Saints v Catalans Dragons - Preview

There are scores to be settled when Saints host Catalans Dragons in a Betfred Super League Round 13 match on Sunday (April 28, kick-off 3.00pm).

The Dragons are the only side to have beaten Saints so far in 2019, running out 18-10 winners in Perpignan three weeks ago. The fixture computer (or a Sky executive with a piece of paper and a pen and a lot of time to kill) has presented Saints with an early chance to avenge that loss, and the one in the Challenge Cup semi-final last season. On that occsion a previously all-conquering Saints side found themselves 27-0 down at half-time to Steve McNamara’s side. Saints eventually lost 35-16 as the Dragons went on to lift the cup at Wembley.

Saints coach Justin Holbrook would no doubt sniff at talk of revenge, focusing instead on the job in hand which is to win the next game in front of his team regardless of their identity or any history which might exist. To that end he has made four changes to the 19-man squad which rolled Hull FC 62-16 on Easter Monday (April 22). Tommy Makinson and Luke Thompson left that game early with back spasms and an ankle problem respectively and so do not make it, while James Roby is rested. Morgan Knowles is suspended for one match after the disciplinary panel took a dim view of his challenge on Albert Kelly.

All of which means a fair amount of reshuffling is required. Matty Costello comes into the reckoning after he was a try-scorer for Leigh Centurions on Easter Monday. He could claim the left centre spot vacated by Mark Percival who remains out with a hamstring injury, while another part-time Centurion James Bentley comes in and could also stake a claim for that spot. Jack Welsby scored a try as a substitute against Lee Radford’s men and started when Percival missed the win over Hull KR through illness at the end of last month. All have a reasonable claim and it is a tricky decision for Holbrook to make.



As is the question of just how to re-introduce Theo Fages. The Frenchman hasn’t played since injuring his hip in that Hull KR win but returns to the 19 this week. Will he immediately reclaim the scrum-half berth that has been recently and quite capably filled by Danny Richardson? Or will Fages be used from the bench? With Roby out and Aaron Smith likely to start at hooker it may be wise to have both Richardson and Fages in the match day 17. Fages can fit in to the team in a number of positions as can his half back partner Jonny Lomax and fullback Lachlan Coote. If Smith needs a spell or for whatever reason it isn’t working with Richardson in the halves alongside Lomax then Fages is an excellent option to have off the bench.

With Thompson, Roby and Knowles out the pack will also have a somewhat different look. Alex Walmsley returns after missing the Hull FC win as does Zeb Taia, while Dominique Peyroux is likely to be promoted from the bench spot he occupied last time out. Joseph Paulo had two fine assists starting at 13 against the black and whites and should be a certainty to start in that position again. Smith should start at hooker after his absence from the match day 17 against Hull FC baffled most observers. The perceived wisdom was that Monday’s game would be the one in which Roby would rest and Smith would see big minutes, but Holbrook has chosen to do things slightly differently. There may be some merit in it too, as plenty of teams have found out to their cost how difficult it is to get up for the game which follows the bank holiday double header. Two games in the space of 72 hours takes a significant mental and physical toll and it can be quite difficult to perform at a high level again the following week. With bigger battles ahead, keeping Roby wrapped in cotton wool is a fair enough decision especially in the context of the current playoff system. Four points clear at the top, a defeat wouldn’t hurt Saints beyond the fact that it would throw up all sorts of ‘oh not bloody them again’ feelings among a fan base left to deal with another defeat by the Dragons. Of course there will be those for whom a defeat will inspire calls for mass sackings, public shamings and beheadings but those people would lurch straight for their keyboards to demand the same kind of ‘justice’ if the team won by anything less than 30 points. In many ways this one isn’t about the performance.



Saints still have Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook out so one bench slot will be filled by Jack Ashworth, one in all probability by Kyle Amor and a third by either Bentley, Jack Welsby or Joe Batchelor who impressed on his debut on Monday. Two of those three may make the 17 if Holbrook takes the gamble of restoring Fages to the starting line-up and omitting Richardson altogether. That seems unlikely, but it isn’t something we can rule out at this stage.

The Dragons, who have just allowed prop Antoni Maria to go out on a month’s loan to Hull KR, are still without wingers Jodie Broughton and Fouad Yaha as well as utility man Ben Garcia and former Wigan rule-bender Michael McIlorum. His old pie-munching accomplices Sam Tomkins and Matty Smith will no doubt feature heavily while Lewis Tierney is another Wigan old boy who is a regular in the Dragons back-line. David Mead’s recent return adds real quality there and in Brayden Williame they have a slightly erratic performer but one who can cause a variety of damage on his good days. The same can be said for look-out-he’s-behind-yous Tony Gigot, while Kenny Edwards and Sam Moa are on few fans’ lists of opposition players they most admire.



For that you have to look at Remi Casty, a man who has seemed to epitomise the physicality and energy of the Dragons during his two spells with the club. Matt Whitley was rated highly by many when he was with Widnes last year and looks to be kicking on in France, while with Julian Bousquet, Benjamin Julien and Jason Baitieri you know what you are getting. Recent signing Sam Kasiano is in the same mould but perhaps with a little bit more of an excitement factor about him. The key man could be Greg Bird, a veteran of Super League and the NRL who can sometimes make Gigot and company look like choir boys but who can also provide that mixture of steel and inspiration that was once the hallmark of a quality loose forward before they all became tackling machines and battering rams.

We have seen how Saints have struggled in more recent times against the Dragons and their overall record against the French side since they joined the Super League in 2006 is not as good as you might think. The Dragons have won five times on St Helens soil since then, most memorably in 2012 when a late, late Catalans try was converted by Scott Dureau to give the side then coached by Trent Robinson a 34-32 win. It was positively Saintsy. A real taste of the kind of medicine that Saints had been handing out to all and sundry for over a century before. We do not want to see any of that caper this week thanks all the same. And recent history suggests we won't. The Dragons last league win at Saints was in 2016 when they won 30-12 thanks to four tries from Broughton and further efforts from Ritchie Myler and Pat Richards. That’s right, another ex-bloody Wiganer.

It’s a rare opportunity to get out and see Saints play on a Sunday which many fans have been calling for for some time so you would expect a reasonable home crowd to be on deck to see if Saints can consolidate or even improve their position at the top of the table. At the same time as the Saints and Dragons do battle Warrington will attempt to stay in touch with Holbrook’s men when they host the bipolar Huddersfield Giants at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. My feeling is that both will win, with Saints holding off the challenge of McNamara’s men by something like 12 points.

Squads;

St Helens;

1. Jonny Lomax, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 7. Danny Richardson, 8. Alex Walmsley, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 18. Adam Swift, 19. Matty Lees, 20. Jack Ashworth, 21. Aaron Smith, 22. James Bentley, 23. Lachlan Coote 24. Matty Costello, 25. Joe Batchelor, 29. Jack Welsby.

Catalans Dragons;

1. Tony Gigot 3. David Mead 4. Brayden Williame 5. Lewis Tierney 6. Samisoni Langi 7. Matty Smith 8. Rémi Casty 10. Sam Moa 11. Kenny Edwards 13. Greg Bird 14. Julian Bousquet 15. Mickael Simon 16. Benjamin Julien 17. Matt Whitley 18. Alrix Da Costa 19. Mickael Goudeman 24. Jason Baitieri 28. Sam Kasiano 29. Sam Tomkins

Referee: Robert Hicks

5 Talking Points From Saints 62 Hull FC 16

Is The Easter Schedule Too Much?

For as long as anyone can remember rugby league has required all its professional sides to turn out twice in four days during the Easter period. The festival itself might be movable but the tradition of this punishing schedule has not budged. Nor does it look likely to despite the debate raging every single year. It's like poppies in November.

This year is no different. For the clubs the fact that there are two games means that they are guaranteed one home game over the long weekend. This is a major reason why the majority of them support the status quo. They view that one home game as an opportunity to welcome what old fashioned people call a ‘bumper’ crowd to their home venue, thus boosting the club’s finances. Switching to one game and spreading the fixtures over the holiday as they do in the NRL would mean clubs having to adapt to the fact that they would only get a home fixture every other year at Easter. Driven by self interest and steeped in all the old truisms about poverty in the game which have led us down the path towards loop fixtures, the clubs have continued to resist change.

But are there compelling reasons to look again at the situation. Hull FC turned up for this one without Danny Houghton, Gareth Ellis, Josh Griffin and Mickey Paea from the squad that had hit 56 points of their own in the Good Friday derby win over Hull KR. Saints were without the injured Mark Percival and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook while coach Justin Holbrook also chose not to risk Alex Walmsley or Zeb Taia. Saints then went on to lose Luke Thompson and Tommy Makinson during the course of the game. With Theo Fages having been out since the win over Rovers at the end of March the squad was stretched. But this is not a whine about the effect on the team, the kind of drivel you might get from some other Saints-related snallygasters online. It’s a genuine concern that paying fans of all clubs are being denied the right to see the best players in action, especially in the Easter Monday games after the Good Friday fixtures have taken their toll.

What does the scheduling do for the sport anyway? Ok, so over 22,000 fans turned up to watch Wigan v Saints on Good Friday. Indeed it was a record aggregate crowd for Super League fixtures over the Easter weekend. But how many TV viewers were lost for Wigan v Saints as the target television audience flocked to Headingley and the Halliwell Jones Stadium for the other 3.00 kick-offs? Which other sport schedules its biggest TV games to clash with other matches in the same division in the way that rugby league does? How many times have you been at the stadium that dare not speak its name watching Saints trounce London Broncos on a Friday night and allowed just the flicker of the notion to pass through your mind that you’d rather be at home watching Warrington play Leeds, Wigan or Castleford. We need to wise up.

Thompson Loss A Huge Blow For Saints

Of all the bumps and bruises picked up over the two games the most telling might be the injury sustained by Thompson. Barely 10 minutes had gone by when the England forward picked up what has been described by Holbrook as a sprained ankle. He added, chillingly, that he hoped it wouldn’t need surgery and that instead it would just need to be put in a boot for a while.

All ends up that means at least a few weeks out for Thompson. He’s been Saints best prop again this season, arguably the best in the league and all on the back of sweeping the board at Saints’ individual awards presentations in 2018. He’s broken into Wayne Bennett’s England team among some ridiculous competition. He’s got everything you’d need from a front rower, including 1356 metres at nearly eight metres a clip and 284 tackles so far this season. That translates to more ground made than any Saints forward. Only Makinson is ahead of Thompson in that category for the Red Vee.

On the plus side his absence is likely to offer an opportunity for more minutes for Matty Lees and Jack Ashworth, while Kyle Amor should also expect to see more action over the coming weeks with McCarthy-Scarsbrook also laid low. Lees and Ashworth performed admirably against Lee Radford’s side but it was Amor’s 104-metre effort that may raise the most eyebrows. The former Wakefield man is probably fifth or sixth choice in Saints’ prop rotation when everybody is fit but if he can produce numbers like that when called upon it bodes well.

The return of Walmsley is a must, however, especially against a physical Catalans Dragons pack this Sunday. Steve McNamara’s side have got the better of Saints on a couple of occasions in the last eight months and would fancy doing so again if Saints have to go in without either of their front-line props. For all their industry and enthusiasm, the others in the group lack that almost unquantifiable certain something that can be the difference between dominating and being dominated as a pack. Some call it a bit of dog but it is more than that. Aggression is key, but it's the speed at which Walmsley and Thompson do things and their indefatigable engines which are perhaps more important.

Morgan Misses Out

Call it all off. It's all over. We might aswell not turn up this weekend. Just give Catalans the game. Or at least send for the emergency services to cope with the mass collapses among the Saints fans that are sure to ensue with the news that Morgan Knowles will miss this weekend's visit from the French outfit. The Welsh international has been handed a one-match suspension for a challenge on Albert Kelly. I couldn't see the exact nature of it from my position in the North Stand but the disciplinary report talks of forcefully twisting, bending or otherwise applying pressure to the limbs of an opponent in a manner which provides an unacceptable risk to player safety. Kelly was down for a while following the tackle but that is no real barometer of innocence or guilt. There appear to be two camps among the Saints fans on this one. Those who haven't seen it and those who don't believe Knowles was guilty. Mind, many of those are so under Knowles' spell that if they came home to find him in bed with their wives they would just tuck him in and go back out for another pint.

Knowles is a fine player and vital to what Saints are trying to achieve this year. Yet to listen to some of the hyperbole coming out of the mouths of fans and certain ex-players about him you would think he was a rugby league God already. He regularly tops Saints' tackle count, although this one was a rare exception after he was shunted out into the second row in Holbrook's reshuffle. It is going the other way that he leaves me a little underwhelmed. His attacking stats as this column might have mentioned once or twice before are about as frightening to opposition defences as those of the much more maligned Joseph Paulo. Knowles managed 26 tackles against the black and whites, behind only James Roby's 35, and carried the ball for 78 metres on 10 carries. This compares very favourably to Paulo's 38 metres on just seven carries but that is before you consider the fact that Paulo had two try assists and the fact that Knowles' move to the second row should result in more space to run into. In 11 previous starts at loose forward Knowles has managed just one assist. And precisely no clean breaks. In those 11 starts at 13 he has averaged only 47.36 metres per game which isn't all that different from Paulo's effort in this one. So he is quite similar then, but without the assists. Prior to that the former USA international was averaging 57.36 metres per game off the bench. You do the maths, folks. Knowles starts off a lot of Saints attacks by going to the line and drawing defenders but he never beats any himself, and never misses a man out with a pass. He keeps it simple, giving the ball to someone more creative at the first opportunity. There's a lot to be said for that. It's quite the virtue. But does it deserve the level of awe in which Knowles is currently held?

For example, can someone explain to me why Garry Schofield compared Knowles with Paul Sculthorpe this week? And yet there are still people who think Knowles is UNDER-rated! Knowles may well go on to captain Saints and maybe even Great Britain if he develops into the leader that no less a judge than Holbrook believes he can be. But the level of praise he gets right now is the very definition of premature. I only hope that the lad himself knows this and doesn't go around thinking that he is currently comparable to Sculthorpe, one of the greatest players to ever pull on a rugby league shirt for any club let alone just Saints. Sculthorpe never used to give the ball to a more creative player because quite often he couldn't find one. There weren't any. Danny Richardson is an absolute case study in what happens to talented players when they are compared with club legends way before they have achieved anything like as much in the game. Please, I implore you Saints fans, stop ruining Morgan Knowles.

For the weekend the Cumbrian-born player is a big miss. Let's not forget that, and let's not forget that Catalans are still the only side to beat Saints in Super League this season. We could have done with someone with his voracious appetite for a tackle shoring up the middle of that defence. But you know what? We're still capable of winning. I won't be setting up an emergency helpline for bereft fans just yet.

Swift Does All He Can While Lomax Shows His Class

We might not see too much of Adam Swift this season. Or indeed for the remainder of his Saints career. He has to be weighing up his options having seen Regan Grace cement a spot on that left wing, and with Tommy Makinson already an immovable object on the opposite side. Only injuries and suspensions among the backs will allow Swift a look-in. This was one such occasion, with Percival having been ruled out with that hamstring injury picked up at Wigan.

Swift cannot do any more than he did, really. This was his first Super League appearance of the season and he has only played a couple of games on dual registration at Leigh Centurions after starting the season injured. To step in and help himself to a hat-trick of tries shows the character and the quality of Swift. Most clubs would start with Swift right now, maybe even Wigan whose array of talented wingers are going down like the proverbial pins. Two of his three finishes were Makinson-esque dives for the corner and though a lot of credit needs to be given to Kevin Naiqama for an excellent performance at right centre Swift should also receive his share of the plaudits.

Overall Swift ran for 167 metres on 20 carries, more than any Saint including Naiqama who racked up 149. Swift made no errors, which farts in the face of some of the criticism he has received in the past, although he was questionable defensively as he managed to miss two of his meagre five tackle attempts. Yet in many ways it doesn't matter what Swift did or did not do. When Percival returns to fitness he will no doubt be restored to the line-up and there is, despite his heroics here, no reason to believe that Swift has lifted himself ahead of either Makinson or Grace in the pecking order. Those two have enough credit in the bank of their own to be able to absorb being outshone on a Bank Holiday Monday at home to Hull FC without having anyone question their place in the side. All of which is unfortunate for Swift who has managed 82 tries in 123 appearances for his home town club. He should get a chance to add a few more to his tally as Percival looks set to miss around six weeks of action, but it would surprise nobody if we saw Swift lining up regularly for a different Super League club in 2020.

That Swift did not get Man Of The Match honours on his return to the side is down in part to the display of Jonny Lomax. The fullback turned stand-off was peerless in the middle of the field, amassing an eye-popping, defence-shredding SIXTEEN tackle busts as well as crossing for two tries of his own and adding a further three assists. He was at the centre of everything that Saints did as they tore apart the FC defence time and time again. Don't forget that Hull actually took an early 10-0 lead in this one as tries from Joe Westerman and Carlos Tuimavave rattled Saints cage. But Lomax didn't panic, leading his side around the park supremely, putting in Saints in front in quick time with his first half try-double. I am not sure it is a coincidence that the one game Saints have lost in 2019 is the one game that Lomax has missed, when illness forced him out of the trip to Perpignan. He is going to be crucial to Saints' chances of avenging that loss this weekend.

Batchelor Debut Is Promising

This column was hauled over the proverbial coals last week for the heinous crime of suggesting that Joe Batchelor had not yet established himself in Saints first team. His first team appearance total of zero would seem to suggest that there was some basis in fact in what was written. It may not be his fault, he may have done well to work his way up to the fringes of Super League so soon after playing in League One with York, especially at a club like Saints who are currently dominating the standings. But the fact remains he was not in the side. The post did not speculate as to the reasons why nor did it attach any blame to the kid for not being better than Taia or Dominique Peyroux.

However, with Taia rested and Peyroux only named on the bench Holbrook did offer Batchelor an opportunity in this one. Hate to say I told you so but that was actually the wider point I was making when I mentioned Batchelor's lack of first team activity in a previous post. That he would probably play in this one, and he did. But yeah, it was lazy.

Anyway, Batchelor will have impressed many with his first foray into Super League action. He operated on the left of the second row which was a difficult place to fit in with Percival missing and his initial replacement Makinson clearly half-fit. It would have been easier for him to have slotted into a more settled left edge but he showed that no matter who you put alongside him he is prepared to do whatever it takes to establish himself at this level. Can I say that? Can we get a sub in here to make sure that passes the rose-tinted, happy-clapper test? Statistically Batchelor is surely one of few Super League debutants to go over the 100-metre mark, his 107 coming off 13 carries at 8.23 metres per carry. He put in a respectable 19 tackles, missing just the one while he had two tackle busts. The only negatives were one error and the concession of two penalties. All in all a pretty promising debut but like Swift, you get the feeling that Batchelor is a player who will need to make the most of his opportunities when they arrive. Taia and Peyroux have formed one of the best second row partnerships in the competition in 2019 and it would be a major surprise if both were not restored to the starting line-up for the visit of McNamara's men. The difference from Swift's situation is that the men in front of Batchelor do not have time on their side. At only 24 he has that time to wait for more chances.

With talk of whether or not we would re-sign an apparently unhappy Joe Greenwood from Wigan doing the rounds this week it is heartening to know that there is enough talent coming through in that position to suggest that we do not necessarily need to go back to players who have already left the club for a reason. James Bentley turned out for Leigh at the same time as Batchelor was making his Saints debut and the former Bradford man helped himself to a hat-trick of tries in the process. He has been unlucky not to have been given more opportunities since making his Super League debut but if both he and Batchelor stick around they could be part of something new and exciting at Saints in the future. And yes, that will probably involve a pretty pivotal role for one M.Knowles.....

5 Talking Points From Wigan Warriors 10 Saints 36

Sport Hurts

It was another bruising derby despite the comfortable margin of victory and nobody could testify to that more than Tom Davies. We’d already seen Mark Percival leave the action with a hamstring injury when the Wigan winger suffered a terrible double leg break in what looked a fairly innocuous tackle. It’s a savage blow to Wigan who are already without the likes of Liam Farrell, Jarrod Sammut, Dan Sarginson and Dom Manfredi through injury while Sam Powell and Gabe Hamlin are experiencing more self-inflicted absences. Sean O’Loughlin, normally Jesus In Reverse because he rises from the dead on Good Friday, was only fit enough for a place on the bench alongside Joe Greenwood.

Yet the cruellest blow was to Davies himself who now faces months of rehab and a lengthy spell away from the real on-field action. Nobody likes to see any player sustain such a sickening injury and I’m sure all Saints fans will join me in wishing Davies a speedy recovery. To clear up the slight controversy about the Saints’ fans reaction yes there was an audible cheer when Davies took the initial hit but nobody in the crowd could have envisaged the true nature of Davies’ situation at that point. When they did realise Davies was applauded off the field with the full respect that should be afforded to any player in such dire straits. Sport hurts. Any player crossing the white line is to be admired for their courage.

Grace Getting Better And Better

It was Saints who adapted to the enforced reshuffling the better of the two sides. Not immediately as Percival’s exit was all the encouragement that the Warriors needed to attack down that edge where Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook had been asked to fill in. Zak Hardaker went over with ease to reduce Wigan’s arrears to 6-4, and that after he’d been knocked backwards into Warrington’s year in trying to stop James Roby’s opening try for Saints. Then came Davies’ injury and the first two of Regan Grace’s hat-trick were in the bag by half-time. First he supported a superb break by Jonny Lomax to go over in the left corner and then he was the beneficiary of some sensational work by Luke Thompson who broke the line, handed on to Lachlan Coote and then was on hand to feed Grace from dummy half as if he’d played hooker all of his life.

Grace’s third was all his own work. It didn’t cover the same distance as his effort against Warrington a week previously but there were eerie parallels as he stepped away from the attentions of his opposing winger and centre before streaking clear and rounding the fullback. Hardaker and Stefan Ratchford are two of the best fullbacks in Super League but the young Welshman has made them both look ordinary in the last two games. He now has 11 tries for the season and even the loss of Percival inside him could not slow his progress. He’s added a real physical strength to the natural speed he has always had. He could become unplayable over the next two or three years.

Coote Form Causes Revisionism on Barba

Coote has been something of a revelation since joining Saints from North Queensland Cowboys in the off-season. He’s been so good that he’s already inspired his own song among the fans, which is not what might have been expected when he was signed. The doubters ummed and aahed and predicted that he would never replace Ben Barba, whose brilliance helped sweep Saints to the League Leaders Shield last year before it all began to unravel for both club and player.

Coote was outstanding again here, racking up 134 metres on 13 carries at 10.30 metres per carry. He had seven tackle busts, made two clean breaks, kicked six goals and wrapped the whole thing up in a big Easter bow by mugging Hardaker for Saints’ last try. He’s a fabulous, fabulous player. If you sense a but...you’d be right.

That doesn’t mean Barba wasn’t. It’s already become common among fans and pundits to suggest that Coote is a better player than Barba. A better signing. More of a team player. Part of that is emotive revisionism sparked by the way that Barca’s time at Saints and seemingly his career has ended. He doesn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy for getting himself in his current predicament but as much as anything else are we trying to convince ourselves that Barba wasn’t all that? Are we on the rebound, insisting that our current lover is The One and that our ex was an absolute thunderprick in any case?

Even if you still remember Barba’s genius it remains unfair to suggest that he wasn’t a team player. He led the league in assists but more than that his role was to find a way to produce the spectacular. To score and create tries that others could not conceive of. That’s what he was bought for and that is what was expected of him. In that sense he was fulfilling his role in the team in the same way Coote does. Grace doesn’t score more tries than Thompson or Roby because he’s selfish, he does so because that’s his job.

We are blessed to have a player like Coote in the side now but let’s not re-write history when it comes to Barba just to soften the blow of how it all turned out.

Holbrook To Stay

Although this was a highly significant and hugely satisfying win it might not be the most important development of the week long term. Wigan are fairly dismal anyway so the truth is we should beat them and beat them handsomely. While we storm away at the top of the table they continue to show relegation form in the wake of their many and varied off-field disasters. Their only chance in this one was only ever going to be the proverbial ‘puncher’s chance’ afforded to out-matched boxers.

The biggest deal of the week might be the moves being made on the future of coach Justin Holbrook. Almost from the moment Saints started winning under Holbrook the Australian has been linked with a return home and a shot at a top job in the NRL. Many suggested Paul Wellens was being groomed to take over sooner rather than later, a move that if nothing else would have shown how little we have learned from the whole Kieron Cunningham trauma. A club legend with no prior experience of head coaching but who has served an apprenticeship under a canny Australian? No, not again. Not yet.

Heartening then that when asked about his future this week Holbrook had this to say;

“I’ve had a quick chat to the Chairman and we want to wait until Easter is out of the way and have a chat in May. I’m happy with that, he’s happy with that and I’m happy here. We’ll see what happens. I haven’t got any plans to leave.”

This sounds extremely promising from a guy who most believed was virtually on the plane back home at the end of this season when his initial contract expires. He’s improved every single player he inherited from Cunningham, brought us the excitement of Barba and has made yet more shrewd signings in Coote, Naiqama and Paulo. All that is missing from his Saints CV is that final step of winning a major final. Cynics might say that his inability to do so as yet might be the only thing stopping NRL clubs from really pushing hard to get him, but that unfinished business might also be a factor in his own thinking about whether to stay or go. We can only hope that he stays to finish the job he is doing so well and if he can then also that he can persuade the likes of Thompson, Walmsley and Makinson to join him in putting on hold any ambitions they may have on the other side of the world.

Who’s on deck for Monday?

No sooner had he stepped in to replace Percival at centre than McCarthy-Scarsbrook was himself forced out of the action through injury. Those two join Theo Fages and Zeb Taia in missing out on Saints’ 19-man squad for the Easter Monday visit of Hull FC. Jack Ashworth, Adam Swift, Joe Batchelor and Jack Welsby all feature as Holbrook tries to deal with the hectic Bank Holiday schedule.

The main issue surrounds the centre position. Matty Costello is out injured so Holbrook may opt for what he did when Percival missed the home win over Hull KR at the end of March and give Welsby the nod. However, Swift’s return to action on dual registration at Leigh recently gives the coach the option of drafting him in and moving Makinson into the centre position. Naiqama can also be used as a winger, while Taia’s second row berth may go to Batchelor. Loaned back to York after failing to establish himself Batchelor would surely relish the opportunity. And what better time than against a Hull FC team that has also had to make a raft of changes following their derby win over Hull KR? None of Josh Griffin, Danny Houghton, Mickey Paea or Gareth Ellis will be backing up from their impressive thrashing of Rovers. Add to that the fact that Saints now have a four-point lead at the top of the table following Warrington’s surprise defeat to Salford and it becomes more tempting to rest stars and improve the experience of the fringe players. Aaron Smith is another fitting that bill after coming off the bench for the last half hour at Wigan. He impressed and it seems to make little sense to make the 33-year-old Roby play for a second time in four days.

It’s perhaps not the message that the club would want to send to the fans as they hope for a big Easter Monday crowd in the first leg of the Steve Prescott Cup, but we might see two much-changed sides going at it in the Round 12 clash. And then the debate about the rights and wrongs of the Easter double header will really kick in.

Wigan Warriors v St Helens - Preview

There’s changes afoot in the English game. Two more North American teams are expected to be foolishly and needlessly shoe-horned into the UK structure following a meeting of the game’s decision makers last week. Leeds won a match, beating Workington Town by the proverbial cricket score in the Challenge Cup last weekend. And Wigan are searching for a new coach after legendary halfback Shaun Edwards pulled down his pants and shat all over his own legacy with his decision to go back on his agreement to join the club as Head Coach from next year.



Heck, even the rules might change given the amount of chin-stroking, head-wobbling and forehead-slapping that has gone on in response to Catalans Dragons’ ludicrously disallowed try against Hull FC last week when Greg Bird was adjudged to have obstructed a Hull FC defender by breathing the same oxygen.

One thing that won’t change, not unless our friends from down the road make all our Christmases come at once and get themselves relegated, is that it will be derby day on Good Friday. Now there are already one or two feet-stomping rants about how the Hull derby is the biggest derby in rugby league so we are not going to go down that route. Not too far down it, at any rate. It goes without saying that Saints-Wigan (sorry, Wigan-Saints to give it its correct title taking into account who has home advantage this week) has no equal in terms not only of the size of the attendance that is expected at the DW Stadium when the teams meet for a 3.00pm kick-off this Friday (April 19), but in terms of the quality. Wigan might be pretty terrible right now, but between them Wigan and Saints have won 11 of the 23 Super League titles up for grabs since the competition began in 1996, and another 10 Challenge Cups between them in that period also. Meanwhile the Hull clubs have no Super League titles between them and just the three Challenge Cups, all won by FC. Rovers have reached just the one Challenge Cup final in the Super League era (which they humiliatingly lost 50-0) and got nowhere near a Super League Grand Final. But yeah, their derby is much bigger. Adrian Fucking Durham says so.



And so to the real business. Unlike last week’s 38-12 win over Warrington this is not a top of the table clash. Amusingly, Wigan are currently languishing in 10th place having won just three of their opening 10 games in 2019. While they have been at it they have had a player charged with drink-driving, another suspended for a doping offence and been forced to look for a new coach after Edwards’ all-too-predictable U-turn. At the time of writing present incumbent Adrian Lam is starting to show signs that he is leaning towards staying on at the end of the season, though his record as the top man so far probably doesn’t have Wigan fans dancing around at the prospect.

Saints only selection decision appears to be whether or not to restore Theo Fages to the line-up. The Frenchman missed the defeat at Catalans Dragons a fortnight ago and the win over Warrington with a hip injury. That allowed Golden Child Danny Richardson to step in but with a decidedly ‘meh’ result. A little lost in Perpignan, Richardson showed some good touches as Saints dominated the Wolves last time out. Arguably Justin Holbrook should not change a winning team, especially not after a performance like the one against Steve Price’s side. Yet the inclusion of Fages in the 19 named today (Wednesday) seems to shout out loud that the former Salford half will play if he is fit enough. That will be harsh on Richardson but there is a good argument also that he didn’t quite grasp the opportunity he was afforded with both hands.



The rest of the Saints side should pick itself, with Lachlan Coote at fullback behind a three-quarter line of Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Mark Percival and Regan Grace. Naiqama had his best game as a Saint against Warrington, setting up Makinson’s try and making several other telling contributions with ball in hand. The Fijian will need to be on his game defensively because the threat, if this bewildered shambles of a Wigan side prevent one, comes down their left edge of attack where Oliver Gildart and Joe Burgess have pace to burn if not brain cells. George Williams often operates down that flank also and with Sean O’Loughlin patched up and ready to go for one of his four games a season (two derbies, a semi-final and a final) Wigan could have a little bit more about them in attack than has been the case in recent weeks.

If Fages does play he will partner Jonny Lomax in the halves behind a peerless front row of Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Luke Thompson. Zeb Taia and Dominique Peyroux form the second row partnership with Morgan Knowles at loose forward. On the bench Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook made a telling return to action after missing the Catalans game to be with his wife as she gave birth to twins. Expect him to make the usual nuisance of himself in the trenches with Matty Lees and Kyle Amor with Joseph Paulo flitting in and out to cover for Knowles as and when required. Jack Ashworth has been unfortunate to miss out on the 19 with both Richardson and Fages included, presumably as Holbrook waits on the fitness of the latter.

Lam welcomes Zak Hardaker back to the fullback position, one of the few Wigan players who would probably get into the Saints team notwithstanding the excellent form of Coote or the former Leeds and Castleford man's behavioural problems. Tom Davies should hold down one wing spot after Dom Manfredi was cruelly robbed of another season of his career due to yet another ACL injury, while Burgess and Gildart make up the rest of the three-quarter line along with Dan Sarginson. Quite how he gets away with starting for a club as celebrated as Wigan is almost an essay in itself on how far the quality of Super League has slipped over the years and, in particular, of how far the paper champions have fallen since winning the Grand Final against serial chokers Warrington last October.

Williams has no Jarrod Sammut to partner him in midfield and with Sam Powell banned for the third or fourth worst Wigan offence in their recent loss to Wakefield Thomas Leuluai may have to fit in at hooker and allow Jake Shorrocks a start. Ben Flower, Tony Clubb, Talima Tautai and Romain Navarrette are the main prop forward options for Lam, with former Saint Joe Greenwood a genuine threat in the second row alongside the rather more underwhelming talents of Willie Isa. Liam Farrell is still injured and represents a huge miss for the Wigan side. O’Loughlin will lock the scrum with youngsters Oliver Partington, Morgan Smithies also included in the 19 along with former Catalans man Morgan Escare and centre Chris Hankinson. That suggests either a doubt about the fitness of one of Wigan’s backs or that Lam is just a bit fed up with the form of one of them and is set to give somebody else an opportunity.

Last year’s derby was a close run thing, with Saints running out 21-18 winners at home thanks to tries from Grace, Taia and Ben Barba. The teams have met three times since in this madcap, skirting board world of Super 8s, loop fixtures, Magic Weekends and finding any other ways imaginable for the top sides to meet as many times as possible, with Saints winning 14-6 in July at the DW, 22-12 in this season’s opener, but going down 30-10 in a miserable home performance at the end of August that was so bad that Sarginson crossed for two tries.

There’s a limited chance of a Wigan victory this time out. This is a derby and as such the old cliché about anything happening still stands. But Saints have been dominant in all but one of their fixtures this year and that in foul weather with two stand-in halfbacks. If Saints are at full strength, whether that means opting for Fages or for Richardson, it is hard to see anything other than a comfortable win by something in the region of 20 points. And yet, you know…it’s Wigan…

Squads;

Wigan Warriors;

Joe Bullock, Joe Burgess, Tom Davies, Morgan Escare, Ben Flower, Oliver Gildart, Joe Greenwood, Chris Hankinson, Zak Hardaker, Willie Isa, Tommy Leuluai, Romain Navarrete, Sean O’Loughlin, Oliver Partington, Dan Sarginson, Jake Shorrocks, Morgan Smithies, Taulima Tautai, George Williams.

St Helens;

1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 7. Danny Richardson, 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, 21. Aaron Smith, 23. Lachlan Coote.


Referee: James Child

Derby Classics - Saints Storm Back In 1987

This won’t be a popular view but I quite liked Central Park.

I mean, I’m all for progress and I would hate to think that Saints or Wigan or any modern top flight club that has moved into a more modern facility would go back to their old homes. They were squalid, had poor and in some cases no facilities and if you happened to have the temerity to turn up using a wheelchair you had to do so early. The concept of charging disabled people to watch hadn’t occurred to Saints or Wigan at that time, during the 80s and 90s. Which might sound good, but the reality is that it was a free-for-all in the limited space available in those old grounds. I haven’t left many Saints games before the final hooter, but I can recall seeing the 1996 Good Friday classic in The Bird I’Th Hand because getting in a position where you could actually see the pitch inside the ground had become impossible some two hours before kick-off.

So why then did I quite like Central Park? Well partly because I didn’t have a Langtree Park or a DW Stadium to compare it to. But mainly because my best friend, who is now sadly no longer with us, was a huge Wigan fan. When Saints were playing away I would go with him to Central Park to noisily cheer on the opposition, and he would come to Knowsley Road if Wigan were playing away. He once won a McEwans Lager sponsored Saints sweater for being the face in the crowd in a match day programme, which was just hilarious. He wore it too, though mostly only for wheelchair basketball training during the week.

I liked the location of Central Park, the atmosphere, the push to the ground from some God Awful town centre watering hole of the day like Harry’s Bar or The Bees Knees. The current stadium might have much better facilities inside, but nearby your only real choice is the Red Robin and if it’s derby day you have probably got about as much chance of pushing your way to the bar and actually being seen at wheelchair height by the bar staff as you had of seeing any rugby league inside the wheelchair area on that memorable day back in 1996. I mention this because this week’s nostalgia comes from Central Park. Specifically it is December 27 1987 and a mud-soaked classic between the two old foes.

That’s one thing I don’t miss in the summer era, in this age of good drainage. Mud. You imagine trying to push through it using your hands rather than just having to step through it in your Wellies. Then you had the problem, which became very real during the second half of this one, of trying to figure out exactly who was on which team when all players appeared to be dressed head to toe in brown. If Wigan had had Sir Alex Ferguson in charge perhaps he would have defended their second half collapse by explaining that his players could not identify each other.

It all started well enough. Both sides strode out from the tunnel behind the posts with great purpose and confidence, Saints somehow allowed to get away with white with a blue ‘v’ as a change of strip to avoid a clash with Wigan’s cherry and white hoops. The visitors lined up with Phil Veivers at full-back, a three-quarter line of Kevin McCormack, Les Quirk, Paul Loughlin and Mark Elia with Shane Cooper and Neil Holding in the halves. In the front row were Tony Burke, Paul Groves and Peter Souto. Souto made just six appearances for Saints between 1986 and 1988. His last would come just a month after this one against Bradford. Saints back row consisted of local products Paul Forber and Roy Haggerty with future Wigan and Auckland Warriors man Andy Platt at loose forward. This was Platt’s last derby on the right side of the boundary before he moved to Wigan in 1988. Saints bench that day, which remember had room enough only for two players under the rules at the time, was occupied by David Tanner and Welsh rugby union convert Stuart Evans.

Wigan lined up with the ever reliable Steve Hampson at fullback. Ahead of him were Dave Marshall, father of current Wigan winger Liam, opposite another man who would make the switch between the two sides but this time in the other direction in Kevin Iro on the other wing. The great Ellery Hanley lined up in the centres alongside the speedy former Widnes man Joe Lydon. Shaun Edwards and Andy Gregory was perhaps one of the greatest halfback partnerships the British game has every seen while in front of them in the pack were Ian Lucas, Martin Dermott and Brian Case. Ian Potter and Graeme West made up the second row while Andy Goodway locked the scrum. On the bench were Richard Russell and Adrian Shelford, the latter having been involved in controversial transfer saga which culminated in him joining Wigan despite having earlier agreed to sign for Saints.

Saints went into this one having already suffered five league defeats from their first 10 league outings. They’d also crashed out of the Lancashire Cup, losing 27-21 to Leigh at Hilton Park in a game which saw the side coached by former Saints player and boss Billy Benyon outscore Saints five tries to four. All five of Saints’ league defeats to that point had come away from Knowsley Road with the travel sickness taking its toll at Castleford, Warrington, Halifax, Leeds and Hull KR.

By contrast Wigan had opened their campaign with nine successive victories in all competitions. They had made it through to the Lancashire Cup Final in which they beat Warrington 28-16 at Knowsley Road. Their first defeat of the 1987/88 season came at home to Halifax in October when they went down 17-14. That was followed by an unhelpful 18-18 draw with Leeds a week later and when they emulated Saints in losing at Castleford they found themselves floundering behind early season pace-setters Widnes whose only league loss before Christmas was a surprising 21-20 reverse at home to Swinton. Yet Wigan had beaten Widnes 20-12 in late September on their way to the Lancashire Cup success and so perhaps held a psychological advantage over their title rivals.

In the event it was Saints who would get closest to the Cheshire side as they wrapped up the first of what would be three titles in a row. All a far cry from the yo-yo-ing of the Vikings, administration and Dennis Betts that have characterised the Widnes club during the summer era. For Widnes the late 1980s was the era of Martin Offiah, who scored 41 tries in 1987, and later of Jonathans Davies and Devereux who came across from Welsh rugby union to light up the rival code.

Back to Central Park, where Saints took the lead through McCormack. Witness the way Holding receives the ball from hooker Groves before doing a full-scale pirouette to enable him to pass right handed out to Cooper. The New Zealand international hands on to Veivers who ups the pace to slice between the Wigan defenders and put McCormack away down the right hand touchline. The pacey winger easily has enough speed to enable him to trot around to dot the ball down under the sticks for the first try of the afternoon.

That was as good as the afternoon got for McCormack. Later in the first half Edwards, showing a good deal more decisiveness than he can currently muster when pondering his next coaching job, kicked the ball through the Saints defensive line at speed before following it up to put the boot in for the second time. McCormack was easily winning the race for the loose ball as he came around to cover, Edwards having been sent tumbling to the ground in Premier League footballer fashion by the slightest of brushes from a panicked, on-rushing Veivers. As McCormack approached the loose ball to pick it up the twang of his hamstring was almost audible. He crashed to the ground in what used to be referred to as instalments, grabbing the affected area in pain yet still managing to fall on top of the ball. He played no further part in the game and did not feature again for Saints until a 16-6 loss to Widnes in early April.

Edwards was instrumental in Wigan’s reply. He took a pass from Gregory before handing on to Shelford whose bullet pass was too hot for even Hanley to handle. Hampson reacted first as the ball bobbled along the ground, scooping up for Edwards who had continued his run to put Iro over in the left hand corner. It is remarkable to think that this happened fully 12 years before Iro joined Saints and helped them win the epic 1999 Super League Grand Final, and that after spells at Manly, Leeds, Hunter Mariners and Auckland Warriors. As Iro gets up from touching the ball down in this one you can recognise his familiar gate, though the hair on both his head and face are specifically of their time.

Wigan’s next try was classic Saints 1980s pantomime. Holding failed to gather the ball from a scrum that he himself had fed, allowing Goodway to get a foot to the ball ahead of Quirk. The Wigan forward won the race to touch down with opposite number Platt to put the home side ahead. It’s difficult enough playing against a late 1980s Wigan side you would imagine without providing tries for them straight off the production line at the clown factory, but that’s where we were with Saints in that period. They could be brilliant, as we would see later in this game, but they could also be absurdly bad.

Things got worse before they got better. Again it originated from Saints possession. Holding’s long ball out wide was gathered by Loughlin on the bounce but as he ran back inside from right to left he inexplicably decided on a wild pass which floated across the Saints attacking line to nobody in particular. Nobody that is except Lydon, who jutted out of the Wigan defensive line to hack the ball forward. Lydon could shift, and he looked like an athlete playing against drunk pub-goers as he raced on to his kick, wafting his boot at it again as he caught up with it some 40 metres from the Saints try-line. His second kick took him to within about 15 metres and his final touch sent it dribbling over the try-line from where he touched down. Holding is the nearest Saint to Lydon as he scores the try but that is only because Lydon has had to slow down considerably to stay behind the ball which had lost pace owing to its unpredictable bounce and the boggy surface.

That left Saints 22-6 down at half-time, a position from which few would have given them any hope of a recovery. Even when Platt drew two Wigan defenders towards him and neatly slipped the ball to Veivers for an easy walk-in try hopes were not high. Not as high as the shot with which Graeme West clouted Veivers after he scored that try in any case. That stoked the fire even further, and with the game now back in the melting pot Saints closed the gap to just two points at 22-20 when Veivers scored again soon after. Cooper’s delicate kick close to the line squirmed just out of his reach as two Wigan defenders converged on him but there was Saints’ Aussie fullback to pick up the pieces to touch down for his second of the game.

Veivers was involved again as Saints took the lead. He took Cooper’s pass out wide on the right before bringing Tanner back on the inside. Tanner had come on to replace the stricken McCormack in the first half and kept his nerve to just about reach the line and get the ball down. Just a minute or so later Quirk added his name to the list of scorers as he took Holding’s basketball-style hook pass, the kind of thing that would be deeply frowned upon in the age of staying in the grind, to squeeze over in the corner to give Saints a barely credible 30-22 lead. Loughlin added a late penalty, helpfully aided by Holding’s first audition to be a groundsman as he helped dig a suitable hole in the turf from where the Great Britain centre could tee up the ball for the shot at goal. These were the days before kicking tees when the sight of players digging up chunks of turf with the heel of their boot was as common as obstruction is now.

When the whistle blew to signal Saints victory there were fans on the pitch, notably those surrounding coach Alex Murphy as he jogged down the tunnel in triumph. This sort of thing would also get the thumbs down today, and quite rightly so in light of Jack Grealish’s recent unwanted encounter with an opposition fan. Yet it was easy to forgive the exuberance of the Saints fans who had witnessed their local rivals winning the title the season before for the first time since 1959/60. After Widnes’ hat-trick Wigan would go on to win the title six times in a row before the advent of Super League and full-time professionalism across the competition. Saints, who had not won a title themselves since 1975 and would not do so again until that first Super League season of 1996.

That they did not do it in 1987/88 was largely down to that early season away form. They did finish runners-up to Widnes, so ending the campaign looking down on Wigan who finished third, even if only points difference separated those two as well as fourth placed Bradford Northern. The Christmas derby win was the third of 11 straight victories in all competitions for Saints, two of which came in the John Player Trophy which the red vee pocketed by beating Oldham 18-8 in the semi-final before edging Leeds 15-14 in the final at Central Park. There was a certain symmetry about the fact that both Saints and Wigan had now won silverware at the home of their deadliest rivals.

Saints’ good run was ended by a 22-18 reverse at Salford before that 16-6 loss at Widnes was sandwiched between rare home defeats by Leeds and, crucially, Wigan. Two Hanley tries proved vital in that win and it would be a brutal blow to Saints hopes of ending their 13-year wait for a top flight title. The defeat at Widnes finally killed Saints hopes, while Wigan’s challenge was derailed by a three-game losing streak as Warrington, Hull FC and Hull KR all got the better of Graham Lowe’s side in the run-in.
Central Park was finally turned into a supermarket in 1999, the same year that my best mate passed away from this world. It may have been the home of the enemy for 97 years but it holds some poignant memories for me, in particular what was arguably the most thrilling game of the 1987/88 season.

5 Talking Points From Saints 38 Warrington Wolves 12

What A Difference A Week Makes

There seemed good reason to be nervous ahead of the visit of Warrington. Saints has put in a performance against Catalans in Perpignan that was so stale and stodgy that if it were an episode of Game Of Thrones it would have needed the deaths of at least three central characters to make it watchable. By contrast Warrington had been flying like Danaerys on the back of one of her dragons. They took over at the top of the table last week thanks to Saints’ defeat in France and the Wolves’ own 48-12 peppering of a London Broncos side morphing into the sort of relegation fodder we always suspected them to be. Like Saints, Warrington’s only loss coming into this one was against the Dragons of the rugby league variety, and that only by a single point in a performance that was far more compelling viewing than the one Saints served up.

Yet that was a side shorn of the talents of Jonny Lomax. With Theo Fages also out Saints had thrown in 18-year-old Jack Welsby last week to play alongside Danny Richardson in the halves. The latter was playing his first Super League game of the season too having lost his starting place to Fages at the start of the campaign. It was no surprise that the new combination struggled in Perpignan but Saints are a different proposition with Lomax among the cast members. He ran the show in the final stages of the first half after Mike Cooper was sun-binned for a careless high shot on Richardson. Lomax got over for a try in that crucial period in which Saints stretched an 8-6 advantage out to 20-6 at the break.

Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook had spent much of the previous night in the delivery room as his wife gave birth to twins, but he returned to the fold to put in a quite stunning cameo. The Londoner scored one try and came within inches of another almost immediately, before narrowly failing to exert downward pressure on the ball as it bobbled over the Warrington try-line early in the second half. Between them Lomax and McCarthy-Scarsbrook scored two tries, had one try assist, made 34 tackles and ran for 151 metres as Saints took control of a match that had been cagey early. Wire coach Steve Price admitted afterwards that Saints had been dominant, a lot of which was down to the return of these two key contributors.

Will Danny Keep The Halfback Role?

When injuring his hip in the win over Hull KR on March 29 Theo Fages was almost immediately ruled out of the games against Catalans and Warrington by coach Justin Holbrook. Yet the coach was also quick to point out that the injury does not require surgery and so hopes are high that Fages will be available for the Easter double-header. Saints go to Wigan for the second derby of the season on Friday (April 19) followed by a home clash with a Hull FC side currently displaying all the consistency of Boris Johnson’s Brexit columns. But will Holbrook change a winning team? Should he?

Richardson’s numbers aren’t startling by any means. He still plays too side-on, suffering from the old Luke Walshian phobia of running at the line to commit defenders and so make space for others. Fages is much better at this, largely because he could care less if somebody clocks him into next Wednesday. Richardson carried the ball just six times for 28 metres against the Wolves, not the kind of running threat you want from your half in games of this magnitude. Yet with six attacking kicks and nine more in general play, many of which turned Warrington around deep inside their own territory it is clear to see that Richardson has the edge on the Frenchman in that department. Since Lomax has no kicking game to speak of either the inclusion of Fages over Richardson would put a lot of extra responsibility on Lachlan Coote.

Defensively Richardson is a target for opponents. He missed five of his 18 tackle attempts against Wire which is not a great success rate. You can’t help but worry about how he might cope with Wigan’s formidable left edge of Oliver Gildart and Joe Burgess. It might not cost us given that Wigan are generally garbage despite those attacking threats. While Saints were winning this one the Lam Pies where slipping to a seventh league defeat in 10 outings as they lost 30-20 at Wakefield. Burgess scored a hat-trick even so. The threat is there and Holbrook must make a decision on whether Saints can defend well enough for Richardson’s defences lapses to be absorbed. They managed it well enough this week.

Sin Bin Kills Wire

There wasn’t much disputing the yellow card given to Cooper for a high tackle on Richardson around the half hour mark. He’d been unbalanced by Richardson’s change of direction as he shuffled along the defensive line and could only offer a desperate grab which clunked into the head of Saints’ young half. At that point Saints were leading 8-6 and arguably in the ascendancy but the removal of the England prop softened them up still further.

The ease with which McCarthy-Scarsbrook crashed through the gut of Warrington’s goal-line defence was evidence of that, as was the way in which Lomax was able to jig his way over shortly afterwards. Suddenly a two-point lead had become a 14-point buffer and from then on Saints never looked like losing. All those fears throughout the week of what Warrington’s potent attack might do to us became questions about just where Wire star Blake Austin was hiding. He’d scored Warrington’s early try, benefitting from some good fortune when Daryl Clark was adjudged to have lost the ball backwards in Lomax’s last-ditch tackle. Yet after that the Australian was fairly anonymous, ending the game with 19 carries for 72 metres at just 3.78 metres per carry. A lot of opportunities on the ball but no visible threat. He missed a Richardson-like four of his 18 tackle attempts and was required to kick for territory 10 times.

Once Cooper had returned the game had changed beyond redemption for Warrington. They scored first after half-time through Clark to reduce their arrears to eight at 20-12 but when Stefan Ratchford and Tom Lineham held a meeting instead of dealing with Coote’s snow-covered Sky-botherer to allow Matty Lees to crash over like Jon Snow riding into Kings Landing the game was over as a contest. Further tries followed from Regan Grace and Tommy Makinson followed, the former an eight-point play due to Lineham’s petulant late hit on Grace in the act of scoring, to give the final result a sheen that Saints’ dominance deserved. What would have happened had Cooper not been given to recklessness in the first half is something we’ll never know. But any chance Warrington had seemed to disappear with Cooper as he trudged off.

Naiqama and Grace Step Up

Adam Swift returned to fitness last week. He was also back in action, scoring twice while playing on dual registration at Leigh. In the wake of Saints’ dud of a performance in France it reopened the debate about whether he could again put pressure on Grace for a first team shirt. If not, and amid rumours of a loan move to Wakefield to fill in for the stricken Tom Johnstone, it could signal the end of a Saints stint that has seen Swift cross for a very respectable 93 tries in 137 appearances. When you compare it to Makinson’s 116 four-pointers in 211 games you can make a statistical case that Swift is elite.

Yet Grace’s fleeting but quite brilliant contribution here has put Swift further away from a recall. The Welshman only carried the ball seven times but he did so for 119 metres, a whopping average of 17 metres per carry. The bulk of these arrived during his breathtaking 75-metre dash to the line midway through the second half. Having held off the attentions of Josh Charnley and Jack Hughes Grace made a third Wiganer look ridiculous in the space of a few seconds, sitting Ratchford on his behind. The only contact made with Grace was the cowardly smack over his head offered by Lineham as Grace dove over to score. That cost Warrington an extra two points as Coote kicked his seventh goal from bang in front after landing his sixth with the original conversion. Incidentally, the Lachlan Coote song set to the tune of Oasis’ ‘She’s Electric’ is great but it does go on a bit. It could do with a second verse just to break up the monotony as Will Smith might have it. I’m working on this. It needs an extra line yet but how about;

‘He’s got a bald patch’
‘He always wins Man Of The Match’
‘James Roby’

No? Ok.

Another man whose position has been questioned of late is Kevin Naiqama. The Fijian came in for what was presumably a barrow-load of money as Ryan Morgan took the journey south for a loan spell with London Broncos. While few have called for a return for Morgan and it is has always been quite likely that we have seen the last of him at Saints, there were those wondering whether we had actually got ourselves an upgrade. Naiqama has struggled as much as anyone in that under-used right edge of Saints attack but had arguably his best game since arriving. He came inside looking for work early in the game when it was a bit of a struggle but as it opened up he gave Ryan Atkins a torrid time. Naiqama ran for 89 metres on 10 carries and had the energy to burst on to Coote’s excellent pass to set up Makinson for his second try in as many games. Naiqama also busted out of six tackles, but the defensive side of his game still needs work with four misses from 22 attempts. Like Richardson, he could come under pressure against Gildart and Burgess next week but unlike the Widnesian halfback he has done enough in this one to be certain of retaining his place.

Don’t You Wish It Mattered More?

In the build-up to this one both Saints and Warrington’s social media departments tried to out-naff each other with their promotion of the game. They should probably be congratulated given that their efforts contributed to a record crowd for a Saints v Warrington clash at the stupidly named stadium of over 17,000. Saints went with a clunkingly bad war pun on the name of their visitors while Wire inter-cut footage of Lineham being a good deal more useful than he was here with images of a worried looking dog. His tries from last year’s semi-final win over Saints were an odd choice given that Wire went on to lose the Grand Final to the knee-seekers of Wigan. To be fair there isn’t an extensive library of clips of Warrington getting the better of Saints so they had to go with what they had I guess.

Contemplating this, and the inevitable blowback that Warrington and their fans received following their team’s comprehensive defeat, I couldn’t help but wish that all this mattered a bit more. Normally this sort of discussion isn’t raised until September when it’s time to force a smile to pick up the League Leaders Shield, but I’m bringing it forward. Wouldn’t last night have been so much better if we still had a first past the post system to decide the identity of the champions? I’ve been looking at scores of....well.....scores and tables from yesteryear for the nostalgia pieces you can read on these pages (look out for a derby special this week) and they remind me of an era when every game really did count. To take one example, every game during the 1992-93 season when Saints lost the title to Wigan on points difference was a nerve-shredding affair. An 8-8 draw between the two on Good Friday that season was truly epic. But no, it isn’t that one that inspires this week’s blog down memory lane. I’m not revealing that just yet.

As good as beating Warrington is, and as much as it lays down a bit of a marker between the two sides hotly tipped to reach Old Trafford for the Grand Final, it doesn’t really matter. It won’t matter at all unless we win the Grand Final, even if it is the difference at the end of the regular season between finishing top of the table or not. It shouldn’t be that way. Surely there is a compromise to be found between rewarding consistency over the season and celebrating the winners of what is essentially an end of season playoff competition? The League Leaders Shield in its current form, with the lack of kudos that offers, is not that compromise.

Saints v Warrington Wolves - Preview

It’s not quite war, but there is still plenty at stake when Saints entertain Warrington Wolves in a BetFred Super League Round 10 meeting on Friday night (April 12, kick-off 7.45pm).

Notwithstanding tedious and ill-conceived promotional blather around the game there is still plenty for fans of either side to get all pumped up about. Saints’ defeat at Catalans Dragons last time out has left the Wolves at the top of the table on points difference. Maths enthusiasts will have worked out then that the winner of this one will take a two-point advantage at the top. With others struggling to keep up with the pace set by Saints and Warrington a win on Friday could be significant in the battle for the League Leaders Shield. I can almost hear you sniffing, Saints fans, but don’t forget that this year that comes with a second chance to reach Old Trafford via a home playoff game. That should help the fans and players alike crack a bit more of a smile should we manage to defend that particular dish.

Saints faced the Dragons last week without either of their first choice halfbacks. Theo Fages is still missing with the hip injury he picked up in the win over Hull KR a fortnight ago and so Danny Richardson will again deputise. Last week Richardson was partnered by Jack Welsby after Jonny Lomax suffered a late illness. That didn’t help either young half so it will be vital that Lomax is on hand to guide the team around this week.

The only change to the 19-man squad sees Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook return in place of the unfortunate Welsby. McCarthy-Scarsbrook missed last week to be with his partner who was expecting their child. There must have been a power cut in a few Saints households late last summer after Alex Walmsley and Zeb Taia also welcomed new additions to their families in recent weeks. Both returned for the Dragons trip and both will be pivotal here. Expect McCarthy-Scarsbrook to oust one of Jack Ashworth, Kyle Amor or Matty Lees for a place on the bench in coach Justin Holbrook’s final match day 17. The smart money is probably on Amor who doesn’t appear to be on Holbrook’s Christmas card list, although Ashworth could yet be the one to be stood down. Matty Lees has been more involved than either of late so it would be a surprise to see him omitted.

Elsewhere in the pack James Roby leads by example again, with Luke Thompson making up the front row along with Walmsley. Dominique Peyroux was one of Saints better performers in a display that the cool kids of today are already calling ‘meh’ against Steve McNamara’s men and is a near certainty to start alongside Taia in the second row with Morgan Knowles behind them at loose forward. Joseph Paulo has been the subject of some criticism on social media for his lack of statistical contribution in attack, a criticism that never seems to be applied to Knowles. The truth is that both are very similar, ferocious workers in defence but currently struggling to burst a hole in the proverbial paper bag with ball in hand. It makes you long for Jon Wilkin. Almost.

Saints’ backs are a much more dangerous proposition for any defence, particularly Lachlan Coote who continues to impress at fullback. There is a decision to be made by Holbrook on whether Coote continues with the goalkicking duties with Richardson now back in the side, but aside from an underwhelming success rate in that department Coote has been imperious since joining Saints at he start of the season. He’ll play behind a three-quarter line of Tommy Makinson, Regan Grace, Mark Percival and Kevin Naiqama. Adam Swift has regained fitness, scoring twice while playing at centre for Leigh Centurions on dual registration last week, but has not done enough to earn a place in Holbrook’s thinking for this one on the evidence of his 19-man squad. Naiqama’s position has also been questioned by a significant portion of the fans but the lack of a truly credible candidate to replace him at that right centre position, plus the presumably massive barrel of cash that the Fijian takes home each week are so far enough to convince Holbrook to persist with his new signing.

The squad is completed by Aaron Smith who, while a more than able deputy for Roby whenever he has been called upon, has not been selected whenever Roby is deemed fit enough. With a certain Daryl Clark on the other side we’ve got everything crossed that Roby is not suffering from any ‘slight niggles’ that have hampered him at times this season or that he is not suffering any ill effects from his quite ridiculous 61-tackle effort in Perpignan.

Warrington’s squad is strong enough that there is no place in it for Jake Mamo who has just signed a new deal with the club this week. He has featured on the wing at times since his move from Huddersfield Giants but it looks very much as if coach Steve Price intends to go with former Hull FC tugboat Tom Lineham and the prolific, tattooed irritant Josh Charnley in those positions. Stefan Ratchford is the fullback and his duel with Coote could be fascinating, while if there is a weakness in Warrington’s backline it is at centre where Bryson Goodwin continues to miss out through injury. Toby King and Ryan Atkins are the likely pairing there, behind a halfback partnership of the hitherto spellbinding Blake Austin and young gun Declan Patton. Kevin Brown was lost for the season before it even kicked off, so Patton has the job of providing the foil for the increasingly brilliant Austin. Along with Clark, everything Wire do in attack seems to go through him and what was a very mean Saints defence before the Hull KR game will have to be back to its early season best to handle the former Canberra Raiders man.


Up front Warrington fans will be confident that there front three of Clark, Chris Hill and Mike Cooper can match Saints celebrated trio. It will be another epic battle (no war metaphors, sorry) among many all over the field as the competition’s two most talented squads go head-to-head. Jack Hughes must be highly thought of by Price as he was rested for the Wolves 48-12 win over London Broncos last time out. He will likely partner the injury-prone but classy Ben Currie in the second row with one of Jason Clark, Ben Murdoch Masila or Joe Philbin completing the back row. Harvey Livett is in the 19-man squad after starting against the Broncos but along with former London man Matt Davis, young hooker Danny Walker and former Saints lightweight Lama Tasi he will do well to get into Price’s 17-man selection on the night. Pantomime villain and all around unconvincing ogre Ben Westwood is still suspended after pushing Morgan Escare away with his head three weeks ago.

Saints once went a on a preposterous run of just one defeat in 44 league matches with Warrington, including a quite hilarious 72-2 pounding at Knowsley Road that you can read about elsewhere on these pages this week. However, things are a little less one-sided and predictable these days with Saints having lost no less than 13 times to Warrington since February 2011. The worst of these was undoubtedly a 48-22 larruping at Magic in 2013 while the most painful during that time is arguably still the 2016 Super League semi-final in which Warrington failed to score a single legal try and yet still managed to win 18-10. All of which was the usual waste of time for the Wolves as their inability to win a Grand Final remains legendary.

They might well win this one though. Doubts have to remain about Saints halfback pairing with Richardson unconvincing in Perpignan. Fages had become a vital cog in the machine in the early part of the season so much depends on Lomax and at times Coote if Saints are to provide the creativity they will need to break down the Wire defence. This being That Saints Blog You Quite Like and not That Warrington Blog You Quite Like I’m going to tip Saints to edge it, but only with the kind of confidence that I have in Joe Root correctly calling the outcome of a coin toss.

Squads;

St Helens;

1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 7. Danny Richardson, 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.

Warrington Wolves;

Ryan Atkins, Blake Austin, Josh Charnley, Daryl Clark, Jason Clark, Mike Cooper, Ben Currie, Matt Davis, Chris Hill, Jack Hughes, Toby King, Tom Lineham, Harvey Livett, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Declan Patton, Joe Philbin, Stefan Ratchford, Lama Tasi, Danny Walker.

Referee: James Child


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Great Saints Games - Saints Slaughter The Wolves in 2002

There was a time when St Helens always beat Warrington at home in Super League. England lost in tournament quarter-finals, Labour won landslide election victories, Westlife farted down the microphone and scored a hit record and Saints beat Warrington at home. That was just the way it was at the turn of the century. Between 1994 and 2012 Saints did not lose a single home league encounter with the Cheshire side.



Never was this rule of thumb more in evidence than on 3 August 2002 when a Saints side destined to win its fourth Super League title in six years stomped all over the Wire to the tune of 13 tries and an eye-popping 72 points. Warrington managed just a single Paul Noone penalty goal in response. This wasn’t a vintage Warrington side, winning just seven of their 21 regular season league games to finish a lowly 10th in the standings. But back then it didn’t matter how good Warrington were or not, they always lost in St.Helens.

They weren’t the only team to come away from Knowsley Road with nothing in 2002. In fact, every other Super League side suffered the same fate during the regular season. That this was only a good enough record for Saints to win the League Leaders Shield on points difference is evidence of both a patchy away record and of the Bradford Bulls consistency throughout that season. Yet Saints points difference was just 14 better than that of the Bulls, so racking up 72 in this memorable performance certainly helped.

Saints started that season with a bum-squeaking 15-14 win at Widnes. When they were thrashed 40-6 at London in just their fourth league game of the year the doubts about whether they could wrestle back the Super League crown from the Bulls must have been starting to creep in. Four days later confidence was boosted by a 19-0 shutout of Wigan in the traditional Easter dust-up, a game memorable for a quite ludicrous no-look pass from Tommy Martyn to Peter Shiels. Saints then beat Leeds back to back, the second of which secured a place in the Challenge Cup final to be held at Murrayfield as Wembley remained closed for reconstruction. The season could at that point have been accurately described as topsy and indeed turvy as Saints then conceded 54 points in defeat to Bradford and then went on to lose the Challenge Cup final to Wigan 21-12. With due apologies to our Wigan brethren we are not going to recount the sorry tale of Kris Radlinksi getting up off his sick bed to produce a Lance Todd Trophy winning performance. The bulk of my readers are Saints fans and they don’t want to relive it. Nor, frankly, do I. Suffice to say that I spent the final 10 minutes of that game hiding from the big screen in a small enclave that led to a door by the cellar in the Springfield in Thatto Heath.

To recover from that shattering blow Saints just had to win the Grand Final. They set about their task with a routine 38-6 home win over Halifax but then were beaten 36-22 at Castleford. That would be their last loss until a 22-8 loss at Wigan at the end of July. That was a run of 10 consecutive wins. The Warriors finished third in 2002, seven points adrift of both Saints and Bradford at the end of the regular season, but they were a constant pain in the proverbial of Ian Millward’s side. A week on from that loss at Wigan Saints got set to welcome the Wolves to Knowsley Road in what was a crucial game if the red vee were to get their season back on track.

They did that and then some, opening the scoring in the eighth minute when Keiron Cunningham’s ugly bounce pass was picked up by Darren Albert to dive over untouched. Paul Wellens scored Saints’ second try which for reasons best known to whoever uploaded it is one of four tries not on this classic piece of Youtube from the day. Chris Joynt scored a double within five minutes of the start of the second half but there is sadly no trace of either here, nor of Anthony Stewart’s second try which arrived in the second half to bring up the 60-point mark for the home side.

Before that Sean Hoppe made it 18-2 while further good work from Cunningham and Sean Long set up the position for Stewart to go over in the left hand corner for the first of his brace. When Long broke again before half-time he found Albert on his inside and the Australian flyer strolled over to give Saints a whopping 28-2 half-time advantage. Their cause had been greatly helped by the first half dismissal of Warrington forward Jerome Guisset for an ill-advised slice of foul and abusive gobbing off at referee Robert Connolly.

Joynt’s double was followed by a signature effort from Paul Newlove. It was over as soon as the Great Britain centre received the ball in space down his favoured left channel. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wire never got anyone anywhere near him and it is doubtful whether they would have stopped him if they had. Newlove was something of a specialist at carrying opposition passengers towards their own goal-line while he was in possession. If he happened to be free of any opponents he could shift as quickly as anyone. Newlove was involved in Saints’ next score, picking up an offload from Stewart to begin another trademark scamper down the field. This time Lee Penny came across to cut off the angle and while it is entirely possible that Newlove would have gone around or through the Wire fullback the Saints man chose instead to pass the ball inside to the supporting Martyn.

Arguably the try of the day was Albert’s third. Paul Sculthorpe had joined Saints from Warrington for a world record fee five years previously, a fact that Wire would live to regret for some time. His pass took out three defenders and landed squarely on the chest of Albert, who streaked down the right hand side before getting rid of Penny with a quite sumptuous step on the inside. Albert had raced 75 metres down the field without anyone laying a hand on him. The former Newcastle Knights man was just too fast and too good at changing direction without losing much of that speed. He racked up 88 tries in 118 appearances across four seasons with Saints before playing out the final year of his career with Cronulla Sharks. His is a name that crops up endlessly whenever there’s a discussion about the greatest ever wingers to play in the red vee, and certainly in the Super League era since 1996.

Stewart’s second pushed the score up to 60-2, before Martyn was put through a hole by substitute Mike Bennett. Martyn was never the paciest but fortunately for him he had Hoppe in support and the New Zealand international crossed easily for his second of the game to make it 66-2 thanks to Sculthorpe’s ninth conversion of the afternoon. His tenth followed his own try as he took Cunningham’s pass to step inside two defenders and stretch over to score. The magical 70-point barrier busted, Saints eased off for the final few minutes and so failed to match their record 80-point haul against Wire which they managed in a now infamous Regal Trophy semi-final in 1996.

Four more wins followed before yet another jolting loss at the hands of Wigan. Saints went down 48-8 at the JJB Stadium before putting 64 points past Hull FC at Knowsley Road a week later. They finished the regular season with a win over London Broncos and although they lost a playoff game to Bradford at home in early October, it was the meeting a fortnight later between the two that counted as Long’s late drop-goal altered the kipper on James Lowes for good.

Wire’s season went from bad to shocking as they followed this hammering with five more defeats from their last seven league outings, the nadir of which was a 50-10 drubbing by Wakefield. Things were about to turn around sharply for the Wolves with the investment of Simon Moran which helped turn them into the force they are today. But it would still be antother 10 years before they managed a win on Saintly soil, discounting the 2011 success they had at Widnes when Saints played all their games at the Halton Stadium while Langtree Park was under construction.

That’s just the way it was back then.


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5 Talking Points From Catalans Dragons 18 Saints 10

And So It Ends


All good things come to an end. Great books, classic films, relationships, your first pint on a night out. Heck, even life itself comes to a conclusion at some point. Only really rubbish things like the Brexit debate and my wait for Liverpool to win another title go on forever. Saints unbeaten run is no exception to this rule as they went down 18-10 to Catalans Dragons in Perpignan.

It wasn’t supposed to happen so soon, mind. Catalans came into this one on the back of a 42-0 towelling at comedy club Wigan while also managing to lose 46-0 at home to Salford earlier in the season. A Saints side which had opened the season with eight wins in a row was fancied to continue their hot streak against the inconsistent French outfit. Yet Steve McNamara’s side were full value for their win as a Saints side shorn of it’s starting halfbacks wilted in the changeable Perpignan weather.

It’s a loss that knocks Saints off the top of the BetFred Super League table. Justin Holbrook’s side have been ousted by Warrington who they face next week. That game now takes on extra significance. A Warrington win would open up a two-point gap at the top for Steve Price’s side, making Saints perfect start seem just a distant memory. However if Saints can get back on the horse with a win they will regain control of the race for the League Leaders Shield. It is not a crisis by any means, regardless of what the knee-jerkers on social media have told you. Blowing a 20-point lead against Castleford, you might call it a Tiger Roll, in the week that one of your players gets a drug suspension and in which you still haven’t been able to get a straight, honest answer out of the man you told everyone would be your coach next year. That’s a crisis.



A Game Of Two Halfbacks


Saints were already going into this one without the injured Theo Fages when they were dealt a further blow with the news that Jonny Lomax would be missing through illness. It meant that the returning Danny Richardson who has played all of his rugby in 2019 so far in the Championship with Leigh Centurions would be partnered by 18-year-old Jack Welsby in Saints creative department. Add in conditions that might best be described on Grand National weekend as ‘heavy’ and you have a recipe for a blip that will be made to look like a disaster by those people who never go to games because they’ve been telling you for years that Saints are shit.

The reality is that it’s difficult to get too down on the performance of either Richardson or Welsby. In fact the former started the game brilliantly, placing a measured kick into the in-goal from which Dominique Peyroux notched his fifth try of the season. But Richardson is still not ready to lead the team around the field with anything like authority. He is himself still too prone to taking the wrong option on the crucial last plays to command the full attention of his team-mates. He needs an old head alongside him. Similarly, Welsby is far too inexperienced to fill the shoes of Lomax without an authoritative voice alongside him. He struggled to get into the game for large parts and his task was made even more difficult by the boggy pitch which took away a lot of Saints usual zip in attack.

How Lomax would have handled the wet, chilly conditions is one of life’s un-knowables but his greater experience would likely have been valuable. With such a key player missing the selection of Welsby at stand-off has to be questionable. This was always going to be a game in which halfback play was going to make a huge difference. A tactical battle in which wise heads would be a major asset. The evidence of last week’s win over Hull KR, when Fages left the action midway through the first half, suggested that Joseph Paulo might have been a safer pair of hands at six. Yet perhaps this short term pain will offer long term gain for Saints young halves. They’ll be better for the experience.

One aspect of Richardson’s performance was particularly baffling. While out of the side his prowess as a goal-kicker has been talked up to the point where you’d think he makes Hazel El-Masri look like Diana Ross at the USA ‘94 opening ceremony. In reality Richardson made about 75% of his goal attempts during his run in the side last season. That still makes him a more reliable option than Lachlan Coote. We are told that Coote is a reluctant goal-kicker yet it was he who was lining up the pot-shots whenever they presented themselves. To be fair Coote only missed one from a meagre two attempts, but there will be those who insist that Richardson would have landed both and so given Saints a realistic chance of taking the game into extra time when they were throwing the ball around like it was the QPR job late on. We’ll never know if it would have made a difference but it seems reasonable to suggest that if Richardson is the most prolific goal-kicker on the field then he should get the job.



Was Fouad Yaha’s Try A Fair One?


Anyone who knows the definitive answer to this one has better eyes than me. The Dragons winger raced Tommy Makinson to a rolling ball in the Saints in-goal area and was deemed by video referee Tom Grant to have touched down first. Video replays seemed inconclusive, so the deciding factor was the fact that referee Robert Hicks had sent it up for review as a try. Certainly there was not sufficient evidence to disprove Hicks’ first impression so a try was rightly given.

Yet it’s only right if you accept the limitations of the system. A referee who has to make a tentative call under the present arrangements can sometimes be offering not much more than a guess. The touch judge clearly wasn’t convinced either. On a different day a different referee could quite conceivably have made a different call. I’d stop short of saying that Saints were hard done by but it does highlight what many critics of video referee suspect, which is that even with technology it is impossible to get every decision 100% correct.

Though he endured a slightly torrid time defensively with all three Dragons tries originating from kicks to his corner, Makinson should be congratulated on the occasion of his 100th Super League try. If Makinson played on the left wing, where Saints still seem to direct most of their best attacking play, he’d probably have 200. Despite the addition of Kevin Naiqama and the improved form of Peyroux Saints still look a little unbalanced in attack. Naiqama gets little quality ball, and you have to at least question whether he is bringing more to the team at this moment in time than Ryan Morgan did before him,



Are The Dragons A Bad Match-Up For Saints?


Some people believe there is such a thing as bogey sides. Those teams that despite your superiority you just have trouble with. Sometimes that might be because previous bad results against a particular team get inside the heads of players, coaches and fans alike, and sometimes it’s about styles. In boxing they say styles make fights, the idea being that a fighter with greater talent might lose to one who can figure him out tactically and so present problems that he’s not so good at dealing with. This thought crossed my mind watching Saints get beaten up by the Dragons pack for the second time in recent memory,

Do you remember the Challenge Cup semi-Final at Bolton back in August? Saints fans had cheered when the name of Catalans Dragons came out of the hat in the draw for that stage of last year’s competition, but there wasn’t too much cheering among us when we found ourselves 20+ points down before half-time. A position from which we never recovered as Wembley dreams turned to a pint in the pub down the road. Saints were without Alex Walmsley on that occasion and for want of a better description they were bullied by the Catalans side throughout. There was a touch of deja-vu about this defeat as the game developed into a forward battle brought on by the conditions. Much of the game was played down the middle third of the field and while Saints pack stood up better to the physical challenge this time around they still made numerous errors in collision which contributed heavily to their undoing.



Defeat Sets Up A Huge Game Next Week


We’ve touched on the fact that Warrington visit Saints next week with the league leadership on the line. That game now represents a huge test of Saints character, especially that of Richardson. Fages has already been ruled out with his hip problem so it is highly likely that last year’s Super League Dream Team scrum half will get another shot. He’ll be helped by the return of Lomax who should be over his illness by then but he still has it all to do to prove that he can be the man to secure the seven jersey long term once Fages regains fitness. He’s done it before, with one virtuoso performance at Warrington from 2018 springing readily to mind. But this defeat will have done little for a player who seems to sink or swim according to his confidence levels.

There are key battles all over the field when Wire come to town. Coote vs Stefan Ratchford in the fullback roles, Josh Charnley and Tom Lineham up against Makinson and Regan Grace on the wings, and Saints formidable front three of Walmsley, James Roby and Luke Thompson should be affronted enough to want to put one over on their Wolves counterparts Chris Hill, Daryl Clarke and Mike Cooper. Dominique Peyroux can be compared form-wise to anyone this year and so won’t be cowed by Ben Currie, while Jack Hughes’ improvement has seen him gain international recognition and with it the confidence to take on the Zeb Taias of this world. But it is in the halves where Saints have to shine against the currently rampant Blake Austin and the highly-rated Declan Patton. Whoever wins that battle could find themselves looking down on the rest of Super League by around 10.00 on Friday night.


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Catalans Dragons v Saints - Preview

Still unbeaten, Saints face one of the more testing away trips on the schedule when they visit Catalans Dragons in Round 9 of the BetFred Super League on Saturday (April 6, kick-off 6.00).

The headline going into this one is the likely return to first team action of Danny Richardson. Despite being named in the Super League Dream Team in 2018 Richardson has not featured for Saints so far in 2019. Theo Fages has been coach Justin Holbrook’s preferred choice at halfback but the Frenchman misses the trip back to his home land with a hip injury picked up in last week’s 36-24 win over Hull KR. It’s unfortunate for Fages but it offers a golden opportunity for Richardson to re-establish himself in the side. He is likely to have two chances, with Fages already ruled out of next week’s visit from Warrington.

The only other change to the 19-man squad from that named last week sees Jack Welsby come in for Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook. The former London man follows Alex Walmsley and Zeb Taia in missing out due to the impending birth of a child. Walmsley and Taia missed the win over Rovers to be with their partners and this week it is the turn of McCarthy-Scarsbrook to welcome a new addition to the family while presumably trying not to pass out. I think I’d find it easier to tackle Remi Casty and company so good luck to McCarthy-Scarsbrook on that.

That 19 selected by Holbrook last week wasn’t really worth the paper it was written on. As well as Taia and Walmsley James Roby missed the game due one of those slight niggles that seem to plague him whenever we have a more gentle home game on the horizon. Expect him to return for this one. It’s a bit of a no-brainer but still tough on Aaron Smith who performed admirably in Roby’s absence last week.

Also back is Mark Percival who missed the visit of the Robins through illness. That meant Welsby started at centre although he was moved to the halves after Fages’ early exit from proceedings. James Bentley ended up playing most of the game in Percival’s left centre berth but you can expect the England man to be restored this week. Bentley has missed out on selection altogether this time around.

The rest of the side should be as you’d expect, with the impressive Lachlan Coote at fullback behind wingers Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace with Kevin Naiqama partnering Percival in the centres. Jonny Lomax will be a familiar halfback partner for Richardson as he looks to fit back into the side.

Up front the absence of McCarthy-Scarsbrook means perhaps more game time for one of Matty Lees, Jack Ashworth or Kyle Amor. Lees started the game last week while Walmsley was welcoming his new son into the world so might be favourite, although Amor produced a fine try-scoring cameo against Tim Sheens’ side to stake his claim too. Luke Thompson carried the pack at times last week and should be a certainty alongside Walmsley.

Taia will slot back into the second row alongside cult hero Dominique Peyroux who has been excellent on the right edge so far in 2019. Morgan Knowles will continue to tackle everything at loose forward with Joseph Paulo on the bench waiting to cover a number of positions, one of which was stand-off in parts of Saints’ last outing as the reshuffle was reshuffled.

The Dragons have been a little bit unpredictable so far this term and are coming in off the back of a 42-0 shellacking at crisis club and all round disgrace Wigan Warriors. Steve McNamara questioned the attitude of his side as an 8-0 half-time deficit became an embarrassing rout as Wigan ran in six second half tries. This is also a Catalans side that managed to lose 46-0 at home to Salford but which is the only team to have beaten Warrington in 2019. Until next week perhaps. The point is that when Catalans are good they’re very good but when they’re bad they’re quite atrocious.

McNamara has largely stood by the players who let him down so badly at Wigan. The only change to their 19 sees Benjamin Julien come in for the injured Kenny Edwards. The latter has made a big impact since arriving from Parramatta Eels last year, not least with Saints fans whose ire was raised following an alleged ball-throwing episode when the teams met in the semi-final of the Challenge Cup in August. Saints were blown away that day and will need to be physically ready for the challenge of facing the Dragons pack featuring the likes of Casty, Sam Moa, Matt Whitley, Greg Bird, Jason Baitieri and new addition Sam Kasiano.

One pantomime villain who won’t be there is Mickey McIlorum who is still out injured, but if you want a Sam to boo you’re spoiled for choice with former Wigan irritant Tomkins alongside Moa, Kasiano and Samisoni Langi. As well as Tomkins there is more ex-Wigan influence in the squad in the shape of former Saints splinter collector Matty Smith and Scotland international Lewis Tierney. If all that doesn’t have you screaming with rage there’s always talented but infuriating wind-up merchant Tony Gigot to focus on.

Any side would miss David Mead who is currently side-lined but in Brayden Williame the Dragons have one of the more eye-catching centres of the early part of the season while winger Fouad Yaha is only two weeks on from a four-try performance which was too hot for Leeds to handle.

Saints last visit to Perpignan ended in a 26-22 success in the now defunct Super 8s last September. Tries from Fages, Knowles, Lomax and Percival sealed that win, with Richardson landing five goals. Saints haven’t lost in France since a 33-16 reverse in June 2016 when among their try-scorers in defeat were McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Shannon McDonnell and Adam Swift. Jack Owens kicked two goals. Times have changed.

As far as you can be against this enigmatic Dragons side Saints should be confident going into this one. At full strength they have been on a different level this year, especially defensively where before last week’s chaotic events they had conceded an average of less than 12 points per game. If Holbrook’s side can match up to the physical challenge of the Dragons while keeping their discipline they could enter next week’s Warrington clash looking for a perfect ten out of ten to start 2019.

Squads;


Catalans Dragons;


Tony Gigot 4. Brayden Williame 5. Lewis Tierney 6. Samisoni Lange 7. Matty Smith 8. Remi Casty 10. Sam Moa 13. Greg Bird 14. Julian Bousquet 16. Benjamin Julien 17. Matt Whitley 18. Alrix De Costa 19. Mickael Goudemand 22. Lucas Albert 24. Jason Baitieri 25. Arthur Romano 27. Fouad Yaha 28. Sam Tomkins 29. Sam Kasiano


St Helens;


1. Jonny Lomax 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 4. Mark Percival 5. Regan Grace 7. Danny Richardson 8. Alex Walmsley. 9. James Roby 10. Luke Thompson 11. Zeb Taia 12. Joseph Paulo 15. Morgan Knowles 16. Kyle Amor 17. Dominique Peyroux 19. Matty Lees 20. Jack Ashworth 21. Aaron Smith 23. Lachlan Coote 29. Jack Welsby


Referee: Robert Hicks