Anyone who has been following the blog’s Twitter account (or even my own personal account if you are that desperate) will be aware that I have grave reservations about tonight’s Qualifying Semi-Final between Saints and Wigan. That is what it is called, by the way. A Qualifying Semi-Final. As opposed to the Elimination Semi-Final which was last night between Salford and Castleford. Or the Final Eliminator which is next week when the loser of tonight’s derby clash will host Salford. Crystal clear. Eye roll.
Anyway my reservations are born of the fact that I cannot believe that we are going to beat Wigan five times in one season. We are more than half way to that having already dismissed this bang average bunch of spoilers three times in 2019, but there is something about derby games that leads me to believe that a surprise result is in the offing somewhere. In addition, I have to grudgingly admit that Wigan have improved significantly from the absolute state they were in at the start of the season. Oh how we chuckled when they were docked two points for salary cap breaches and then given them back almost immediately because well….they’re Wigan. The hilarity ramped up when Wigan legend Shaun Edwards reneged on his promise to take over the coaching reins from Adrian Lam, preferring instead to continue with the lucrative tedium that is rugby union. Since those halcyon days they have put together a fine run towards the end of the season. Lam's men overhauled seven or eight clubs stuck in reverse to finish a creditable second in the Super League table at the end of the regular season. They still ended it 16 points behind Saints but from where they had been it was a massive improvement and one which makes them a dangerous playoff opponent.
Which brings me back to my fears. Perceived wisdom suggests that a win tonight, which would put us straight into the Old Trafford Grand Final on October 12, is the best way to go about our business. Get the week off while Wigan have to battle it out with an improving Salford Red Devils, then simply repeat the trick if Lam’s team come through that. But is it that simple? What is the likelihood, ignoring my paranoia about the prospects of winning five straight against Wigan, of beating the same team twice to win the title?
Well, quite good actually. I got to thinking about my theory and thought I would do a little digging. Is there any evidence that winning the game tonight will be A Bad Thing, and set us on a course towards Grand Final misery? Not much is the answer. The current top five playoff system, known as the McIntyre system, was re-introduced for 2019 but was also used for the first four seasons in which playoffs and a Grand Final were present in Super League from 1998-2001. During that time the side winning the Qualifying Semi-Final has only lost in the Grand Final on one occasion. That was in 1999 when Bradford Bulls walloped Saints 40-4 at Odsal only to find themselves on the end of an 8-6 defeat in Manchester.
The first playoff series of the Super League era came in 1998 when Wigan, who had topped the table by four points, nevertheless found themselves having to slog it out with Leeds Rhinos on two occasions before they could lift the trophy which would have been their by rights 12 months earlier. They were tight affairs, but the League Leaders won 17-4 in the Qualifying Semi-Final and then 10-4 in the Grand Final thanks to Jason Robinson’s much-played scoot across the Rhinos defensive line.
After Saints’ victory in 1999 the following year saw a precedent for what we all hope will happen in 2019. Saints again played Wigan in the Qualifying Semi-Final and gave them a 54-16 shellacking on their own patch. Sean Long ran riot, which the natives particularly enjoyed. I remember driving home from the JJB as it was that night thinking that there was no way imaginable that Wigan would recover from that absolute towelling to beat Saints in the Grand Final. They did not. They made it to Old Trafford courtesy of a 40-12 win over Bradford a week later, but went down 29-16 to Saints with Long again instrumental. In my mind’s eye I can still see Tim Jonkers striding away for the try that capped the win.
The following year did not provide a vintage playoff series for Saints. A 38-30 win over Leeds set up an Elimination Semi-Final at Hull which Ian Millward’s side scraped through 24-20. Yet they would go no further as the old enemy blew them away 44-10 in the Final Eliminator. Lam scored two tries for Wigan that night, but he couldn’t help his side win the title as the rule around Qualifying Semi-Final winners bringing home the bacon held true. Wigan had been beaten 24-18 by League Leaders Bradford to set up that meeting with Saints and then when they progressed to the big one they suffered an even more convincing defeat to the Bulls who ran out 37-6 winners.
I don’t know about you but at the end of all this I am feeling slightly better about our chances at Old Trafford should we pull off what I expect to be a victory on home soil tonight. The prospect of a last home game for coach Justin Holbrook makes it a special occasion so perhaps there is still much to look forward to. I still don’t like the fact that the winners of the league have to slum it in a trumped up playoff series, but history suggests that winning at the first attempt to get to Old Trafford is not necessarily a kiss of death. Even if it does mean that we will have won five derbies in a row in 2019. These are just numbers, right?
Eye roll.
Weekly comment and analysis on all things Saints with perhaps the merest hint of bias...
Saints v Wigan Warriors - Preview
Two of rugby league’s greatest rivals are only one step away from Old Trafford as Saints host Wigan in the Super League playoff semi-final on Friday night (September 27, kick-off 7.45pm).
The winner of this one books their place in the Super League Grand Final on October 12 while for the loser there is another chance to make it in next week’s final eliminator against the winner of Thursday night’s meeting between Salford and Castleford. Sound complicated? It’s not really, it’s just a tad wearying when you have virtually lapped the rest of the field in the regular season and are still tasked with beating Britain’s most autumnal sporting entity twice in the space of three weeks to claim your rightful prize. Such is modern sport.
Anyone not totally turned off by this charade might be interested to know that Saints coach Justin Holbrook has made just the one change to his 19-man squad for what he hopes will be his last home game as Saints Head Coach. Holbrook jets off to Australia to take charge of Gold Coast Titans at the end of the season to be replaced by former Tonga boss Kristian Woolf. That one alteration sees Aaron Smith come back into the reckoning having not featured since picking up a two-game suspension a week before the ill-fated Challenge Cup Final at Wembley. He replaces Matty Costello, so it is to be hoped that no stroke of cursed luck befalls either of Mark Percival or Kevin Naiqama before Friday night. Then again we get another chance next week, so…..
Clearly Holbrook wants to take the most straightforward route to Old Trafford and that means winning this one. That despite the fact that the statistical likelihood of beating Wigan five times in a row in 2019 (for that is then what it would likely take to claim the title) is chillingly uncertain. I’m fully aware that if you roll a dice five times the likelihood of getting a six is the same on each occasion, but that doesn’t take into account the possibility of having your eyes gouged out by Tony Clubb or being flopped on by Genkle Benny Flower. All in all I would rather we didn’t bother.
Luckily for you and for the broadcasters hoping for a classic Holbrook doesn’t have such fears. Expect Lachlan Coote to continue his climb back to top form with a start at fullback behind regular wing pairing of Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace and the centre duo of Percival and Naiqama. Rumours abound that Danny Richardson is about to take up a contract with Castleford Tigers next year and he is again absent from the reckoning here with Jonny Lomax set to partner Theo Fages in the halves. Lomax is the best player in Super League yet is not nominated for the Steve Prescott Man Of Steel nor did he make the Super League Dream Team. He won’t worry about that so long as the Grand Final winners ring comes his way in a few weeks’ time.
In the pack Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Luke Thompson will attempt to get on top of the spoilers and hatchet-men that make up the Wigan front row, while Zeb Taia, Dominique Peyroux and Morgan Knowles form a formidable back row. It is widely believed that Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor will make the bench which leaves Smith to battle it out with James Bentley and Jack Ashworth for a spot.
And so to the bit where it falls upon me to tell you something about the Wigan squad. Sam Powell was the major doubt following last week’s 18-12 win over Salford Red Devils but seems to have made an Andy Pipkin-esque recovery from an arm injury, so he will be one of those front row hatchet men probably alongside finger-jabbing cheap-shooter Clubb and the new grub on the block Ollie Partington. Behind them the classy Liam Farrell should start alongside the altogether less desirable Willie Isa with much heralded tackling machine Morgan Smithies at loose forward. Smithies made 72 tackles in the win over Salford, a Super League record. It’s only when you give the kid that egg shaped thing and ask him to do something with it that his troubles will start.
Wigan’s backs have quality in the shape of former Great Britain fullback Zak Hardaker and Oliver Gildart, who I can grudgingly accept is one of the best centres in the game at the moment. His battle with Percival will be one of the keys in this game and its likely sequel at Old Trafford. Liam Marshall and Joe Burgess have express pace on the wings, while Brett French is no slouch coming off the bench to add impact also. Unlike Lomax George Williams is a Steve Prescott Man Of Steel nominee, and he won’t be thinking about the fact that a loss here would give him one more game at the DW Stadium in Wigan colours before he moves to Canberra Raiders in the NRL. He will be partnered in the halves by the ageless Thomas Leuluai.
Among those likely to be in contention for a bench spot are veteran perm-meister Sean O’Loughlin, the aforementioned Flower as well as youngster Liam Byrne, Frenchman Romain Navarrete, centre Chris Hankinson and a man for whom the grass is currently distinctly less green on the other side of Billinge Lump Joe Greenwood.
Push me for a prediction and I will maintain that I really am not too troubled by the outcome. We all know it is the game under the Manchester lights in mid-October that counts. This is just a mechanism to get what might be a much-needed week off next week, but even that has the look of a double-edged sword about it. Remember how poorly Saints played after several key players were out of action in the weeks leading up to Wembley? In all likelihood Saints will win this one just because they are several acres better than this limited Wigan side. If they don’t I won’t be dialling the Samaritans. A defeat here and the Super League trophy is as good as ours.
Squads;
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 13. LMS, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 20. Jack Ashworth, 21, Aaron Smith, 22. James Bentley, 23. Lachlan Coote.
Wigan Warriors;
4. Oliver Gildart 5. Joe Burgess 6. George Williams 7. Tommy Leuluai 8. Tony Clubb 9. Sam Powell 10. Ben Flower 11. Joe Greenwood 12. Liam Farrell 13. Sean O’Loughlin 14. Romain Navarrete 15. Willie Isa 17. Liam Marshall 20. Zak Hardaker 23. Chris Hankinson 24. Ollie Partington 36. Liam Byrne 38. Morgan Smithies 43. Bevan French
Referee: Chris Kendall
The winner of this one books their place in the Super League Grand Final on October 12 while for the loser there is another chance to make it in next week’s final eliminator against the winner of Thursday night’s meeting between Salford and Castleford. Sound complicated? It’s not really, it’s just a tad wearying when you have virtually lapped the rest of the field in the regular season and are still tasked with beating Britain’s most autumnal sporting entity twice in the space of three weeks to claim your rightful prize. Such is modern sport.
Anyone not totally turned off by this charade might be interested to know that Saints coach Justin Holbrook has made just the one change to his 19-man squad for what he hopes will be his last home game as Saints Head Coach. Holbrook jets off to Australia to take charge of Gold Coast Titans at the end of the season to be replaced by former Tonga boss Kristian Woolf. That one alteration sees Aaron Smith come back into the reckoning having not featured since picking up a two-game suspension a week before the ill-fated Challenge Cup Final at Wembley. He replaces Matty Costello, so it is to be hoped that no stroke of cursed luck befalls either of Mark Percival or Kevin Naiqama before Friday night. Then again we get another chance next week, so…..
Clearly Holbrook wants to take the most straightforward route to Old Trafford and that means winning this one. That despite the fact that the statistical likelihood of beating Wigan five times in a row in 2019 (for that is then what it would likely take to claim the title) is chillingly uncertain. I’m fully aware that if you roll a dice five times the likelihood of getting a six is the same on each occasion, but that doesn’t take into account the possibility of having your eyes gouged out by Tony Clubb or being flopped on by Genkle Benny Flower. All in all I would rather we didn’t bother.
Luckily for you and for the broadcasters hoping for a classic Holbrook doesn’t have such fears. Expect Lachlan Coote to continue his climb back to top form with a start at fullback behind regular wing pairing of Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace and the centre duo of Percival and Naiqama. Rumours abound that Danny Richardson is about to take up a contract with Castleford Tigers next year and he is again absent from the reckoning here with Jonny Lomax set to partner Theo Fages in the halves. Lomax is the best player in Super League yet is not nominated for the Steve Prescott Man Of Steel nor did he make the Super League Dream Team. He won’t worry about that so long as the Grand Final winners ring comes his way in a few weeks’ time.
In the pack Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Luke Thompson will attempt to get on top of the spoilers and hatchet-men that make up the Wigan front row, while Zeb Taia, Dominique Peyroux and Morgan Knowles form a formidable back row. It is widely believed that Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor will make the bench which leaves Smith to battle it out with James Bentley and Jack Ashworth for a spot.
And so to the bit where it falls upon me to tell you something about the Wigan squad. Sam Powell was the major doubt following last week’s 18-12 win over Salford Red Devils but seems to have made an Andy Pipkin-esque recovery from an arm injury, so he will be one of those front row hatchet men probably alongside finger-jabbing cheap-shooter Clubb and the new grub on the block Ollie Partington. Behind them the classy Liam Farrell should start alongside the altogether less desirable Willie Isa with much heralded tackling machine Morgan Smithies at loose forward. Smithies made 72 tackles in the win over Salford, a Super League record. It’s only when you give the kid that egg shaped thing and ask him to do something with it that his troubles will start.
Wigan’s backs have quality in the shape of former Great Britain fullback Zak Hardaker and Oliver Gildart, who I can grudgingly accept is one of the best centres in the game at the moment. His battle with Percival will be one of the keys in this game and its likely sequel at Old Trafford. Liam Marshall and Joe Burgess have express pace on the wings, while Brett French is no slouch coming off the bench to add impact also. Unlike Lomax George Williams is a Steve Prescott Man Of Steel nominee, and he won’t be thinking about the fact that a loss here would give him one more game at the DW Stadium in Wigan colours before he moves to Canberra Raiders in the NRL. He will be partnered in the halves by the ageless Thomas Leuluai.
Among those likely to be in contention for a bench spot are veteran perm-meister Sean O’Loughlin, the aforementioned Flower as well as youngster Liam Byrne, Frenchman Romain Navarrete, centre Chris Hankinson and a man for whom the grass is currently distinctly less green on the other side of Billinge Lump Joe Greenwood.
Push me for a prediction and I will maintain that I really am not too troubled by the outcome. We all know it is the game under the Manchester lights in mid-October that counts. This is just a mechanism to get what might be a much-needed week off next week, but even that has the look of a double-edged sword about it. Remember how poorly Saints played after several key players were out of action in the weeks leading up to Wembley? In all likelihood Saints will win this one just because they are several acres better than this limited Wigan side. If they don’t I won’t be dialling the Samaritans. A defeat here and the Super League trophy is as good as ours.
Squads;
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4. Mark Percival, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Joseph Paulo, 13. LMS, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 20. Jack Ashworth, 21, Aaron Smith, 22. James Bentley, 23. Lachlan Coote.
Wigan Warriors;
4. Oliver Gildart 5. Joe Burgess 6. George Williams 7. Tommy Leuluai 8. Tony Clubb 9. Sam Powell 10. Ben Flower 11. Joe Greenwood 12. Liam Farrell 13. Sean O’Loughlin 14. Romain Navarrete 15. Willie Isa 17. Liam Marshall 20. Zak Hardaker 23. Chris Hankinson 24. Ollie Partington 36. Liam Byrne 38. Morgan Smithies 43. Bevan French
Referee: Chris Kendall
Hull FC v Saints - Preview
Saints wrap up their 2019 regular season campaign with a trip to the KCom Stadium to face Hull FC on Friday night (September 13, kick-off 7.45pm).
It’s the final act of what has been a dominant regular season for Saints. Last week’s 48-6 stroll over Huddersfield Giants ensured that Justin Holbrook’s side remained unbeaten at home in Super League, the first time Saints had achieved that since 2002. They have suffered just three defeats on their travels, two of those with somewhat weakened sides at London Broncos (one of which was a draw in old money), and a third at that notoriously Difficult Place To Go - Perpignan - at the hands of the Catalans Dragons.
The mission now is to extend that form for long enough to reach and win the Grand Final on October 12 at Old Trafford. Holbrook’s men need to win just one of a possible two home playoff games to reach the Super League’s showpiece game. The visit to Hull represents a final opportunity to tune up before the cut-throat business of the playoffs gets into gear.
To do so Holbrook has made just one change to the 19-man squad he selected for duty last week. Joseph Paulo returns to action at the expense of Danny Richardson, while Mark Percival is included despite exiting the Giants game in the early minutes with a head knock and subsequently failing the concussion protocol.
Holbrook picked what most would consider to be his strongest starting 13 last week to face Simon Woolford’s side a week ago and could do so again if Percival is sufficiently recovered to take his place at left centre. Matty Costello is in the squad and is the natural alternative. James Bentley filled the role in the emergency circumstances following Percival’s injury and Dominique Peyroux and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook have experience there also but Costello should be the next cab off the rank if Percival isn’t risked.
The rest of the side looks settled should Holbrook choose to go full strength again. Lachlan Coote made a welcome return to form at fullback a week ago and he should operate behind wingers Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace with Kevin Naiqama completing the three-quarter line. Richardson’s omission looks to have left the halfback pairing of Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages unchallenged.
Matty Lees continues to recover from a perforated bowel so Saints’ formidable front three of Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Luke Thompson will be backed up by McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Kyle Amor, Jack Ashworth and Bentley who is likely to spell Roby with Aaron Smith still not included. Smith hasn’t played since picking up a two-game suspension in the win at Leeds on August 16 and faces a fight to get back into Holbrook’s plans before the Head Coach is replaced by Kristian Woolf at the end of the season. The former Tongan national coach has penned a two-year deal from the start of 2020 with the club having an option for a further year. How he views the futures of the likes of Smith and Richardson is one of the key questions to be answered once he takes over the reins. Saints’ back three isn’t something which requires too much thinking time at present, with Peyroux partnering Zeb Taia in the second row and Morgan Knowles packing down at loose forward behind them.
A month ago if you had told Hull FC coach Lee Redford that his side would need to beat Saints to have any chance of a playoff place he might have given you a distinctly sideways glance. Yet that is the reality, and even that opportunity will disappear if Castleford Tigers end Wigan’s six-game winning run on Thursday night (September 12). Hull find themselves in this grim predicament after a run which has seen them win just three of their last nine league outings. From looking nailed on to finish in the top three and securing a second chance in the playoffs the black and whites now look favourites to be the ones with their noses pressed up against the glass watching the top five sides battle it out for the trophy.
Radford has made two changes to his 19-man squad from last week’s probably season-defining 44-12 towelling at Castleford. Jordan Lane comes back in along with former Saint Andre Savelio. The latter has tried to kick-start his career with spells at Castleford, Warrington and Brisbane Broncos since it all went south for him at Saints but has not played for two months due to injury. A foot problem is the latest obstacle in Savelio’s path to the world dominance he seems to envisage for himself. Perhaps the opportunity to prove a point against his old club is just what he needs to get his career back on track. No. Me neither. Savelio and Lane replace Sika Manu and Jack Logan, both of whom may have played their last games for FC as the winds of change look set to sweep through the club for 2020.
Elsewhere in Radford’s squad the only real injury absentees are Dean Hadley and Joe Westerman. Fullback Jamie Shaul has somehow beaten Wigan’s Zak Hardaker and Salford’s Niall Evalds to a spot in Wayne Bennett’s 29-man Great Britain squad announced last week, and he is joined there by professional nuisance Jake Connor and former Wigan prop Scott Taylor. Josh Griffin, Ratu Nailago, Bureta Fairamo and Carlos Tuimavave are dangerous presences in the back line while as ever for Hull much depends on the halfback combination of Albert Kelly and Marc Sneyd. If those two click FC are a match for anyone but the recent trend has been a series of disappointing performances hence their slide to the brink of playoff elimination.
Taylor is a key up front as is hooker Danny Houghton but whether those two have the support cast to challenge Saints’ pack is questionable. Josh Bowden and Mark Miniciello will need to bring their A-games with perhaps some impact from Masi Matongo. Veterans Gareth Ellis and Mickey Paea offer great experience and no little skill should Radford choose to call upon them.
This will be the third meeting between these two in this loop-fixture-infested regular season. Saints won 40-12 in Hull on July 5 while the black and white’s Easter Monday visit to St Helens ended in a chastening 62-16 larruping. If Radford’s side are not on top form they may suffer a similar fate against a Saints side slowly regaining their early season form. A lot may depend on the Tigers’ result on Thursday evening. A win for Daryl Powell’s side eliminates Hull and probably leads to a comfortable Saints win in this one. However if, as I expect, Wigan win that game Hull might have a final opportunity to save their season. I’m not convinced that they’re good enough. Saints by 12.
Squads;
Hull FC;
1. Jamie Shaul 2. Bureta Fairamo. 3. Carlos Tuimavave 4. Josh Griffin 6. Albert Kelly 7. Marc Sneyd 8. Scott Taylor 9. Danny Houghton 10. Josh Bowden 12. Mark Minichiello 14. Jake Connor 19. Masi Matongo 20. Brad Fash 22. Jordan Lane 23. Mickey Paea 33. Ratu Naulago 34. Gareth Ellis 35. Andre Savelio 39. Tevita Satae
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax. 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 4. Mark Percival 5. Regan Grace 6. Theo Fages 8. Alex Walmsley 9. James Roby 10. Luke Thompson 11. Zeb Taia 12. Joseph Paulo 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook 15. Morgan Knowles 16. Kyle Amor 17. Dominique Peyroux 20. Jack Ashworth 22. James Bentley 23. Lachlan Coote 24. Matty Costello.
Referee: Liam Moore
It’s the final act of what has been a dominant regular season for Saints. Last week’s 48-6 stroll over Huddersfield Giants ensured that Justin Holbrook’s side remained unbeaten at home in Super League, the first time Saints had achieved that since 2002. They have suffered just three defeats on their travels, two of those with somewhat weakened sides at London Broncos (one of which was a draw in old money), and a third at that notoriously Difficult Place To Go - Perpignan - at the hands of the Catalans Dragons.
The mission now is to extend that form for long enough to reach and win the Grand Final on October 12 at Old Trafford. Holbrook’s men need to win just one of a possible two home playoff games to reach the Super League’s showpiece game. The visit to Hull represents a final opportunity to tune up before the cut-throat business of the playoffs gets into gear.
To do so Holbrook has made just one change to the 19-man squad he selected for duty last week. Joseph Paulo returns to action at the expense of Danny Richardson, while Mark Percival is included despite exiting the Giants game in the early minutes with a head knock and subsequently failing the concussion protocol.
Holbrook picked what most would consider to be his strongest starting 13 last week to face Simon Woolford’s side a week ago and could do so again if Percival is sufficiently recovered to take his place at left centre. Matty Costello is in the squad and is the natural alternative. James Bentley filled the role in the emergency circumstances following Percival’s injury and Dominique Peyroux and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook have experience there also but Costello should be the next cab off the rank if Percival isn’t risked.
The rest of the side looks settled should Holbrook choose to go full strength again. Lachlan Coote made a welcome return to form at fullback a week ago and he should operate behind wingers Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace with Kevin Naiqama completing the three-quarter line. Richardson’s omission looks to have left the halfback pairing of Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages unchallenged.
Matty Lees continues to recover from a perforated bowel so Saints’ formidable front three of Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Luke Thompson will be backed up by McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Kyle Amor, Jack Ashworth and Bentley who is likely to spell Roby with Aaron Smith still not included. Smith hasn’t played since picking up a two-game suspension in the win at Leeds on August 16 and faces a fight to get back into Holbrook’s plans before the Head Coach is replaced by Kristian Woolf at the end of the season. The former Tongan national coach has penned a two-year deal from the start of 2020 with the club having an option for a further year. How he views the futures of the likes of Smith and Richardson is one of the key questions to be answered once he takes over the reins. Saints’ back three isn’t something which requires too much thinking time at present, with Peyroux partnering Zeb Taia in the second row and Morgan Knowles packing down at loose forward behind them.
A month ago if you had told Hull FC coach Lee Redford that his side would need to beat Saints to have any chance of a playoff place he might have given you a distinctly sideways glance. Yet that is the reality, and even that opportunity will disappear if Castleford Tigers end Wigan’s six-game winning run on Thursday night (September 12). Hull find themselves in this grim predicament after a run which has seen them win just three of their last nine league outings. From looking nailed on to finish in the top three and securing a second chance in the playoffs the black and whites now look favourites to be the ones with their noses pressed up against the glass watching the top five sides battle it out for the trophy.
Radford has made two changes to his 19-man squad from last week’s probably season-defining 44-12 towelling at Castleford. Jordan Lane comes back in along with former Saint Andre Savelio. The latter has tried to kick-start his career with spells at Castleford, Warrington and Brisbane Broncos since it all went south for him at Saints but has not played for two months due to injury. A foot problem is the latest obstacle in Savelio’s path to the world dominance he seems to envisage for himself. Perhaps the opportunity to prove a point against his old club is just what he needs to get his career back on track. No. Me neither. Savelio and Lane replace Sika Manu and Jack Logan, both of whom may have played their last games for FC as the winds of change look set to sweep through the club for 2020.
Elsewhere in Radford’s squad the only real injury absentees are Dean Hadley and Joe Westerman. Fullback Jamie Shaul has somehow beaten Wigan’s Zak Hardaker and Salford’s Niall Evalds to a spot in Wayne Bennett’s 29-man Great Britain squad announced last week, and he is joined there by professional nuisance Jake Connor and former Wigan prop Scott Taylor. Josh Griffin, Ratu Nailago, Bureta Fairamo and Carlos Tuimavave are dangerous presences in the back line while as ever for Hull much depends on the halfback combination of Albert Kelly and Marc Sneyd. If those two click FC are a match for anyone but the recent trend has been a series of disappointing performances hence their slide to the brink of playoff elimination.
Taylor is a key up front as is hooker Danny Houghton but whether those two have the support cast to challenge Saints’ pack is questionable. Josh Bowden and Mark Miniciello will need to bring their A-games with perhaps some impact from Masi Matongo. Veterans Gareth Ellis and Mickey Paea offer great experience and no little skill should Radford choose to call upon them.
This will be the third meeting between these two in this loop-fixture-infested regular season. Saints won 40-12 in Hull on July 5 while the black and white’s Easter Monday visit to St Helens ended in a chastening 62-16 larruping. If Radford’s side are not on top form they may suffer a similar fate against a Saints side slowly regaining their early season form. A lot may depend on the Tigers’ result on Thursday evening. A win for Daryl Powell’s side eliminates Hull and probably leads to a comfortable Saints win in this one. However if, as I expect, Wigan win that game Hull might have a final opportunity to save their season. I’m not convinced that they’re good enough. Saints by 12.
Squads;
Hull FC;
1. Jamie Shaul 2. Bureta Fairamo. 3. Carlos Tuimavave 4. Josh Griffin 6. Albert Kelly 7. Marc Sneyd 8. Scott Taylor 9. Danny Houghton 10. Josh Bowden 12. Mark Minichiello 14. Jake Connor 19. Masi Matongo 20. Brad Fash 22. Jordan Lane 23. Mickey Paea 33. Ratu Naulago 34. Gareth Ellis 35. Andre Savelio 39. Tevita Satae
St Helens;
1. Jonny Lomax. 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 4. Mark Percival 5. Regan Grace 6. Theo Fages 8. Alex Walmsley 9. James Roby 10. Luke Thompson 11. Zeb Taia 12. Joseph Paulo 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook 15. Morgan Knowles 16. Kyle Amor 17. Dominique Peyroux 20. Jack Ashworth 22. James Bentley 23. Lachlan Coote 24. Matty Costello.
Referee: Liam Moore
Hungry Like The Woolf? - Saints Appoint New Boss
A new chapter will begin for Saints in 2020 with the appointment of Kristian Woolf as Head Coach. The club announced the deal today (September 10) which is initially for a two-year period with the option of a third in favour of the club. Woolf replaces Justin Holbrook who will join Gold Coast Titans at the end of the current campaign after two seasons in charge. Holbrook will be a hard act to follow having won the League Leaders Shield by a distance in both of his full seasons in charge at Saints. He still has the opportunity to add a Super League Grand Final title to his CV should Saints manage to win at Old Trafford on October 12.
So what do we know about the new man with the lupine moniker? Woolf is currently an interim Head Coach at Newcastle Knights having taken over from former Saints head honcho Nathan Brown who departed at the end of August. In his two games in charge of the Knights Woolf has overseen a 38-10 walloping of the Titans but also felt the pain of a 54-10 shellacking by the Penrith Panthers. An assistant to Brown at Newcastle since the start of 2019, the pair have seen their side hobble into 11th place in the 16-team NRL table, missing the playoffs. If that doesn’t sound all that promising it is Woolf’s work as Head Coach of the Tongan national team that really catches the eye.
When Woolf took over the reins at Tonga in 2014 they were ranked 14 in the world. Who even knew there were 14 teams playing international rugby league? Reports that Thatto Heath's reserves were ranked 15th at that time remain unconfirmed. During his tenure Woolf has improved the Tongans beyond all measure. They have risen as high as fourth in the world rankings, famously beating New Zealand in the 2017 World Cup before losing out in the semi-finals to Wayne Bennett’s England. Woolf has worked with some of the best players in the world including Jason Taumololo and Will Tupou. As well as his role assisting Brown at Newcastle he has also been the number two at Brisbane Broncos during his storied career and, like Holbrook, has a history of working well with younger players and junior squads.
All of which suggests that Woolf will not fail due to lack of experience. It seems clear that the Saints hierarchy have decided to stick with the model which saw Holbrook arrive in 2017. Identify a young, hungry NRL assistant and hand him the opportunity to be the main man in the slightly more forgiving environment of Super League. At 44 Woolf fits that bill. There have been calls among some of the fan base for the appointment of an English coach, with Salford Red Devils’ Ian Watson uppermost in the thinking of many. Watson has worked relative miracles in 2019 to lead the Salford side to the brink of a playoff appearance but is still largely unproven at the very top end of the Super League table. In sticking with the method which worked last time the club are playing it as safe as possible, even if there is always an element of risk in any coaching appointment. The obvious flaw in the plan is that in going back to the NRL well Saints are in danger of becoming nothing more than a stepping stone for ambitious Australians. There is no guarantee that we will not all be sat here in two or three years time lamenting the loss of another coach who has been offered an opportunity to lead one of the NRL's behemoths. If that happens there will be frustration but it will also likely mean that Woolf has been successful during his time in St.Helens.
There will be extra expectation on Woolf as the top man at Saints in comparison to most NRL jobs. The Australian league is fiercely competitive with any one of half a dozen or more clubs in contention for the top prize when each season gets under way. Here, Saints are expected to win most weeks. Anything less than a top two finish in the league and at least an appearance in one of the two major finals will be considered a bit of a let-down among the majority of the support. This is a club and a fan base, this writer included, who felt that two fourth-placed finishes under Keiron Cunningham represented something of a crisis in need of immediate action. And that was during the rein of a club legend, a local man steeped in the traditions and history of the club. Woolf will need to hit the ground running and his honeymoon period will be short.
It is not only results where Woolf will be judged. It is hard to believe that the need to uphold a certain style of play wasn’t discussed when the club’s decision makers held talks with their new man. Tonga is a team renowned for playing an exciting, open brand of rugby league and that could have been one of the keys to identifying Woolf as the new man. As well as improving the results Holbrook has made Saints much more entertaining to watch than they were during the two years of toil under Cunningham. The latter’s results, though not spectacular, were not awful either which highlights the need not only to win but to do it with a certain swagger. If you come here and play five drives and a kick or shuttle rugby from dummy half then you had better have a team as good as the one Daniel Anderson had in 2006. The harsh truth of the matter is that for all their qualities and for all that they have been so much better than anyone else over the last two seasons, this Saints side is not blessed with that sort of talent.
You can only concentrate on the here and now and play what is put in front of you. What Woolf does have is one of the strongest squads currently knocking about in Super League. Jonny Lomax is the best player in the competition in 2019 while the front three of Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Luke Thompson are the envy of any side anywhere in the world. There’s pace and guile in wingers Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace, craft and experience in Lachlan Coote at fullback, and dynamism at centre in the shape of Mark Percival and Kevin Naiqama. Morgan Knowles is seen as a future international loose forward and has earned his first call-up to a Great Britain squad this week, while veteran back rowers Zeb Taia and Dominique Peyroux still have plenty to offer Woolf as he bids to pick up where from where Holbrook will leave off.
If any surgery to the squad is required it is perhaps in the depth in the pack. Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook each have another year after which a decision probably should be made on both, particularly if Matty Lees returns to full fitness after his bowel perforation and keeps improving at the rate he has so far in his career. Jack Ashworth has stalled slightly in 2019 but will perhaps benefit from the arrival of a new man with new ideas on how to best utilise the skills he has. If not, his future may be under threat too while there are question marks about whether Matty Costello is a genuine quality centre at Super League level. The salary cap means that you can't have superstars in every position as was the case during Anderson's pomp, but at the same time Woolf may feel that there are one or two areas where the depth could be better. On a more positive note James Bentley, Joe Batchelor and Aaron Smith are exciting projects for Woolf to work with as he looks to mould his own team to follow on from Holbrook’s good work.
Yet perhaps the most fascinating decision Woolf takes will be around the scrum-half position. In the space of a year Danny Richardson has gone from Dream Team halfback to water-carrier as Theo Fages has usually been preferred to partner Lomax. Will Woolf be the man to finally help Richardson realise the potential he showed in 2018 or will he take the decision to move on from the Widnesian product and put all his eggs in the Fages basket? Is there such thing as a Fages basket? Both should see the arrival of Woolf as a clean slate, a new opportunity to stake their claim to be the man around whom the attack can be built. If there is one thing that has been underwhelming under the stewardship of Holbrook it has been the lack of a really dominant number seven through whom everything flows. Largely that void has been filled by Coote, Lomax and company but if this side could develop a genuine field general at halfback with a bit of pace to boot then they could go up another notch even from the level that they have shown over the last two years.
Saints were at pains in their statement on Woolf’s appointment to point out that they would not be making any further comment on it until the man himself arrives for his first press conference as boss in November. That is to allow Holbrook and the squad to be fully focused on the task in hand for the remainder of 2019, which is reaching and then winning the Grand Final. It is right that the matter is put to bed for now to allow that, but these should be exciting times for Saints fans albeit with just that little smidgeon of jeopardy that will always come from appointing a new man at the helm.
So what do we know about the new man with the lupine moniker? Woolf is currently an interim Head Coach at Newcastle Knights having taken over from former Saints head honcho Nathan Brown who departed at the end of August. In his two games in charge of the Knights Woolf has overseen a 38-10 walloping of the Titans but also felt the pain of a 54-10 shellacking by the Penrith Panthers. An assistant to Brown at Newcastle since the start of 2019, the pair have seen their side hobble into 11th place in the 16-team NRL table, missing the playoffs. If that doesn’t sound all that promising it is Woolf’s work as Head Coach of the Tongan national team that really catches the eye.
When Woolf took over the reins at Tonga in 2014 they were ranked 14 in the world. Who even knew there were 14 teams playing international rugby league? Reports that Thatto Heath's reserves were ranked 15th at that time remain unconfirmed. During his tenure Woolf has improved the Tongans beyond all measure. They have risen as high as fourth in the world rankings, famously beating New Zealand in the 2017 World Cup before losing out in the semi-finals to Wayne Bennett’s England. Woolf has worked with some of the best players in the world including Jason Taumololo and Will Tupou. As well as his role assisting Brown at Newcastle he has also been the number two at Brisbane Broncos during his storied career and, like Holbrook, has a history of working well with younger players and junior squads.
All of which suggests that Woolf will not fail due to lack of experience. It seems clear that the Saints hierarchy have decided to stick with the model which saw Holbrook arrive in 2017. Identify a young, hungry NRL assistant and hand him the opportunity to be the main man in the slightly more forgiving environment of Super League. At 44 Woolf fits that bill. There have been calls among some of the fan base for the appointment of an English coach, with Salford Red Devils’ Ian Watson uppermost in the thinking of many. Watson has worked relative miracles in 2019 to lead the Salford side to the brink of a playoff appearance but is still largely unproven at the very top end of the Super League table. In sticking with the method which worked last time the club are playing it as safe as possible, even if there is always an element of risk in any coaching appointment. The obvious flaw in the plan is that in going back to the NRL well Saints are in danger of becoming nothing more than a stepping stone for ambitious Australians. There is no guarantee that we will not all be sat here in two or three years time lamenting the loss of another coach who has been offered an opportunity to lead one of the NRL's behemoths. If that happens there will be frustration but it will also likely mean that Woolf has been successful during his time in St.Helens.
There will be extra expectation on Woolf as the top man at Saints in comparison to most NRL jobs. The Australian league is fiercely competitive with any one of half a dozen or more clubs in contention for the top prize when each season gets under way. Here, Saints are expected to win most weeks. Anything less than a top two finish in the league and at least an appearance in one of the two major finals will be considered a bit of a let-down among the majority of the support. This is a club and a fan base, this writer included, who felt that two fourth-placed finishes under Keiron Cunningham represented something of a crisis in need of immediate action. And that was during the rein of a club legend, a local man steeped in the traditions and history of the club. Woolf will need to hit the ground running and his honeymoon period will be short.
It is not only results where Woolf will be judged. It is hard to believe that the need to uphold a certain style of play wasn’t discussed when the club’s decision makers held talks with their new man. Tonga is a team renowned for playing an exciting, open brand of rugby league and that could have been one of the keys to identifying Woolf as the new man. As well as improving the results Holbrook has made Saints much more entertaining to watch than they were during the two years of toil under Cunningham. The latter’s results, though not spectacular, were not awful either which highlights the need not only to win but to do it with a certain swagger. If you come here and play five drives and a kick or shuttle rugby from dummy half then you had better have a team as good as the one Daniel Anderson had in 2006. The harsh truth of the matter is that for all their qualities and for all that they have been so much better than anyone else over the last two seasons, this Saints side is not blessed with that sort of talent.
You can only concentrate on the here and now and play what is put in front of you. What Woolf does have is one of the strongest squads currently knocking about in Super League. Jonny Lomax is the best player in the competition in 2019 while the front three of Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Luke Thompson are the envy of any side anywhere in the world. There’s pace and guile in wingers Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace, craft and experience in Lachlan Coote at fullback, and dynamism at centre in the shape of Mark Percival and Kevin Naiqama. Morgan Knowles is seen as a future international loose forward and has earned his first call-up to a Great Britain squad this week, while veteran back rowers Zeb Taia and Dominique Peyroux still have plenty to offer Woolf as he bids to pick up where from where Holbrook will leave off.
If any surgery to the squad is required it is perhaps in the depth in the pack. Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook each have another year after which a decision probably should be made on both, particularly if Matty Lees returns to full fitness after his bowel perforation and keeps improving at the rate he has so far in his career. Jack Ashworth has stalled slightly in 2019 but will perhaps benefit from the arrival of a new man with new ideas on how to best utilise the skills he has. If not, his future may be under threat too while there are question marks about whether Matty Costello is a genuine quality centre at Super League level. The salary cap means that you can't have superstars in every position as was the case during Anderson's pomp, but at the same time Woolf may feel that there are one or two areas where the depth could be better. On a more positive note James Bentley, Joe Batchelor and Aaron Smith are exciting projects for Woolf to work with as he looks to mould his own team to follow on from Holbrook’s good work.
Yet perhaps the most fascinating decision Woolf takes will be around the scrum-half position. In the space of a year Danny Richardson has gone from Dream Team halfback to water-carrier as Theo Fages has usually been preferred to partner Lomax. Will Woolf be the man to finally help Richardson realise the potential he showed in 2018 or will he take the decision to move on from the Widnesian product and put all his eggs in the Fages basket? Is there such thing as a Fages basket? Both should see the arrival of Woolf as a clean slate, a new opportunity to stake their claim to be the man around whom the attack can be built. If there is one thing that has been underwhelming under the stewardship of Holbrook it has been the lack of a really dominant number seven through whom everything flows. Largely that void has been filled by Coote, Lomax and company but if this side could develop a genuine field general at halfback with a bit of pace to boot then they could go up another notch even from the level that they have shown over the last two years.
Saints were at pains in their statement on Woolf’s appointment to point out that they would not be making any further comment on it until the man himself arrives for his first press conference as boss in November. That is to allow Holbrook and the squad to be fully focused on the task in hand for the remainder of 2019, which is reaching and then winning the Grand Final. It is right that the matter is put to bed for now to allow that, but these should be exciting times for Saints fans albeit with just that little smidgeon of jeopardy that will always come from appointing a new man at the helm.
Saints 48 - Huddersfield Giants 6 - The Verdict
Saints 48 Huddersfield Giants 6 - The Verdict
It was a good night’s work for Saints as they showed something like their best form at times during this 48-6 pounding of Huddersfield Giants.
The win was Saints’ 25th from 28 regular season Super League game’s assuring that they hit the 50-point mark on the league table and remained unbeaten at home throughout the campaign. It is the first time that Saints have gone unbeaten at home in the regular season since 2002. It bodes well for an appearance at Old Trafford for this year’s Grand Final as Justin Holbrook’s side only need to win one of a possible two playoff games at home to get there.
This was a useful and much-needed tune-up. Doubts had crept in around Saints’ form with the catastrophic defeat to Warrington at Wembley followed by what the coach would no doubt call a ‘scratchy’ 4-0 success over Castleford Tigers last week. This was much more like the Saints we have seen throughout the bulk of 2019 with eight tries run in by seven different scorers and only one allowed in reply. Saints have now conceded only two tries in two and a half games - that’s 200 minutes - since that fraught first half at Wembley. Defence will be key to determining which team lifts the Super League trophy on October 12 and there doesn’t look to be too much wrong with how the back-to-back League Leaders have defended their line recently.
Offensively the fun started early as Alex Walmsley put Luke Thompson over inside the first few minutes. For all the flair and razzle-dazzle on show from Saints’ backs in 2019 it was heartening to see the two props combine for a neat score. Thompson was monstrous all night for Saints, racking up 165 metres on 17 carries, scoring two tries and making only one error. The tries were a highlight but a first half clean break in which he twisted several Giants defenders inside out before having the ball knocked from his grasp got the fans out of their seats. He and Walmsley are going to be huge for Saints in the latter part of the season, even more so because of the sad news that Matty Lees will miss the rest of the season with a perforated bowel. The club statement on Lees was vague about a possible return date so we wish him all the best for a speedy recovery. Getting back out there is one thing but the priority for Lees right now is his general health after a fairly invasive surgical procedure. He can take inspiration from Walmsley who has returned to his best form after missing the majority of 2018 with a freak neck injury suffered at Warrington.
Regan Grace was next on the scoresheet, benefiting from Theo Fages’ long ball to stroll in. The Frenchman was involved again as he, James Roby and Jonny Lomax combined to put Dominique Peyroux over for Saints’ third try. The fourth was both brilliant and slightly fortuitous as Morgan Knowles executed a perfect show and go to Lomax before racing 50 metres untouched to go over under the posts. The fortunate aspect was that the Welshman - one of eight Saints called into Wayne Bennett’s Great Britain squad this week - very probably dropped the ball in the act of scoring at the west end of the ground. No TV coverage meant no video referee and so none of the debate which erupted when Robert Hicks failed to use the technology for a Knowles effort at Wembley. Marcus Griffiths had to make a decision there and then, but to be fair to him his in-goal judges were about as much use as an English top order batsman.
The one bleak spot for Saints during that first half was the early loss of Mark Percival. The centre is another who has been selected for Great Britain this week but he didn’t last long in this one, running into the immovable object that is Jermaine McGillvary. Percival went for an HIA from which he did not return and now must be doubtful for the trip to Hull FC which rounds off Saints’ regular season campaign next weekend. Percival had looked threatening in the few minutes he spent on the field but had to be replaced by James Bentley, a man whose versatility is currently earning him game time even if I have a slight fear that it will work against him from time to time. He has played in the centre for Leigh Centurions in the Championship while on dual registration but lacks the pace and the hands to mix it with Super League’s best in that position. Nevertheless he again let nobody down, carrying the ball 11 times for 72 metres and getting through 24 tackles in defence.
Saints started the second half sloppily and should be concerned about an error count of 18 which matched the total which did so much damage to their hopes of winning at Wembley. On this occasion it was Coote who spilled possession and from the next set the Giants got their only score of the night when Michael Lawrence barged his way over from close range. It was a rare lapse for Saints’ goal-line defence on a night when they cut their missed tackle count from a whopping 51 in the win over Castleford last week to just 21 this week. It is a curious anomaly that they managed to shut the Tigers out in that game while conceding a try this week. Still, Holbrook will be pleased with how his team is defending as we get to the business end of the season.
It took 15 minutes after the break for Saints to kick their attack back into gear. Errors on three consecutive sets by Walmsley, Taia and Kyle Amor held them back before the Cumbrian forward took Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s pass to plunge over to give Saints a 30-6 lead. It was McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s second assist having put Knowles away for his try earlier and capped a quality performance from the Londoner. He doesn’t get many plaudits in this column but you have to tip your hat to a performance which included 108 metres on 10 carries, a couple of offloads to go with those two assists as well as 22 tackles on defence. Only some desperate gang-tackling from the Giants stopped McCarthy-Scarsbrook from adding a try of his own just two minutes after Amor’s effort. The former Bronco embarked on a seemingly never-ending, winding run to the line only to be hauled down inches short of the line.
Seven minutes later Thompson completed his double thanks to Fages pass, one of two assists on the night for the former Salford and Catalans man who was his usual industrious self on defence with 15 tackles and only one miss. That seems to be the difference between he and Danny Richardson right now in the battle to hold down that starting role at seven alongside the incomparable Lomax. The latter has just been crowned the winner of the Rugby Leaguer and League Express Albert Goldthorpe medal, a kind of Man Of Steel of the rugby league press. After the Express’ decision to snub Saints' League Leaders Shield celebrations in the aftermath of Eamonn McManus’ ill-timed complaints about refereeing standards perhaps this is not something to get too excited about, but there can be no doubt that Lomax is a deserving winner of any individual accolade that comes his way in 2019. It was Lomax who added Saints next try, their seventh, when he scooped up Roby’s unusually wayward pass from dummy half which had been mishandles by Fages. In the moment of confusion Lomax cruised through the Giants defence to notch his 16th try of a season that has also yielded 21 assists, more than any other Super League player bar Jackson Hastings.
Saints’ final try was a refereeing disaster to rival that which allowed Knowles’ effort in the first half. McManus is no doubt furiously scribbling his angry disapproval as I write. Fages was involved again sending Kevin Naiqama tearing away down the south stand touchline only for the cover to reel him in. As he fell to the ground he threw a speculator inside to Tommy Makinson that was so far forward it is unlucky not to have made the cut for the highlights on the various NFL shows that get under way this week with the start of the new season. Makinson was not standing around waiting for the outcome of a committee meeting, plonking it down superbly for his 20th try of the season. It is a measure of how balanced Saints attack has now become with the additions of Coote and Naiqama that Makinson is Saints' top try scorer in 2019. Over on the opposite wing Grace is only one behind on 19.
Amid all the talk from a certain other club about their lot sneaking up on the rails and nicking the title as they did a year ago this was a much needed performance from Saints. A well-timed reminder to those of a cherry and white or primrose and blue persuasion that we are not going away. The only reasons to believe that a repeat of last year could happen are psychological. The defence is as solid as it has been at any time during their imperious march to the League Leaders Shield and on this evidence the attack is not too far away either. The error count will still be a worry for Holbrook but he will also know that if his side play anything like between now and the middle of October then he will finally break the cycle of coming up short in the big knockout games.
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It was a good night’s work for Saints as they showed something like their best form at times during this 48-6 pounding of Huddersfield Giants.
The win was Saints’ 25th from 28 regular season Super League game’s assuring that they hit the 50-point mark on the league table and remained unbeaten at home throughout the campaign. It is the first time that Saints have gone unbeaten at home in the regular season since 2002. It bodes well for an appearance at Old Trafford for this year’s Grand Final as Justin Holbrook’s side only need to win one of a possible two playoff games at home to get there.
This was a useful and much-needed tune-up. Doubts had crept in around Saints’ form with the catastrophic defeat to Warrington at Wembley followed by what the coach would no doubt call a ‘scratchy’ 4-0 success over Castleford Tigers last week. This was much more like the Saints we have seen throughout the bulk of 2019 with eight tries run in by seven different scorers and only one allowed in reply. Saints have now conceded only two tries in two and a half games - that’s 200 minutes - since that fraught first half at Wembley. Defence will be key to determining which team lifts the Super League trophy on October 12 and there doesn’t look to be too much wrong with how the back-to-back League Leaders have defended their line recently.
Offensively the fun started early as Alex Walmsley put Luke Thompson over inside the first few minutes. For all the flair and razzle-dazzle on show from Saints’ backs in 2019 it was heartening to see the two props combine for a neat score. Thompson was monstrous all night for Saints, racking up 165 metres on 17 carries, scoring two tries and making only one error. The tries were a highlight but a first half clean break in which he twisted several Giants defenders inside out before having the ball knocked from his grasp got the fans out of their seats. He and Walmsley are going to be huge for Saints in the latter part of the season, even more so because of the sad news that Matty Lees will miss the rest of the season with a perforated bowel. The club statement on Lees was vague about a possible return date so we wish him all the best for a speedy recovery. Getting back out there is one thing but the priority for Lees right now is his general health after a fairly invasive surgical procedure. He can take inspiration from Walmsley who has returned to his best form after missing the majority of 2018 with a freak neck injury suffered at Warrington.
Regan Grace was next on the scoresheet, benefiting from Theo Fages’ long ball to stroll in. The Frenchman was involved again as he, James Roby and Jonny Lomax combined to put Dominique Peyroux over for Saints’ third try. The fourth was both brilliant and slightly fortuitous as Morgan Knowles executed a perfect show and go to Lomax before racing 50 metres untouched to go over under the posts. The fortunate aspect was that the Welshman - one of eight Saints called into Wayne Bennett’s Great Britain squad this week - very probably dropped the ball in the act of scoring at the west end of the ground. No TV coverage meant no video referee and so none of the debate which erupted when Robert Hicks failed to use the technology for a Knowles effort at Wembley. Marcus Griffiths had to make a decision there and then, but to be fair to him his in-goal judges were about as much use as an English top order batsman.
The one bleak spot for Saints during that first half was the early loss of Mark Percival. The centre is another who has been selected for Great Britain this week but he didn’t last long in this one, running into the immovable object that is Jermaine McGillvary. Percival went for an HIA from which he did not return and now must be doubtful for the trip to Hull FC which rounds off Saints’ regular season campaign next weekend. Percival had looked threatening in the few minutes he spent on the field but had to be replaced by James Bentley, a man whose versatility is currently earning him game time even if I have a slight fear that it will work against him from time to time. He has played in the centre for Leigh Centurions in the Championship while on dual registration but lacks the pace and the hands to mix it with Super League’s best in that position. Nevertheless he again let nobody down, carrying the ball 11 times for 72 metres and getting through 24 tackles in defence.
Saints started the second half sloppily and should be concerned about an error count of 18 which matched the total which did so much damage to their hopes of winning at Wembley. On this occasion it was Coote who spilled possession and from the next set the Giants got their only score of the night when Michael Lawrence barged his way over from close range. It was a rare lapse for Saints’ goal-line defence on a night when they cut their missed tackle count from a whopping 51 in the win over Castleford last week to just 21 this week. It is a curious anomaly that they managed to shut the Tigers out in that game while conceding a try this week. Still, Holbrook will be pleased with how his team is defending as we get to the business end of the season.
It took 15 minutes after the break for Saints to kick their attack back into gear. Errors on three consecutive sets by Walmsley, Taia and Kyle Amor held them back before the Cumbrian forward took Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s pass to plunge over to give Saints a 30-6 lead. It was McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s second assist having put Knowles away for his try earlier and capped a quality performance from the Londoner. He doesn’t get many plaudits in this column but you have to tip your hat to a performance which included 108 metres on 10 carries, a couple of offloads to go with those two assists as well as 22 tackles on defence. Only some desperate gang-tackling from the Giants stopped McCarthy-Scarsbrook from adding a try of his own just two minutes after Amor’s effort. The former Bronco embarked on a seemingly never-ending, winding run to the line only to be hauled down inches short of the line.
Seven minutes later Thompson completed his double thanks to Fages pass, one of two assists on the night for the former Salford and Catalans man who was his usual industrious self on defence with 15 tackles and only one miss. That seems to be the difference between he and Danny Richardson right now in the battle to hold down that starting role at seven alongside the incomparable Lomax. The latter has just been crowned the winner of the Rugby Leaguer and League Express Albert Goldthorpe medal, a kind of Man Of Steel of the rugby league press. After the Express’ decision to snub Saints' League Leaders Shield celebrations in the aftermath of Eamonn McManus’ ill-timed complaints about refereeing standards perhaps this is not something to get too excited about, but there can be no doubt that Lomax is a deserving winner of any individual accolade that comes his way in 2019. It was Lomax who added Saints next try, their seventh, when he scooped up Roby’s unusually wayward pass from dummy half which had been mishandles by Fages. In the moment of confusion Lomax cruised through the Giants defence to notch his 16th try of a season that has also yielded 21 assists, more than any other Super League player bar Jackson Hastings.
Saints’ final try was a refereeing disaster to rival that which allowed Knowles’ effort in the first half. McManus is no doubt furiously scribbling his angry disapproval as I write. Fages was involved again sending Kevin Naiqama tearing away down the south stand touchline only for the cover to reel him in. As he fell to the ground he threw a speculator inside to Tommy Makinson that was so far forward it is unlucky not to have made the cut for the highlights on the various NFL shows that get under way this week with the start of the new season. Makinson was not standing around waiting for the outcome of a committee meeting, plonking it down superbly for his 20th try of the season. It is a measure of how balanced Saints attack has now become with the additions of Coote and Naiqama that Makinson is Saints' top try scorer in 2019. Over on the opposite wing Grace is only one behind on 19.
Amid all the talk from a certain other club about their lot sneaking up on the rails and nicking the title as they did a year ago this was a much needed performance from Saints. A well-timed reminder to those of a cherry and white or primrose and blue persuasion that we are not going away. The only reasons to believe that a repeat of last year could happen are psychological. The defence is as solid as it has been at any time during their imperious march to the League Leaders Shield and on this evidence the attack is not too far away either. The error count will still be a worry for Holbrook but he will also know that if his side play anything like between now and the middle of October then he will finally break the cycle of coming up short in the big knockout games.
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Saints v Huddersfield Giants - Preview
It will be nice to get back to something like normality when Saints host Huddersfield Giants on Friday night (September 6, kick-off 7.45pm).
It has been a wretched couple of weeks for Saints. First there was the shattering defeat to Warrington at Wembley in the Challenge Cup Final, swiftly followed by the furore surrounding Eamonn McManus’ programme notes ahead of last week’s 4-0 home win over Castleford Tigers. McManus was critical of the decision to appoint Robert Hicks as the cup final referee despite having not raised any concerns about it prior to the game. It all smelled a bit sour. If there was any good will towards Saints from fans of other clubs for the style of rugby that has seen Saints top the Super League table two years in a row it has all been evaporated at a stroke. A siege mentality now prevails with most non-Saints fans now desperate to see us fall so that they can unveil their repertoire of hugely amusing bottle and choke gags.
On top of all that, and something that has not received the attention that it perhaps should have until now, Saints confirmed today (September 5) that Matty Lees will miss the rest of the season due to the perforated bowel he suffered during the win at Leeds on August 16. Saints’ Open Sewer account was worryingly vague about a timeline for Lees’ return to action. His health is the main thing right now. All we can do is wish him a speedy recovery and hope that we see him wearing the red vee, or whatever God-awful variation of the design we see next, as soon as possible.
Against the backdrop of all this drama coach Justin Holbrook has to try to remain focused on making his final weeks at the club a success. He will be joining Gold Coast Titans at the end of the season and so these next few weeks represent his final opportunity to snare one of the so-called ‘big’ trophies. Many feel that he needs to do that to secure any kind of legacy despite the back-to-back League Leaders Shields. In many ways the last two regular season games are a lap of honour for the second of those successes, but the pressure is about to get ramped up once the playoffs begin.
Holbrook has made two changes to his 19-man squad this week. Lachlan Coote and Dominique Peyroux missed out last week but both return to the fold for the visit of Simon Woolford’s men. Jack Welsby and Joseph Paulo are the unfortunate souls to miss out, although the make-up of the 17 could be markedly different from that which took on the Tigers a week ago. Kevin Naiqama did not feature while Theo Fages also made way to give Danny Richardson another opportunity at scrum half. Matty Costello retains his place in the 19 but will do well to see off the challenge of Naiqama for a starting berth this week while Richardson again failed to convince that he should be the man to partner Jonny Lomax in the halves when the serious business begins again. Coote had a head injury which kept him out of action following his uncharacteristically bad performance at Wembley but is surely an absolute must at fullback if he is to rediscover his form in time for the playoffs. Coote and Tommy Makinson are among the eight Saints named in Wayne Bennett’s 29-man Great Britain squad ahead of the autumn test matches and the latter will likely line-up in his usual right-wing berth opposite the less fortunate Regan Grace. The Welshman has been sensational for Saints this season but Bennett has nevertheless seen fit to select Ash Handley of Leeds Rhinos instead. Mark Percival will again be responsible for supplying the ammunition to Grace.
Without Lees Saints will probably go in with all of Kyle Amor, Jack Ashworth andDuke Caboom Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook in the 17. James Bentley looks like the only viable back-up to hooker James Roby since Aaron Smith has not earned a recall despite being available again after suspension. Roby is another of Saints' Great Britain contingent along with his front-row colleagues Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson. Ashworth partnered Zeb Taia in the second row against Castleford but he will likely revert to the bench to make way for Peyroux with Morgan Knowles at loose forward.
Holbrook might not be the only coach involved in this game who isn’t around in 2020. Giants boss Simon Woolford has spoken this week about the pressure he is under to avoid relegation, accepting that failure to do so would likely mean the end of not only his tenure but could lead to job losses right through the club. His side earned a surprising but absolutely massive win last week when they saw off schizophrenic Hull FC, and now find themselves two points better off than bottom club London Broncos. Yet with the Broncos having very winnable fixtures against Hull KR and Wakefield in the regular season run-in the Giants need to scrap for every point they can get if they are to avoid slipping into the Championship.
Woolford’s squad has been under-performing all year and does not look, on paper at least, capable of getting on top of a Saints side that is still formidable despite their recent troubles. They have young stars like Darnell McIntosh, the Senior brothers and Matty English all capable of great things but with their youth comes inconsistency. A week before beating Hull FC they were pounded 24-0 at home by a Castleford side which could not find a way to score a single point against this Saints defence.
English is currently out injured while of the Senior brothers only Louis makes the 19 which has two changes from the one which got that vital win over Hull FC. Matt Frawley is out injured along with Aaron Murphy, so Tom Holmes and Adam Walne return to the fold. Experienced England star Jermaine McGillvary will be a key for the Huddersfield side as will former Saints Lee Gaskell and Paul Clough, back rowers Alex Mellor and Michael Lawrence and hooker Kruise Leeming. Their experience is vital if they are to help coax a performance out of the developing stars. You feel that the Giants are not far away from becoming as competitive in Super League as Wakefield and Salford have been in recent seasons but they need to avoid that drop to the second tier in the here and now in order to see that potential realised. As much as Woolford sees his future elsewhere if the Giants go down, several of those young assets may also be sacrificed if the Giants end up having to cut their cloth.
What may yet save the Giants is the inability of those below them, namely Hull KR and London as we go into Round 28, to earn the points they need. That still seems the most likely route to survival for the Giants who for all their youthful exuberance and ability to spring a surprise on any given day do not appear to be good enough to go to St Helens and beat a champion side still striving to silence the remaining doubters. For that reason I expect Saints to be a little more dominant than they were against the Tigers and to come out of this one with a win margin somewhere in the region of 20 points.
Squads;
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, 13. LMS, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 20. Jack Ashworth, 22. James Bentley, 23. Lachlan Coote, 24. Matty Costello.
Huddersfield Giants;
1. Darnell McIntosh 2. Jermaine McGillvary 6. Lee Gaskell 8. Paul Clough 9. Kruise Leeming 10. Suaia Matagi 12. Alex Mellor 13. Michael Lawrence 14. Adam O'Brien 17. Ukuma Ta'ai 20. Jake Wardle 24. 26. Sebastine Ikahihifo 27. Adam Walne 29. Sam Hewitt 30. Jon Luke Kirby 31. Louis Senior 36. Oliver Wilson 38. Chester Butler
Referee: Marcus Griffiths
It has been a wretched couple of weeks for Saints. First there was the shattering defeat to Warrington at Wembley in the Challenge Cup Final, swiftly followed by the furore surrounding Eamonn McManus’ programme notes ahead of last week’s 4-0 home win over Castleford Tigers. McManus was critical of the decision to appoint Robert Hicks as the cup final referee despite having not raised any concerns about it prior to the game. It all smelled a bit sour. If there was any good will towards Saints from fans of other clubs for the style of rugby that has seen Saints top the Super League table two years in a row it has all been evaporated at a stroke. A siege mentality now prevails with most non-Saints fans now desperate to see us fall so that they can unveil their repertoire of hugely amusing bottle and choke gags.
On top of all that, and something that has not received the attention that it perhaps should have until now, Saints confirmed today (September 5) that Matty Lees will miss the rest of the season due to the perforated bowel he suffered during the win at Leeds on August 16. Saints’ Open Sewer account was worryingly vague about a timeline for Lees’ return to action. His health is the main thing right now. All we can do is wish him a speedy recovery and hope that we see him wearing the red vee, or whatever God-awful variation of the design we see next, as soon as possible.
Against the backdrop of all this drama coach Justin Holbrook has to try to remain focused on making his final weeks at the club a success. He will be joining Gold Coast Titans at the end of the season and so these next few weeks represent his final opportunity to snare one of the so-called ‘big’ trophies. Many feel that he needs to do that to secure any kind of legacy despite the back-to-back League Leaders Shields. In many ways the last two regular season games are a lap of honour for the second of those successes, but the pressure is about to get ramped up once the playoffs begin.
Holbrook has made two changes to his 19-man squad this week. Lachlan Coote and Dominique Peyroux missed out last week but both return to the fold for the visit of Simon Woolford’s men. Jack Welsby and Joseph Paulo are the unfortunate souls to miss out, although the make-up of the 17 could be markedly different from that which took on the Tigers a week ago. Kevin Naiqama did not feature while Theo Fages also made way to give Danny Richardson another opportunity at scrum half. Matty Costello retains his place in the 19 but will do well to see off the challenge of Naiqama for a starting berth this week while Richardson again failed to convince that he should be the man to partner Jonny Lomax in the halves when the serious business begins again. Coote had a head injury which kept him out of action following his uncharacteristically bad performance at Wembley but is surely an absolute must at fullback if he is to rediscover his form in time for the playoffs. Coote and Tommy Makinson are among the eight Saints named in Wayne Bennett’s 29-man Great Britain squad ahead of the autumn test matches and the latter will likely line-up in his usual right-wing berth opposite the less fortunate Regan Grace. The Welshman has been sensational for Saints this season but Bennett has nevertheless seen fit to select Ash Handley of Leeds Rhinos instead. Mark Percival will again be responsible for supplying the ammunition to Grace.
Without Lees Saints will probably go in with all of Kyle Amor, Jack Ashworth and
Holbrook might not be the only coach involved in this game who isn’t around in 2020. Giants boss Simon Woolford has spoken this week about the pressure he is under to avoid relegation, accepting that failure to do so would likely mean the end of not only his tenure but could lead to job losses right through the club. His side earned a surprising but absolutely massive win last week when they saw off schizophrenic Hull FC, and now find themselves two points better off than bottom club London Broncos. Yet with the Broncos having very winnable fixtures against Hull KR and Wakefield in the regular season run-in the Giants need to scrap for every point they can get if they are to avoid slipping into the Championship.
Woolford’s squad has been under-performing all year and does not look, on paper at least, capable of getting on top of a Saints side that is still formidable despite their recent troubles. They have young stars like Darnell McIntosh, the Senior brothers and Matty English all capable of great things but with their youth comes inconsistency. A week before beating Hull FC they were pounded 24-0 at home by a Castleford side which could not find a way to score a single point against this Saints defence.
English is currently out injured while of the Senior brothers only Louis makes the 19 which has two changes from the one which got that vital win over Hull FC. Matt Frawley is out injured along with Aaron Murphy, so Tom Holmes and Adam Walne return to the fold. Experienced England star Jermaine McGillvary will be a key for the Huddersfield side as will former Saints Lee Gaskell and Paul Clough, back rowers Alex Mellor and Michael Lawrence and hooker Kruise Leeming. Their experience is vital if they are to help coax a performance out of the developing stars. You feel that the Giants are not far away from becoming as competitive in Super League as Wakefield and Salford have been in recent seasons but they need to avoid that drop to the second tier in the here and now in order to see that potential realised. As much as Woolford sees his future elsewhere if the Giants go down, several of those young assets may also be sacrificed if the Giants end up having to cut their cloth.
What may yet save the Giants is the inability of those below them, namely Hull KR and London as we go into Round 28, to earn the points they need. That still seems the most likely route to survival for the Giants who for all their youthful exuberance and ability to spring a surprise on any given day do not appear to be good enough to go to St Helens and beat a champion side still striving to silence the remaining doubters. For that reason I expect Saints to be a little more dominant than they were against the Tigers and to come out of this one with a win margin somewhere in the region of 20 points.
Squads;
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, 13. LMS, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17. Dom Peyroux, 20. Jack Ashworth, 22. James Bentley, 23. Lachlan Coote, 24. Matty Costello.
Huddersfield Giants;
1. Darnell McIntosh 2. Jermaine McGillvary 6. Lee Gaskell 8. Paul Clough 9. Kruise Leeming 10. Suaia Matagi 12. Alex Mellor 13. Michael Lawrence 14. Adam O'Brien 17. Ukuma Ta'ai 20. Jake Wardle 24. 26. Sebastine Ikahihifo 27. Adam Walne 29. Sam Hewitt 30. Jon Luke Kirby 31. Louis Senior 36. Oliver Wilson 38. Chester Butler
Referee: Marcus Griffiths
Saints 4 Castleford Tigers 0 - Matters Arising
On the face of it you might think there isn’t too much to say about this one. It was a fairly drab affair with defences on top, lit up only by Regan Grace’s first half try which provided the only points. Yet there was an awful lot going on around the fixture. It’s probably possible to fill two or three columns with all the things on the periphery of Saints’ 24th win from 27 Super League outings in 2019.
Before a ball was kicked there was a story or two developing. Saints Chairman Eamonn McManus - a man physically incapable of refraining from flapping his gums about every perceived injustice heaped upon his Saintly club - chose to express his opinion on the officiating at last weekend’s Challenge Cup Final in his programme notes. He’s fully justified in feeling aggrieved at Robert Hicks’ decision not to refer Morgan Knowles’ grounding to the video referee in the early minutes of the defeat to Warrington at Wembley. It was a mistake on which pretty much everyone who was involved in or saw the game agrees. What he is not entitled to do is openly and so publicly question the integrity of Hicks.
In referring to Twitter as an ‘open sewer’ McManus had already cranked up the irony meter given the club’s almost constant use of said social media brick bat launcher. To then suggest that Hicks should not have refereed the final was beyond the pale. The reasoning was that Hicks had met with a Warrington fan recently after the fan had sent a death threat to Hicks via the very same open sewer. At the time the move was applauded. A lot of fans could benefit from such a sharp reminder that officials are human beings too and that there is no place for that kind of threatening behaviour not just in rugby league but in society.
McManus never said a word about it at the time, so to complain now looks like sour grapes. If his aim is to get fans of other clubs to dislike us, to develop a siege mentality of the kind that has served Wigan very well over the years then he’s well on his way. But I don’t think he’s that clever. I think he’s trying to show that he is one of us, a die-hard Saints fan still feeling the pain of the Wembley loss as much as any ticket-buying supporter. The problem is that he’s not just a fan. Every word he utters or publishes about rugby league is seen as a representation of the club and its views. But he does not speak for me on this. I am quite prepared to accept that Hicks made an honest mistake at Wembley and that there is absolutely no reason to question his integrity or make anything of the Warrington death threat link. These are the dark muttering of misinformed, one-eyed fans. McManus has to rise above it for the sake of his own reputation and that of the club and its fans.
The next item on the agenda is Justin Holbrook’s team selection. Most observers at Wembley reckoned that far too many of our star turns went into the game without enough rugby in the build-up. Lachlan Coote was particularly awful at Wembley while it is unlikely that any of James Roby, Alex Walmsley or Morgan Knowles will be ordering a copy of the DVD. Having that experience I had hoped that Holbrook would be done resting players and tinkering with the line-up as we enter the final few weeks before the playoffs but again we saw key players miss out.
We know that Coote had a head injury so we must accept that, but what of the others? Dominique Peyroux’s ‘slight niggle’ was enough to see him left out while there was no place either for Kevin Naiqama or Theo Fages. The latter’s omission is not such a big deal since the difference between he and Danny Richardson in the scrum half role is positively molecular, but I can’t explain or support the decision to leave the Fijian out for Matty Costello. Young Costello fared well, even making the WA12 Rugby League Show Man Of The Match shortlist, but if we are going to build our form back up to where it was a month ago or so in time for the knockout games Naiqama is one of those who has to play.
Peyroux’s place in the starting 13 went to Jack Ashworth, another surprising decision given that Zeb Taia’s recent absence from the side was covered by slotting Knowles or Joseph Paulo into the second row and using Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook at loose forward. Perhaps the absence of Matty Lees following bowel surgery convinced Holbrook that he needed McCarthy-Scarsbrook as an out-and-out prop, but he is no more that than I am an out-and-out pig farmer. All of the bad habits returned to his game against the Tigers while if anyone can explain to me the precise point of importing Paulo from the NRL I’d be intrigued to find out. To be fair to Paulo he was one of only three Saints who did not miss a tackle, the others being wingers Grace and Tommy Makinson, but his contribution to the attack is very limited. For his part Ashworth followed his colleagues by putting a solid shift in defensively with 31 tackles but his 24 metres on three carries tells its own story. A lack of go-forward plagued Saints as they missed the energy and power of Naiqama and Peyroux and Richardson was out-kicked all night by the Tigers’ Jake Trueman, Jamie Ellis and Paul McShane. Protecting players from injury if there is a significant risk is prudent but Holbrook is struggling to find the right balance to keep the team functioning, particularly in attack where we have now scored only eight points in 160 minutes of action. The players will get a week off in week 1 of the playoffs because of their League Leaders Shield success, so is there really any need to be damaging cohesion by leaving players out now?
Given the furore about Hicks’ mistake last week it is surprising that there isn’t a similar outcry about James Child’s decision to disallow Jonny Lomax’s late try which could have given the score line a bit more of a sheen. Actually, it isn’t. Emotions aren’t running anywhere near as high and we won the game anyway, so absolutely nobody has called for Child or the video referee to explain why the score was chalked off. Luke Thompson was adjudged to have obstructed the defence as a dummy runner but he appeared to run straight through the line and not hold any defenders up unfairly. It was arguably as much of a mistake to disallow it as it was Knowles’ at Wembley but one we seem happy to accept. It was the kind of call which is all too common in TV games but which you never see in games without a video referee. That imbalance in the game must be addressed way, way before we start questioning the honesty of individuals.
To the real positives now and though Saints are not anywhere near their best as an attacking force you can have nothing but the greatest admiration for their defensive work. Taking into account where they were emotionally after last weekend the desire to defend their line was nothing short of phenomenal. They managed to miss a whopping 51 tackles, 10 of which were the work of the defensively fraught Richardson, but though they bent they did not break. It takes a special effort to hold a Super League side to a big duck egg on the scoreboard, particularly one like Castleford who have a reputation for free flowing, attacking rugby. To do it a week after a painful loss in a Cup Final in a game in which you have nothing to gain is inspiring. If Saints can defend like this every week they will almost certainly add the Super League Grand Final trophy to their League Leaders Shield.
There was a different, infinitely improved feel about the League Leaders Shield presentation which followed the game compared to last year’s equivalent. On that occasion the players trudged around the field looking underwhelmed and slightly embarrassed by their achievements. This year there was a much greater sense that it was ok to enjoy it and that in fact we and the sport itself have a duty to give the achievement greater respect. Saints have won 50 of 57 regular season games in the last two seasons under the soon-to-be departed Holbrook. They are without question the bench mark for others in Super League whether they win the Grand Final or not. Only the slaves to Sky TV would question Saints’ superiority even if they fail to win at Old Trafford. In those circumstances the disappointment will be shattering enough to force our dominance to the backs of our minds, to make us feel like failures. But that would be a cunning disguise. The world of rugby league will not accept Saints as a champion side unless they win at Old Trafford, but they will remain the best of 2019 whatever happens now.
Before a ball was kicked there was a story or two developing. Saints Chairman Eamonn McManus - a man physically incapable of refraining from flapping his gums about every perceived injustice heaped upon his Saintly club - chose to express his opinion on the officiating at last weekend’s Challenge Cup Final in his programme notes. He’s fully justified in feeling aggrieved at Robert Hicks’ decision not to refer Morgan Knowles’ grounding to the video referee in the early minutes of the defeat to Warrington at Wembley. It was a mistake on which pretty much everyone who was involved in or saw the game agrees. What he is not entitled to do is openly and so publicly question the integrity of Hicks.
In referring to Twitter as an ‘open sewer’ McManus had already cranked up the irony meter given the club’s almost constant use of said social media brick bat launcher. To then suggest that Hicks should not have refereed the final was beyond the pale. The reasoning was that Hicks had met with a Warrington fan recently after the fan had sent a death threat to Hicks via the very same open sewer. At the time the move was applauded. A lot of fans could benefit from such a sharp reminder that officials are human beings too and that there is no place for that kind of threatening behaviour not just in rugby league but in society.
McManus never said a word about it at the time, so to complain now looks like sour grapes. If his aim is to get fans of other clubs to dislike us, to develop a siege mentality of the kind that has served Wigan very well over the years then he’s well on his way. But I don’t think he’s that clever. I think he’s trying to show that he is one of us, a die-hard Saints fan still feeling the pain of the Wembley loss as much as any ticket-buying supporter. The problem is that he’s not just a fan. Every word he utters or publishes about rugby league is seen as a representation of the club and its views. But he does not speak for me on this. I am quite prepared to accept that Hicks made an honest mistake at Wembley and that there is absolutely no reason to question his integrity or make anything of the Warrington death threat link. These are the dark muttering of misinformed, one-eyed fans. McManus has to rise above it for the sake of his own reputation and that of the club and its fans.
The next item on the agenda is Justin Holbrook’s team selection. Most observers at Wembley reckoned that far too many of our star turns went into the game without enough rugby in the build-up. Lachlan Coote was particularly awful at Wembley while it is unlikely that any of James Roby, Alex Walmsley or Morgan Knowles will be ordering a copy of the DVD. Having that experience I had hoped that Holbrook would be done resting players and tinkering with the line-up as we enter the final few weeks before the playoffs but again we saw key players miss out.
We know that Coote had a head injury so we must accept that, but what of the others? Dominique Peyroux’s ‘slight niggle’ was enough to see him left out while there was no place either for Kevin Naiqama or Theo Fages. The latter’s omission is not such a big deal since the difference between he and Danny Richardson in the scrum half role is positively molecular, but I can’t explain or support the decision to leave the Fijian out for Matty Costello. Young Costello fared well, even making the WA12 Rugby League Show Man Of The Match shortlist, but if we are going to build our form back up to where it was a month ago or so in time for the knockout games Naiqama is one of those who has to play.
Peyroux’s place in the starting 13 went to Jack Ashworth, another surprising decision given that Zeb Taia’s recent absence from the side was covered by slotting Knowles or Joseph Paulo into the second row and using Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook at loose forward. Perhaps the absence of Matty Lees following bowel surgery convinced Holbrook that he needed McCarthy-Scarsbrook as an out-and-out prop, but he is no more that than I am an out-and-out pig farmer. All of the bad habits returned to his game against the Tigers while if anyone can explain to me the precise point of importing Paulo from the NRL I’d be intrigued to find out. To be fair to Paulo he was one of only three Saints who did not miss a tackle, the others being wingers Grace and Tommy Makinson, but his contribution to the attack is very limited. For his part Ashworth followed his colleagues by putting a solid shift in defensively with 31 tackles but his 24 metres on three carries tells its own story. A lack of go-forward plagued Saints as they missed the energy and power of Naiqama and Peyroux and Richardson was out-kicked all night by the Tigers’ Jake Trueman, Jamie Ellis and Paul McShane. Protecting players from injury if there is a significant risk is prudent but Holbrook is struggling to find the right balance to keep the team functioning, particularly in attack where we have now scored only eight points in 160 minutes of action. The players will get a week off in week 1 of the playoffs because of their League Leaders Shield success, so is there really any need to be damaging cohesion by leaving players out now?
Given the furore about Hicks’ mistake last week it is surprising that there isn’t a similar outcry about James Child’s decision to disallow Jonny Lomax’s late try which could have given the score line a bit more of a sheen. Actually, it isn’t. Emotions aren’t running anywhere near as high and we won the game anyway, so absolutely nobody has called for Child or the video referee to explain why the score was chalked off. Luke Thompson was adjudged to have obstructed the defence as a dummy runner but he appeared to run straight through the line and not hold any defenders up unfairly. It was arguably as much of a mistake to disallow it as it was Knowles’ at Wembley but one we seem happy to accept. It was the kind of call which is all too common in TV games but which you never see in games without a video referee. That imbalance in the game must be addressed way, way before we start questioning the honesty of individuals.
To the real positives now and though Saints are not anywhere near their best as an attacking force you can have nothing but the greatest admiration for their defensive work. Taking into account where they were emotionally after last weekend the desire to defend their line was nothing short of phenomenal. They managed to miss a whopping 51 tackles, 10 of which were the work of the defensively fraught Richardson, but though they bent they did not break. It takes a special effort to hold a Super League side to a big duck egg on the scoreboard, particularly one like Castleford who have a reputation for free flowing, attacking rugby. To do it a week after a painful loss in a Cup Final in a game in which you have nothing to gain is inspiring. If Saints can defend like this every week they will almost certainly add the Super League Grand Final trophy to their League Leaders Shield.
There was a different, infinitely improved feel about the League Leaders Shield presentation which followed the game compared to last year’s equivalent. On that occasion the players trudged around the field looking underwhelmed and slightly embarrassed by their achievements. This year there was a much greater sense that it was ok to enjoy it and that in fact we and the sport itself have a duty to give the achievement greater respect. Saints have won 50 of 57 regular season games in the last two seasons under the soon-to-be departed Holbrook. They are without question the bench mark for others in Super League whether they win the Grand Final or not. Only the slaves to Sky TV would question Saints’ superiority even if they fail to win at Old Trafford. In those circumstances the disappointment will be shattering enough to force our dominance to the backs of our minds, to make us feel like failures. But that would be a cunning disguise. The world of rugby league will not accept Saints as a champion side unless they win at Old Trafford, but they will remain the best of 2019 whatever happens now.
Saints v Castleford Tigers - Preview
Time to get up off the floor, put the sulky face away and get behind Saints as they host Castleford Tigers on Friday night (August 30, kick-off 7.45).
Look, I know it’s too soon. You’re still smarting from the shattering loss at Wembley at the weekend. You’re still blaming the ref, wondering about the team selection and you haven’t even fully snapped out of the ludicrous mindset that Justin Holbrook and this team aren’t any good. But it’s just bloody well tough. There’s a game going on and if you are the die-hard you purport to be all over various social media outrage generators then you will have the wherewithal to focus not only on the visit of Daryl Powell’s side but also on winning the one big prize that remains.
On the subject of prizes, there is one scheduled to be handed out at this game as Saints pick up the League Leaders Shield. It seems like several years ago that Saints beat Wakefield and then saw Warrington go down in that nasty encounter in Perpignan 24 hours later to seal the deal. Holbrook’s side are 16 points clear at the top of Super League and, despite the trauma of Wembley, go into the playoff series as most people’s favourites to win the Grand Final. The pressure to do so is arguably ramped up even further by another defeat in a big knockout game, but those of you sitting around moping and banging on about how it is not worth winning now have some serious head wobbling to do. The Grand Final wouldn’t be my choice of ending to a season, not my way of crowning a champion team, but it is what it is and so we have to win it if we are to underline our status as the best team in Super League. And we are still that. One bad performance against a well-drilled Warrington side executing a conservative game-plan to perfection does not change that irrespective of what utter drivel is spewed out of the mouth of Josh Charnley through a megaphone on an open top bus. We must quieten the detractors and you don't do that by curling up and dying.
Thankfully Holbrook has pledged to go with strong sides between now and the Old Trafford showpiece. He clearly wants to rebuild the momentum we had before the cup final defeat. We need to do that to make a statement to others that we are still there. Our defeat at Wembley will have heartened not only Warrington but others such as Wigan, Hull FC and maybe even Salford, Catalans and Castleford all of whom retain an interest in the race for the top five. In an attempt to reassert our authority Holbrook has selected the strongest possible 19-man squad for this one, with only Lachlan Coote and Dominique Peyroux unavailable from the party which travelled to the capital.
Coote’s performance at the national stadium was the one subjected to the most scrutiny. He had not played for six weeks and it showed. He lacked his usual zip, made uncharacteristic handling errors and even fluffed a conversion from virtually in front of the posts. His bad day was compounded by a head injury he suffered which is keeping him out of this one. Peyroux has caught James Roby’s disease – the minor niggle – and will also miss out. Matty Lees is unlikely to play again this season after the full horrific details of his injury were revealed this week. The prop missed out on a cup final place after having to undergo bowel surgery and spending the best part of a week in hospital. It’s a sad end to what has been a very positive season overall for Lees. Best wishes to him for a speedy recovery and hopes are high that he will return even stronger for the start of 2020.
Everyone else is back on deck, with Jack Welsby drafted in to replace Coote and Matty Costello taking Peyroux’s place in the 19. Welsby may slot back into the fullback role or else Holbrook could move Jonny Lomax back there and offer an opportunity to Danny Richardson. Reading from the Big Book Of Over Simplified Solutions In Rugby League scores of fans suggested that Richardson would have made all the difference at Wembley because he would not have missed the conversion that Coote somehow managed to botch. Of course we all know what my aunty would be if she had male genitalia, and in any case the halfback role is far more complicated than potting over a goal or two. If there is a reason for Richardson to get a shot it is the unconvincing nature of Theo Fages’ display against Warrington and the failure of he and Jonny Lomax to really inspire as a pair when the heat was turned up both metaphorically and literally in London. Fages was defensively his usual busy self but he seems to lack that real burst of pace and guile that can open up a defence and turn a game. Richardson perhaps has a bit more of that about him, but he is to tackling what Steve Dale is to football club ownership. Choosing between the two is quite often a simple of question of which attribute do you value the most in a halfback, craft and cockiness or the ability to stop rampaging forwards dead in their tracks. Both Richardson and Fages would play in a scenario where Lomax moves to fullback, but Welsby has a compelling case given the need for fresh enthusiasm and the quality of his own displays before being left out of the Wembley party.
The front row is weakened without Lees but Roby, Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson remain the most formidable starting trio anywhere. Backing them up are the interminably contracted Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, side-stepping LFC enthusiast Kyle Amor and Jack Ashworth. The latter needs to have more of an impact when he gets an opportunity. He was fairly anonymous in the cup final and we can ill afford that from one of our prop options given the absence of Lees. Peyroux’s second row berth may be taken by either Morgan Knowles or Joseph Paulo although McCarthy-Scarsbrook can operate there in an emergency. And I mean emergency. There would need to be a screeching fire alarm, police sirens and a fully operational hose on the go before I would turn to him in that position but he’s there if he’s needed. My preference would be for James Bentley to be given another run out. It was a surprise and a slight disappointment to see the former Bradford Bull not make the cup final squad but he is someone who can still have a very significant impact between now and when the last gong is handed out in Manchester in October. There appear to be very few reasons why he should not sneak in now ahead of McCarthy-Scarsbrook or Paulo. However, Bentley may also be needed for a spell at hooker as Aaron Smith serves the second of a two-match ban for dangerous contact in the win at Leeds on August 16.
If this game feels a bit ‘meh’ for Saints fans trying to get over a crushing disappointment then it is one fraught with tension for Castleford Tigers fans. They simply have to have it. Daryl Powell’s men are running out of games, with just three left between now and the end of the regular season to haul themselves one place higher than their current sixth position and so make the playoffs. Defeat would see them fall potentially four points behind both Wigan and Hull FC and maybe even leave them two points adrift of Salford as the race hots up. Catalans Dragons cannot be discounted either at this stage, so Powell will know that his side needs to scrap for every point it can get between now and Round 29.
With that in mind he will be happy about the return of prop forward Liam Watts to the fold. The former Hull FC man is one of the few around the league who can mix it with the likes of Walmsley and Thompson and is going to be vital to the Tigers' hopes of getting anything from this one. He comes back in to the 19-man squad alongside Calum Turner in the only two changes to the squad which won 24-0 at lowly Huddersfield last time out. Cory Aston and London-bound Touyo Egodo are the men to make way.
Several of this squad were involved when Castleford ‘did a Saints’ and ran over everything before them in 2017. Before losing the one that mattered the most, of course. The likes of Mike McMeeken, Paul McShane, Nathan Massey, Grant Millington, Adam Milner, Greg Minikin and Jesse Sene-Lefao all have that type of experience. What the team has lacked all season is the guidance given to them by Luke Gale who has missed the entire campaign through injury. In his stead Peter Mata’utia, Aston and Jake Trueman have been an erratic presence in the creativity department while fullback Jordan Rankin has also shone at times without ever threatening to be Zak Hardaker. For which he and everyone else should probably be thankful.
Jamie Ellis and Oliver Holmes recently returned to fitness and will add their considerable quality and experience to the effort. It has been an unconvincing season so far for Castleford but the time for talking is done. They need to show right now that they have what it takes to contend for a place at Old Trafford. No more excuses, possibly no second chances depending on other results. A bruised and battered Saints - emotionally drained into the bargain - should be facing a desperate outfit on Friday night and will need all of their quality and resilience to come through.
This is the third meeting of the season between the two teams thanks to the inglorious concept that is Magic Weekend. Saints beat Castleford 36-16 at Anfield in late May after cruising to a 42-12 success at the Jungle at the end of March. It is always difficult to tell what kind of a performance you are going to get from a team immediately after a cup final whether they have won it or not. For that reason and because of Castleford’s greater mathematical need doubts persist about whether Saints will get back into the winners enclosure this weekend. Yet I started by telling everyone to stop moping around and get a little bit of positivity back in your lives so I am going to take my own advice and tip Saints to get home by 18.
Squads;
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. LMS, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 20. Jack Ashworth, 22. James Bentley, 24. Matty Costello, 29. Jack Welsby.
Castleford Tigers;
1. Peter Mata’utia 2. James Clare 3. Greg Minikin 6. Jake Trueman 8. Liam Watts 9. Paul McShane 10. Grant Millington 11. Oliver Holmes 12. Mike McMeeken 13. Adam Milner 14. Nathan Massey 15. Jesse Sene-Lefao 20. Jamie Ellis 23. Will Maher 27. Calum Turner 29. Jacques O’Neill 32. Jordan Rankin. 34. Daniel Smith 35. Cheyse Blair
Referee: James Child
Look, I know it’s too soon. You’re still smarting from the shattering loss at Wembley at the weekend. You’re still blaming the ref, wondering about the team selection and you haven’t even fully snapped out of the ludicrous mindset that Justin Holbrook and this team aren’t any good. But it’s just bloody well tough. There’s a game going on and if you are the die-hard you purport to be all over various social media outrage generators then you will have the wherewithal to focus not only on the visit of Daryl Powell’s side but also on winning the one big prize that remains.
On the subject of prizes, there is one scheduled to be handed out at this game as Saints pick up the League Leaders Shield. It seems like several years ago that Saints beat Wakefield and then saw Warrington go down in that nasty encounter in Perpignan 24 hours later to seal the deal. Holbrook’s side are 16 points clear at the top of Super League and, despite the trauma of Wembley, go into the playoff series as most people’s favourites to win the Grand Final. The pressure to do so is arguably ramped up even further by another defeat in a big knockout game, but those of you sitting around moping and banging on about how it is not worth winning now have some serious head wobbling to do. The Grand Final wouldn’t be my choice of ending to a season, not my way of crowning a champion team, but it is what it is and so we have to win it if we are to underline our status as the best team in Super League. And we are still that. One bad performance against a well-drilled Warrington side executing a conservative game-plan to perfection does not change that irrespective of what utter drivel is spewed out of the mouth of Josh Charnley through a megaphone on an open top bus. We must quieten the detractors and you don't do that by curling up and dying.
Thankfully Holbrook has pledged to go with strong sides between now and the Old Trafford showpiece. He clearly wants to rebuild the momentum we had before the cup final defeat. We need to do that to make a statement to others that we are still there. Our defeat at Wembley will have heartened not only Warrington but others such as Wigan, Hull FC and maybe even Salford, Catalans and Castleford all of whom retain an interest in the race for the top five. In an attempt to reassert our authority Holbrook has selected the strongest possible 19-man squad for this one, with only Lachlan Coote and Dominique Peyroux unavailable from the party which travelled to the capital.
Coote’s performance at the national stadium was the one subjected to the most scrutiny. He had not played for six weeks and it showed. He lacked his usual zip, made uncharacteristic handling errors and even fluffed a conversion from virtually in front of the posts. His bad day was compounded by a head injury he suffered which is keeping him out of this one. Peyroux has caught James Roby’s disease – the minor niggle – and will also miss out. Matty Lees is unlikely to play again this season after the full horrific details of his injury were revealed this week. The prop missed out on a cup final place after having to undergo bowel surgery and spending the best part of a week in hospital. It’s a sad end to what has been a very positive season overall for Lees. Best wishes to him for a speedy recovery and hopes are high that he will return even stronger for the start of 2020.
Everyone else is back on deck, with Jack Welsby drafted in to replace Coote and Matty Costello taking Peyroux’s place in the 19. Welsby may slot back into the fullback role or else Holbrook could move Jonny Lomax back there and offer an opportunity to Danny Richardson. Reading from the Big Book Of Over Simplified Solutions In Rugby League scores of fans suggested that Richardson would have made all the difference at Wembley because he would not have missed the conversion that Coote somehow managed to botch. Of course we all know what my aunty would be if she had male genitalia, and in any case the halfback role is far more complicated than potting over a goal or two. If there is a reason for Richardson to get a shot it is the unconvincing nature of Theo Fages’ display against Warrington and the failure of he and Jonny Lomax to really inspire as a pair when the heat was turned up both metaphorically and literally in London. Fages was defensively his usual busy self but he seems to lack that real burst of pace and guile that can open up a defence and turn a game. Richardson perhaps has a bit more of that about him, but he is to tackling what Steve Dale is to football club ownership. Choosing between the two is quite often a simple of question of which attribute do you value the most in a halfback, craft and cockiness or the ability to stop rampaging forwards dead in their tracks. Both Richardson and Fages would play in a scenario where Lomax moves to fullback, but Welsby has a compelling case given the need for fresh enthusiasm and the quality of his own displays before being left out of the Wembley party.
The front row is weakened without Lees but Roby, Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson remain the most formidable starting trio anywhere. Backing them up are the interminably contracted Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, side-stepping LFC enthusiast Kyle Amor and Jack Ashworth. The latter needs to have more of an impact when he gets an opportunity. He was fairly anonymous in the cup final and we can ill afford that from one of our prop options given the absence of Lees. Peyroux’s second row berth may be taken by either Morgan Knowles or Joseph Paulo although McCarthy-Scarsbrook can operate there in an emergency. And I mean emergency. There would need to be a screeching fire alarm, police sirens and a fully operational hose on the go before I would turn to him in that position but he’s there if he’s needed. My preference would be for James Bentley to be given another run out. It was a surprise and a slight disappointment to see the former Bradford Bull not make the cup final squad but he is someone who can still have a very significant impact between now and when the last gong is handed out in Manchester in October. There appear to be very few reasons why he should not sneak in now ahead of McCarthy-Scarsbrook or Paulo. However, Bentley may also be needed for a spell at hooker as Aaron Smith serves the second of a two-match ban for dangerous contact in the win at Leeds on August 16.
If this game feels a bit ‘meh’ for Saints fans trying to get over a crushing disappointment then it is one fraught with tension for Castleford Tigers fans. They simply have to have it. Daryl Powell’s men are running out of games, with just three left between now and the end of the regular season to haul themselves one place higher than their current sixth position and so make the playoffs. Defeat would see them fall potentially four points behind both Wigan and Hull FC and maybe even leave them two points adrift of Salford as the race hots up. Catalans Dragons cannot be discounted either at this stage, so Powell will know that his side needs to scrap for every point it can get between now and Round 29.
With that in mind he will be happy about the return of prop forward Liam Watts to the fold. The former Hull FC man is one of the few around the league who can mix it with the likes of Walmsley and Thompson and is going to be vital to the Tigers' hopes of getting anything from this one. He comes back in to the 19-man squad alongside Calum Turner in the only two changes to the squad which won 24-0 at lowly Huddersfield last time out. Cory Aston and London-bound Touyo Egodo are the men to make way.
Several of this squad were involved when Castleford ‘did a Saints’ and ran over everything before them in 2017. Before losing the one that mattered the most, of course. The likes of Mike McMeeken, Paul McShane, Nathan Massey, Grant Millington, Adam Milner, Greg Minikin and Jesse Sene-Lefao all have that type of experience. What the team has lacked all season is the guidance given to them by Luke Gale who has missed the entire campaign through injury. In his stead Peter Mata’utia, Aston and Jake Trueman have been an erratic presence in the creativity department while fullback Jordan Rankin has also shone at times without ever threatening to be Zak Hardaker. For which he and everyone else should probably be thankful.
Jamie Ellis and Oliver Holmes recently returned to fitness and will add their considerable quality and experience to the effort. It has been an unconvincing season so far for Castleford but the time for talking is done. They need to show right now that they have what it takes to contend for a place at Old Trafford. No more excuses, possibly no second chances depending on other results. A bruised and battered Saints - emotionally drained into the bargain - should be facing a desperate outfit on Friday night and will need all of their quality and resilience to come through.
This is the third meeting of the season between the two teams thanks to the inglorious concept that is Magic Weekend. Saints beat Castleford 36-16 at Anfield in late May after cruising to a 42-12 success at the Jungle at the end of March. It is always difficult to tell what kind of a performance you are going to get from a team immediately after a cup final whether they have won it or not. For that reason and because of Castleford’s greater mathematical need doubts persist about whether Saints will get back into the winners enclosure this weekend. Yet I started by telling everyone to stop moping around and get a little bit of positivity back in your lives so I am going to take my own advice and tip Saints to get home by 18.
Squads;
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. LMS, 15. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 20. Jack Ashworth, 22. James Bentley, 24. Matty Costello, 29. Jack Welsby.
Castleford Tigers;
1. Peter Mata’utia 2. James Clare 3. Greg Minikin 6. Jake Trueman 8. Liam Watts 9. Paul McShane 10. Grant Millington 11. Oliver Holmes 12. Mike McMeeken 13. Adam Milner 14. Nathan Massey 15. Jesse Sene-Lefao 20. Jamie Ellis 23. Will Maher 27. Calum Turner 29. Jacques O’Neill 32. Jordan Rankin. 34. Daniel Smith 35. Cheyse Blair
Referee: James Child
Wembley 2019 - The Post Mortem
We’re not going down the usual route this week. There is far too much to discuss, far too many points to make and axes to grind to narrow this down to just five main talking points. To be honest the whole thing is too important, provokes too much emotion. It doesn’t really lend itself to a clinical breakdown involving decisions about what to include and what to leave out. It’s all important if we are to gain any understanding of what went so spectacularly wrong for Saints in their 18-4 loss to Warrington at Wembley.
Where do you start? Ordinarily you start at the beginning but in truth Saints opened the game pretty well. They looked dangerous with the ball especially through Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama and Alex Walmsley. Meanwhile Wire’s simple but highly effective gameplan seemed obvious from the outset. Control the ball, cut out handling errors and defend with everything you have. They executed that plan beautifully, especially when you consider the limitations placed on their attacking options in the absence of halfback Blake Austin. Ben Currie was nominally the stand off for Steve Price’s side but it was Jack Hughes and Stefan Ratchford who most often found themselves responsible for creativity. They were clinical rather than spectacular which in the event turned out to be more than enough.
Much has been made of referee Robert Hicks’ decision not to consult video referee Ben Thaler after Morgan Knowles appeared to touch down inside the first three minutes. Television replays showed that Knowles had reached the ball before it went over the dead ball line. The only doubt was whether the Welsh international had grounded the ball cleanly. The modern standard seems to be that if a ball is already on the ground then the merest of touches with the fingers, hand, arm or torso is enough to constitute a grounding. Witness Regan Grace’s effort last week at Leeds when he brushed the ball with the end of his fingertips and was awarded the try on review. Knowles’ grounding looked an awful lot more convincing than that example so the decision by Hicks not to even refer it is something of a head-scratcher. There’s a still photo doing the rounds which purports to show Knowles grounding the ball. I’m not really buying that. You can’t prove downward pressure with a still photo. Nevertheless it had to be worth a look on the video.
Had Hicks sent it up as no try Thaler may have ruled that there was not enough evidence to overturn that call but there seems no way that Hicks could have been certain of what happened with the one look he got in real time. I’m no fan of video replay systems in sport but if you have the technology there you have to use it. Otherwise really what is the point? There will be those who point out that we often cry out for referees to back their own judgement rather than constantly review everything. It’s fair to say that some referees’ penchant for a square in the air can be nauseating and lengthens the game too much. Yet in a game of this magnitude, when one of only two recognised ‘major’ prizes in the domestic game is on the line you just can’t leave it to chance. Hicks had to have had doubts.
Hicks admitted to his doubts about a Mark Percival try on the half hour. The ball had come free from the grasp of Zeb Taia close to the line, with the England centre pouncing as the ball rolled into the in-goal. Ben Murdoch-Masila appeared to have a hand in dislodging the ball from Taia’s possession but Thaler ruled that Taia never had control of it and therefore could not have had it stolen. Both the Knowles and the Percival no try calls came with the score line still at 0-0. If those two calls had gone the other way Saints could have been 12 points to the good. It would have been difficult to see Warrington’s conservative gameplan coming off if they had been chasing the game from early on.
But they were not and from then on Saints seemed to struggle to come terms with that fact. The errors started to creep into their game. Soon after Percival’s no try Warrington were in front through Joe Philbin. Saints failed to deal with a kick, Regan Grace touching the ball to gift Wire a new set from which Philbin crashed through some uncharacteristically sluggish goal-line defence to score. Similar frailties were on show when Murdoch-Masila went over for the Wolves’ second try before half-time. Lachlan Coote butchered a high bomb close to the Saints line to set up the position but it was perhaps Percival’s decision to shoot out of the line, over-reading the play which allowed the former Salford man to crash over. Before the Coote drop Saints had gifted possession to Warrington with a fairly mindless forward pass from Taia to Percival. Mistake leading to mistake leading to mistake. A pattern was emerging.
Though you wouldn’t say Saints spurned chance after chance - they didn’t play well enough to create that many - there were still moments that they could have made more of. The usually assured and composed Jonny Lomax chose badly late in the first half. A gap had opened up. The type that we normally see Lomax cruise through. Yet on this occasion Lomax - who has been head and shoulders the best player in Super League this year irrespective of what the Steve Prescott Man Of Steel panel dream up each week - chose to pass to Naiqama who was immediately enveloped. Later, Fages broke from deep inside his own half but failed to find Coote on his inside. You couldn’t help but feel that his decision making process was hindered by his surprise at having made it through Warrington’s mostly water tight defensive line.
Fages was at it again early in the second half, aimlessly skying one towards the Warrington line rather than find Naiqama in space outside him. The Fijian tried hard and looked menacing at times but he was a victim of the poor decision making of those who normally serve him so well. Perhaps Fages was mindful of being caught in possession on the last. Saints suffered that fate on a number of occasions as their usual composure deserted them.
Saints were not the only ones on the end of a debatable video refereeing call. Just a couple of minutes into the second half Tom Lineham thought he had pushed Wire into a 16-0 lead when he squirmed over from dummy half. Yet replays showed that he had made slight contact with Bryson Goodwin as the latter played the ball. Perhaps there was no obvious advantage gained but the contact does constitute an obstruction as explained by Thaler in his decision making. Without a video referee present it’s probably a try but attempt to square Hicks’ decision to review that with his decision not to review the Knowles effort and you will soon develop a headache.
Coote had one of his worst games in a Saints shirt. He lacked his usual sharpness in attack and a couple of basic handling errors were compounded when he managed to fail to convert Fages’ try on 56 minutes which had seemed to give Saints a lifeline. When that sailed wide from almost bang in front it was a chilling moment in which I think most of us of a Saints persuasion realised this would not be our day.
More errors followed with Makinson, Coote and Fages all guilty. The Frenchman’s botched attempt to scoop up a Daryl Clark grubber set up the position from which the Warrington hooker snuffed out any remaining hope we had. He scooted over from dummy half with Patton’s conversion completing the scoring. I take slight issue with Holbrook’s assessment that Saints’ errors occurred because they were chasing the game. Yes it’s difficult to play in searing heat when your opponent has a 12-point jump on you but some of Saints’ handling errors were fairly basic and under very little physical pressure. They were the result of a failure to apply fundamental skills that they have been practising all of their lives and which they have done so clinically for the most part of 2019. The question is why?
One theory is that the problem is mental. The hypothesis goes that Saints are wonderful in the regular grind of the regular season where losses don’t even bruise you let alone kill you, but not so good when the stakes are raised. Some point the finger at Holbrook for that and while Saturday’s loss was his fourth in knockout rugby league in his two years at the club the problem appears to pre-date him. This was Saints’ 17th loss in their last 23 semi-finals or finals. Other clubs fans delight in labelling us as bottlers, totally oblivious to the fact that we have been by far the best team in the competition over the last two years. Yet perhaps we deserve that tag. I think the idea of settling a league campaign on one 80-minute game in October is beyond absurd but we’ve normalised it so we’re stuck with it. Everyone knows the rules before we start so whether we agree with it or not our superiority cannot be validated until we win one of these big finals. We have to stop bottling it.
While mentality might be one explanation for the wider malaise in knockout rugby there are factors which might be specific to this particular defeat. All of Coote, Walmsley, Roby and Knowles had been injured in the weeks leading up to Wembley and so had no match practise coming in. You can’t force injured players to play, nor should you try, but it might have been prudent if planning to throw them in at Wembley to send them for a run out in the games against Warrington and Leeds in the last fortnight in particular. Let them prove their fitness and if they couldn’t do so then what are they doing on the field in a Challenge Cup Final? My guess is that at least some of these players could have played in the those league games but that Holbrook has become so paranoid about burning his players out after last year’s experience that he has now tilted too far the other way. It is alright protecting players. Holbrook would have been widely castigated if one of those four had played in the week or two before Wembley and suffered a recurrence of their injury. Yet it is equal folly to expect your fullback, prop, hooker and loose forward - basically the spine of your team - to be at their best under such pressure with virtually no recent rugby behind them. This is why we have a squad. While Matty Lees and Aaron Smith were ruled out through injury and suspension respectively players of the quality of James Bentley and Danny Richardson still missed out. This squad goes deep enough to cope if the first choice guys aren’t quite right. Holbrook will no doubt tell us that all were fit to play and of course all would have been desperate to get on that field. Their desire is one of the qualities that has made them successful. But in the final analysis it is Holbrook’s job to recognise which players are ready and which are not. On the face of it he got it wrong.
So the focus now is on what remains of Holbrook’s tenure at the club. Three regular season games remain and then we need just one win from a possible two playoff games to reach Old Trafford. My view is that we need to go full tilt from here on in. Build up that habit of winning again. Make a statement with our form and put doubt back into the minds of rival clubs who will now accuse us of being a bit of a myth at worst and very beatable at best. No resting players who could otherwise play before wheeling them out for the sudden death games and expecting them to turn it on like a tap. We are the best side in this competition regardless of what the kooky league structure and playoff system tells everyone. So let’s sulk for a day or two and then get up off the floor and show everyone exactly why we are a cut above.
Where do you start? Ordinarily you start at the beginning but in truth Saints opened the game pretty well. They looked dangerous with the ball especially through Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama and Alex Walmsley. Meanwhile Wire’s simple but highly effective gameplan seemed obvious from the outset. Control the ball, cut out handling errors and defend with everything you have. They executed that plan beautifully, especially when you consider the limitations placed on their attacking options in the absence of halfback Blake Austin. Ben Currie was nominally the stand off for Steve Price’s side but it was Jack Hughes and Stefan Ratchford who most often found themselves responsible for creativity. They were clinical rather than spectacular which in the event turned out to be more than enough.
Much has been made of referee Robert Hicks’ decision not to consult video referee Ben Thaler after Morgan Knowles appeared to touch down inside the first three minutes. Television replays showed that Knowles had reached the ball before it went over the dead ball line. The only doubt was whether the Welsh international had grounded the ball cleanly. The modern standard seems to be that if a ball is already on the ground then the merest of touches with the fingers, hand, arm or torso is enough to constitute a grounding. Witness Regan Grace’s effort last week at Leeds when he brushed the ball with the end of his fingertips and was awarded the try on review. Knowles’ grounding looked an awful lot more convincing than that example so the decision by Hicks not to even refer it is something of a head-scratcher. There’s a still photo doing the rounds which purports to show Knowles grounding the ball. I’m not really buying that. You can’t prove downward pressure with a still photo. Nevertheless it had to be worth a look on the video.
Had Hicks sent it up as no try Thaler may have ruled that there was not enough evidence to overturn that call but there seems no way that Hicks could have been certain of what happened with the one look he got in real time. I’m no fan of video replay systems in sport but if you have the technology there you have to use it. Otherwise really what is the point? There will be those who point out that we often cry out for referees to back their own judgement rather than constantly review everything. It’s fair to say that some referees’ penchant for a square in the air can be nauseating and lengthens the game too much. Yet in a game of this magnitude, when one of only two recognised ‘major’ prizes in the domestic game is on the line you just can’t leave it to chance. Hicks had to have had doubts.
Hicks admitted to his doubts about a Mark Percival try on the half hour. The ball had come free from the grasp of Zeb Taia close to the line, with the England centre pouncing as the ball rolled into the in-goal. Ben Murdoch-Masila appeared to have a hand in dislodging the ball from Taia’s possession but Thaler ruled that Taia never had control of it and therefore could not have had it stolen. Both the Knowles and the Percival no try calls came with the score line still at 0-0. If those two calls had gone the other way Saints could have been 12 points to the good. It would have been difficult to see Warrington’s conservative gameplan coming off if they had been chasing the game from early on.
But they were not and from then on Saints seemed to struggle to come terms with that fact. The errors started to creep into their game. Soon after Percival’s no try Warrington were in front through Joe Philbin. Saints failed to deal with a kick, Regan Grace touching the ball to gift Wire a new set from which Philbin crashed through some uncharacteristically sluggish goal-line defence to score. Similar frailties were on show when Murdoch-Masila went over for the Wolves’ second try before half-time. Lachlan Coote butchered a high bomb close to the Saints line to set up the position but it was perhaps Percival’s decision to shoot out of the line, over-reading the play which allowed the former Salford man to crash over. Before the Coote drop Saints had gifted possession to Warrington with a fairly mindless forward pass from Taia to Percival. Mistake leading to mistake leading to mistake. A pattern was emerging.
Though you wouldn’t say Saints spurned chance after chance - they didn’t play well enough to create that many - there were still moments that they could have made more of. The usually assured and composed Jonny Lomax chose badly late in the first half. A gap had opened up. The type that we normally see Lomax cruise through. Yet on this occasion Lomax - who has been head and shoulders the best player in Super League this year irrespective of what the Steve Prescott Man Of Steel panel dream up each week - chose to pass to Naiqama who was immediately enveloped. Later, Fages broke from deep inside his own half but failed to find Coote on his inside. You couldn’t help but feel that his decision making process was hindered by his surprise at having made it through Warrington’s mostly water tight defensive line.
Fages was at it again early in the second half, aimlessly skying one towards the Warrington line rather than find Naiqama in space outside him. The Fijian tried hard and looked menacing at times but he was a victim of the poor decision making of those who normally serve him so well. Perhaps Fages was mindful of being caught in possession on the last. Saints suffered that fate on a number of occasions as their usual composure deserted them.
Saints were not the only ones on the end of a debatable video refereeing call. Just a couple of minutes into the second half Tom Lineham thought he had pushed Wire into a 16-0 lead when he squirmed over from dummy half. Yet replays showed that he had made slight contact with Bryson Goodwin as the latter played the ball. Perhaps there was no obvious advantage gained but the contact does constitute an obstruction as explained by Thaler in his decision making. Without a video referee present it’s probably a try but attempt to square Hicks’ decision to review that with his decision not to review the Knowles effort and you will soon develop a headache.
Coote had one of his worst games in a Saints shirt. He lacked his usual sharpness in attack and a couple of basic handling errors were compounded when he managed to fail to convert Fages’ try on 56 minutes which had seemed to give Saints a lifeline. When that sailed wide from almost bang in front it was a chilling moment in which I think most of us of a Saints persuasion realised this would not be our day.
More errors followed with Makinson, Coote and Fages all guilty. The Frenchman’s botched attempt to scoop up a Daryl Clark grubber set up the position from which the Warrington hooker snuffed out any remaining hope we had. He scooted over from dummy half with Patton’s conversion completing the scoring. I take slight issue with Holbrook’s assessment that Saints’ errors occurred because they were chasing the game. Yes it’s difficult to play in searing heat when your opponent has a 12-point jump on you but some of Saints’ handling errors were fairly basic and under very little physical pressure. They were the result of a failure to apply fundamental skills that they have been practising all of their lives and which they have done so clinically for the most part of 2019. The question is why?
One theory is that the problem is mental. The hypothesis goes that Saints are wonderful in the regular grind of the regular season where losses don’t even bruise you let alone kill you, but not so good when the stakes are raised. Some point the finger at Holbrook for that and while Saturday’s loss was his fourth in knockout rugby league in his two years at the club the problem appears to pre-date him. This was Saints’ 17th loss in their last 23 semi-finals or finals. Other clubs fans delight in labelling us as bottlers, totally oblivious to the fact that we have been by far the best team in the competition over the last two years. Yet perhaps we deserve that tag. I think the idea of settling a league campaign on one 80-minute game in October is beyond absurd but we’ve normalised it so we’re stuck with it. Everyone knows the rules before we start so whether we agree with it or not our superiority cannot be validated until we win one of these big finals. We have to stop bottling it.
While mentality might be one explanation for the wider malaise in knockout rugby there are factors which might be specific to this particular defeat. All of Coote, Walmsley, Roby and Knowles had been injured in the weeks leading up to Wembley and so had no match practise coming in. You can’t force injured players to play, nor should you try, but it might have been prudent if planning to throw them in at Wembley to send them for a run out in the games against Warrington and Leeds in the last fortnight in particular. Let them prove their fitness and if they couldn’t do so then what are they doing on the field in a Challenge Cup Final? My guess is that at least some of these players could have played in the those league games but that Holbrook has become so paranoid about burning his players out after last year’s experience that he has now tilted too far the other way. It is alright protecting players. Holbrook would have been widely castigated if one of those four had played in the week or two before Wembley and suffered a recurrence of their injury. Yet it is equal folly to expect your fullback, prop, hooker and loose forward - basically the spine of your team - to be at their best under such pressure with virtually no recent rugby behind them. This is why we have a squad. While Matty Lees and Aaron Smith were ruled out through injury and suspension respectively players of the quality of James Bentley and Danny Richardson still missed out. This squad goes deep enough to cope if the first choice guys aren’t quite right. Holbrook will no doubt tell us that all were fit to play and of course all would have been desperate to get on that field. Their desire is one of the qualities that has made them successful. But in the final analysis it is Holbrook’s job to recognise which players are ready and which are not. On the face of it he got it wrong.
So the focus now is on what remains of Holbrook’s tenure at the club. Three regular season games remain and then we need just one win from a possible two playoff games to reach Old Trafford. My view is that we need to go full tilt from here on in. Build up that habit of winning again. Make a statement with our form and put doubt back into the minds of rival clubs who will now accuse us of being a bit of a myth at worst and very beatable at best. No resting players who could otherwise play before wheeling them out for the sudden death games and expecting them to turn it on like a tap. We are the best side in this competition regardless of what the kooky league structure and playoff system tells everyone. So let’s sulk for a day or two and then get up off the floor and show everyone exactly why we are a cut above.
Challenge Cup Final Preview - St Helens v Warrington Wolves
Are you nervous? A bit jittery? Not even a little bit? Me neither. Glory probably awaits as Saints get set to take on Warrington in the Coral Challenge Cup Final at Wembley on Saturday (August 24, kick-off 3.00pm).
It’s been a long wait. Perhaps so long that chickens should remain well and truly unaccounted for as we go into our first Wembley final for 11 years. The last time Saints went to Wembley Britain was weeks away from a financial crisis and subsequent recession, Rihanna topped the charts with something called Disturbia, Usain Bolt ran the 100metres sprint in an eye-popping 9.58 seconds at the Olympic Games in Beijing and Portsmouth were the holders of the FA Cup. They were strange times indeed. Saints’ cup win that year was among the more predictable events, it being the third year in succession that Daniel Anderson’s side had brought home the most famous piece of bacon in rugby league.
Despite numerous attempts to club it to death the old classic competition still survives and retains much of its gravitas. No amount of Grand Finals or Magic Weekends can take away the value of winning the Challenge Cup. It may be a little easier to win these days with top eight Super League sides only needing three wins to reach Wembley, but should your team be the lucky ones holding the trophy aloft around 4.45 on Saturday afternoon nobody will remember that. You’re not likely to remember your own address and you’ll end up being bundled out of a taxi in Soho. But you will remember winning the final. The Challenge Cup transcends the sport in a way that the Grand Final cannot hope to and doesn’t appear to even be trying to. Free-to-air TV coverage helps in that regard even if Robbie Paul is a great big heap of cringe.
As in Super League the clubs involved have each named a 19-man squad 48 hours before kick-off. As in Super League there is little to stop the coaches disregarding their own selections come game day but we’ll do our best to analyse the likely line-ups. Saints coach Justin Holbrook will lead his side at Wembley for the first and last time having already agreed to join Gold Coast Titans in 2020, and his preparations were hit by the disappointing news this week that both Matty Lees and Aaron Smith will miss out. Lees picked up an abdominal injury in last week’s win over Leeds Rhinos which threatens the rest of his season, while Smith starts a two-game ban for dangerous contact with Rhinos fullback Jack Walker early in the second half at Headingley. It’s a cruel blow for the pair who have been major contributors to Saints’ stroll to a second straight League Leaders Shield title.
Lees’ absence all but guarantees bench spots for Kyle Amor, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Jack Ashworth behind the starting prop duo of Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson. Smith has been sharing hooking duties with James Bentley in recent weeks but with James Roby expected to start as well as a likely return to action for Morgan Knowles it seems that Bentley’s best hope of involvement is the final spot on that bench. Joseph Paulo is fit again after a hamstring problem and will also challenge for interchange duties.
Lachlan Coote has not played since the July 12 win over Wigan but is set to feature. That means no place for the unfortunate Jack Welsby who has been superb in the fullback role in the absence of the Australian. Like Lees and Smith Welsby has youth on his side. His disappointment should be tempered with the knowledge that at the current rate of progress his time is almost certainly coming. Ahead of Coote Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Mark Percival and Regan Grace make up a three-quarter line full to the brim with Lance Todd Trophy contenders.
One member of the 19 likely to be disappointed when the team is named is Danny Richardson. He did himself no harm when given opportunities in relief of the rested Theo Fages and Jonny Lomax in the last few weeks but it was telling that Fages went straight back into the team at Leeds. Lomax’s place is non-negotiable by now. He has poured scorn on those who said his injuries would stifle his potential or that he couldn’t play in the halves. Converted by Holbrook from fullback to stand off when Ben Barba arrived Lomax has since gone on to become the best player in Super League in 2019. If Lomax plays well Warrington’s already limited chances get skinnier still.
All of which just leaves the back row, where Zeb Taia and Dominique Peyroux are the immovable objects. Should the need arise McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Knowles, Bentley and Ashworth can all be moved around the pack to cover any gaps that might appear.
The main topic of conversation for Warrington is whether their talismanic half Blake Austin will play. He has not featured since turning his ankle in Perpignan three weeks ago and has not been included in coach Steve Price’s 19-man selection. This is not cause enough to write off his chances of playing given what we know about Price’s squad-selection shenanigans of recent times but either way it feels somewhat academic. If Saints hit form then this woefully out-of-form Warrington mob worrying about facing them without Austin is like Hugh Laurie worrying about going over the top without his big stick in the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth.
Better news for Warrington is that Josh Charley should feature. The former Wigan man is one of the best finishers in the game. Tom Lineham, scourge of Saints in the Super League semi-final last year, is free from suspension to take his place on the opposite wing which could be bad news for Jake Mamo. The former Huddersfield Giant has been given a run on the wing in Charnley’s absence through injury but is unlikely to shift either Charnley or Lineham nor move back to his old fullback role with Stef Ratchford now fit again. In the centres Bryson Goodwin is a major threat but Toby King probably less so.
We’re going to assume Austin will play alongside Dec Patton in the halves. Matty Smith has been filling in after joining on loan from Catalans Dragons but is not an option having signed after the Challenge Cup eligibility deadline. Kevin Brown must be somewhere near fitness, but not near enough to a first team return since he has been sent out on loan to Leigh.
The front row is the one area where Wire can boast similar strength to Saints. Props Chris Hill and Mike Cooper have been England internationals while hooker Daryl Clark is strong, indefatigable and extremely quick. Physically he has the edge on Roby at this stage of the latter’s career but whether Clark can match the Saints man for big-game know-how is questionable.
In the back row Jack Hughes has recovered from one of the most gruesome injuries in rugby league this or any other year, a ruptured testicle sustained in that ugly spat with the Dragons in the south of France. He should partner Ben Currie, a man whose most prominent Wembley memory is still that of being tackled agonisingly short of the line in Wire’s 2016 loss to Hull FC. Currie has done superbly well to recover from two nasty knee injuries since, but it is probably fair to say that the jury is out on whether he has rediscovered the form of old.
Bennie Westwood will be aiming to Mark his retirement season with a cup winners medal to add to those won in 2009, 2010 and 2012. He’ll compete for a bench spot with short-term wrecking ball and long-term turnstile Ben Murdoch-Masila, shoulder-charging’s Sitaleki Akauola and Matt Davis, a man whose rugby league development began in the unlikely surroundings of union hotbed Leicester. Jason Clark and Harvey Lovett complete the party.
A month or two ago this would have been a much more difficult game to call. Warrington have spent most of the season as Saints’ closest challengers in Super League. Yet over the last month their only win has been the semi-final success over Hull FC at Bolton that brought them to Wembley. They are staggering towards the playoffs, hanging on grimly to second place after losing 20-6 to Wigan last time out. The one factor that makes this tricky is that it is a cup final. Funny things happen. Think of Sheffield Eagles in 1998 (which we all should try in darker moments. It has often cheered me up). Final or not there is always scope for a shock in knockout rugby as Saints discovered when they were flayed by Catalans in the last four last year. Wire were still fancied to beat the French side in the final despite their semi-final heroics but it was Steve McNamara smiling at the end. The cup can be a bit of a leveller.
So maybe you are right to be a little bit nervous. A bit jittery. A little caution might be wise. But all things being equal Saints should get home by around three scores. After double disappointment in 2018 there are many who believe that Holbrook’s Saints legacy depends on it.
Squads;
St Helens;
Jonny Lomax, Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Mark Percival, Regan Grace, Theo Fages, Danny Richardson, Alex Walmsley, James Roby, LukevThompson, Zeb Taia, Joseph Paulo, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Morgan Knowles, Kyle Amor, Dominique Peyroux, Jack Ashworth, James Bentley, Lachlan Coote
Warrington Wolves;
Sitaleki Akauola, Josh Charley, Daryl Clark, Jason Clark, Mike Cooper, Ben Currie, Matt Davis, Bryson Goodwin, Chris Hill, Jack Hughes, Toby King, Tom Lineham, Harvey Livett, Jake Mamo, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Declan Patton, Joe Philbin, Stefan Ratchford, Ben Westwood
Referee: Robert Hicks
It’s been a long wait. Perhaps so long that chickens should remain well and truly unaccounted for as we go into our first Wembley final for 11 years. The last time Saints went to Wembley Britain was weeks away from a financial crisis and subsequent recession, Rihanna topped the charts with something called Disturbia, Usain Bolt ran the 100metres sprint in an eye-popping 9.58 seconds at the Olympic Games in Beijing and Portsmouth were the holders of the FA Cup. They were strange times indeed. Saints’ cup win that year was among the more predictable events, it being the third year in succession that Daniel Anderson’s side had brought home the most famous piece of bacon in rugby league.
Despite numerous attempts to club it to death the old classic competition still survives and retains much of its gravitas. No amount of Grand Finals or Magic Weekends can take away the value of winning the Challenge Cup. It may be a little easier to win these days with top eight Super League sides only needing three wins to reach Wembley, but should your team be the lucky ones holding the trophy aloft around 4.45 on Saturday afternoon nobody will remember that. You’re not likely to remember your own address and you’ll end up being bundled out of a taxi in Soho. But you will remember winning the final. The Challenge Cup transcends the sport in a way that the Grand Final cannot hope to and doesn’t appear to even be trying to. Free-to-air TV coverage helps in that regard even if Robbie Paul is a great big heap of cringe.
As in Super League the clubs involved have each named a 19-man squad 48 hours before kick-off. As in Super League there is little to stop the coaches disregarding their own selections come game day but we’ll do our best to analyse the likely line-ups. Saints coach Justin Holbrook will lead his side at Wembley for the first and last time having already agreed to join Gold Coast Titans in 2020, and his preparations were hit by the disappointing news this week that both Matty Lees and Aaron Smith will miss out. Lees picked up an abdominal injury in last week’s win over Leeds Rhinos which threatens the rest of his season, while Smith starts a two-game ban for dangerous contact with Rhinos fullback Jack Walker early in the second half at Headingley. It’s a cruel blow for the pair who have been major contributors to Saints’ stroll to a second straight League Leaders Shield title.
Lees’ absence all but guarantees bench spots for Kyle Amor, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Jack Ashworth behind the starting prop duo of Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson. Smith has been sharing hooking duties with James Bentley in recent weeks but with James Roby expected to start as well as a likely return to action for Morgan Knowles it seems that Bentley’s best hope of involvement is the final spot on that bench. Joseph Paulo is fit again after a hamstring problem and will also challenge for interchange duties.
Lachlan Coote has not played since the July 12 win over Wigan but is set to feature. That means no place for the unfortunate Jack Welsby who has been superb in the fullback role in the absence of the Australian. Like Lees and Smith Welsby has youth on his side. His disappointment should be tempered with the knowledge that at the current rate of progress his time is almost certainly coming. Ahead of Coote Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Mark Percival and Regan Grace make up a three-quarter line full to the brim with Lance Todd Trophy contenders.
One member of the 19 likely to be disappointed when the team is named is Danny Richardson. He did himself no harm when given opportunities in relief of the rested Theo Fages and Jonny Lomax in the last few weeks but it was telling that Fages went straight back into the team at Leeds. Lomax’s place is non-negotiable by now. He has poured scorn on those who said his injuries would stifle his potential or that he couldn’t play in the halves. Converted by Holbrook from fullback to stand off when Ben Barba arrived Lomax has since gone on to become the best player in Super League in 2019. If Lomax plays well Warrington’s already limited chances get skinnier still.
All of which just leaves the back row, where Zeb Taia and Dominique Peyroux are the immovable objects. Should the need arise McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Knowles, Bentley and Ashworth can all be moved around the pack to cover any gaps that might appear.
The main topic of conversation for Warrington is whether their talismanic half Blake Austin will play. He has not featured since turning his ankle in Perpignan three weeks ago and has not been included in coach Steve Price’s 19-man selection. This is not cause enough to write off his chances of playing given what we know about Price’s squad-selection shenanigans of recent times but either way it feels somewhat academic. If Saints hit form then this woefully out-of-form Warrington mob worrying about facing them without Austin is like Hugh Laurie worrying about going over the top without his big stick in the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth.
Better news for Warrington is that Josh Charley should feature. The former Wigan man is one of the best finishers in the game. Tom Lineham, scourge of Saints in the Super League semi-final last year, is free from suspension to take his place on the opposite wing which could be bad news for Jake Mamo. The former Huddersfield Giant has been given a run on the wing in Charnley’s absence through injury but is unlikely to shift either Charnley or Lineham nor move back to his old fullback role with Stef Ratchford now fit again. In the centres Bryson Goodwin is a major threat but Toby King probably less so.
We’re going to assume Austin will play alongside Dec Patton in the halves. Matty Smith has been filling in after joining on loan from Catalans Dragons but is not an option having signed after the Challenge Cup eligibility deadline. Kevin Brown must be somewhere near fitness, but not near enough to a first team return since he has been sent out on loan to Leigh.
The front row is the one area where Wire can boast similar strength to Saints. Props Chris Hill and Mike Cooper have been England internationals while hooker Daryl Clark is strong, indefatigable and extremely quick. Physically he has the edge on Roby at this stage of the latter’s career but whether Clark can match the Saints man for big-game know-how is questionable.
In the back row Jack Hughes has recovered from one of the most gruesome injuries in rugby league this or any other year, a ruptured testicle sustained in that ugly spat with the Dragons in the south of France. He should partner Ben Currie, a man whose most prominent Wembley memory is still that of being tackled agonisingly short of the line in Wire’s 2016 loss to Hull FC. Currie has done superbly well to recover from two nasty knee injuries since, but it is probably fair to say that the jury is out on whether he has rediscovered the form of old.
Bennie Westwood will be aiming to Mark his retirement season with a cup winners medal to add to those won in 2009, 2010 and 2012. He’ll compete for a bench spot with short-term wrecking ball and long-term turnstile Ben Murdoch-Masila, shoulder-charging’s Sitaleki Akauola and Matt Davis, a man whose rugby league development began in the unlikely surroundings of union hotbed Leicester. Jason Clark and Harvey Lovett complete the party.
A month or two ago this would have been a much more difficult game to call. Warrington have spent most of the season as Saints’ closest challengers in Super League. Yet over the last month their only win has been the semi-final success over Hull FC at Bolton that brought them to Wembley. They are staggering towards the playoffs, hanging on grimly to second place after losing 20-6 to Wigan last time out. The one factor that makes this tricky is that it is a cup final. Funny things happen. Think of Sheffield Eagles in 1998 (which we all should try in darker moments. It has often cheered me up). Final or not there is always scope for a shock in knockout rugby as Saints discovered when they were flayed by Catalans in the last four last year. Wire were still fancied to beat the French side in the final despite their semi-final heroics but it was Steve McNamara smiling at the end. The cup can be a bit of a leveller.
So maybe you are right to be a little bit nervous. A bit jittery. A little caution might be wise. But all things being equal Saints should get home by around three scores. After double disappointment in 2018 there are many who believe that Holbrook’s Saints legacy depends on it.
Squads;
St Helens;
Jonny Lomax, Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Mark Percival, Regan Grace, Theo Fages, Danny Richardson, Alex Walmsley, James Roby, LukevThompson, Zeb Taia, Joseph Paulo, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Morgan Knowles, Kyle Amor, Dominique Peyroux, Jack Ashworth, James Bentley, Lachlan Coote
Warrington Wolves;
Sitaleki Akauola, Josh Charley, Daryl Clark, Jason Clark, Mike Cooper, Ben Currie, Matt Davis, Bryson Goodwin, Chris Hill, Jack Hughes, Toby King, Tom Lineham, Harvey Livett, Jake Mamo, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Declan Patton, Joe Philbin, Stefan Ratchford, Ben Westwood
Referee: Robert Hicks
5 Talking Points From Leeds Rhinos 20 Saints 36
That Guard Of Honour
As Disgruntled Of Wigan never tires of telling us Saints are not yet champions of 2019. Our dominance of this year’s regular season will be nothing more than a stick with which to beat us if we fail to win at Old Trafford in the Grand Final. Saints are 16 points clear after this win, on course to top the table by a record margin. Yet if you did a quick survey of even our own fans most of them would not consider this in itself a success. Everything hangs on whether we win the games that bring the trophies.
Strange then that Leeds Rhinos chose to mark Saints’ hitherto played-down success by offering a guard of honour. Of sorts. My recollection of a traditional guard of honour is that the players involved form two lines opposite each other and then applaud as the honoured guests run onto the field in the gap between the two lines. Leeds had a different take on it, simply forming one line from where they clapped Saints on to the pitch.
It was a nice thought and went down well with Saints fans who believe that the achievement of winning the League Leaders Shield ought to be given a bit more kudos. It absolutely should, of course. The subdued, almost embarrassed celebrations when Saints were awarded the Shield last year were a depressing reminder of how rugby league has been reduced to a few important games at the end of the season. Consistency is shrugged at, even by fans of those who achieve it. The Grand Final is King as we found out last year and Castleford the year before that.
The powers within the game have to come up with some way of giving the Shield winners the recognition they deserve. It is not the responsibility of rival clubs to make us feel as if our achievement really matters. Can you imagine a scenario in which Wigan are coming to town having won the Shield with games to spare and seeing your Saints line up to applaud them on to the field? I don’t know about you but I would probably be hospitalised once I’d been spotted frothing at the mouth.
There is a school of thought that Leeds are using the experience for their own ends. Their players will not want to play the role of deferential onlookers the next time the Shield is handed out. It is thought that Sir Alex Ferguson had his Manchester United players form guards of honour whenever they relinquished the title to an Arsenal or a Chelsea. It was probably a powerful motivational tool for the following season. The key difference of course is that those teams applauded on to the field by Manchester United’s players were champions. There were no arguments. No one-off, knockout games at neutral venues to negotiate. In our game, where so much depends on winning on the right date at the right stadium, it all just feels ever so slightly inappropriate.
Injury Worries Persist
Saints went into this one without five of what most would consider their starting 13. James Roby, Lachlan Coote and Alex Walmsley have all been out injured recently and were not named in Justin Holbrook’s 19-man squad a couple of days before the game. Nor was Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook. When game day arrived the names of Tommy Makinson and Morgan Knowles were also absent from the team sheet. Matty Costello filled in on the wing while James Bentley continued his progress as a Super League player with a switch to loose forward.
Until now we have felt comfortable that Holbrook is just employing a cautious selection policy ahead of next week’s Challenge Cup Final meeting with Warrington at Wembley. There’s no point risking a player who isn’t 100% fit and so it has felt right to give one or two a rest. Yet there is a fine line between protecting players for Wembley and pitching them into a final with a lack of match sharpness, even if Holbrook has publicly stated that all of his injured stars should be fit for the big day. Knowles hasn’t played since the defeat at London on July 21. He spoke confidently at a club forum on Tuesday (August 13) about featuring at Headingley after a rib problem. The fact that he did not play surely creates a nagging doubt about his fitness.
Similarly Coote hasn’t featured since the July 12 win over Wigan. There may be a psychological edge to naming the Scotland international at Wembley even if there is a cloud over his fitness. How many times down the years have we seen patched up Wigan players turn out at Wembley and affect the opposition just by reputation? Coote has been sensational in his first season with Saints and could have a big enough name to spook the opposition irrespective of his fitness. As could Roby and Walmsley. Warrington will no doubt try something similar with Blake Austin who has not played since turning an ankle in Perpignan on August 3.
The question is whether recalling so many players who have had so little rugby over the last few weeks is the right way to go. If they’re not fully fit the team cannot carry them all. We have several able deputies we could call on if the risks outweigh the benefits of selecting the tried and tested. Jack Welsby flapped at one or two high balls early in this one but has been excellent in recent weeks and grew into this game as it wore on. We should have no real concerns over him. Roby’s role has been adequately filled by the Smith-Bentley duo while both Joseph Paulo and McCarthy-Scarsbrook have the experience to plug the gap left by Knowles should he be unavailable. Individually and on their own merits it is easy to see any of these playing a part in a winning effort at Wembley. What is less clear is how strong the team will be if all of them are pressed into duty against what remains a strong-looking Wolves side despite their poor form of late. Holbrook will probably need at least a couple of his injured stars to give him 80 minutes and he faces a difficult task this week in working out how many of them should get the nod.
Wembley Could Suit Naiqama
The form of Kevin Naiqama could be extremely timely. Without his regular right edge partner in Makinson the Fiji captain took matters into his own hands. He produced a man of the match effort, crossing for a hat-trick of tries and running for 102 metres on 12 carries at almost nine metres per carry. He busted out of nine tackles and his attacking involvement was a key to this win because it meant that Leeds’ runaway train Konrad Hurrell had to expend some of his relatively meagre energy resources in defence. The former Gold Coast man was not nearly as effective with ball in hand in the second half against Naiqama as he had been in the first.
Naiqama doesn’t always get the plaudits you’d expect. He was a much trumpeted signing from the NRL’s Wests Tigers. An outside back from a league in which centres and wingers often set the teams apart from those in Super League. Yet his performances have often been overshadowed in his first year at Saints not only by Makinson but also by Mark Percival and Regan Grace on the other flank. Quietly, Naiqama has registered 17 tries in Super League this term. That’s the same number as Grace and only two less than Makinson. The Saints winger is one of only four men who have crossed the whitewash more often than Naiqama this season in the whole of Super League.
Avoiding cliches about the wide open spaces of Wembley there probably is something about the dimensions of the national stadium which allows pacy wide players to thrive. In my mind’s eye I can see Mark Elia tearing down the field in the 1987 Final defeat to Halifax, Martin Offiah’s melodramatic disbelief at having scored the greatest of all Wembley tries in 1995, and Jonathan Davies’ memorable scoot past Brett Mullins for Great Britain a year earlier. Speed kills and it would surprise nobody if the Fijian writes himself into Saints folklore with a couple of scorching efforts under the arch.
Taia Could Also Be Key
Sky Sports’ commentary credited Zeb Taia with two tries at the end of the game. Yet since then common sense has prevailed and Grace has taken the credit for the first of those. The Welshman got the merest of fingertips to the ball as it bobbled around the in-goal area before it was more comprehensively grounded by Taia. It’s a bad rule, but in the modern game even the most feather-light touch on a ball on the ground is considered to be downward pressure and sufficient for the try to be given. It could not have been awarded to Taia once Grace had got a touch to it. Either he grounded it in the dubious manner which satisfies modern officials or he knocked it on. He certainly did not miss it completely which is the only way that Taia could have been given the credit for it.
Yet it didn’t take long for the Cook Islander to get his name added to the list of try-scorers. Within a minute he was taking Grace’s pass and stretching out to score. It was just reward for a performance which saw him rack up 118 metres on 16 carries while making 28 tackles. Only Matty Lees, Smith and Bentley managed more defensive contributions for Saints. It was an especially important effort given the absence of Walmsley and Roby and a slightly stunted display by Luke Thompson. Beyond those three Taia and Dominique Peyroux are Saints’ real gun forwards, the pack men most capable of making the metres and breaks that will allow the speedier men to influence the game.
Taia is not only a player of great talent and experience in his own right, he also makes others around him that little bit better. Saints’ left edge of Taia, Grace and Percival is a fearsome one that is probably unmatched anywhere else in Super League. Taia was another one in attendance at the midweek forum and he spoke with great enthusiasm about the prospect of playing at Wembley now that he has recovered from the shoulder injury he suffered last time Saints met Leeds. It’s been a long time coming but Taia finally has a chance to win the silverware that he no doubt joined Saints for two years ago. Expect him to have a big game.
So What’s Your Team?
Indulge me while I finish this week’s column by playing a little Rugby Manager. It’s time to take a closer look at who might be in the Saints 17 when they line-up in the capital for their biggest game since the 2014 Grand Final. We are going to assume that Holbrook is not selling us a dummy and that everyone is fit. You can pick this apart later;
Fullback - Lachlan Coote
Right Wing - Tommy Makinson
Right Centre - Kevin Naiqama
Left Centre - Mark Percival
Left Wing - Regan Grace
Stand Off - Jonny Lomax
Scrum Half - Theo Fages
Prop - Alex Walmsley
Hooker - James Roby
Prop - Luke Thompson
Second Row - Zeb Taia
Second Row - Dominique Peyroux
Loose Forward - Morgan Knowles
Interchange - James Bentley
Interchange - Matty Lees
Interchange - Kyle Amor
Interchange - Joseph Paulo
Much of that side picks itself if everyone is 100% fit. And I must keep stressing that word ‘If’. There are many variables as we have seem. In addition there are a few areas, particularly the bench spots, which present Holbrook with some tricky decisions. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Danny Richardson, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Aaron Smith, Jack Ashworth and Jack Welsby all miss out in my line-up. There is a case for including any or all of these and, remembering that this is my team based on what I would choose and not on what I think Holbrook will choose, McCarthy-Scarsbrook is a virtual certainty for the bench.
Of the others perhaps Richardson presses the strongest claim and will be the most aggrieved at missing out given what he has already achieved in his career. My feeling, and I suspect Holbrook’s too, is that the pairing of Fages and Lomax is our most trustworthy for this big occasion. There is an argument for including Richardson for his goal-kicking especially if Coote either can’t play or can’t handle the kicking duties. But Percival is another good option in that role and I’m loathe to select a player solely on the basis of goal-kicking. It’s not rugby union.
Roby’s inclusion means I only have room for one of Smith or Bentley on the bench and the latter’s versatility and recent encouraging performances get him my vote. Recent form also puts Amor in ahead of Ashworth for me. The Cumbrian has his second consecutive 100-metre+ game against Leeds and deserves his shot. Ashworth’s time will come. Finally, Paulo is in provided he can shake off a hamstring injury because he offers more versatility and fewer brain farts than McCarthy-Scarsbrook. In reality the former Bronco will play possibly at the expense of Amor.
As Disgruntled Of Wigan never tires of telling us Saints are not yet champions of 2019. Our dominance of this year’s regular season will be nothing more than a stick with which to beat us if we fail to win at Old Trafford in the Grand Final. Saints are 16 points clear after this win, on course to top the table by a record margin. Yet if you did a quick survey of even our own fans most of them would not consider this in itself a success. Everything hangs on whether we win the games that bring the trophies.
Strange then that Leeds Rhinos chose to mark Saints’ hitherto played-down success by offering a guard of honour. Of sorts. My recollection of a traditional guard of honour is that the players involved form two lines opposite each other and then applaud as the honoured guests run onto the field in the gap between the two lines. Leeds had a different take on it, simply forming one line from where they clapped Saints on to the pitch.
It was a nice thought and went down well with Saints fans who believe that the achievement of winning the League Leaders Shield ought to be given a bit more kudos. It absolutely should, of course. The subdued, almost embarrassed celebrations when Saints were awarded the Shield last year were a depressing reminder of how rugby league has been reduced to a few important games at the end of the season. Consistency is shrugged at, even by fans of those who achieve it. The Grand Final is King as we found out last year and Castleford the year before that.
The powers within the game have to come up with some way of giving the Shield winners the recognition they deserve. It is not the responsibility of rival clubs to make us feel as if our achievement really matters. Can you imagine a scenario in which Wigan are coming to town having won the Shield with games to spare and seeing your Saints line up to applaud them on to the field? I don’t know about you but I would probably be hospitalised once I’d been spotted frothing at the mouth.
There is a school of thought that Leeds are using the experience for their own ends. Their players will not want to play the role of deferential onlookers the next time the Shield is handed out. It is thought that Sir Alex Ferguson had his Manchester United players form guards of honour whenever they relinquished the title to an Arsenal or a Chelsea. It was probably a powerful motivational tool for the following season. The key difference of course is that those teams applauded on to the field by Manchester United’s players were champions. There were no arguments. No one-off, knockout games at neutral venues to negotiate. In our game, where so much depends on winning on the right date at the right stadium, it all just feels ever so slightly inappropriate.
Injury Worries Persist
Saints went into this one without five of what most would consider their starting 13. James Roby, Lachlan Coote and Alex Walmsley have all been out injured recently and were not named in Justin Holbrook’s 19-man squad a couple of days before the game. Nor was Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook. When game day arrived the names of Tommy Makinson and Morgan Knowles were also absent from the team sheet. Matty Costello filled in on the wing while James Bentley continued his progress as a Super League player with a switch to loose forward.
Until now we have felt comfortable that Holbrook is just employing a cautious selection policy ahead of next week’s Challenge Cup Final meeting with Warrington at Wembley. There’s no point risking a player who isn’t 100% fit and so it has felt right to give one or two a rest. Yet there is a fine line between protecting players for Wembley and pitching them into a final with a lack of match sharpness, even if Holbrook has publicly stated that all of his injured stars should be fit for the big day. Knowles hasn’t played since the defeat at London on July 21. He spoke confidently at a club forum on Tuesday (August 13) about featuring at Headingley after a rib problem. The fact that he did not play surely creates a nagging doubt about his fitness.
Similarly Coote hasn’t featured since the July 12 win over Wigan. There may be a psychological edge to naming the Scotland international at Wembley even if there is a cloud over his fitness. How many times down the years have we seen patched up Wigan players turn out at Wembley and affect the opposition just by reputation? Coote has been sensational in his first season with Saints and could have a big enough name to spook the opposition irrespective of his fitness. As could Roby and Walmsley. Warrington will no doubt try something similar with Blake Austin who has not played since turning an ankle in Perpignan on August 3.
The question is whether recalling so many players who have had so little rugby over the last few weeks is the right way to go. If they’re not fully fit the team cannot carry them all. We have several able deputies we could call on if the risks outweigh the benefits of selecting the tried and tested. Jack Welsby flapped at one or two high balls early in this one but has been excellent in recent weeks and grew into this game as it wore on. We should have no real concerns over him. Roby’s role has been adequately filled by the Smith-Bentley duo while both Joseph Paulo and McCarthy-Scarsbrook have the experience to plug the gap left by Knowles should he be unavailable. Individually and on their own merits it is easy to see any of these playing a part in a winning effort at Wembley. What is less clear is how strong the team will be if all of them are pressed into duty against what remains a strong-looking Wolves side despite their poor form of late. Holbrook will probably need at least a couple of his injured stars to give him 80 minutes and he faces a difficult task this week in working out how many of them should get the nod.
Wembley Could Suit Naiqama
The form of Kevin Naiqama could be extremely timely. Without his regular right edge partner in Makinson the Fiji captain took matters into his own hands. He produced a man of the match effort, crossing for a hat-trick of tries and running for 102 metres on 12 carries at almost nine metres per carry. He busted out of nine tackles and his attacking involvement was a key to this win because it meant that Leeds’ runaway train Konrad Hurrell had to expend some of his relatively meagre energy resources in defence. The former Gold Coast man was not nearly as effective with ball in hand in the second half against Naiqama as he had been in the first.
Naiqama doesn’t always get the plaudits you’d expect. He was a much trumpeted signing from the NRL’s Wests Tigers. An outside back from a league in which centres and wingers often set the teams apart from those in Super League. Yet his performances have often been overshadowed in his first year at Saints not only by Makinson but also by Mark Percival and Regan Grace on the other flank. Quietly, Naiqama has registered 17 tries in Super League this term. That’s the same number as Grace and only two less than Makinson. The Saints winger is one of only four men who have crossed the whitewash more often than Naiqama this season in the whole of Super League.
Avoiding cliches about the wide open spaces of Wembley there probably is something about the dimensions of the national stadium which allows pacy wide players to thrive. In my mind’s eye I can see Mark Elia tearing down the field in the 1987 Final defeat to Halifax, Martin Offiah’s melodramatic disbelief at having scored the greatest of all Wembley tries in 1995, and Jonathan Davies’ memorable scoot past Brett Mullins for Great Britain a year earlier. Speed kills and it would surprise nobody if the Fijian writes himself into Saints folklore with a couple of scorching efforts under the arch.
Taia Could Also Be Key
Sky Sports’ commentary credited Zeb Taia with two tries at the end of the game. Yet since then common sense has prevailed and Grace has taken the credit for the first of those. The Welshman got the merest of fingertips to the ball as it bobbled around the in-goal area before it was more comprehensively grounded by Taia. It’s a bad rule, but in the modern game even the most feather-light touch on a ball on the ground is considered to be downward pressure and sufficient for the try to be given. It could not have been awarded to Taia once Grace had got a touch to it. Either he grounded it in the dubious manner which satisfies modern officials or he knocked it on. He certainly did not miss it completely which is the only way that Taia could have been given the credit for it.
Yet it didn’t take long for the Cook Islander to get his name added to the list of try-scorers. Within a minute he was taking Grace’s pass and stretching out to score. It was just reward for a performance which saw him rack up 118 metres on 16 carries while making 28 tackles. Only Matty Lees, Smith and Bentley managed more defensive contributions for Saints. It was an especially important effort given the absence of Walmsley and Roby and a slightly stunted display by Luke Thompson. Beyond those three Taia and Dominique Peyroux are Saints’ real gun forwards, the pack men most capable of making the metres and breaks that will allow the speedier men to influence the game.
Taia is not only a player of great talent and experience in his own right, he also makes others around him that little bit better. Saints’ left edge of Taia, Grace and Percival is a fearsome one that is probably unmatched anywhere else in Super League. Taia was another one in attendance at the midweek forum and he spoke with great enthusiasm about the prospect of playing at Wembley now that he has recovered from the shoulder injury he suffered last time Saints met Leeds. It’s been a long time coming but Taia finally has a chance to win the silverware that he no doubt joined Saints for two years ago. Expect him to have a big game.
So What’s Your Team?
Indulge me while I finish this week’s column by playing a little Rugby Manager. It’s time to take a closer look at who might be in the Saints 17 when they line-up in the capital for their biggest game since the 2014 Grand Final. We are going to assume that Holbrook is not selling us a dummy and that everyone is fit. You can pick this apart later;
Fullback - Lachlan Coote
Right Wing - Tommy Makinson
Right Centre - Kevin Naiqama
Left Centre - Mark Percival
Left Wing - Regan Grace
Stand Off - Jonny Lomax
Scrum Half - Theo Fages
Prop - Alex Walmsley
Hooker - James Roby
Prop - Luke Thompson
Second Row - Zeb Taia
Second Row - Dominique Peyroux
Loose Forward - Morgan Knowles
Interchange - James Bentley
Interchange - Matty Lees
Interchange - Kyle Amor
Interchange - Joseph Paulo
Much of that side picks itself if everyone is 100% fit. And I must keep stressing that word ‘If’. There are many variables as we have seem. In addition there are a few areas, particularly the bench spots, which present Holbrook with some tricky decisions. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that Danny Richardson, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Aaron Smith, Jack Ashworth and Jack Welsby all miss out in my line-up. There is a case for including any or all of these and, remembering that this is my team based on what I would choose and not on what I think Holbrook will choose, McCarthy-Scarsbrook is a virtual certainty for the bench.
Of the others perhaps Richardson presses the strongest claim and will be the most aggrieved at missing out given what he has already achieved in his career. My feeling, and I suspect Holbrook’s too, is that the pairing of Fages and Lomax is our most trustworthy for this big occasion. There is an argument for including Richardson for his goal-kicking especially if Coote either can’t play or can’t handle the kicking duties. But Percival is another good option in that role and I’m loathe to select a player solely on the basis of goal-kicking. It’s not rugby union.
Roby’s inclusion means I only have room for one of Smith or Bentley on the bench and the latter’s versatility and recent encouraging performances get him my vote. Recent form also puts Amor in ahead of Ashworth for me. The Cumbrian has his second consecutive 100-metre+ game against Leeds and deserves his shot. Ashworth’s time will come. Finally, Paulo is in provided he can shake off a hamstring injury because he offers more versatility and fewer brain farts than McCarthy-Scarsbrook. In reality the former Bronco will play possibly at the expense of Amor.
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