Holbrook’s in-tray was pretty full when he took full control for the first time for Saints Magic Weekend meeting with Hull FC.
Holbrook couldn’t have wished for a better start as Saints walloped the black and whites 45-0, following that up with a breath-taking 22-19 success over Wigan on May 25. Another defeat at Castleford followed before the Giants took another two points from Saints on June 16. Matty Smith’s finest hour in three spells as a Saint arrived a week later when his last second drop-goal earned victory over Salford, but his eye injury at Leeds contributed to a narrow 24-22 defeat a week later. Saints were still infuriatingly inconsistent and very uncertain of a playoff place.
Three wins in a row over Hull FC (19-12), Catalans Dragons (46-28) and away at Wakefield Trinity (41-16) in the Super 8s stage righted the Saints ship. That Wakefield win was only Saints second on the road in the whole of 2017 and saw them sneak into the top four, where they were heartbreakingly beaten by Luke Gale’s golden point for the Tigers. Seconds earlier it had looked like Ryan Morgan’s try had sealed what would have been a quite stunning Grand Final appearance.
The confidence instilled in the side by that narrow miss, plus the addition of Ben Barba after some very public Magic Weekend negotiations, saw Saints ride roughshod over the competition throughout most of 2018 as they carried off the League Leaders Shield with some ease. Yet the semi-finals once again proved the end of the road as they went down 18-13 to Warrington. Still, the smile was back on the faces of the fans under Holbrook’s more enterprising, considerably more consistent brand of rugby league. As sad as it was to say farewell to one of the great names of the club’s history, the night Keiron Cunningham failed to beat Huddersfield at home despite his side taking a 14-point lead has proved fairly vital in turning around the club’s fortunes.
Things look pretty good for Saints right now. There they are, perched proudly atop the Super League table with five wins out of five to start the 2019 Super League season. They are the only team to remain undefeated in the top flight this term and won’t be feeling too worried about a trip to basement-dwelling Huddersfield Giants this weekend. The Giants remain at the foot of the table despite earning their first win of the season against floundering Wigan last time out.
Yet it is not that long ago that the Giants caused 17 kinds of uproar and turmoil right through the Saints organisation. Rick Stone brought his side to Langtree Park for an early season Super League clash on April 7 2017 having seen his side win just two of their first eight games, though they did manage a creditable 16-16 draw at Wigan in mid-March. Stone couldn’t guide his side to a win at Saints either, but the draw they earned was enough to see the legendary Keiron Cunningham ousted from his position as head coach within a couple of days.
Saints had made a fairly rocky start to 2017 by the time the Giants rolled into town that night. Cunningham’s men had a losing record after seven games, with just three wins and four losses to start the campaign. They had played a game less than Huddersfield’s eight owing to the Giants earlier participation in the Challenge Cup. When Saints did win against Leeds on opening night (6-4), Catalans on March 18 (28-24) and Warrington a week later (31-6) it was against the backdrop of some pretty loud dissatisfaction from the fans. The style of play was dull and boring, five drives and a kick grinding tedium which only ever threatened points through sheer weight of possession and field position. That conservatism might have seen Cunningham get a pass had the team been winning regularly, but having already lost at Leigh, Hull FC and Salford as well as at home to Wakefield Trinity there was considerable pressure on the coach heading into the match.
It started well enough. Fresh from his magical flicked pass to Jack Owens which won the game for Saints in the south of France, Theo Fages helped himself to two first half tries. The second was a magnificent effort as the Frenchman twisted the blood of Giants youngster Darnell McIntosh to go over in the south west corner. Adam Swift added another on that side of the ground to help Saints build what looked like an unassailable 14-0 lead at half-time. Even in the darkest of days Saints rarely blew such a significant half-time advantage at home. Even the sides of the 1980s which would regularly trail in 10-15 points behind the league winners would have felt safe with a 14-point lead at home at the break. The more professional, highly decorated Saints of the Super League era should have breezed it.
With 20 minutes to go they still held that advantage. Yet their lack of imagination with ball in hand had seen them unable to add to their own points tally. It would prove costly when McIntosh emulated Fages by grabbing a quick double, and then when Sam Wood sneaked in at the north west corner. Had Danny Brough managed to land the conversion from the touchline Stone’s men would have earned a remarkable win. As it was the spoils were shared, and Cunningham was a man heading for the gallows.
The weekend was full of rumour and counter-rumour about Cunningham’s future on social media. By the Monday, Saints announced his departure after a two-year stint. It brought to an end his 24-year association with his home town club as player and coach. While it was still early in the 2017 campaign, and although Cunningham had reached the playoffs in each of his two full seasons in charge since taking over from Nathan Brown at the end of the 2014 season the parting of the ways didn’t seem unjust or untimely. Only the top four would make the playoffs at the end of the 2017 season under the Super 8s structure. There were real fears that the sleep-inducing an often ineffective rugby on show would see Saints miss out for the first time since playoffs were introduced to Super League in 1998.
Cunningham, for all his brilliance as a player, had shown a dogged unwillingness to adapt his tactics or to embrace the playing style that had long been a tradition of the club. The teams the great man played in bore no resemblance to the one he put together as coach. The likes of Owens (who did not play against the Giants but was often held up as the poster boy for Cunningham’s failures), Matty Dawson (ditto), Matty Smith, Tommy Lee and Adam Walker were considered well short of the quality expected at Saints. The fans had grown tired of Cunningham extolling the virtues of what were largely ordinary players and the atmosphere at home games had become toxic. It was truly tragic that one of the greatest players ever to wear the red vee was becoming something of a villain. Some of that anger remains among the more forgetful Saints fans who have by now dismissed Cunningham’s achievements as a player and only seem to remember the stale fare offered up by Cunningham the coach.
If you look solely at the players involved Cunningham’s legacy is not all bad. Ten of the 17 on duty against the Giants have been regularly involved for Saints this season under Justin Holbrook and an 11th is still at the club but out injured in Adam Swift. The counter-argument to the idea that Cunningham helped build the team we see today is probably that despite having sufficient tools at his disposal in terms of personnel he could never mould them into an exciting, functional and consistent unit. From the moment Holbrook walked through the door a few weeks after the Huddersfield draw it became apparent that it was possible to get a tune out of the very same players who had looked so bedraggled at the end of the Cunningham tenure.
An interim team of under-19s coach Derek Traynor, assistant coach Jamahl Lolesi and legendary halfback Sean Long took on the role until Holbrook was appointed and settled in and already it looked like the change had done the squad some good. A battling performance at Wigan a week after the Giants draw saw Saints go down 18-29 but with Kyle Amor unluckily dismissed early in the game for an alleged high tackle it was felt that there were some green shoots of hope. That feeling was backed up even further when Saints shocked runaway league leaders Castleford Tigers at Langtree Park on Easter Monday. It was never going to be a long term solution, however, and despite winning at home to Leigh defeats at Widnes, Warrington and a 53-10 Challenge Cup humiliation at Castleford in early June meant that Holbrook’s in-tray was pretty full when he took full control for the first time for Saints Magic Weekend meeting with Hull FC.
Holbrook couldn’t have wished for a better start as Saints walloped the black and whites 45-0, following that up with a breath-taking 22-19 success over Wigan on May 25. Another defeat at Castleford followed before the Giants took another two points from Saints on June 16. Matty Smith’s finest hour in three spells as a Saint arrived a week later when his last second drop-goal earned victory over Salford, but his eye injury at Leeds contributed to a narrow 24-22 defeat a week later. Saints were still infuriatingly inconsistent and very uncertain of a playoff place.
Three wins in a row over Hull FC (19-12), Catalans Dragons (46-28) and away at Wakefield Trinity (41-16) in the Super 8s stage righted the Saints ship. That Wakefield win was only Saints second on the road in the whole of 2017 and saw them sneak into the top four, where they were heartbreakingly beaten by Luke Gale’s golden point for the Tigers. Seconds earlier it had looked like Ryan Morgan’s try had sealed what would have been a quite stunning Grand Final appearance.
The confidence instilled in the side by that narrow miss, plus the addition of Ben Barba after some very public Magic Weekend negotiations, saw Saints ride roughshod over the competition throughout most of 2018 as they carried off the League Leaders Shield with some ease. Yet the semi-finals once again proved the end of the road as they went down 18-13 to Warrington. Still, the smile was back on the faces of the fans under Holbrook’s more enterprising, considerably more consistent brand of rugby league. As sad as it was to say farewell to one of the great names of the club’s history, the night Keiron Cunningham failed to beat Huddersfield at home despite his side taking a 14-point lead has proved fairly vital in turning around the club’s fortunes.
5 Talking Points From Saints 26 London Broncos 0
A Perfect Ten
Another week, another routine win for a Saints side gathering Big Mo Mentum. This 26-0 success over London Broncos was Saints fifth win in a row to start the 2019 campaign, giving them a perfect 10 points out of 10 on the league table. Justin Holbrook’s side are now the only side who can boast a 100% record in Super League after a banged up Castleford Tigers lost 24-10 at Warrington on Thursday (March 7). The Wire had seen their own perfect start go up in smoke a week previously when they went down 23-22 to Catalans Dragons in Perpignan.
Saints scored five tries against Danny Ward’s Broncos outfit while defensively the shutout means Holbrook’s men have conceded just four points since shipping 22 in the first half against Leeds Rhinos two and a half games ago. Dominique Peyroux, Theo Fages, Regan Grace, Kevin Naiqama and Lachlan Coote all crossed for Saints. The latter, who has been mentioned in dispatches for inclusion in the Great Britain squad for the winter tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea due to his qualification for Scotland, kicked three from five goal attempts and was just shaded to the Man Of The Match award by the busy, industrious and skilled Fages.
A Slight Niggle....Or Rotation?
Holbrook had spoken this week on the subject of squad rotation. It is felt by many that the reason Saints could not keep their 2018 regular season form going into the Super 8s and Super League semi-finals was that key players were never given a rest by the Australian coach. A 30-game season, plus a cup run to the semi-finals was thought to have taken its toll on Saints who went down rather meekly to Warrington in the last four before the Grand Final. Yet Holbrook insisted this week that he was not overly concerned about fatigue possibly setting in. He remained adamant that players would not be rested and that only injuries or suspensions would see his regulars miss out. It’s too early in the season, he explained, adding that players should not need to be rested for the London game having only played four games prior to the visit of the newly-promoted side.
And yet when the teams were announced an hour before kick-off one name was glaringly absent from the 17. James Roby has been busy building an impressive lead in the new Steve Prescott Man Of Steel scoring system. It seemed the only way to give other players a chance to catch Roby was for the Saints skipper to miss out. His performance in last week’s 26-4 win at Salford was typically masterful and there has been every reason to believe he could continue his record of collecting Man Of Steel points in each of Saints Super League games so far. That is until he was omitted with what was described as a ‘slight niggle’.
The explanation fit the criteria that Holbrook had laid down for leaving his top stars out. If there was an injury doubt about Roby it was exactly the right call to give him the week off. However you don’t have to be as cynical as this scribe to wonder about the omission of a player whose ability to play 80 minutes has never been questioned but nor has it always been considered the best thing for his career. It’s a coincidence that Roby develops a slight niggle in the week that Holbrook speaks out against a rotation policy and in which Saints get a visit from one of the favourites to finish bottom of the pile this year, even if it was a team coming in off the back of a memorable win over Wigan.
It is to be hoped that whatever niggle Roby has is indeed only slight and that he will be available for this week’s trip to Huddersfield Giants. They too prepared for a clash with Saints by beating Wigan but they look a slightly more genuine threat than the Broncos, particularly on their own patch.
Should Smith Now Be A Regular In The 17?
In Roby’s absence Aaron Smith grabbed a first Super League start of the season at hooker. Smith has spent much of 2019 so far on dual registration with Leigh Centurions. He did not seem close to a first team recall, and even his regular gig at Leigh was thrown into doubt when the Centurions acquired Liam Hood from Widnes in the aftermath of the Vikings’ brush with extinction. Yet one slight niggle later and Smith was elevated straight into Saints first 13.
The results will have given Holbrook something to think about. At 33 Roby could do with a capable back-up to help reduce his minutes and so maximise his impact when he is on the field. None of Stuart Howarth, Tommy Lee or Theo Fages have fit the bill since an ageing Kieron Cunningham shared playing time with the young prodigy Roby almost a decade ago. Until now Roby’s superhuman efforts have allowed Saints to largely get away without that quality back-up, but in Smith they may have at last found someone who can maybe take on that role for a spell before assuming the starting job once Roby signs off. Thirty-one tackles, just two misses, a couple of tackle busts, a clean break, five runs from dummy half and an average gain of 7.43 metres per carry represent a very promising stat line for the youngster who made his Super League debut on loan at Hull KR last term. Only the allegedly lazy malingerer Zeb Taia and Morgan Knowles managed more tackles than Smith in the Saints side, while only Tommy Makinson and Naiqama picked up more ground per carry.
With Fages now seemingly settled in the halfback role Holbrook could do a lot worse than find a regular spot on his bench for Smith. Yet with so many props to try to keep happy now there must still be doubts about whether he will do that. As well as Smith the likes of Kyle Amor, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Jack Ashworth, Matty Lees and Luke Douglas will all feel that they have a case for regular inclusion in the match day squad. Holbrook faces tough selection decisions every week. As long as he has a fit Roby to call on he may still feel it is best to hold Smith back. How long he can do that for is another question.
Easy On The Knowles Hype
I want to talk to you about Morgan Knowles. But first of all a cautionary tale. Do you remember last season when Danny Richardson slotted into the Saints halfback position and helped the side to a League Leaders Shield? The talk then was of comparisons to the great Sean Long, especially with the man himself on the coaching staff. Surely it could only aid Richardson’s development into a world superstar? Hmm...well......
It hasn’t quite turned out that way. Fast forward a few months and a fit again Richardson is plying his trade at Leigh on dual registration, kept out of the Saints first team by a resurgent Fages. Richardson’s prospects of an immediate recall appear bleak. He has a lot of work to do to avoid being remembered on the excellent Saints Heritage site as something of a one season wonder, someone who’s star shone brightly and briefly never to reach those heights again.
Which brings me back to Knowles. The Welsh international has been around the first team for a little longer than Richardson has so far managed. This year he has been promoted to the starting line-up now that Jon Wilkin is no longer around, even fighting off competition for that spot from Saints new signing from Cronulla Joseph Paulo. He is always in the thoughts off most fans when discussion turns to the standout performers each week and it is easy to see why. He has a stunning work ethic which has seen him average 42 tackles per game in 2019. No other Saint can match that and only four players have got through more than Knowles’ 210 in the whole of Super League.
Yet as talk of a Great Britain call-up and comparisons to Sean O’Loughlin intensify, here are some other Knowles stats. One try. No assists. Only six tackle busts with no clean breaks and only two offloads. Knowles has no short kicking game either, a fact referenced by his grand total of no attacking kicks. I’ve never seen him beat a man, never seen him pass to anyone but the next person in the line, and if he’s playing 13 as an auxiliary prop as is the modern way then he needs to improve on the 254 metres he has made in the first five outings. To put that into context Tai’a has 602 metres, Luke Thompson 540, McCarthy-Scarsbrook 471 and Alex Walmsley 466. So if Knowles doesn’t make metres like a prop and he doesn’t have the creative skills of a traditional loose forward he’s basically keeping his place through the sheer defensive workload he gets through. For that reason he should be in the 17 every week. Defence win games and ultimately, championships.
All I’m asking is that before we ruin him and turn him into a foot note in the club’s history can we stop acting like he’s Ellery Hanley?
Is The Job About To Get Tougher?
Relatively plain sailing then for Saints who are averaging 25 points per game in attack (which would be more if they had improved on an overall goal kicking success rate of 56%) and who have the league’s best defence with only 56 points conceded at an average of only just over 11 per game. If you are conceding 11 points each week you are going to win far more games than you lose. The next best rearguard belongs to Castleford Tigers who are giving up just short of 14 points per outing.
Yet some of these stats are perhaps best viewed in the context of the strength of the opponents. Saints have only faced one of the other four sides occupying the top 5 playoff places in the shape of Salford and get set to face another basement dweller when they visit the bottom-placed Giants this week. The unexpected struggles of Wigan and Leeds have helped soften Saints early season schedule, but there are perhaps tougher battles to come. After Huddersfield Saints visit Castleford before hosting Hull KR. Rovers have an encouraging three wins out of six so far this year and their visit is followed by a trip to Perpignan to face Catalans Dragons for the red eve. The Dragons’ 46-0 home pounding by Salford looks something of a freak so an easy ride should not be expected there. Then come Warrington at home on April 12 before the Good Friday reunion with what by then will surely be a much improved Wigan outfit.
If there is still a zero in the loss column following the Easter programme we can be extremely confident, provided the lessons from the back end of last year have been learned.
Another week, another routine win for a Saints side gathering Big Mo Mentum. This 26-0 success over London Broncos was Saints fifth win in a row to start the 2019 campaign, giving them a perfect 10 points out of 10 on the league table. Justin Holbrook’s side are now the only side who can boast a 100% record in Super League after a banged up Castleford Tigers lost 24-10 at Warrington on Thursday (March 7). The Wire had seen their own perfect start go up in smoke a week previously when they went down 23-22 to Catalans Dragons in Perpignan.
Saints scored five tries against Danny Ward’s Broncos outfit while defensively the shutout means Holbrook’s men have conceded just four points since shipping 22 in the first half against Leeds Rhinos two and a half games ago. Dominique Peyroux, Theo Fages, Regan Grace, Kevin Naiqama and Lachlan Coote all crossed for Saints. The latter, who has been mentioned in dispatches for inclusion in the Great Britain squad for the winter tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea due to his qualification for Scotland, kicked three from five goal attempts and was just shaded to the Man Of The Match award by the busy, industrious and skilled Fages.
A Slight Niggle....Or Rotation?
Holbrook had spoken this week on the subject of squad rotation. It is felt by many that the reason Saints could not keep their 2018 regular season form going into the Super 8s and Super League semi-finals was that key players were never given a rest by the Australian coach. A 30-game season, plus a cup run to the semi-finals was thought to have taken its toll on Saints who went down rather meekly to Warrington in the last four before the Grand Final. Yet Holbrook insisted this week that he was not overly concerned about fatigue possibly setting in. He remained adamant that players would not be rested and that only injuries or suspensions would see his regulars miss out. It’s too early in the season, he explained, adding that players should not need to be rested for the London game having only played four games prior to the visit of the newly-promoted side.
And yet when the teams were announced an hour before kick-off one name was glaringly absent from the 17. James Roby has been busy building an impressive lead in the new Steve Prescott Man Of Steel scoring system. It seemed the only way to give other players a chance to catch Roby was for the Saints skipper to miss out. His performance in last week’s 26-4 win at Salford was typically masterful and there has been every reason to believe he could continue his record of collecting Man Of Steel points in each of Saints Super League games so far. That is until he was omitted with what was described as a ‘slight niggle’.
The explanation fit the criteria that Holbrook had laid down for leaving his top stars out. If there was an injury doubt about Roby it was exactly the right call to give him the week off. However you don’t have to be as cynical as this scribe to wonder about the omission of a player whose ability to play 80 minutes has never been questioned but nor has it always been considered the best thing for his career. It’s a coincidence that Roby develops a slight niggle in the week that Holbrook speaks out against a rotation policy and in which Saints get a visit from one of the favourites to finish bottom of the pile this year, even if it was a team coming in off the back of a memorable win over Wigan.
It is to be hoped that whatever niggle Roby has is indeed only slight and that he will be available for this week’s trip to Huddersfield Giants. They too prepared for a clash with Saints by beating Wigan but they look a slightly more genuine threat than the Broncos, particularly on their own patch.
Should Smith Now Be A Regular In The 17?
In Roby’s absence Aaron Smith grabbed a first Super League start of the season at hooker. Smith has spent much of 2019 so far on dual registration with Leigh Centurions. He did not seem close to a first team recall, and even his regular gig at Leigh was thrown into doubt when the Centurions acquired Liam Hood from Widnes in the aftermath of the Vikings’ brush with extinction. Yet one slight niggle later and Smith was elevated straight into Saints first 13.
The results will have given Holbrook something to think about. At 33 Roby could do with a capable back-up to help reduce his minutes and so maximise his impact when he is on the field. None of Stuart Howarth, Tommy Lee or Theo Fages have fit the bill since an ageing Kieron Cunningham shared playing time with the young prodigy Roby almost a decade ago. Until now Roby’s superhuman efforts have allowed Saints to largely get away without that quality back-up, but in Smith they may have at last found someone who can maybe take on that role for a spell before assuming the starting job once Roby signs off. Thirty-one tackles, just two misses, a couple of tackle busts, a clean break, five runs from dummy half and an average gain of 7.43 metres per carry represent a very promising stat line for the youngster who made his Super League debut on loan at Hull KR last term. Only the allegedly lazy malingerer Zeb Taia and Morgan Knowles managed more tackles than Smith in the Saints side, while only Tommy Makinson and Naiqama picked up more ground per carry.
With Fages now seemingly settled in the halfback role Holbrook could do a lot worse than find a regular spot on his bench for Smith. Yet with so many props to try to keep happy now there must still be doubts about whether he will do that. As well as Smith the likes of Kyle Amor, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Jack Ashworth, Matty Lees and Luke Douglas will all feel that they have a case for regular inclusion in the match day squad. Holbrook faces tough selection decisions every week. As long as he has a fit Roby to call on he may still feel it is best to hold Smith back. How long he can do that for is another question.
Easy On The Knowles Hype
I want to talk to you about Morgan Knowles. But first of all a cautionary tale. Do you remember last season when Danny Richardson slotted into the Saints halfback position and helped the side to a League Leaders Shield? The talk then was of comparisons to the great Sean Long, especially with the man himself on the coaching staff. Surely it could only aid Richardson’s development into a world superstar? Hmm...well......
It hasn’t quite turned out that way. Fast forward a few months and a fit again Richardson is plying his trade at Leigh on dual registration, kept out of the Saints first team by a resurgent Fages. Richardson’s prospects of an immediate recall appear bleak. He has a lot of work to do to avoid being remembered on the excellent Saints Heritage site as something of a one season wonder, someone who’s star shone brightly and briefly never to reach those heights again.
Which brings me back to Knowles. The Welsh international has been around the first team for a little longer than Richardson has so far managed. This year he has been promoted to the starting line-up now that Jon Wilkin is no longer around, even fighting off competition for that spot from Saints new signing from Cronulla Joseph Paulo. He is always in the thoughts off most fans when discussion turns to the standout performers each week and it is easy to see why. He has a stunning work ethic which has seen him average 42 tackles per game in 2019. No other Saint can match that and only four players have got through more than Knowles’ 210 in the whole of Super League.
Yet as talk of a Great Britain call-up and comparisons to Sean O’Loughlin intensify, here are some other Knowles stats. One try. No assists. Only six tackle busts with no clean breaks and only two offloads. Knowles has no short kicking game either, a fact referenced by his grand total of no attacking kicks. I’ve never seen him beat a man, never seen him pass to anyone but the next person in the line, and if he’s playing 13 as an auxiliary prop as is the modern way then he needs to improve on the 254 metres he has made in the first five outings. To put that into context Tai’a has 602 metres, Luke Thompson 540, McCarthy-Scarsbrook 471 and Alex Walmsley 466. So if Knowles doesn’t make metres like a prop and he doesn’t have the creative skills of a traditional loose forward he’s basically keeping his place through the sheer defensive workload he gets through. For that reason he should be in the 17 every week. Defence win games and ultimately, championships.
All I’m asking is that before we ruin him and turn him into a foot note in the club’s history can we stop acting like he’s Ellery Hanley?
Is The Job About To Get Tougher?
Relatively plain sailing then for Saints who are averaging 25 points per game in attack (which would be more if they had improved on an overall goal kicking success rate of 56%) and who have the league’s best defence with only 56 points conceded at an average of only just over 11 per game. If you are conceding 11 points each week you are going to win far more games than you lose. The next best rearguard belongs to Castleford Tigers who are giving up just short of 14 points per outing.
Yet some of these stats are perhaps best viewed in the context of the strength of the opponents. Saints have only faced one of the other four sides occupying the top 5 playoff places in the shape of Salford and get set to face another basement dweller when they visit the bottom-placed Giants this week. The unexpected struggles of Wigan and Leeds have helped soften Saints early season schedule, but there are perhaps tougher battles to come. After Huddersfield Saints visit Castleford before hosting Hull KR. Rovers have an encouraging three wins out of six so far this year and their visit is followed by a trip to Perpignan to face Catalans Dragons for the red eve. The Dragons’ 46-0 home pounding by Salford looks something of a freak so an easy ride should not be expected there. Then come Warrington at home on April 12 before the Good Friday reunion with what by then will surely be a much improved Wigan outfit.
If there is still a zero in the loss column following the Easter programme we can be extremely confident, provided the lessons from the back end of last year have been learned.
Saints v London Broncos - Preview
It’ll be a first for five years for Saints this week as London Broncos get set to visit for a BetFred Super League Round 5 clash on Friday night (March 8, kick-off 7.45pm).
The Broncos have spent those five years in the relative wilderness of the Championship since their 2014 relegation from Super League. Now they are back, and after beating expansionists’ favourites Toronto Wolfpack in last year’s Million Pound Game the Broncos are already making their presence felt among the elite. They arrive in St Helens with two wins from their first five outings, with both Wakefield Trinity and Wigan leaving the capital empty handed already in 2019. They’re a long way from safety and would still be most people’s favourites to occupy the bottom spot in the table that would bring with it an automatic and immediate return to the second tier, but they travel north with a lot more hope than they might have done.
The problem for London is that as much as they have been making waves in the early part of the season, they are facing a Saints side which has quietly gone about the business of winning four out of four in the league. Saints have already seen off Wigan, Wakefield, Leeds and Salford without really clicking into top gear, and will start this one as a heavy favourite also. Mind, who hasn’t seen off Wigan this year? Only a supposedly independent Sport Resolutions bows down to the Warriors perceived power these days. Yet Saints form is good enough that most fans seem to be calling for key players to be rested this week, mindful of the stuttering end to last season which saw another last four exit despite spending much of the year streets ahead of the competition. Yet Holbrook let it be known early this week that the was not about to implement a rotation policy, stating that if the players are fit they will play, and adding that at just four games in it is probably still too early to be thinking about giving his top players a breather.
It is for that reason that he has made just one change to the 19-man squad on duty for last week’s trip to Salford Red Devils. Kevin Naiqama missed that one following the concussion he picked up in the previous week’s win over Leeds Rhinos, but returns this week to replace Matty Costello. The latter performed admirably against Ian Watson’s side, not least in defence where his 32 tackles were a big part of the reason that the words Junior and S’au were not mentioned too much in the television commentary or in the press reports following Saints win. Yet a fit Naiqama is always going to hold sway over Costello. In addition it is arguable that Naiqama needs the match practice every bit as much as Costello does given that the Fijian has only played two full Super League games since his arrival from Wests Tigers in the off-season.
The rest of the Saints 17 should remain unchanged. Lachlan Coote’s name has been thrown into the mix for Great Britain following the announcement of the 2019 Lions tour this week. That might be an early call but the Scottish international has made a solid start to his Saints career since joining from North Queensland Cowboys. He is defensively sound, reads the game superbly and has a halfback’s ability to find the open man in space. Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace will occupy the wings slots with Mark Percival partnering Naiqama in the centres.
Links with rugby union star George Ford have thrown Theo Fages’ long-term future at Saints. Ford is the son of former rugby league star Mike Ford and has been linked to several clubs in the Super League who are no doubt mindful that his salary would not count on the cap for the first year of his contract, and only 50% of it would count in the second year. Unless of course he signs for Wigan in which none of it would count in the first year, 50% in the second year, all of it in the third year but then any penalty incurred for overspending rescinded on appeal. Back to Fages, who is in the final year of his contract at Saints which adds further fuel to the Ford fire. Yet it is more likely that the union star’s agent is merely trying to bump up his next contract in the eye-sore code. A move to Saints looks unlikely, especially now that Fages seems settled in the halfback position alongside stand-off Jonny Lomax.
The pack was the one area where rotation seemed more likely but Holbrook’s thoughts on the matter should see the best front row anywhere in world rugby unaltered as James Roby starts at hooker in between props Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson. James Bentley is the only competition for Zeb Taia or Dominique Peyroux in the second row now that Joe Batchelor has been allowed to return to York City Knights on a season-long loan. Saints have the right to recall Batchelor at 24 hours notice should they need him but the likelihood is that he will play out another season in Championship before trying again to make the step up in 2020. Morgan Knowles is the starting 13 these days though expect to see Joseph Paulo fitting into that position or anywhere along the back row when needed off the bench. The props are backed up by a rejuvenated Kyle Amor, Matty Lees and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook although Jack Ashworth will be hopeful of an opportunity also after a standout stint on dual registration with Leigh Centurions.
London have limited Super League experience but one name that will immediately strike Saints fans for its absence is that of Ryan Morgan. Morgan played two seasons at centre for Saints before the arrival of Naiqama and is on loan to the Broncos for 2019 but does not feature here. Among the others in Danny Ward’s 19-man squad with top flight experience Morgan’s fellow ex-Saints Greg Richards and Matty Fleming, ex-Hull FC man Jordan Abdull, former Bradford and Crusaders three-quarter Elliot Kear and French hooker Eloi Pelissier. Keiran Dixon was the match-winner against Wigan with a 90-yard interception try and he remains from the Broncos last foray into the big time. Eddie Battye is making quite a name for himself in the front row as is fullback Alex Walker, while academy products Jacob Ogden and James Meadows are included and could make their Super League debuts.
Yet despite the glory and let’s face it hilarity of London’s victory over Wigan there doesn’t seem to be enough in this squad to suggest that they can come to the home of an in-form Saints and come away with anything other than a chastening defeat. They may prove a tough nut to crack early in the game but as it wears on you should expect Saints greater strength, speed, skill and fitness to carry them to what would be a fifth straight Super League success.
Squads;
St.Helens;
Lomax, Makinson, Naiqama, Percival, Grace, Fages, Walmsley, Roby, Thompson, Taia, Paulo, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Knowles, Amor, Peyroux, Lees, Ashworth, Bentley, Coote.
London Broncos;
Abdull, Adebiyi, Battye, Butler, Davis, Fleming, Fozard, Gee, Ioane, Kear, Lovell, Meadows, Ogden, Pelissier, Richards, Smith, Walker, Williams, Yates.
Referee: Marcus Griffiths
The Broncos have spent those five years in the relative wilderness of the Championship since their 2014 relegation from Super League. Now they are back, and after beating expansionists’ favourites Toronto Wolfpack in last year’s Million Pound Game the Broncos are already making their presence felt among the elite. They arrive in St Helens with two wins from their first five outings, with both Wakefield Trinity and Wigan leaving the capital empty handed already in 2019. They’re a long way from safety and would still be most people’s favourites to occupy the bottom spot in the table that would bring with it an automatic and immediate return to the second tier, but they travel north with a lot more hope than they might have done.
The problem for London is that as much as they have been making waves in the early part of the season, they are facing a Saints side which has quietly gone about the business of winning four out of four in the league. Saints have already seen off Wigan, Wakefield, Leeds and Salford without really clicking into top gear, and will start this one as a heavy favourite also. Mind, who hasn’t seen off Wigan this year? Only a supposedly independent Sport Resolutions bows down to the Warriors perceived power these days. Yet Saints form is good enough that most fans seem to be calling for key players to be rested this week, mindful of the stuttering end to last season which saw another last four exit despite spending much of the year streets ahead of the competition. Yet Holbrook let it be known early this week that the was not about to implement a rotation policy, stating that if the players are fit they will play, and adding that at just four games in it is probably still too early to be thinking about giving his top players a breather.
It is for that reason that he has made just one change to the 19-man squad on duty for last week’s trip to Salford Red Devils. Kevin Naiqama missed that one following the concussion he picked up in the previous week’s win over Leeds Rhinos, but returns this week to replace Matty Costello. The latter performed admirably against Ian Watson’s side, not least in defence where his 32 tackles were a big part of the reason that the words Junior and S’au were not mentioned too much in the television commentary or in the press reports following Saints win. Yet a fit Naiqama is always going to hold sway over Costello. In addition it is arguable that Naiqama needs the match practice every bit as much as Costello does given that the Fijian has only played two full Super League games since his arrival from Wests Tigers in the off-season.
The rest of the Saints 17 should remain unchanged. Lachlan Coote’s name has been thrown into the mix for Great Britain following the announcement of the 2019 Lions tour this week. That might be an early call but the Scottish international has made a solid start to his Saints career since joining from North Queensland Cowboys. He is defensively sound, reads the game superbly and has a halfback’s ability to find the open man in space. Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace will occupy the wings slots with Mark Percival partnering Naiqama in the centres.
Links with rugby union star George Ford have thrown Theo Fages’ long-term future at Saints. Ford is the son of former rugby league star Mike Ford and has been linked to several clubs in the Super League who are no doubt mindful that his salary would not count on the cap for the first year of his contract, and only 50% of it would count in the second year. Unless of course he signs for Wigan in which none of it would count in the first year, 50% in the second year, all of it in the third year but then any penalty incurred for overspending rescinded on appeal. Back to Fages, who is in the final year of his contract at Saints which adds further fuel to the Ford fire. Yet it is more likely that the union star’s agent is merely trying to bump up his next contract in the eye-sore code. A move to Saints looks unlikely, especially now that Fages seems settled in the halfback position alongside stand-off Jonny Lomax.
The pack was the one area where rotation seemed more likely but Holbrook’s thoughts on the matter should see the best front row anywhere in world rugby unaltered as James Roby starts at hooker in between props Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson. James Bentley is the only competition for Zeb Taia or Dominique Peyroux in the second row now that Joe Batchelor has been allowed to return to York City Knights on a season-long loan. Saints have the right to recall Batchelor at 24 hours notice should they need him but the likelihood is that he will play out another season in Championship before trying again to make the step up in 2020. Morgan Knowles is the starting 13 these days though expect to see Joseph Paulo fitting into that position or anywhere along the back row when needed off the bench. The props are backed up by a rejuvenated Kyle Amor, Matty Lees and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook although Jack Ashworth will be hopeful of an opportunity also after a standout stint on dual registration with Leigh Centurions.
London have limited Super League experience but one name that will immediately strike Saints fans for its absence is that of Ryan Morgan. Morgan played two seasons at centre for Saints before the arrival of Naiqama and is on loan to the Broncos for 2019 but does not feature here. Among the others in Danny Ward’s 19-man squad with top flight experience Morgan’s fellow ex-Saints Greg Richards and Matty Fleming, ex-Hull FC man Jordan Abdull, former Bradford and Crusaders three-quarter Elliot Kear and French hooker Eloi Pelissier. Keiran Dixon was the match-winner against Wigan with a 90-yard interception try and he remains from the Broncos last foray into the big time. Eddie Battye is making quite a name for himself in the front row as is fullback Alex Walker, while academy products Jacob Ogden and James Meadows are included and could make their Super League debuts.
Yet despite the glory and let’s face it hilarity of London’s victory over Wigan there doesn’t seem to be enough in this squad to suggest that they can come to the home of an in-form Saints and come away with anything other than a chastening defeat. They may prove a tough nut to crack early in the game but as it wears on you should expect Saints greater strength, speed, skill and fitness to carry them to what would be a fifth straight Super League success.
Squads;
St.Helens;
Lomax, Makinson, Naiqama, Percival, Grace, Fages, Walmsley, Roby, Thompson, Taia, Paulo, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Knowles, Amor, Peyroux, Lees, Ashworth, Bentley, Coote.
London Broncos;
Abdull, Adebiyi, Battye, Butler, Davis, Fleming, Fozard, Gee, Ioane, Kear, Lovell, Meadows, Ogden, Pelissier, Richards, Smith, Walker, Williams, Yates.
Referee: Marcus Griffiths
Great Saints Tries - Apollo Perelini v London Broncos 1996
This week sees the first meeting between Saints and London Broncos since 2014. Saints ran out 58-16 winners on July 19 that year, while the last time London visited St Helens was earlier that season when they left on the end of a 48-18 score-line on May 1. Interestingly, only six of the 17 Saints players on duty for that July fixture remain at the club. There has been a fair amount of change among the playing staff at Saints as they continue to chase what would be their seventh Super League title. The Broncos were relegated from Super League at the end of the 2014 season, while Saints went on to complete the double of League Leaders Shield and Super League Grand Final.
Now, after four years in the relative wilderness of the Championship the Broncos are back in the top flight. They will face Saints in a BetFred Super League Round 5 clash this Friday night (March 8). Meetings between the two haven’t always been classics, but there is one particular game which stands out. Saints visited London on July 27 1996 in the midst of a nail-chomping title-race. They led Wigan by a single point in the penultimate season in which the first side past the post would take the crown. The advent of the playoffs and Grand Final concepts was still two years away, and again it would be Wigan annoying everyone by winning the first of those events in 1998. Back in 1996 as Saints prepared to face Tony Curry’s Broncos outfit it was the Knowsley Road side who held a vital edge at the top of the table. Wigan had been held to a draw by London earlier in the season, a Terry Matterson touchline conversion stunning the Warriors and opening the door for a Saints side which would go on to claim its first title since 1975.
Yet it would never have happened without events at Charlton Athletic’s The Valley on that July day. A day when the newly launched video refereeing system showed just how vital it can be in deciding the destination of the game’s major honours. Few decisions in its history have been more controversial and more vital than the one on Apollo Perelini’s try which ultimately turned this game in Saints favour. The system continues to cause controversy 23 years on. Left to this writer it would be pitched down the metaphorical garden path at the next opportunity. But on that day every Saints fan was grateful for its existence.
Saints had already reached Wembley for the Challenge Cup final before a ball had been kicked in the new all-singing, all-dancing, all-video-refereeing Super League. Shaun McRae’s men had seen off Castleford, Rochdale, Salford and Widnes on route to a first Wembley appearance in five years. At that point they had not won the cup since 1976, another long wait that would come to an end in thrilling circumstances in 1996 in an all-time classic final clash with Bradford Bulls.
Super League was launched with much fanfare in Paris, where Sheffield Eagles were the visitors for Paris St.Germain. Hopes were high that a credible European competition could thrive in place of the old first division. Lazy stereotypes of northern grime and cloth-caps were hard to shake for rugby league. In going fully professional and adding a bit more cosmopolitan glamour in the shape of PSG in particular it was finally thought time to step out of the shadow of rugby union. If anything, we have made even less progress towards that aim in 2019 than we have in discerning how to use video technology without diminishing the spectacle.
Saints first ever Super League game was at Workington Town. The Cumbrian side had been controversially included in the new competition at the expense of Widnes, who even back then found that events off the field conspired against them. Saints showed the size of the gap between them and Workington with a thumping 62-0 win to start the campaign. By the time they travelled to London for this one they had lost just twice. They were thumped 35-16 at Central Park by Wigan in mid-June and just a fortnight later managed to concede 50 points at a Bradford Bulls side which would be swept along to a third-placed finish by Bullmania, a young Robbie Paul and former Saints Bernard Dwyer, Paul Loughlin and Sonny Nickle who had arrived in West Yorkshire as part of the deal that brought Paul Newlove to St Helens. The Bulls beat Wigan that season also, another crucial result in ending Saints long title drought.
Newlove scored 36 tries for Saints in the 1996 Super League campaign, grabbing one in this game along with his centre partner Scott Gibbs. It would turn out to be Gibbs’ last game for Saints after joining in 1994 from Welsh rugby union. He left the game with a hand injury, missing the rest of the season before returning to the other code with Swansea in 1997. Just as an aside, my sister was at university in Swansea around that time and we bumped into him in a chippy. He was a true gent in the face of my drunken interrogation about his rugby league career so it was hard to begrudge him his move back home even if he was sorely missed. Newlove would stick around for five more years but it wasn’t until Kevin Iro arrived in 1999 that Saints had a really top class centre on the opposite side.
Newlove’s try one was of three which gave Saints an early 14-2 lead. Perelini claimed his first with the other added by winger and former Saints physio Joey Hayes. Yet the game was level by half-time as Russell Bawden went over before Scott Roskill managed to go 60 metres from a scrum. The Broncos took the lead through a Greg Barwick penalty before Roskill scored again to widen the margin. Vila Matautia went over next from Ian Pickavance’s offload before Gibbs crossed to put Saints back in front. Still the Broncos refused to yield, producing yet another lead change when Steve Rosolen went over for a try converted by Barwick with the help of an upright.
And so the moment arrived for Perelini. The Samoan legend took a pass from Karle Hammond and plunged with everything he had towards the try-line, trying to burrow beneath the posse of defenders about to converge on him. The prop ended up on his back over the line but after what at the time seemed an unusual amount of replays the message came down to on-field referee Stuart Cummings that Perelini had grounded the ball. The Widnes whistler, entirely superfluous on most of the Sky Sports rugby league coverage these days, was suddenly one of most popular men in St Helens as he pointed to the spot to confirm the score.
Saints then clung on through a quite agonising period of injury time to seal their 32-28 winwhich kept them top of the table. Wigan responded with a 34-26 win over Halifax a day later but it only kept them within a point of McRae’s side. If Saints could win their last four league matches they would be crowned champions and their 21-year wait would end. A 20-16 win at Castleford was as squeaky as it gets a week later, but there was a great deal more comfort about the last three games as Saints went to Paris and won 32-12 before putting a combined total of 134 points on Sheffield Eagles and Warrington in their final two matches. That 66-14 victory over Warrington was a day of celebration for Saints who picked up the trophy to become the first ever Super League winners. They scored 13 tries against John Dorahy’s Wire to put an exclamation mark on their triumph, with Alan Hunte grabbing a hat-trick, braces for Newlove, Anthony Sullivan and Tommy Martyn and a try each for Hayes, Bobbie Goulding, Adam Fogerty, and Derek McVey.
For their part London finished fourth, an achievement which they bettered the following year by finishing second to a by then unstoppable Bradford Bulls. Those finishes would have been good enough for playoff appearances in subsequent seasons but came just too early. Now as they return survival in the Super League is the main priority. It is going to be a tough ask too, but they will be heartened by their victories over Wakefield and Wigan so far in 2019 as they prepare to visit unbeaten Saints this weekend.
Now, after four years in the relative wilderness of the Championship the Broncos are back in the top flight. They will face Saints in a BetFred Super League Round 5 clash this Friday night (March 8). Meetings between the two haven’t always been classics, but there is one particular game which stands out. Saints visited London on July 27 1996 in the midst of a nail-chomping title-race. They led Wigan by a single point in the penultimate season in which the first side past the post would take the crown. The advent of the playoffs and Grand Final concepts was still two years away, and again it would be Wigan annoying everyone by winning the first of those events in 1998. Back in 1996 as Saints prepared to face Tony Curry’s Broncos outfit it was the Knowsley Road side who held a vital edge at the top of the table. Wigan had been held to a draw by London earlier in the season, a Terry Matterson touchline conversion stunning the Warriors and opening the door for a Saints side which would go on to claim its first title since 1975.
Yet it would never have happened without events at Charlton Athletic’s The Valley on that July day. A day when the newly launched video refereeing system showed just how vital it can be in deciding the destination of the game’s major honours. Few decisions in its history have been more controversial and more vital than the one on Apollo Perelini’s try which ultimately turned this game in Saints favour. The system continues to cause controversy 23 years on. Left to this writer it would be pitched down the metaphorical garden path at the next opportunity. But on that day every Saints fan was grateful for its existence.
Saints had already reached Wembley for the Challenge Cup final before a ball had been kicked in the new all-singing, all-dancing, all-video-refereeing Super League. Shaun McRae’s men had seen off Castleford, Rochdale, Salford and Widnes on route to a first Wembley appearance in five years. At that point they had not won the cup since 1976, another long wait that would come to an end in thrilling circumstances in 1996 in an all-time classic final clash with Bradford Bulls.
Super League was launched with much fanfare in Paris, where Sheffield Eagles were the visitors for Paris St.Germain. Hopes were high that a credible European competition could thrive in place of the old first division. Lazy stereotypes of northern grime and cloth-caps were hard to shake for rugby league. In going fully professional and adding a bit more cosmopolitan glamour in the shape of PSG in particular it was finally thought time to step out of the shadow of rugby union. If anything, we have made even less progress towards that aim in 2019 than we have in discerning how to use video technology without diminishing the spectacle.
Saints first ever Super League game was at Workington Town. The Cumbrian side had been controversially included in the new competition at the expense of Widnes, who even back then found that events off the field conspired against them. Saints showed the size of the gap between them and Workington with a thumping 62-0 win to start the campaign. By the time they travelled to London for this one they had lost just twice. They were thumped 35-16 at Central Park by Wigan in mid-June and just a fortnight later managed to concede 50 points at a Bradford Bulls side which would be swept along to a third-placed finish by Bullmania, a young Robbie Paul and former Saints Bernard Dwyer, Paul Loughlin and Sonny Nickle who had arrived in West Yorkshire as part of the deal that brought Paul Newlove to St Helens. The Bulls beat Wigan that season also, another crucial result in ending Saints long title drought.
Newlove scored 36 tries for Saints in the 1996 Super League campaign, grabbing one in this game along with his centre partner Scott Gibbs. It would turn out to be Gibbs’ last game for Saints after joining in 1994 from Welsh rugby union. He left the game with a hand injury, missing the rest of the season before returning to the other code with Swansea in 1997. Just as an aside, my sister was at university in Swansea around that time and we bumped into him in a chippy. He was a true gent in the face of my drunken interrogation about his rugby league career so it was hard to begrudge him his move back home even if he was sorely missed. Newlove would stick around for five more years but it wasn’t until Kevin Iro arrived in 1999 that Saints had a really top class centre on the opposite side.
Newlove’s try one was of three which gave Saints an early 14-2 lead. Perelini claimed his first with the other added by winger and former Saints physio Joey Hayes. Yet the game was level by half-time as Russell Bawden went over before Scott Roskill managed to go 60 metres from a scrum. The Broncos took the lead through a Greg Barwick penalty before Roskill scored again to widen the margin. Vila Matautia went over next from Ian Pickavance’s offload before Gibbs crossed to put Saints back in front. Still the Broncos refused to yield, producing yet another lead change when Steve Rosolen went over for a try converted by Barwick with the help of an upright.
And so the moment arrived for Perelini. The Samoan legend took a pass from Karle Hammond and plunged with everything he had towards the try-line, trying to burrow beneath the posse of defenders about to converge on him. The prop ended up on his back over the line but after what at the time seemed an unusual amount of replays the message came down to on-field referee Stuart Cummings that Perelini had grounded the ball. The Widnes whistler, entirely superfluous on most of the Sky Sports rugby league coverage these days, was suddenly one of most popular men in St Helens as he pointed to the spot to confirm the score.
Saints then clung on through a quite agonising period of injury time to seal their 32-28 winwhich kept them top of the table. Wigan responded with a 34-26 win over Halifax a day later but it only kept them within a point of McRae’s side. If Saints could win their last four league matches they would be crowned champions and their 21-year wait would end. A 20-16 win at Castleford was as squeaky as it gets a week later, but there was a great deal more comfort about the last three games as Saints went to Paris and won 32-12 before putting a combined total of 134 points on Sheffield Eagles and Warrington in their final two matches. That 66-14 victory over Warrington was a day of celebration for Saints who picked up the trophy to become the first ever Super League winners. They scored 13 tries against John Dorahy’s Wire to put an exclamation mark on their triumph, with Alan Hunte grabbing a hat-trick, braces for Newlove, Anthony Sullivan and Tommy Martyn and a try each for Hayes, Bobbie Goulding, Adam Fogerty, and Derek McVey.
For their part London finished fourth, an achievement which they bettered the following year by finishing second to a by then unstoppable Bradford Bulls. Those finishes would have been good enough for playoff appearances in subsequent seasons but came just too early. Now as they return survival in the Super League is the main priority. It is going to be a tough ask too, but they will be heartened by their victories over Wakefield and Wigan so far in 2019 as they prepare to visit unbeaten Saints this weekend.
5 Talking Points From Salford 4 Saints 26
Just........James Roby!!
This was a fine win for Justin a Holbrook’s side but it was not the kind of weather for the free-flowing rugby league that we enjoy most. It rained pretty much relentlessly from midday ahead of the 7.45 kick-off and continued throughout the game. Yet it was Saints who adapted better to the conditions, scoring five tries to Salford’s one.
Leading the way was skipper James Roby, who once again turned in the kind of performance that sparks debate about whether he or Kieron Cunningham is Saints greatest ever number nine. That Roby is even mentioned in the same breath as Cunningham is testament to the greatness of the 33-year-old, now in his sixteenth season with Saints since making his debut in 2004. To put that into context Tony Blair was still Prime Minister at that time, Wayne Rooney was a precocious teenager and Snoop Dogg was dropping it like it was very warm indeed.
As we were constantly reminded by soon to be retired commentator Eddie Hemings Roby had never scored at the AJ Bell Stadium. He broke that duck with two here. The second was a phenomenal effort, supporting Tommy Makinson’s break late in the game to plunge over from Lachlan Cooke’s dummy half pass. Most other players on both sides had given the play up but Roby’s desire and his almost child-like enthusiasm to keep playing saw him rewarded. That came after he’d made 50 tackles in defence and 82 metres with ball in hand including 10 runs from dummy half. He shows no signs of slowing down and will probably surpass Cunningham’s 17 seasons in the red vee by the time he calls it quits. That he is still playing 80 minutes in the hooking position at this stage of his career is staggering. It’s an early call but the new Steve Prescott Man Of Steel points system should see Roby collect the award for a second time if he stays fit. After all, when was the last time you saw a Saints game featuring Roby in which he was not one of the top three performers? It’s rare simply because he operates on a different level to most current Super League players both in terms of quality and consistency.
Defence, Defence, Defence....
Given the rotten weather there’s a good argument that defending was somewhat easier than it might have been. The ball isn’t shifted or offloaded quite so much in the wet and it is more difficult for attacking players to change direction quickly in heavy conditions. Yet a tackle success rate of 91.7% is still an outrageously good effort from Saints as a team. As well as Roby’s half century Dominique Peyroux weighed in with 40, Morgan Knowles 38, Theo Fages 36, Zeb Taia and Matty Costello 32 each, Luke Thompson 30 and Joseph Paul 29. That little collective missed just 13 between them, with Taia responsible for six of those. Incidentally Roby missed not a single one, and of the others only Thompson (2) missed more than one.
Tackling stats give you an indication of how your team is performing defensively, but of course the most important defensive stat is the number of points on the board for the opposition. Since shipping in 22 points in less than 20 minutes at home to Leeds Rhinos last week Saints have conceded just four points in 120 minutes of rugby. There was even an element of doubt about those four as Derrell Olpherts appeared to knock the ball on into Mark Percival before regathering to score for Salford. In all Saints concede an average of 14 points per game this season so far, and have conceded fewer points than all but Castleford, Warrington and Catalans all of whom have played one game less than Saints at the time of writing. Saints have had a huge appetite for defending their line over the last game and a half. If they can keep that mentality for the duration of the season they won’t be that far away when the pots are handed out.
Did Costello Take His Chance?
When Kevin Naiqama was hit by the Luke Thompson Express in just the second minute of last week’s win over Leeds it was always going to cause a problem on the night. Ryan Morgan is on loan at London while Costello had not been included in the 17 with a view to playing on dual registration for Leigh against Toronto a couple of days later. Though it was too late for the Leeds game Naiqama’s injury saw Costello pulled from the Leigh squad. He was about to get his opportunity. Holbrook confirmed this early in the week as fan debates about which of Makinson, Peyroux, James Bentley or McCarthy-Scarsbrook would get the nod still somehow raged on.
It was the right call in my opinion, irrespective of Costello’s performance. He’s either a centre or a fullback, and his prospects of getting a game in the latter role are slim and none. Coote, Jonny Lomax and Makinson all look to be ahead of Costello in that queue. Meanwhile with just Percival and Naiqama ahead of him at centre he has to be given that opportunity when one of those two is unavailable. Otherwise what is the point of having him at the club? If Holbrook doesn’t use him in those circumstances he might as well move him on and spend the cap money elsewhere. In selecting him Holbrook put a round peg in a round hole and, more importantly, showed faith in a product of a youth system which the club takes great pride in and which is the envy of many clubs in all sports across the land.
Costello justified his selection to an extent anyway. Eight carries for 39 metres perhaps shows his limitations as a strike centre but I think if you asked most Saints fans going into the game what they most wanted from Costello it would have been to contain opposite number Junior Sa’u. I had grave concerns for Costello in handling the former New Zealand international. At one point I was considering starting a #prayformatty hashtag but then I realised I’m not the sort of person who starts hashtags. Prayers would have been entirely superfluous in any case. One missed tackle from 33 attempts speaks volumes. Compare that to Sau’s three missed tackles from only 13 attempts and you get some context on Costello’s defensive effort. Moreover, Sa’u was restricted to 73 metres on 14 carries and came no closer to a clean break than Costello. The jury is still out on whether Costello has a long term future at Saints but he showed in this one, as he has before, that he won’t let anyone down while he’s here.
Is It Time For Squad Rotation?
Saints play host to London Broncos next week. Brian Clough once memorably reminded us that they don’t play ball games on paper but any reasonable analysis of the two squads and their relative form seems to point to a routine Saints win. With that in mind, can Holbrook afford to take a few risks with his team selection?
One of the reasons cited for Saints semi-Final defeat to Warrington last term was Holbrook’s reluctance to rest players. Saints stormed the league but looked spent by the end of the 18-13 loss to the Wolves which ended Grand Final hopes at the last four stage for the fourth consecutive season. It’s a riddle that needs solving if the excellent Holbrook’s time with Saints is to be remembered as a success.
We’re only four games in but Holbrook has again kept changes to a minimum in 2019. Costello came in only because of Naiqama’s injury, otherwise it’s been the same 17 men who have led Saints to four wins out of four. Those on the fringe have been sent to Leigh Centurions to get game time. Holbrook isn’t big on resting players.
Yet if that’s his rigid philosophy there is still some scope for changing it up in terms of which players turn out for Leigh next week and which players face the Broncos. Kyle Amor is one who has had several offers of a lift to Leigh from fans keen to see Jack Ashworth given an opportunity. Ashworth had a breakout year at prop last year and must be a little frustrated to find himself out of the first team picture, while Luke Douglas probably didn’t imagine spending time in England’s second tier when he left the NRL. Zeb Taia is another who could soon be ousted by Bentley or Joe Batchelor so why not find out this week how close he might be to that fate?
Risk is the short answer. Unlikely as it is there is a chance that a significantly weakened Saints side could come unstuck to a London side that has already seen off Wakefield this season. Should that happen the pressure will ramp up on Holbrook and on the players amid the social media meltdown. We’re just not grown up enough as a fan base to accept a home defeat to London or, arguably, a win that is anything less than a stellar points-fest. Even in a competition which will be decided by knockout playoff games at the end of the year and not by league position. Same again, then?
Widnes Crisis Shines A Light On Our Good Fortune
The next time you feel like having that meltdown have a minute, relax, take a deep breath and remember that you don’t support Widnes Vikings. The club that was world champions 30 years ago has had the kind of week that Craig David will never endure, bobbing along as he does meeting girls on Monday, taking them for drinks on Tuesday, making love on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday before chilling on Sunday. Just days before the Vikings were due to take on Sheffield Eagles it was revealed that the person pulling the purse strings at the club formerly known as the Chemics had yanked all the money away for themselves. The club faced the very real threat of liquidation.
Not everyone felt sorry for them. Generally the response from people within the game was overwhelmingly positive, sympathetic and helpful. Yet not everyone felt sorry for them. Club legend Martin Offiah couldn’t even find it in his heart to retweet a request for help. Quite something when you consider the amount of self-serving bilge that does appear on the self-appointed great man’s Twitter feed. Yet happily the club have been saved from a fate worse than a fate worse than Marwan Koukash by a three-man consortium. They’ve copped a 12-point penalty for going into administration which will make survival in the Championship tricky, while jobs behind the scenes have been lost. Yet compared to what could have happened they may have got off lightly. They could have been forced to start a new venture from the very bottom rung of the ladder, all but erasing over a century of history. Now they need to keep playing departures to a minimum to stay competitive and get some fan representation on the board to keep a closer eye on what is being decided by the money men. It’s not straightforward but there is plenty of hope.
The moral of this story is that you should never take your club for granted. At the moment we have a competitive team, our own stadium and an owner and board who are in it for the love of the club more than their own benefit. This is not a plea for you to pump your hard earned into the club by going to more games, subscribing to Sky or buying some of the dubious quality merchandise in the club shop. It’s just a suggestion that you should, every now and again, take a moment to appreciate what we have at Saints. Even if we do suffer that unlikely defeat at home to London.......
This was a fine win for Justin a Holbrook’s side but it was not the kind of weather for the free-flowing rugby league that we enjoy most. It rained pretty much relentlessly from midday ahead of the 7.45 kick-off and continued throughout the game. Yet it was Saints who adapted better to the conditions, scoring five tries to Salford’s one.
Leading the way was skipper James Roby, who once again turned in the kind of performance that sparks debate about whether he or Kieron Cunningham is Saints greatest ever number nine. That Roby is even mentioned in the same breath as Cunningham is testament to the greatness of the 33-year-old, now in his sixteenth season with Saints since making his debut in 2004. To put that into context Tony Blair was still Prime Minister at that time, Wayne Rooney was a precocious teenager and Snoop Dogg was dropping it like it was very warm indeed.
As we were constantly reminded by soon to be retired commentator Eddie Hemings Roby had never scored at the AJ Bell Stadium. He broke that duck with two here. The second was a phenomenal effort, supporting Tommy Makinson’s break late in the game to plunge over from Lachlan Cooke’s dummy half pass. Most other players on both sides had given the play up but Roby’s desire and his almost child-like enthusiasm to keep playing saw him rewarded. That came after he’d made 50 tackles in defence and 82 metres with ball in hand including 10 runs from dummy half. He shows no signs of slowing down and will probably surpass Cunningham’s 17 seasons in the red vee by the time he calls it quits. That he is still playing 80 minutes in the hooking position at this stage of his career is staggering. It’s an early call but the new Steve Prescott Man Of Steel points system should see Roby collect the award for a second time if he stays fit. After all, when was the last time you saw a Saints game featuring Roby in which he was not one of the top three performers? It’s rare simply because he operates on a different level to most current Super League players both in terms of quality and consistency.
Defence, Defence, Defence....
Given the rotten weather there’s a good argument that defending was somewhat easier than it might have been. The ball isn’t shifted or offloaded quite so much in the wet and it is more difficult for attacking players to change direction quickly in heavy conditions. Yet a tackle success rate of 91.7% is still an outrageously good effort from Saints as a team. As well as Roby’s half century Dominique Peyroux weighed in with 40, Morgan Knowles 38, Theo Fages 36, Zeb Taia and Matty Costello 32 each, Luke Thompson 30 and Joseph Paul 29. That little collective missed just 13 between them, with Taia responsible for six of those. Incidentally Roby missed not a single one, and of the others only Thompson (2) missed more than one.
Tackling stats give you an indication of how your team is performing defensively, but of course the most important defensive stat is the number of points on the board for the opposition. Since shipping in 22 points in less than 20 minutes at home to Leeds Rhinos last week Saints have conceded just four points in 120 minutes of rugby. There was even an element of doubt about those four as Derrell Olpherts appeared to knock the ball on into Mark Percival before regathering to score for Salford. In all Saints concede an average of 14 points per game this season so far, and have conceded fewer points than all but Castleford, Warrington and Catalans all of whom have played one game less than Saints at the time of writing. Saints have had a huge appetite for defending their line over the last game and a half. If they can keep that mentality for the duration of the season they won’t be that far away when the pots are handed out.
Did Costello Take His Chance?
When Kevin Naiqama was hit by the Luke Thompson Express in just the second minute of last week’s win over Leeds it was always going to cause a problem on the night. Ryan Morgan is on loan at London while Costello had not been included in the 17 with a view to playing on dual registration for Leigh against Toronto a couple of days later. Though it was too late for the Leeds game Naiqama’s injury saw Costello pulled from the Leigh squad. He was about to get his opportunity. Holbrook confirmed this early in the week as fan debates about which of Makinson, Peyroux, James Bentley or McCarthy-Scarsbrook would get the nod still somehow raged on.
It was the right call in my opinion, irrespective of Costello’s performance. He’s either a centre or a fullback, and his prospects of getting a game in the latter role are slim and none. Coote, Jonny Lomax and Makinson all look to be ahead of Costello in that queue. Meanwhile with just Percival and Naiqama ahead of him at centre he has to be given that opportunity when one of those two is unavailable. Otherwise what is the point of having him at the club? If Holbrook doesn’t use him in those circumstances he might as well move him on and spend the cap money elsewhere. In selecting him Holbrook put a round peg in a round hole and, more importantly, showed faith in a product of a youth system which the club takes great pride in and which is the envy of many clubs in all sports across the land.
Costello justified his selection to an extent anyway. Eight carries for 39 metres perhaps shows his limitations as a strike centre but I think if you asked most Saints fans going into the game what they most wanted from Costello it would have been to contain opposite number Junior Sa’u. I had grave concerns for Costello in handling the former New Zealand international. At one point I was considering starting a #prayformatty hashtag but then I realised I’m not the sort of person who starts hashtags. Prayers would have been entirely superfluous in any case. One missed tackle from 33 attempts speaks volumes. Compare that to Sau’s three missed tackles from only 13 attempts and you get some context on Costello’s defensive effort. Moreover, Sa’u was restricted to 73 metres on 14 carries and came no closer to a clean break than Costello. The jury is still out on whether Costello has a long term future at Saints but he showed in this one, as he has before, that he won’t let anyone down while he’s here.
Is It Time For Squad Rotation?
Saints play host to London Broncos next week. Brian Clough once memorably reminded us that they don’t play ball games on paper but any reasonable analysis of the two squads and their relative form seems to point to a routine Saints win. With that in mind, can Holbrook afford to take a few risks with his team selection?
One of the reasons cited for Saints semi-Final defeat to Warrington last term was Holbrook’s reluctance to rest players. Saints stormed the league but looked spent by the end of the 18-13 loss to the Wolves which ended Grand Final hopes at the last four stage for the fourth consecutive season. It’s a riddle that needs solving if the excellent Holbrook’s time with Saints is to be remembered as a success.
We’re only four games in but Holbrook has again kept changes to a minimum in 2019. Costello came in only because of Naiqama’s injury, otherwise it’s been the same 17 men who have led Saints to four wins out of four. Those on the fringe have been sent to Leigh Centurions to get game time. Holbrook isn’t big on resting players.
Yet if that’s his rigid philosophy there is still some scope for changing it up in terms of which players turn out for Leigh next week and which players face the Broncos. Kyle Amor is one who has had several offers of a lift to Leigh from fans keen to see Jack Ashworth given an opportunity. Ashworth had a breakout year at prop last year and must be a little frustrated to find himself out of the first team picture, while Luke Douglas probably didn’t imagine spending time in England’s second tier when he left the NRL. Zeb Taia is another who could soon be ousted by Bentley or Joe Batchelor so why not find out this week how close he might be to that fate?
Risk is the short answer. Unlikely as it is there is a chance that a significantly weakened Saints side could come unstuck to a London side that has already seen off Wakefield this season. Should that happen the pressure will ramp up on Holbrook and on the players amid the social media meltdown. We’re just not grown up enough as a fan base to accept a home defeat to London or, arguably, a win that is anything less than a stellar points-fest. Even in a competition which will be decided by knockout playoff games at the end of the year and not by league position. Same again, then?
Widnes Crisis Shines A Light On Our Good Fortune
The next time you feel like having that meltdown have a minute, relax, take a deep breath and remember that you don’t support Widnes Vikings. The club that was world champions 30 years ago has had the kind of week that Craig David will never endure, bobbing along as he does meeting girls on Monday, taking them for drinks on Tuesday, making love on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday before chilling on Sunday. Just days before the Vikings were due to take on Sheffield Eagles it was revealed that the person pulling the purse strings at the club formerly known as the Chemics had yanked all the money away for themselves. The club faced the very real threat of liquidation.
Not everyone felt sorry for them. Generally the response from people within the game was overwhelmingly positive, sympathetic and helpful. Yet not everyone felt sorry for them. Club legend Martin Offiah couldn’t even find it in his heart to retweet a request for help. Quite something when you consider the amount of self-serving bilge that does appear on the self-appointed great man’s Twitter feed. Yet happily the club have been saved from a fate worse than a fate worse than Marwan Koukash by a three-man consortium. They’ve copped a 12-point penalty for going into administration which will make survival in the Championship tricky, while jobs behind the scenes have been lost. Yet compared to what could have happened they may have got off lightly. They could have been forced to start a new venture from the very bottom rung of the ladder, all but erasing over a century of history. Now they need to keep playing departures to a minimum to stay competitive and get some fan representation on the board to keep a closer eye on what is being decided by the money men. It’s not straightforward but there is plenty of hope.
The moral of this story is that you should never take your club for granted. At the moment we have a competitive team, our own stadium and an owner and board who are in it for the love of the club more than their own benefit. This is not a plea for you to pump your hard earned into the club by going to more games, subscribing to Sky or buying some of the dubious quality merchandise in the club shop. It’s just a suggestion that you should, every now and again, take a moment to appreciate what we have at Saints. Even if we do suffer that unlikely defeat at home to London.......
Salford Red Devils v Saints - Preview
It’s far too early to be looking at league tables, right? Not if you want to shamelessly over-egg the importance of Saints visit to Salford it isn’t. The two meet on Thursday night (February 28, kick-off 7.45pm) in a BetFred Super League Round Four clash at the AJ Bell Stadium with the home side sitting pretty in fourth, just one place behind your Saints in third in the embryonic Super League table.
Salford’s lofty position is about as likely to last as the Independent Group, and is at least in part down to the fact that they have played a game more than most other sides. Yet three wins out of four represents a more than decent start for Ian Watson’s side. Many, including this foolish keyboard masher, predicted a relegation struggle for a Red Devils side which struggles to attract fans and to keep star players.
Saints coach Justin Holbrook has made two changes to his 19-man squad this week. One is enforced, Kevin Naiqama having failed a concussion test after exiting the win over Leeds Rhinos in just the second minute last week. He is out for a mandatory seven days and so does not make this one. Also out is Danny Richardson, likely to feature again for Leigh Centurions after being left out of Holbrook’s initial 19 for the first time this season. The pair are replaced by Matty Costello and Jack Ashworth, neither of whom have featured in the Saints first team so far this term.
Costello has already been earmarked by Holbrook to start at centre in place of Naiqama. A groin injury to Adam Swift has taken the option of moving Tommy Makinson inside to centre and bringing Swift in on the wing off the table. There were calls for James Bentley to replace Naiqama after he impressed in the position for the Centurions in their narrow defeat to Toronto Wolfpack at the weekend. Yet if we are ever going to find out if Costello is going to cut it as a centre at Saints then now is surely the time to throw him in and see if he sinks or swims. He has let nobody down without totally convincing in his previous first team appearances and needs to start making the most of his opportunities.
The rest of the three-quarter-line picks itself with Makinson and Regan Grace on the wings and Mark Percival partnering Costello in the centres ahead of fullback Lachlan Coote. Richardson’s non-selection is a show of faith in Theo Fages who has performed adequately in the role since surprisingly snatching it from the 2018 Dream Team half at the start of the season. Yet even the Frenchman hasn’t convinced with ball in hand, and it is perhaps his greater defensive solidity which really gives him the edge over Richardson at present. Jonny Lomax had an up and down night against the Rhinos, always busy but perhaps lacking his usual ruthlessness. He will start at stand-off alongside Fages as the two continue to try to develop their partnership.
Saints front row is world class. Alex Walmsley took over the Leeds game just after half-time, plonking down two tries in less than five minutes to turn the game on its head. Alongside him Luke Thompson showed that he is not just a battering ram as he dummied and shimmied his way over for a crucial try also. In between those two James Roby earned another couple of Steve Prescott Man Of Steel points for his performance against Leeds, and yet you’d say it was only an average display by his incomparable standards. Holbrook’s only dilemma with this trio is how many of them should be on the field at the same time. Saints have looked a little more suspect when one of Walmsley or Thompson leaves the field and with Fages now settled in the seven role and Aaron Smith injured there is not currently a realistic contender for the role of spelling Roby at hooker.
Louie-McCarthy-Scarsbrook will be glad to get out of the centres having probably spent the last few nights dreaming of Konrad Hurrell hurtling towards him. The Londoner will instead compete for a place in the prop rotation with Walmsley, Thompson, Kyle Amor, Matty Lees and Ashworth. There is no place for Luke Douglas, despite calls from fans for the Scotland international to be included. Douglas has been outstanding for Leigh in his month-long loan spell and on dual registration, but it should be remembered that he is playing against a lower level of competition there. If there is to be a change in the pack it is likely to be Amor that misses out, that despite an encouraging performance against Leeds which was unceremoniously cut short by Holbrook only 17 minutes after having introduced the Cumbrian to the action.
The back row could include Bentley, but more likely we will see the much criticised Zeb Taia partnering Dominique Peyroux with Morgan Knowles at 13. Criticism of Taia is absurd given that he made 150 metres against Leeds and is consistently Saints most dangerous forward in attack. His languid style convinces some fans that he isn’t trying but we can’t all be McCarthy-Scarsbrook. I know which one of those two I would rather have playing for my life. Particularly if it involved tackling Konrad Hurrell. Peyroux has looked off the pace at times so far this season and could yet be replaced by Joseph Paulo who has impressed in defence without really contributing a running game comparable to that of Peyroux. Knowles is becoming a model of consistency, often outdoing even Roby in the tackling department. If he could learn to pass the ball to someone other than the next man in the line then all the talk of him in the same breath as Sean O’Loughlin might one day become a bit more sensible.
Salford come into this one on the back of a thrilling comeback win at Hull KR. Down 22-8 at one point the AJ Bell Stadium oufit scored 16 unanswered points to complete a 24-22 win. It means that their only loss so far this season is the disappointing 46-14 hammering they took at home to Leeds Rhinos last weekend when Saints were forced to put their feet up and rest as the World Club Challenge took centre stage. A win in this one against the as yet unbeaten Saints would be a real statement that this Salford side can mix it with the very best. Frankly, it’s unlikely.
The Salford line-up is full of talent but it is the consistency that they have lacked in the past that has kept them from competing and which threatens to again this year. Niall Evalds has been superb at fullback thus far while in Ken Sio they have captured an exciting and experienced player who can fit in anywhere along the three-quarter line. Junior S’au is a bulldozer of a centre with NRL experience but the real heart of the Salford side is in midfield where the brilliant Jackson Hastings plots and probes from halfback alongside the bruising but explosive Robert Lui. Yet there is a mistake in the latter, something which no doubt Saints will look to capitalise on by putting him under significant pressure whenever he receives the ball.
Up front former Saints man Josh Jones has been in great form in the second row while in George Griffin, Joey Lussick, Lee Mossop, Logan Tomkins and Tyrone McCarthy there is plenty of Super League experience to draw on. Mark Flanagan is another former Saint who is as hard working and reliable player as there has been in recent seasons even if he is not exactly spectacular with ball in hand. Greg Burke and Gil Dudson have bounced around Super League in recent years and are perhaps less formidable. They will need to step up if the Red Devils are to compete with a fearsome Saints pack which, even if one or two of its stars suffers an off day, always has someone else coming at you at 1000 miles per hour. Super League games are often won in the forwards, a fact which should make Saints a strong favourite even away from home. In addition, Salford have not put together a consistent 80 minutes in their last two matches which will be a worry for Watson. He will know full well that his side will need to be operating at full tilt for the entirety of the game if they are going to have any chance of causing a shock and knocking off the Saints. Barring any disasters, I’m going for Saints by a comfortable enough 12-14 points.
Squads;
Salford Red Devils;
NiallEvalds, Kris Welham, Junior Sa'u, Bibby, Robert Lui, Gil Dudson, Josh Jones, George Griffin, Mark Flanagan, Joey Lussick, Greg Burke, Tyrone McCarthy, Ben Nakubuwai, Logan Tomkins, Daniel Murray, Derrell Olpherts, Ken Sio, Jansen Turgut, Jackson Hastings.
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 19. Matty Lees, 20. Jack Ashworth, 22. James Bentley, 23. Lachlan Coote, 24. Matty Costello.
Referee: Ben Thaler
Salford’s lofty position is about as likely to last as the Independent Group, and is at least in part down to the fact that they have played a game more than most other sides. Yet three wins out of four represents a more than decent start for Ian Watson’s side. Many, including this foolish keyboard masher, predicted a relegation struggle for a Red Devils side which struggles to attract fans and to keep star players.
Saints coach Justin Holbrook has made two changes to his 19-man squad this week. One is enforced, Kevin Naiqama having failed a concussion test after exiting the win over Leeds Rhinos in just the second minute last week. He is out for a mandatory seven days and so does not make this one. Also out is Danny Richardson, likely to feature again for Leigh Centurions after being left out of Holbrook’s initial 19 for the first time this season. The pair are replaced by Matty Costello and Jack Ashworth, neither of whom have featured in the Saints first team so far this term.
Costello has already been earmarked by Holbrook to start at centre in place of Naiqama. A groin injury to Adam Swift has taken the option of moving Tommy Makinson inside to centre and bringing Swift in on the wing off the table. There were calls for James Bentley to replace Naiqama after he impressed in the position for the Centurions in their narrow defeat to Toronto Wolfpack at the weekend. Yet if we are ever going to find out if Costello is going to cut it as a centre at Saints then now is surely the time to throw him in and see if he sinks or swims. He has let nobody down without totally convincing in his previous first team appearances and needs to start making the most of his opportunities.
The rest of the three-quarter-line picks itself with Makinson and Regan Grace on the wings and Mark Percival partnering Costello in the centres ahead of fullback Lachlan Coote. Richardson’s non-selection is a show of faith in Theo Fages who has performed adequately in the role since surprisingly snatching it from the 2018 Dream Team half at the start of the season. Yet even the Frenchman hasn’t convinced with ball in hand, and it is perhaps his greater defensive solidity which really gives him the edge over Richardson at present. Jonny Lomax had an up and down night against the Rhinos, always busy but perhaps lacking his usual ruthlessness. He will start at stand-off alongside Fages as the two continue to try to develop their partnership.
Saints front row is world class. Alex Walmsley took over the Leeds game just after half-time, plonking down two tries in less than five minutes to turn the game on its head. Alongside him Luke Thompson showed that he is not just a battering ram as he dummied and shimmied his way over for a crucial try also. In between those two James Roby earned another couple of Steve Prescott Man Of Steel points for his performance against Leeds, and yet you’d say it was only an average display by his incomparable standards. Holbrook’s only dilemma with this trio is how many of them should be on the field at the same time. Saints have looked a little more suspect when one of Walmsley or Thompson leaves the field and with Fages now settled in the seven role and Aaron Smith injured there is not currently a realistic contender for the role of spelling Roby at hooker.
Louie-McCarthy-Scarsbrook will be glad to get out of the centres having probably spent the last few nights dreaming of Konrad Hurrell hurtling towards him. The Londoner will instead compete for a place in the prop rotation with Walmsley, Thompson, Kyle Amor, Matty Lees and Ashworth. There is no place for Luke Douglas, despite calls from fans for the Scotland international to be included. Douglas has been outstanding for Leigh in his month-long loan spell and on dual registration, but it should be remembered that he is playing against a lower level of competition there. If there is to be a change in the pack it is likely to be Amor that misses out, that despite an encouraging performance against Leeds which was unceremoniously cut short by Holbrook only 17 minutes after having introduced the Cumbrian to the action.
The back row could include Bentley, but more likely we will see the much criticised Zeb Taia partnering Dominique Peyroux with Morgan Knowles at 13. Criticism of Taia is absurd given that he made 150 metres against Leeds and is consistently Saints most dangerous forward in attack. His languid style convinces some fans that he isn’t trying but we can’t all be McCarthy-Scarsbrook. I know which one of those two I would rather have playing for my life. Particularly if it involved tackling Konrad Hurrell. Peyroux has looked off the pace at times so far this season and could yet be replaced by Joseph Paulo who has impressed in defence without really contributing a running game comparable to that of Peyroux. Knowles is becoming a model of consistency, often outdoing even Roby in the tackling department. If he could learn to pass the ball to someone other than the next man in the line then all the talk of him in the same breath as Sean O’Loughlin might one day become a bit more sensible.
Salford come into this one on the back of a thrilling comeback win at Hull KR. Down 22-8 at one point the AJ Bell Stadium oufit scored 16 unanswered points to complete a 24-22 win. It means that their only loss so far this season is the disappointing 46-14 hammering they took at home to Leeds Rhinos last weekend when Saints were forced to put their feet up and rest as the World Club Challenge took centre stage. A win in this one against the as yet unbeaten Saints would be a real statement that this Salford side can mix it with the very best. Frankly, it’s unlikely.
The Salford line-up is full of talent but it is the consistency that they have lacked in the past that has kept them from competing and which threatens to again this year. Niall Evalds has been superb at fullback thus far while in Ken Sio they have captured an exciting and experienced player who can fit in anywhere along the three-quarter line. Junior S’au is a bulldozer of a centre with NRL experience but the real heart of the Salford side is in midfield where the brilliant Jackson Hastings plots and probes from halfback alongside the bruising but explosive Robert Lui. Yet there is a mistake in the latter, something which no doubt Saints will look to capitalise on by putting him under significant pressure whenever he receives the ball.
Up front former Saints man Josh Jones has been in great form in the second row while in George Griffin, Joey Lussick, Lee Mossop, Logan Tomkins and Tyrone McCarthy there is plenty of Super League experience to draw on. Mark Flanagan is another former Saint who is as hard working and reliable player as there has been in recent seasons even if he is not exactly spectacular with ball in hand. Greg Burke and Gil Dudson have bounced around Super League in recent years and are perhaps less formidable. They will need to step up if the Red Devils are to compete with a fearsome Saints pack which, even if one or two of its stars suffers an off day, always has someone else coming at you at 1000 miles per hour. Super League games are often won in the forwards, a fact which should make Saints a strong favourite even away from home. In addition, Salford have not put together a consistent 80 minutes in their last two matches which will be a worry for Watson. He will know full well that his side will need to be operating at full tilt for the entirety of the game if they are going to have any chance of causing a shock and knocking off the Saints. Barring any disasters, I’m going for Saints by a comfortable enough 12-14 points.
Squads;
Salford Red Devils;
NiallEvalds, Kris Welham, Junior Sa'u, Bibby, Robert Lui, Gil Dudson, Josh Jones, George Griffin, Mark Flanagan, Joey Lussick, Greg Burke, Tyrone McCarthy, Ben Nakubuwai, Logan Tomkins, Daniel Murray, Derrell Olpherts, Ken Sio, Jansen Turgut, Jackson Hastings.
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 19. Matty Lees, 20. Jack Ashworth, 22. James Bentley, 23. Lachlan Coote, 24. Matty Costello.
Referee: Ben Thaler
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