Leeds Rhinos 0 Saints 48 - Review

Come back! Those of you who immediately took to social media to declare Super League’s restart a failure in the wake of Hull FC’s positive Covid-19 tests can relax. A quick fixture reshuffle and everything is back on. That means I can now review Saints’ startling destruction of Leeds Rhinos without peppering my prose with sad reminders of a season lost.

Saints had restarted brilliantly with a 34-6 towelling of Catalans Dragons but this was an even more joyous expression of their vast superiority. Leeds were woeful. Richard Agar had started to look like a proper rugby league coach before lockdown but his inability to find answers here made him look more like the chancing PE teacher his detractors have always suspected him to be. Yet whoever was in charge of the Rhinos would not have found a way to stop Saints on this march. Even Kristian Woolf seemed incredulous, sat there belly-laughing, shoulders shaking like that infamous gif of Tory ice-witch Theresa May. 

A lot seems to have happened in rugby league in the 72 hours since I was fretting about Mark Percival’s absence. The England centre was not risked because of a tight hamstring. His place went to Matty Costello, who had not been named in the original 21-man squad on Friday. One of a raft of changes to conditions during the Covid environment of 2020 is that clubs are able to draft in players from outside their 21 without losing an interchange. Huge sighs of relief all round. You wouldn’t want to face a team possessing Agar’s strategic acumen with only seven interchanges, would you?

The only other change saw Matty Lees come on to the bench. He missed the Dragons win with illness (no, not that one) but replaced Joe Batchelor in the 17. That meant James Bentley kept his place in the second row alongside Zeb Taia, leaving no place for Dominique Peyroux. Despite several attempts by Leeds defenders to separate his head from his shoulders Bentley put in another solid performance. Another 53 tackles to add to the 46 he managed last week marked him out as Saints’ hardest working defender for the second week in succession. He also found time to provide the assist for Lachlan Coote’s try which completed the rout. In a packed schedule Peyroux will be needed. What he has contributed since becoming revitalised under Justin Holbrook cannot be understated or forgotten, but we may just be seeing the beginnings of a changing of the guard in the second row. Bentley is now proving his worth there and Joel Thompson of Manly Sea Eagles is expected to replace Taia in 2021.

If the second row is in fine fettle words fail me in describing the condition of the front row. This was a different sort of performance to that which we saw against Catalans last week. Only 10 offloads versus 17 in the win over Steve McNamara’s side highlight the difference in approach. According to the TV commentator’s James Graham sledged the Leeds side about the fact that Saints would ‘get them up the middle’. That certainly would be backed up by the evidence on the field. Graham scored the first of Saints’ eight tries with a powerful charge to the line, which was seen and then raised by Alex Walmsley as he took three or four tacklers over the line with him for Saints’ second. Throughout the afternoon Saints provided proof that you don’t need to play with great expansion and width to leave fans satisfied that they have been entertained. Just win, and win this well.

In all Walmsley ripped off 205 metres on 20 carries. The Leeds pack just could not handle him. The highlight of the Walmsley masterclass was not his try - breathtaking though that was - but his assist for Theo Fages four-pointer. Walmsley broke the line and surged down field into open space before turning into Alfie Lange to find Fages in support on his right hand side. Walmsley was jogging backwards, gesturing towards a giddy Saints bench in celebration before Fages had even dotted the ball down beneath the sticks. It was rugby league’s version of Usain Bolt slowing down 20m from the line but breaking the 100m world record regardless. 

Which I’m sure you’ll agree is a seamless link to the performance of another great sprinter, Regan Grace. The thing about comprehensively monstering your opposition pack in the early going is that it allows you to bring out your box of tricks later on. So it was that Grace was able to cruise past the statuesque Leeds cover for two length of the field efforts either side of an acrobatic, flying finish in the left hand corner. Grace’s hat-trick of tries were the first three of his 2020 campaign so far. In a year in which patience has been a necessity for all of us they were a wonderful reminder that some things really are worth waiting for. 

For the first he took Coote’s pass five metres from his own line and glided through a chaotic Rhinos line before dancing inside two Leeds defenders and jogging to the line. After his flying second his third was the best of the lot, fielding a kick inside his own in-goal area before taking the scenic route back into the field of play and streaking away to score. Several Rhinos defenders gave chase without ever looking remotely likely to catch him. It was a special performance from a special player, and one that attracted lots of attention from fans of Welsh rugby union on social media. If rugby league is serious about establishing itself in the consciousness of those outside the M62 it needs to make sure that extravagant talents like Grace are not lost to the other code.

When he had stopped giggling Woolf typically deflected the attention away from his side’s attacking endeavours and praised his players for their defence. Shutting Leeds out is no mean feat. Doing so on their own patch at Headingley is a first for any side in the Super League era. On the face of it 28 missed tackles isn’t a stellar statistic, but it is the work that Woolf’s side do to recover from those misses which makes them so formidable. The Rhinos didn’t get a huge amount of good ball as the Saints attack dominated. Yet there was a spell early in the game and another one close to half-time and just before Grace’s first effort when Agar’s men put pressure on the Saints goal-line defence. They bent but didn’t break, as champions are wont to do. 

The win lifted Saints up to second in the table. Only Wigan lie above Woolf’s men now and it is hard to see on this form how Adrian Lam’s infinitely less convincing outfit will hold them off for too much longer. The next challenge is not Wakefield Trinity - who gave the Warriors an almighty quiver before going down by a single point immediately prior to Saints’ win - but Castleford as the authorities execute a swift fixture shuffle to combat the Hull FC Covid mini outbreak. A late change of opponent is unlikely to faze the laughing Woolf as they look to wreak yet more havoc on a Tigers side who found Catalans too hot to handle on Saturday.

It can’t come soon enough.

Saints v Leeds Rhinos - Preview

Saints look to build on their excellent restart to the 2020 Super League campaign when they take on Leeds Rhinos at Headingley on Sunday (August 9, kick-off 6.30pm).

Kristian Woolf’s side looked extremely impressive in their first outing following the lockdown, brushing aside Catalans Dragons 34-6 in Leeds a week ago. Now they return to face a Rhinos side that despite the continued absence of fans will be somewhat more familiar with the surroundings. They’ll also face a side that sits top of the table going into this weekend’s fixtures. Saints remain two points behind Richard Agar’s side having played a game more. In a season shortened by the pandemic this is very close to a must-win even at this relatively early stage of proceedings.

Woolf has named exactly the same 21-man squad that was on duty ahead of the Catalans game, although the final match day 17 may undergo a few tweaks. Matty Lees and Dominique Peyroux missed out last week with illness and a muscle injury respectively but could be in line for a return to action. It looks like a straight choice between Lees and James Graham for the starting prop berth alongside Alex Walmsley, while Peyroux will hope to renew his successful second row partnership with last week’s standout Zeb Taia. That would be harsh on James Bentley, who stepped in for Peyroux against the Dragons to deliver a try and 46 tackles. 

Along with Walmsley, Morgan Knowles and James Roby look the other certain starters in the pack all things being equal. With Lees and Peyroux back in contention Joe Batchelor’s spot in the 17 looks vulnerable while one of Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook may also miss out so that back-up hooker Aaron Smith can be accommodated. Alternatively Woolf could select both Irish international props and rely on the versatile Bentley to provide the cover for Roby.

The backs are fairly settled. Lachlan Coote should continue at fullback after his two-try effort last time out. Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace are established on the wings with centres Kevin Naiqama and Mark Percival completing the threequarter line. Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages pull the strings in midfield as youngster Lewis Dodd awaits his first Super League opportunity. The squad is completed by youngster Jack Welsby who after impressing in his early first team outings is going through a more challenging period in his development. In a busy season with a congested schedule later on you get the feeling his time will come again before too long.

Leeds’ restart meeting with Huddersfield Giants last week was one of the more remarkable Super League games in recent years. The Rhinos looked extinct at 26-6 down with just 12 minutes remaining, but staged an epic four-try comeback to take it to extra-time at 26-26 before winning it with Luke Gale’s golden point drop-goal in that extra period. That they managed to turn it around with Ash Handley in the sin-bin for dissent is all the more astonishing. They deserve full credit for the turnaround but Giants coach Simon Woolford will know that no side should lose a game from the position they were in.

Agar has had to make two changes to his 21-man selection due to injury. James Donaldson was stretchered off during the Giants win with a back injury and misses out despite hopes that the damage is not as serious as first thought. Yet perhaps the biggest miss for Leeds will be that of former Gold Coast Titans centre Konrad Hurrell who has a hamstring problem. Hurrell is a major attacking weapon on Leeds’ left edge and showed that when he bagged two tries in last weekend’s miracle comeback. Handley, Alex Mellor, Rhyse Martin, Rhys Evans and Briscoe brothers Tom and Luke are among the candidates to fill the void in the centres alongside the now permanent fixture that is Harry Newman. Richie Myler is fit to play despite suffering a head knock last week. Myler could continue at fullback with young star Jack Walker still unavailable. That will enable the dangerously unpredictable Robert Lui to continue his halfback partnership with Gale. 

If Martin or Mellor move to the back line then Cameron Smith could come into the back row along with Matt Prior. Ava Seumanafagai and Mikolaj  Oledzki are in line to start at prop with chief offloader Adam Cuthbertson backing them up. Youngster Tom Holroyd could also get an opportunity in the front row rotation. The Rhinos are strong at hooker where the speedy and industrious pair of Brad Dwyer and Kruise Leeming represent one of the league’s best duos in the position.

Leeds’ only defeat this season came all the way back on opening day in February when they were routed 30-4 by Hull FC. There was no sign then of the sort of form that would see them hand out shellackings to Warrington, Hull KR and Toronto and also see off Salford with something to spare before the shutdown. They were somewhat less impressive during the restart but found a way to win almost despite themselves. They are a genuine threat, but spurred on by the consequences of defeat I expect an in form Saints to edge this one by a couple of scores. Saints by 12.

Squads;

Leeds Rhinos;

2. Tom Briscoe 3. Harry Newman 5. Ash Handley 6. Robert Lui 7. Luke Gale 8. Ava Seumanafagai 9. Kruise Leeming 10. Matt Prior 11. Alex Mellor 12. Rhyse Martin 14. Brad Dwyer 16. Richie Myler  17. Adam Cuthbertson 19. Mikolaj Oledzki 21. Rhys Evans  22. Cameron Smith 23. Callum McLelland 24. Luke Briscoe 26. Alex Sutcliffe 28. Tom Holroyd 34. Jack Broadbent

St Helens;

1. Lachlan Coote 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 4. Mark Percival 5. Regan Grace 6. Jonny Lomax 7. Theo Fages 8. Alex Walmsley 9. James Roby 11. Zeb Taia 12. Dominique Peyroux 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook 14. Morgan Knowles 15. Matty Lees 16. Kyle Amor 19. Aaron Smith 20. James Bentley 22. Jack Welsby 23. Joe Batchelor 27. Lewis Dodd 32. James Graham

Referee: Chris Kendall

Saints 34 Catalans Dragons 6 - Review

Sunday felt like a special occasion. After almost five months of inactivity Super League made it’s return. Having been involved in the last game before the suspension of play due to the Covid-19 outbreak Saints were also in action first after the restart. They took on Catalans Dragons on the neutral territory of Headingley in Leeds. There were no fans inside the ground but that couldn’t detract from the excitement of finally seeing some live, competitive rugby league on British soil after such a long and desperate absence. 

Unlike that last game before the suspension - a 28-14 defeat to Castleford Tigers on March 15 - this was a Saints performance worth the wait. Kristian Woolf’s side had been stagnant before lockdown. The loss to the Tigers had been one of three early season setbacks as the transition from the Justin Holbrook era to the Woolf tenure proved a little bumpy. Defeats to Warrington and Huddersfield had preceded the Tigers defeat, and even one of the three games that Saints had won to that point has been expunged from the record. The Toronto Wolfpack fell victim to a putrid cocktail of their own hubris, over-spending, visa issues and the bleeding obvious and undeniable truth that running a North American side in a mainly British League is all but unworkable. As such Saints’ 32-0 success over the Wolfpack at Warrington on February 29 now exists only as a matter of statistical record.

It left Saints lying eighth out of 11 before the start of play against Steve McNamara’s side. The Dragons came in to this one with just a single defeat from their opening four games before the competition’s shuddering halt. Yet they were blown away by a Saints side seemingly refreshed and with a whole new approach to attacking rugby. That approach was perhaps influenced by the introduction of the “6 again” set restart rule which sees the tackle count restart after ruck infringements where previously a penalty would have been awarded. From the start the emphasis seemed to be on making a big but rather sluggish Catalans side defend as many second phase plays as possible. 

Saints came up with 17 offloads, more than double the amount they had been averaging in Super League games until this one. Tommy Makinson and Mark Percival had three each while Alex Walmsley and the returning James Graham managed two apiece. Graham was named in the starting line-up after the surprise omission of Matty Lees from the squad. Lees was suffering from a sore throat which in these strange times is justification enough for caution. Having seen everyone involved in the game work so hard to get things under way again the last thing anybody wants is to risk even a minor outbreak which could once again put the completion of the 2020 season in doubt. 

Dominique Peyroux and Joseph Paulo also missed out with muscle problems. James Bentley slotted into the second row alongside the incomparable Zeb Taia, while Lees’ absence created a vacancy on the bench which Joe Batchelor stepped up to fill. Kyle Amor was afforded more minutes as a result and he didn’t miss his opportunity. The Cumbrian made 110 metres on 11 carries and alongside Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook (114 metres on 16 carries) provided excellent cover for Walmsley and Graham. The latter’s 84 metres on 13 carries looks like modest impact, but his ability to not only offload but also pass before he reaches the defensive line adds another dimension to the Saints front row. Walmsley was Walmsley, crashing through all comers for a breathtaking try to cap a 153-metre effort in attack and 24 tackles in defence.

Yet in terms of the pack and although it was Morgan Knowles who claimed Sky Sports’ Man Of The Match award it was Taia who stood out. His magical inside ball to Lachlan Coote to set up the first of Saints’ six tries was another example of his class. He will leave a huge hole in the side when he departs at the end of the season. For now we got to sit back and enjoy a performance that yielded 144 metres on 16 carries, a try and two assists including that sensational, instantaneous catch and pass which gave Coote the first of his two scores in a personal tally of 18 points. Bentley was a try-scorer too, and has given Woolf a possible selection poser should Peyroux return to full fitness in time for the meeting with Leeds this coming Sunday (August 9). As well as scoring his try, his 46 tackles was more than any other Saint managed on the day, though the 45 made by Knowles is certainly worthy of recognition.

Coote only played twice before lockdown thanks to a medial ligament problem. His return to fitness could be a major factor in a real upturn in Saints’ form on this evidence. In front of him Makinson ripped off 220 metres including a typically brilliant, winding run to the line for what is surprisingly only his second try of 2020. There will be more if Woolf continues with the more open style on display here. Percival too was outstanding. He did not cross for a try himself but managed 182 metres on 19 carries to go with those three offloads. Had the nearest player in support to Percival’s searing first half break been Makinson, Coote or Regan Grace rather than James Roby then the England centre would most likely have had a try assist also. Like Coote, Percival has missed much of the early part of 2020. He damaged a shoulder in defeat at Warrington in early February but is one of those players whose season might just have been saved by the extended break.

If we are looking at what could have worked better there are a couple of very minor gripes to note on an overwhelmingly positive day overall. Saints’ kicking game still has questions to answer, although the tactical acumen of Theo Fages and Jonny Lomax in this department was not really tested. The Dragons defence did not force the Saints attack into enough last tackle situations as they were carved open regularly. The Saints halfback pair each grabbed an assist but it is still Lomax who carries much of the creative burden between the two. 

Support play is another area where strides could be made before next week. As refreshing as it was to see Saints forwards refusing to resort to the knees and elbows fair of years gone by there were still times when a little more push at the line could have been fruitful. Thirty-four points is not a bad effort by any stretch of the imagination but I just felt that there were even more points there for the taking if Saints had backed up even more. Taking those sorts of opportunities could be key against a Rhinos side who, as we saw in their win over the Huddersfield Giants immediately after the Saints game, are not to be given an inch even when way down on the scoreboard.

The “6 again” rule was a controversial introduction given that it has happened after the season has already started. Yet it added to the spectacle in the sense that it quickened the pace of the game. There was barely a stoppage in the first 10 minutes of the Saints win and the first half zipped by in a flash. That was helped further by the other major alteration to the rules, the removal of scrums. The players had apparently requested that some down time be inserted at the handovers that have replaced scrum situations but that didn’t seem to happen. The players of both Saints and Catalans seemed happy to get on with it without a breather except where there was an injury requiring a stoppage. It’s a small sample size but the evidence so far is that the absence of scrums won’t impair the game in the way that some - me included - had feared. You don’t really need set scrum moves and six defenders out of the way when the game is being played the way that Woolf’s side approached it here.

It really felt like a new era, different even to the one we embarked upon in January as Woolf stepped into Holbrook’s shoes. Everything is different post-Covid, but that could be great news for Saints going forward. 

St Helens v Catalans Dragons - Preview

One hundred and forty days. Twenty weeks. Twenty long weeks. That is how long it will have been since we last saw Saints in action by the time they take on Catalans Dragons at Headingley on Sunday (August 2, kick-off 4.15pm). 

Things are going to look a bit different than they did at the time of Saints’ last outing, a 28-14 loss to Castleford Tigers at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle on March 15. Toronto Wolfpack won’t be around having controversially chosen to withdraw from the 2020 competition due to financial and visa issues. The 11 teams that remain in Super League this year will also find that the game itself has gone through a few changes during lockdown. Scrums have been sacrificed in a bid to further reduce the possibility of transmission of Covid-19, while Super League has also used the enforced break to introduce the ‘6 again’ set restart rule currently employed in the NRL. In many ways it is the teams who adapt to these changes most effectively that are likely to be the most successful. 

Change might not be a bad thing for Saints. They did not have the most sparkling of starts to 2020. It was taking new head coach Kristian Woolf a little bit of time to get his ideas across to a team used to achieving success the Justin Holbrook way over the last two years. Wins against Salford, Hull FC and Toronto provided hope but defeats at Warrington and Castleford as well as at home to Huddersfield were all disappointing in their own ways. With the Toronto result now expunged from the record following the Wolfpack’s withdrawal Saints sit a lowly eighth in the table. They need to make a fast restart if they want to push on towards the top four and a playoff berth at the end of the year. 

As is the convention in 2020 Woolf has named a 21-man squad ahead of the meeting with the French side. The headline is perhaps the inclusion of James Graham, back for a second stint at Saints after spending the last eight and a half seasons in the NRL with Canterbury Bulldogs and St George-Illawarra Dragons. It is 17 years since Graham’s first debut for Saints, a 26-10 victory over Castleford Tigers at Knowsley Road in August 2003. He is almost certain to make a second debut here, slotting into the front row to replace Luke Thompson after Saints accepted a fee to allow him to start his own NRL odyssey a little earlier than planned. 

Joseph Paulo is out with a minor muscular problem but otherwise Woolf has all of his pack options available. Alex Walmsley and James Roby are likely to join Graham in the front row with Dominique Peyroux and Zeb Taia behind them in the second row and Morgan Knowles at loose forward. Taia is in his final season with Saints before returning home to Australia but remains one of the side’s most creative forces. He arrived in 2017 amid a fair degree of scepticism from those who felt he was an inadequate replacement for Joe Greenwood. Yet Taia has been outstanding for Saints during 95 appearances in which he has helped Saints to two League Leaders Shields, a first Challenge Cup final appearance in 11 years and of course the Super League Grand Final win over Salford last October. 

James Batchelor and James Bentley may be hoping for more opportunities once Taia moves on and both are included in this initial selection. Aaron Smith is the alternative to Roby at hooker while Matty Lees, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor are the back-ups to Walmsley and Graham at prop. Lees has reportedly been interesting one or two NRL scouts despite missing the back end of last term with a perforated bowel and despite Saints’ inactivity since March. On the back of Thompson’s exit the loss of Lees is probably not something that Saints fans will want to contemplate at the moment. Jack Ashworth is not included and is another about whom there is persistent speculation. His future may lie somewhere other than St Helens. 

The back line will be massively boosted by the return to fitness of Mark Percival. The England centre has had time during lockdown to overcome a shoulder injury suffered in Saints’ embarrassing nilling by Warrington in February. He will provide more strike down Saints’ left edge inside the speedy Regan Grace, with Fiji skipper Kevin Naiqama and the prolific Tommy Makinson on the opposite flank. Lachlan Coote had only just returned from injury for that Tigers game when the season was suspended and so if selected will be making only his third appearance of 2020. Youngster Jack Welsby backs him up and provides cover in a number of other positions also. 

Lewis Dodd gains more experience around the first team as he is named in the squad but it would be a major surprise if he is deemed quite ready to break up the established halfback partnership of Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages. 

A mixture of some inclement early season weather and the refusal of Leeds Rhinos to travel to France as we approached the game’s inevitable hiatus has seen the Dragons play only four times in Super League in 2020 so far. They have managed wins over Castleford, Salford and Hull FC with the one blemish being a 32-12 home defeat by Huddersfield on February 1. Victory over Saints would lift Steve McNamara’s side level on points with the current top three of Wigan, Castleford and Huddersfield. Defeat could see them overhauled by Saints although they will still have a game in hand over Woolf’s men. 

The glaring absence from the Dragons squad is Sam Tomkins. The former Wigan fullback is suspended for a trip during his side’s win over Salford on March 7. Lewis Tierney had been deputising for Tomkins but with the ex-Wigan man also injured alongside David Mead it will be interesting to see who gets the nod from McNamara as the last line of defence. Samisoni Langi has proved versatile since joining from Leigh Centurions in 2018 while McNamara may also consider the controversial ex Australian rugby union international Israel Folau. Tom Davies could return to action for the first time since breaking his leg while playing for Wigan against Saints in last year’s Good Friday derby, while Fouad Yaha is a powerful if unpredictable presence on the wing also. 

James Maloney’s arrival from Penrith Panthers was a source of great excitement across the whole league ahead of the 2020 season. The Australian international who has 14 State Of Origin appearances to his name will be the key creative influence for Catalans alongside the wily former Hull KR man Josh Drinkwater. 

In the pack the veteran Remi Casty continues to lead while the explosive if a little indisciplined Sam Moa could give Saints’ front row a difficult time. Hooker Micky McIlorum is another ex-Wigan man who will relish the battle against his old rivals, in particular his personal duel with Roby. Matt Whitley is a talented back rower and along with Benjamin Garcia can provide a spark. Julian Bousquet, Jason Baitieri and Sam Kasiano offer further problems for the Saints side to solve if they are to win the struggle up front. 

It was already incredibly hard to predict Saints’ results early in 2020. Four months of inactivity hasn’t done anything to make that task any easier. The need of Woolf’s men is perhaps greater due to those three early losses and the neutral territory of Leeds - while not ideal for what would be a Saints home game in a world without Covid - may not suit a Dragons side that has traditionally toiled on the road. Those factors, and the optimism that comes with any fresh start, are enough to persuade me that Saints will take this one by 16. 

Squads; St Helens; Lachlan Coote 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 4. Mark Percival 5. Regan Grace 6. Jonny Lomax 7. Theo Fages 8. Alex Walmsley 9. James Roby 11. Zeb Taia 12. Dominique Peyroux 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook 14. Morgan Knowles 15. Matty Lees 16. Kyle Amor 19. Aaron Smith 20. James Bentley 22. Jack Welsby 23. Joe Batchelor 27. Lewis Dodd 32. James Graham 

Catalans Dragons 

3. Samisoni Langi 4. Israel Folau 5. Fouad Yaha 6. James Maloney 7. Josh Drinkwater 8. Remi Casty 9. Micky McIlorum 10. Sam Moa 11. Matt Whitley 12. Joel Tomkins 13. Benjamin Garcia 14. Julian Bousquet 16. Tom Davies 17. Benjamin Julien 18. Alrix Da Costa 20. Lucas Albert 22. Arthur Romano 23. Antoni Maria 24. Jason Baitieri 25. Arthur Mourgue 26. Sam Kasiano 

Referee: Ben Thaler

RLWC 2021 Fixtures - Some Good RL News

Let’s have some good news in rugby league, shall we? Toronto Wolfpack’s withdrawal from Super League for 2020 which was announced on Monday (July 20) wasn’t so much a car crash as a motorway pile-up. We needed something to raise the spirits.

Apparently it is complete coincidence that the fixtures for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup were due to be released the very next day. It was always the plan, whereas Toronto’s announcement...well...wasn’t. The Wolfpack situation is now beyond farce and so defies further comment for now. We are 11 days away from the restart of the 2020 Super League season. What we should be talking about is what will be happening on the field. So that is what we will do for the time it takes you to read this guide to the who, what, where and when of Rugby League World Cup 2021.

There overall event sees three tournaments taking place in England in the autumn of 2021. The Men’s World Cup will run alongside the Women’s World Cup and the Wheelchair World Cup. Just a small gripe before we start. You can’t name your tournaments ‘Men’s’, ‘Women’s’ and ‘Wheelchair’. I don’t think it is overly ‘woke’ of me to point out that we are not a third gender. It is likely that the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup is open to both men and women which may go some way to explaining the reference only to ‘wheelchair’, but for me ‘Men’s & Women’s Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup’ might have been a better phrase. There ends your diversity lesson for today.

Purely because this is a column about men’s rugby league and owing to my shameful lack of knowledge of the other two categories I am going to focus on the men’s event. We know that England open the tournament against Samoa at Newcastle United’s St James Park on October 23. Beyond that how will it work? Who will play where, and when? Who has a genuine chance to win? And will it, when all is said and done, be any good?

There are 16 teams involved in the tournament. This might seem like an ambitiously high number for those who worry about what might happen to Italy when they take on Australia at St Helens on November 6, for example. No sport fears lopsided score lines quite like rugby league does. Yet it is generally the nature of World Cups in all sports that relative minnows might take a hiding from an established power. Rugby Union doesn’t worry about blowout scores. It distracts you from the All Blacks’ latest 70-point mauling of Georgia with nationalistic songs and flag-waving. Besides, you only need to kick two drop-goals to score 70 points in rugby union. Or something like that anyway. Cricket and basketball are two other examples of globally successful sports which don’t lose sleep worrying whether Holland will be all out for 12 against the Aussies or whether the Dream Team beat New Zealand by 50 points. We shouldn’t worry either.

Sixteen is a good number because it enables a more simple format. In previous World Cups the group stages have been lopsided and contrived to avoid those big scores. While we all want to see more competitive matches it doesn’t serve the game well if you have a tournament format that is hard to follow. In the 2021 format the teams will be very simply split into four groups of four, with each playing the others in their group once and the top two in each group progressing to the quarter-finals. As well as Samoa, England will face France and Greece in that initial group phase.

If that doesn’t sound all that tough it is because the draw is seeded. It is one thing to include lesser teams, it would be quite another to lump all the top teams in together in the early stages. Seedings should ensure that the best teams progress to the latter stages and that those knockout fixtures should be among the most competitive and high quality of the tournament. There is an established ‘big 4’ in international rugby league right now following Tonga’s performances in the 2017 World Cup and their astonishing victory over the Kangaroos in November. It makes sense to keep those four apart initially.

Heading up Group A England follow that Samoan opener with a meeting with France at Bolton on October 30 before taking on Greece at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane on November 6. France will meet Greece at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium on October 25, and Samoa at the Halliwell Jones in Warrington on November 7. Samoa face Greece at Doncaster on October 31. All things being equal Shaun Wane’s England side should make it through as group winners to a last eight match with the runner-up in Group D at Anfield. That could be Wales if they can get out of a group expected to be won by Tonga but which also features Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands. Welsh coach John Kear was recently reportedly trying to convince Newcastle Knights teenage centre sensation Bradman Best to take advantage of some Welsh heritage which would certainly help looking at some of Best’s performances in the NRL this year.

Group D features matches at St Helens, which might be useful for you to know if you’re planning to get along to any matches without having to travel very far. Two of Tonga’s matches will take place in these parts as Kear’s Wales outfit and Papua New Guinea also roll into town on October 26 and November 1 respectively. The other local offering is over in Group B where the world champions Australia will take on that Italian challenge I mentioned earlier. Italian hopes of seeing James Tedesco wearing blue rather than green and gold that day seem slim, but if you can get along there on November 6 you have a realistic shot of seeing him in the flesh irrespective of what colour he is wearing.

Joining the Australians and Italy in Group B are Fiji and Scotland. The Scots take on Italy and Fiji at Newcastle Falcons’ Kingston Park on October 24 and November 1 respectively but in between those two they must flit down to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena to take on Australia on October 29. Fiji will be the likely favourites to join Australia in the last eight. They get their toughest group game out of the way early when they take on the green and gold at the KCom Stadium in Hull on October 23. They then move over to Newcastle to take on Italy on October 30 and Scotland on November 6.

Whoever qualifies from that group will meet a team from Group C in the quarter-finals. The strong favourite and the team everyone expects to top this group is still New Zealand. This is despite the fact that Kiwis were humbled 4-2 by Fiji in the last eight of the 2017 World Cup, with Penrith Panthers hooker Api Koroisau kicking a crucial penalty goal for the Bati on that day. Maybe we have a ‘Big 5’. Yet with the Fijians safely out of harm’s way for now in Australia’s group Michael Maguire’s side should have few problems squeezing past Lebanon, Jamaica and Ireland. I read recently that Ireland were going to ditch their policy of selecting Super League stars with Irish heritage and would instead include more Irish-born players. That could be grim news for Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor, both of whom were born in England but featured for Ireland in the 2017 tournament.

If you fancy seeing a Kiwi game there will be one on October 24 not too far down the road at Warrington. Lebanon are the opponents on that occasion before New Zealand play both Jamaica (October 30) and Ireland (November 5) at Headingley in Leeds. If you have more of a feeling for the Irish - and let’s face it who on Merseyside doesn’t have some kind of Irish connection? - you can also see the Wolfhounds take on Jamaica at Headingley on October 24 and Lebanon at Leigh Sports Village on October 31. Jamaica have never qualified for a Rugby League World Cup before so their presence will automatically be a triumph both for them and for the sport. It would be a major surprise if they and not Lebanon or Ireland joined New Zealand in the knockout phase. Lebanon lost by just two points to Tonga in their 2017 quarter-final on the way to which they beat France. If Tonga are ‘Big 4’ or ‘Big 5’ then perhaps that suggests Lebanon aren’t that far away either. Their final group game, against Jamaica on November 7, is also at Leigh Sports Village.

Lebanon would be likely to face Australia at Huddersfield on November 12 if they win through, while the prospect of a reunion between New Zealand and Fiji in a quarter-final at the KCom on November 13 is enticing. England’s Anfield quarter-final will be on November 13 provided they win their group, while the smart money says Tonga will face Samoa in Bolton on November 14.

The semi finals take place at Elland Road, Leeds on November 19 and at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on November 20. With perhaps a slight nod to Super League the final will take place at Old Trafford, Manchester on Saturday November 27.

It should be absolutely fabulous. Provided nobody pulls out two weeks before it starts.

Rugby League’s New Normal Part II - An Explanation

I was in on a media briefing on the Super League rule changes for 2020 on Friday. I say I was in on it. It was conducted on Microsoft Teams so what I actually did was sit silently and listen in place of my friend, 13 pro-am podcast colleague and proper journalist Dave Parkinson. I didn’t actively participate in the discussion. However I did learn a lot and following my piece earlier this week regarding the rule changes I thought it might be instructive to offer you a little follow-up to explain the rationale behind some of the decisions that have been taken.

Dave Rotherham from the laws committee clarified that it had been decided in January that the laws should be looked at. It was not done only as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, by March it had become clear that they would need to deal with the effects of the outbreak. Their aim was to ensure that the game remains safe, fair and entertaining.

Ben Jones from England Performance Unit explained that in order to ensure that the game could return safely from its current suspension they had to demonstrate that a positive Covid test for one player involved in a game would not necessarily mean that all of the others involved in that game would have to self isolate. Should they have do so it is not hard to imagine a scenario where the whole thing comes crashing down and we slide back into a period of suspension.

We know that the risk of transmission outdoors is lower than it is indoors. If it could be demonstrated that face to face contact within a game could be lowered to acceptable levels then that risk could be managed. Face to face contact carries an increased risk of transmission, but for it to be significant it needs to last for 15 minutes or more. The obvious examples of face to face contact in rugby league are tackling and scrums. They examined both to find out whether measures were required to ensure that cumulatively players would not be engaged in face to face contact for longer than that 15-minute threshold.

Tackling is not the big problem. Contact of up to 3 seconds in duration carries only a medium risk. Tackles do not generally involve contact for more than three seconds and so for these purposes are considered ‘fleeting’. On this basis a player would need to be involved in 300 tackles to take them beyond that cumulative 15-minute threshold. This risk is considered manageable although the fact that there is risk involved at all is one of the reasons given for the “6 again” or set restart rule. By discouraging players from holding on or wrestling at the play-the-ball you can further minimise the amount of face to face contact between players.

We’ll see how the set restart will influence the game later but let’s deal with the bigger problem at hand which is scrums. Scrums have been removed essentially because they create a micro-environment. Twelve players breathe the same air during a scrum, and each has the potential to infect any of the other 11. The two scrum halves and the referee are not included in this equation as they are not considered to be in face to face contact with the others. Still, that’s 132 potential transmissions. That risk is considered too great. Those of you who have been watching the NRL will have noted that scrums remain in that competition. It’s important to remember that Public Health England advice is different to that of its Australian equivalent. The higher R rate and significantly higher Covid-19 death toll in the UK were also factors in reaching a different decision to the one seen in the NRL.

The removal of scrums has taken all of the headlines but other types of so-called ‘huddling’ have also been eliminated from rugby league’s new normal. Players will not be allowed to gather at moments of celebration nor will they be able to group together behind the posts as you would often see when a try is conceded. All of these measures serve to reduce the amount of face to face contact during the game to keep it safe.

If like me you were expecting the absence of scrums to result in a tap-athon then you might be interested in learning more about what the game will look like at situations which would normally require a scrum to pack down. If there is a knock-on or the ball goes over the sideline the game will restart with a handover. If the ball is kicked out ‘on the full’ then the handover will take place at the spot where the ball was kicked, just as the scrum does currently. The new rule does not provide an escape route from a poor territorial kick.

One of the concerns the players had with removing scrums was that they would lose the down time that they afford. To combat this referees boss Steve Ganson explained that the shot clock currently used for scrums and drop-outs will be in operation. The teams will have 30 seconds to get set for the next play after the handover. The game clock will stop if play has not restarted by the end of that 30 seconds and will only restart once the ball is played.

There is no such downtime allowance for set restarts. The players are going to have to be that little bit fitter as the down time that conceding a penalty normally creates will disappear. Ganson explained that previously a team conceding a penalty could expect an average of around 22 seconds down time. Set restarts are for situations where a penalty would previously have been given at the ruck. In simple terms infringements which take place before the tackle is completed will remain a penalty. Offences which occur after the tackle is completed but before the ball is played again successfully will become set restarts, giving the attacking team a fresh set of six tackles in possession. The exceptions to this are persistent offences or those which in the opinion of the referee prevent the team in possession from getting sufficient benefit, or professional fouls. For the latter, the referee may impose a 10-minute sin-bin on the offending player.

The set restart rule was introduced into the NRL this year and we have already seen seven weeks of action since their restart. In the early weeks the players relied on a referee’s signal to notify them of a set restart. The clubs felt that it was proving difficult for all players to see that signal and so the alarm that you might have heard frequently during Sky Sports’ recent coverage was introduced. Learning from that, Ganson explained that the existing shot clock buzzer will sound when a set restart is awarded. This should help make all players, TV viewers and - maybe by October - fans inside the stadium aware of the decision.

The final change was the one with less relevance to Covid-19. There has long been a debate about the ‘third man in’ to a tackle. Tackles made by players joining late are often more about stat padding than anything else and have the potential to cause serious knee and leg injuries. Ganson explained that it will now be illegal to hit a ball-carrier below the knee if he is held upright by two or more defenders and is not making any further progress. This is aimed at making the game safer irrespective of Covid-19 and will be retained once the health crisis ends. The only rule changes that will revert back to how they were pre-Covid once we get the all clear are those concerning scrums and huddling.

There was one more rule change considered by the committee but it was agreed that the 20-40 kick, already in place in the NRL, will be deferred for discussion for 2021 as there are no immediate safety concerns relating to it. We can probably expect it to arrive at the start of next season and the interpretation of the current ball steal rule is also up for discussion by the laws committee at that point. Hopefully by then there will be a current professional player on the committee. There have been lots of social media posts by players worrying about how much say they are getting in how the game is changing. Rotherham explained that the player who was on the committee has dropped off but that they are actively looking for a replacement. Until then Gareth Carvell from the players’ union has been their representative in the process.

With just over two weeks to go until Super League’s return it is going to be fascinating to to see how well the changes work and whether they achieve their stated aims of keeping the game safe, fair and entertaining.

Super League Fixtures Revealed - Partially...

Like many rugby league fans I have been building up for weeks to the announcement of the Super League fixtures for the remainder of the 2020 season. We have known since June 26 that the season would resume on August 2 with a triple header of fixtures scheduled to help those teams with games in hand due to postponements to catch up with the rest. Saints are one of those clubs and so the one thing we have known since then is that Kristian Woolf’s side will start against Catalans Dragons, while on the same date Leeds Rhinos will take on Huddersfield Giants and Hull KR Will face Toronto Wolfpack.

Since then there have been delays and postponements to the announcement of any further fixtures. Ongoing spats over wage cuts for players, match venues and the traditional Toronto visa fiasco have all contributed as the publication of the schedule was delayed more often than the 8.42 bone shaker to Lime Street. Some or all of these issues remain with just 17 days to go until that opening triple header. Yet a further delay would surely have thrown huge doubt over whether the restart would happen on time. So today the announcement was made as planned, but with a level of vagueness normally reserved for a government statement on face coverings in Pret A Manger. I can now tell you the order in which Saints play their remaining fixtures but the exact dates and venue details are still about as clear as the average 3-2-1 clue. Ask your dad.

It has now at least been confirmed that the Catalans game will take place at Headingley. This despite the fact that Saints own stadium, the one that doesn’t get a mention on these pages, is also named as a venue at which fixtures will take place following the restart. There will be a Round 9 triple header there on August 16 with Saints taking on Wakefield Trinity, Hull FC meeting Castleford Tigers and another dust-up between what will by then be the old foes of Hull KR and Toronto. Reports that the Wolfpack get to play Rovers every week to give the Canadian side the best chance possible of avoiding the wooden spoon are unconfirmed.

The question that immediately leaps out is why, if Saints can host Wakefield on August 16, do they have to travel to Leeds to play Catalans Dragons in what would have been a home game under normal circumstances? This is a rearranged fixture which should have been played on the weekend that Saints were otherwise engaged with Sydney Roosters in World Club Challenge action.

The line on triple headers at a single venue is that it “ensures greater control over the safety and well being of our players, staff and match officials.” That makes a lot of sense in the crazy Covid world, but under closer inspection basically means that if Saints had been allowed to play the Dragons on home soil then Leeds would not have been able to do the same against Huddersfield on the same day. Someone had to yield and it was never likely to be Gary Hetherington. Should Saints lose that opening game expect sparks to fly from the keyboard of Eamonn McManus in the aftermath.

Saints face the Rhinos on the second weekend of the restart in a more traditional away fixture before that date with Trinity. Beyond that there are no venues confirmed. In theory we could play all of our remaining home games at The Stadium Round The Back Of Tesco but presumably this will be deemed an unfair advantage if others are asked to play at neutral venues while games are still played behind closed doors. We saw a glimpse of what the response to that might look like last week when there was a largely hostile reception to the Dragons’ attempts to play their home games at Stade Gilbert Brutus. The French government have given the go ahead for the Dragons to open up to a maximum of 5,000 fans but as things stand the venues for the scheduled Dragons home games are one of many unconfirmed details of the 2020 season. There are still hopes that fans will be able to attend games in the UK as the season progresses but if that isn’t possible it doesn’t seem likely that the Dragons will drop their interest in hosting in France.

The other standout detail that is not set in stone following today’s announcement concerns the precise dates of matches. Saints’ have confirmed fixtures on August 2, 9, 16 and 30 but when September appears on the schedule released today it does so along with some fairly liberal use of a forward slash indicating that there are two possible dates. After the August 30 meeting with Hull KR Saints will face what should be an away game with Huddersfield Giants on either September 3 or 4. The following week Woolf’s side face Rovers again on either September 10 or 11 and then Toronto Wolfpack on September 24 or 25 and.....well....you get the picture. Interestingly, there is a gap in the schedule on the weekend of September 17 and 18 which given that there are midweek Super League games crammed in to the back end of the programme causing all manner of disputes about player welfare can only be a window deliberately created for the Challenge Cup. This has not been confirmed as yet but it has been the party line all along that the Challenge Cup will be completed despite serious doubts about whether rugby league will resume at professional levels below Super League.

The point about the exact dates of matches might be considered relatively minor by some given that as we stand fans will not be in attendance. Yet if the games are going to be televised or streamed then there will be fans who have complex work schedules who might appreciate a little more clarity. If you were going to try to arrange your work schedule around attending matches before Covid why wouldn’t you try to arrange it so that you can at least watch those games on TV or via a club stream? You’re going to want something if you have agreed to donate your season ticket money to your poor, cash strapped club. The one that goes shopping in the NRL while pleading that it has the financial plight of the NCL. As it stands Sky have committed to the live broadcast of 21 matches in August alone. There is the promise of a lot more along the way. That they have not been confirmed beyond August is a non-issue. It is fairly routine for broadcasters to make fairly late decisions about which games they will screen.

And so to the thorny issue of midweek games. They seemed an inevitability the longer the lockdown continued and are now a concrete part of the plans. Perhaps most interesting for Saints fans is the Wednesday night meeting with Wigan on September 30. Multi-sport fans might be peeved that they could end up having to choose between the derby and their team’s Champions League Group H trip to Vladikavkaz but the people who have the most justifiable gripe are the players. Rugby league is tough at the best of times and if players are asked to back up on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday from a Thursday or Friday game then injuries, fatigue and a general lowering of standards become increasingly likely.

The moans and groans out of the way let’s talk rugby. Saints had played six games before lockdown, winning against Salford, Hull FC and Toronto but suffering defeat to Warrington, Huddersfield and Castleford. That kind of iffy record makes the month of August crucial if we are to live up to the bookmakers billing of title favourites. The Dragons game takes on much more significance than a regular opener would. To go into the clash with a Rhinos side that was clobbering everyone before lockdown on the back of a defeat would present Woolf with a serious problem in this weirdest of debut seasons for the coach. Ending the month with Wakefield and Hull KR looks more gentle but a fast start is essential.

September starts with that Huddersfield clash on either the 3rd or 4th. The Giants had posed few problems for Saints in recent years until they rolled into town in early March and left with a 12-10 win on the back of Aidan Sezer’s surgical kicking game. They are a threat. A second meeting in the space of a fortnight with Rovers follows before Saints take on the Wolfpack and end the month of September with that midweek derby.

October is usually Grand Final month but the showpiece finale has been rescheduled for November in this new reality. Instead the month of October starts with a clash with Wakefield on October 8 or 9 before Castleford on October 14. A rare moment of decisiveness from the schedulers, there. The Tigers were Saints last opponents before lockdown and it was a game that the champions were never in. They went down 28-14 in what turned out to be Luke Thompson’s last appearance before joining Canterbury Bulldogs.

The Tigers match leads into a hectic end to October in which Saints will face Leeds, Salford and Wigan in the space of eight days. It looks a punishing schedule and there are those who feel midweek games should have been slotted in earlier in the schedule when players will be fresher. Yet there might be a reluctance to get the players to do too much too soon after the restart from the fixture planners. This route also gives players a chance to get used to the fitness sapping “6 again” rule and the abolition of scrums which are changes that we will see introduced when things get back under way. November is similarly over crowded, with Catalans Dragons, Hull FC and Warrington all on the to do list between Bonfire Night and November 13.

The playoffs will be reduced for this year. The five team McIntyre system has been temporarily shelved and instead we will see a straight semi-final and final knockout format contested between the top four teams at the end of the regular season. The dates are blighted by yet more vagueness but it seems likely that the opening round will be on the weekend of November 19 and 20 with the Grand Final on November 26. Old Trafford has hosted every Grand Final since its inception in 1998 but is not yet confirmed as the venue for 2020.

It was that sort of big reveal.

Rugby League’s New Normal

Rugby league is coming back, but not quite as we know it. The RFL board met for another hard session of procrastination and kicking the can down the road on July 6.

No decision was reached on whether promotion and relegation to and from Super League will take place in 2020. In addition, no definitive fixture schedule has been set beyond the triple-header planned for August 2 featuring teams with games to make up on the rest. The release of a full schedule was delayed firstly until July 8 before it was then announced that it would not be finalised until some time this week. The suggestion was that there has been objections to Catalans Dragons’ playing home games with a capacity of up to 5,000 in line with French government guidelines at a time when UK clubs are still forced to keep their stadium gates closed.

As I write this there are suggestions that only six of the 12 Super League clubs can return to training, despite the fact that we are now just 19 days away from the proposed restart date. The remaining six are still said to be in discussions with their players about wage cuts. The clubs feel that reductions are necessary so long as games are to be staged behind closed doors. The players are understandably baulking at the idea of a lower reward for what is likely to be a more demanding if shorter schedule. Though we don’t yet know dates and times of matches we do know that plans are afoot to introduce some midweek fixtures to ensure that the Grand Final can be played in November. This is to prevent the current season from dragging on into the winter months and therefore allow the players a reasonable break before the 2021 season is due to get under way in February.

Amid the procrastination and possibly under the influence of the lockdown bubbly some key decisions were made about the way the game will be played in 2020. The Covid crisis has forced many sports to think carefully about how they can adapt to make competition safer and rugby league is no different. It arguably presents more challenges than most other sports because of the level of physical contact involved. Being gang-tackled by three toothless Wigan front rowers with meat pies where their brains should be almost certainly carries a greater risk than....say.....having your pony-tail pulled by Dejan Lovren at a corner kick.

Experts can’t agree on very much during this pandemic. Some will tell you that it’s all over and that it is time to go back to that awful state we used to call normal. Others will tell you it is only just beginning and that popping down to your local Tesco Express for some milk and a packet of Minstrels is an extreme sport that could see you meet your end by the middle of next week. The latter view has only been bolstered by the Prime Minister’s decision to introduce the compulsory wearing of face coverings from July 24. The horse is several furlongs into the distance on this one and Johnson shutting the gate now makes little sense except to say that it is entirely in keeping with his government’s mixed messages and muddled thinking in response to the pandemic. While the truth about the dangers posed by the virus is probably somewhere in between the two extremes that are so often peddled, one thing that they seem to have reached a consensus on is the notion that rugby league in the age of Covid-19 will be safer without scrums.

During the 2020 Super League season If a ball is knocked on, thrown, kicked or batted into touch then the game will restart with a tap for the opponent. This decision has been met with some pretty mixed reactions. There are those who have long held the view that scrums in rugby league are about as much use as Matt Hancock’s protective ring around care homes. I have not seen a rugby league scrum fairly contested since Scrumdown was an ITV highlights show. Nevertheless they do contribute to the spectacle in their own way. A bit like Michael Ball on The One Show.

The thing about scrums is that they take six king-size forwards out of the defensive line. The effect of this is that it makes space for teams to attack. To put on what Stevo used to call a ‘planned move’ and what modern coaches might term a set play. As the game gets more and more structured and players and coaches rattle on about processes, building pressure and completion rates, it needs the opportunities provided by scrums more than ever. In the early weeks of the NRL since its restart some of the best passing movements and the most spectacular tries have originated from scrums. Far from scrapping them in the Covid-19 climate, the Australians have taken advantage of the enhanced potential for excitement from scrums that comes from allowing the team feeding the scrum to choose whether they want to form the scrum 10m or 20m in from the touchline or whether they want it in line with the mid-point between the posts.

It’s not just about entertainment. The absence of scrums will alter the rhythm of the game. It will lack variety in the way it looks. It may also affect the game tactically. The long, raking touch finder is another of the game’s arts which might not be top of the list of skills that fans want to watch but can be an integral part of a team’s game plan. Previously it gave everybody a rest and allowed the kicking team to at least set up their defensive line in anticipation of what would be thrown at them from the resultant scrum. The new arrangement means it is theoretically possible that your halfback’s cool, measured kick for territory will be rewarded with the opposition’s rapid, 18-stone winger retrieving the ball, taking a quick tap and coming at you at a rate of knots before your tired pack have advanced 20 yards down the field.

If that prospect offers little respite the introduction of the ‘6 again’ rule will test the stamina of the athletes even more. In a bid to discourage defenders from lying on a tackled player or from wrestling in an attempt to slow down the play-the-ball a fresh set of six tackles will be awarded to the team in possession instead of a penalty. The rationale is similar to that which has seen off scrums, cutting down the amount of time that players are in close contact and therefore potentially lowering the risk of transmission. Yet that will bring its own challenges to the players. As irritating as they can be the award of a penalty against your defence for ruck infringements buys time to reset and get a bit of breath back in readiness for the next wave of attack. Now teams will need to be ready to defend that next play instantly. In the early weeks of the NRL resumption this had a seismic effect on the fatigue levels of players not used to it and we saw some big scores as a result. That imbalance has levelled off a little as the weeks have gone by and coaches and players have adapted. Still, be warned that the close, intense battles you tuned in for may turn into processions in the early going.

Even as teams adapt defensively there is an argument that the 6 again rule fundamentally changes the game too much. If you are carrying the ball off your own try-line you may prefer the solace of a penalty and a kick to touch to the alternative of six more hard carries starting in difficult field position. And what about if you are transgressed against within kicking distance of the posts? The chance to break a tied score is a thing of the past unless one of two things happens. Either the referee deems an infringement so cynical that the offender is yellow carded for a professional foul, or the ball comes loose meaning that the attack can’t just get on with the next play-the-ball with a new set. It is not hard to envisage a time during a game when a player who has been infringed upon in the ruck develops a relaxed attitude to ball retention. Referees already struggle to decide whether a ball has been stripped in the tackle, dropped or voluntarily lost in a bid to milk a penalty. That problem has the potential to get significantly worse in situations where the attacking side feels that a penalty would be altogether more beneficial than a fresh set of six.

With such a short time to get ready for the restart even for those clubs with pay agreements in place, and with significant rule changes which could make rugby league look and feel quite different to what we saw before lockdown, the game that comes back on August 2 might not be quite as you know it.

After four months without it and as good as the NRL has been, I am still desperate for Super League to start. Even if it is laced with controversy, blowouts and quick-taps.

Pack-Shuffling While We Wait For Action

After months of inactivity due the ongoing public health crisis Saints have made some significant recruitment moves in recent weeks.

First there was the sudden departure of Luke Thompson to Canterbury Bulldogs in the NRL which you can read about elsewhere on these pages. We are still waiting on the official confirmation of James Graham’s return to the club to temporarily fill the void left by Thompson. Graham’s current club St George-Illawarra Dragons formerly announced his departure earlier this week, paving the way for the scouse prop to finish 2020 and in all probability his career with Saints. Graham made 225 appearances for the club between 2003-2011. He won three Challenge Cup winners medals in that time, was a key member of the treble-winning side of 2006 under Daniel Anderson and was named Man Of Steel in 2008. Yet just as Saints prepared to move into the newly built Langtree Park for the 2012 season and following a trauma-inducing run of five consecutive Super League Grand Final defeats Graham chose to test himself in the the Australian competition with the Bulldogs. He moved on to the Dragons in 2018. If Is can be dotted and Ts crossed he should now get the opportunity to grace the turf at Saints still relatively new home, though whether there will be any fans there to witness it remains up in the air.

While we wait on Graham’s arrival in the front row there is activity in the back row department. First Zeb Taia announced that he will be leaving the club at the end of the 2020 season. Whenever that might be. Taia plans to return to Australia when this heavily interrupted campaign ends to continue what he calls ‘the next chapter’ in his life. Taia has made 95 appearances for Saints since becoming Kieron Cunningham’s last signing in March 2017 when he arrived from Gold Coast Titans. The deal saw Joe Greenwood move in the other direction and was met with no small amount of harrumphing from the fans. Cunningham’s record in recruitment had been less than stellar and Greenwood was prized as a hot prospect who had risen up through the club’s youth ranks. Cunningham was blamed for misusing Greenwood and forcing him to view his future elsewhere. At 32, Taia was not seen as a suitable replacement by many.

Perhaps because of that perception, unfair criticism has been a theme of Taia’s three-year spell at Saints. He has been outstanding in the left second row berth. He has twice made the top five in the league in offloads and has so often been the creative spark in the pack. Saints fans demand a flamboyant style even among the forwards and Taia has been a back rower in the very best traditions of the club. He has a languid style that might make the occasional error look like it has come about through carelessness or laziness, but that is an illusion. There have been few who have given more for the cause these last three seasons than the man who captained the Cook Islands at the 2013 World Cup and made the 2015 Super League Dream Team during his spell with Catalans Dragons.

Taia and the club itself have come a long way since the ignominy of an abject home defeat by Wakefield in his debut. He has formed a consistent second row partnership with Dominique Peyroux, another player who fans were not convinced about when he was brought in by Cunningham from New Zealand Warriors in 2016. Those who perceive Taia as anything less than a real grafter might also like to know that he has twice been in Super League’s top five metre makers and even in 2020, with Saints having endured a bumpy start before lockdown, you will find his name in the top 10 in that category.

Born in Australia, his Cook Islands heritage initially saw him represent New Zealand in the 2010 Anzac Day test against Australia. That was while he was with Newcastle Knights in the NRL having started his professional career with Parramatta Eels in 2006. He then moved to France in 2012, had a two-season stint with the Titans from 2016 before arriving in St Helens to begin the most successful phase of his club career. Taia has won two League Leaders Shields in his two full seasons with Saints and was a try-scorer in the 2019 Super League Grand Final defeat of Salford back in October. The only honour in the U.K. game that has eluded him is the Challenge Cup, though he did play in the Wembley defeat by Warrington last season. Taia will hopefully get one more crack at filling that gap in his CV if the authorities can figure out a way to get the competition up and running again post-Covid.

For all the positives around Taia and all the plaudits he is now rightfully receiving it is almost certainly the right time for him to move on. Taia will be 36 by the time this year’s re-scheduled Grand Final comes around. Although there are examples of players who have gone on beyond that age in Super League (Gareth Ellis and Steve Menzies spring immediately to mind) it is perhaps time to look to the future. That is why it is important that Saints have announced today that James Bentley has agreed a one-year extension to his contract. That ties him to the club until the end of the 2021 season. A few eyebrows have been raised at the length of the extension. Ordinarily you would expect a player who does not turn 24 until October to be secured on a longer term deal. Yet perhaps this is a sign of the times we are currently living in. It is arguably prudent for Saints not to commit to too many long term deals until the full financial implications of Covid-19 are clear.

There is every reason to believe that coach Kristian Woolf should want Bentley around for a few years more when financial circumstance allows. His versatility has proven invaluable since making his debut in a win over Hull FC in September 2018. In his 25 appearances for the first team to date Bentley has played second row, centre, hooker and loose forward. He has made 12 starts and scored four tries, including a controversial winner in a classic 32-30 win over Salford last May which turned out to be a dress rehearsal for the Grand Final. Disappointment followed for Bentley as he was left out of the Old Trafford showpiece as well as the Challenge Cup final by Justin Holbrook after making the initial 19-man selection ahead of both games. He will no doubt be keen to put that behind him to play a major role in what we hope will be further success under Woolf.

Perhaps that versatility has worked against Bentley as much as in his favour so far in his Saints career. He arrived at the club in 2018 on the back of Leon Pryce’s assertion that he was the best player in the Championship while playing at second row and loose forward for the Bulls. The young forward scored 18 tries in 28 appearances for the Bradford club as his reputation grew amid the chaos of the fall of Bullmania. Pryce has been wrong before, most notably about Bondi and Blackpool, but he wasn’t the only one making comparisons with John Bateman at that time. Bateman had just begun to star at Wigan at that point and there were hopes that the similarly built Bentley could develop at the same rate. Yet his failure to hold down a regular slot at second row or loose forward is down largely to the excellent form of Taia and Peyroux and the emergence of Morgan Knowles as one of the league’s most consistent performers at loose forward.

Bentley, who has made three appearances for Ireland, has more regularly found himself slotting in at hooker in the increasingly regular absences of James Roby. Bentley and Aaron Smith have often filled Roby’s role by committee. Woolf May choose to develop that strategy as Roby heads towards the twilight of his great career. Yet should the Tongan coach choose instead to bring in a big name replacement for the skipper when the time comes Bentley may find that he needs to establish himself in the back row in the longer term.

Wherever he fits in there’s little doubt that Bentley has been a useful contributor so far in 2020. When the action stopped he had scored tries in wins at Hull FC and against Toronto at Warrington in his five appearances. It might be telling or it might be coincidence, but an ankle injury kept Bentley out of the last two games before lockdown which both ended in meek defeat. A home loss to Huddersfield was followed by a game at Castleford which Saints were never in before the government called its belated halt to professional sport.

If Bentley has put that ankle knock behind him during the suspension he could yet be a key figure when play resumes.

Losing Luke

Look, I know that we have been desperate for something to get us all talking about Saints again but this wasn’t what I had in mind. In a terse statement by Eamonn McManus Saints announced today that Luke Thompson will join up with Canterbury Bulldogs with immediate effect. The England prop had already signed a deal with the NRL side which was due to start in 2021. He will instead fly down under straight away after the Bulldogs agreed to pay what Saints are calling an undisclosed sum.

Yet it was not so much the immediate sale of Thompson as the backdrop to it which caused the biggest stir. In his statement McManus revealed that Thompson ‘had opted not to participate in our club wide squad and staff pay reduction arrangement for the 2020 season’. The implication here is that Thompson’s decision not to take a pay cut was instrumental in the club’s decision to let him go to Australia earlier than planned. These are troubled times for everyone financially as the country bids to recover from a health crisis that has cost tens of thousands of lives and crashed the economy to the tune of a 20% downturn in the month of April. Saints desperately needed whatever money they have managed to get from Canterbury. That need was even greater if Thompson had already refused a pay cut.

Clearly the negotiations have left scars. The club ended the brief message by adding that ‘Thompson spent 13 years at Saints, having progressed through our successful academy system to make his debut in 2013. The club wish Luke all the best in the next stage of his career.’. As a tribute to Thompson’s contribution to Saints since joining as an 11-year-old in 2007 it was fairly minimalist. No mention of Thompson’s two Grand Final wins, his three League Leaders Shields, his 157 appearances for Saints or his development into an international player with few equals in his position anywhere in the world. Just an acknowledgement that he was here. For 13 years. And then he left.

Perhaps it is right that some have criticised the club’s statement. It arguably veers too far into dummy spitting territory and is not really a fitting end to the years that Thompson has been part of the fabric of the club as man and boy. Yet equally there is understandable anger, barely disguised, about Thompson’s insistence on receiving his full salary. Thompson is thought to be a very wealthy man outside of rugby league. He doesn’t really need the money even if the argument that he is entitled to it is legally sound. Other players in less fortunate financial circumstances will likely have put their hands up and accepted the reduction. It’s been claimed that Thompson’s decision not to follow suit was an act of altruism aimed at showing the rest of the players and those who might come after that they should not let the club push them around or make them feel like they have to bow down to their demands. After all, it is not yet clear how much of a pay cut McManus has taken to help the club out during the pandemic. If we are all in this together then it should not fall only on the players to be the philanthropists.

And yet for me it seems a stretch to believe that Thompson’s actions are motivated by the need to look after other players or make political points. The kid is not Arthur Fucking Scargill. He’s a young, world class sportsman who would probably tell you that he is entitled to make as much money as possible in what is, after all, a short career. But I come back again to the point about need. Already wealthy and with a lucrative NRL contract in the bag did he need to dig his heels in over the wage cut? Could he not have worn it for a few months knowing full well that he would soon be paid something closer to his actual worth?

Did the notion that such a gesture would go a long way to allowing his hometown club to operate in the way to which they have become accustomed not enter his head? If this were Ben Barba, standing behind the posts miming the counting of his dollars there’d be knowing shrugs all around. Oh aye, another mercenary come for a jolly and jumping ship at the first sign of a better offer. You accept that. But this is a hometown boy. A lad steeped in the club. A symbol for every child in this town of what can be achieved through hard work, discipline and willingness to learn. It’s all just so......disappointing.

If my inclination is to be highly critical of Thompson there are others of a Saints persuasion more than happy to come to his defence. There is a school of thought developing that argues we should not burn our bridges with him just in case he might want to come back to the club somewhere further down the track. This need of some Saints fans to cling on to ex-players baffles me. There are still some people doing the joke about Mal Meninga returning for a second stint. It has only been 36 years since his first and at 59 years of age Big Mal might still be a level or two above all but about three Super League centres. But whether it is Meninga, Barba, Jamie Lyon, James Graham or Sia Soliola there is always a sizeable section of the fan base getting all misty-eyed and insisting that the past has not gone from our grasp. It is delusion. Even before this spat between Thompson and the club there was never any prospect of the 25-year-old returning to Saints in his prime years. This is not Wigan. Once they’re gone, they’re gone until their agent notices that their contract is almost up and tries to sell you a 33-year-old version for top dollar. Three careless owners, 25% effectiveness.

Whether Thompson dons the red vee again or not his departure leaves us with a huge hole to fill in our squad in the here and now. Though it is not yet guaranteed it looks ever more likely that the 2020 season will take place in whatever adapted format is voted through by the 12 disciples of self-interest who run our top flight clubs. If it were to start tomorrow then there would only be Alex Walmsley among our prop corps who could be regarded as 100% reliable and the envy of all our competitors. Matty Lees may see Thompson’s exit as an opportunity to step up and start more regularly with his bench slot back-filled by Jack Ashworth or Callum Hazzard.

The NRL has been under way again since May 28 and with Super League not slated for a resumption until August it is hard to see any of their top line stars being persuaded to come over here in 2020. An import would likely be one not currently enjoying game time in the NRL. Anyone not good enough to secure regular game time in the NRL is not going to be close enough to Thompson’s level to fill our requirements. At home the only name that stands out for me is Liam Watts. Even with Ashworth as a sweetener that would probably require a hefty investment. It would be difficult for McManus to garner much sympathy if he is calling out Thompson for not understanding the club’s financial need on the one hand but then splashing the cash needed to get Watts on the other.

We haven’t started the season all that well. As things stand we could be set to take a little more pain in 2020 before head coach Kristian Woolf can make some important recruitment decisions for 2021 and beyond. The Luke Thompson chapter in the Saints story is closed. We must move on and not let our disappointment fester for too long.

A Magic Day In 2008

I meant to write this closer to the Bank Holiday weekend when Magic should have been played. I’ve never been a huge advocate of Magic but when you haven’t seen a game of rugby league for over two months the thought of being beaten over the head with six of them in just over 24 hours seems far more appealing than it otherwise might. To prove the point I took annual leave and watched all eight NRL games over four days when it resumed last week and it didn’t feel like too much.

Let’s hope the resumption of our Super League season and the rest of this blog are worth waiting for. I’m taking you back to the summer of 2008. Boris Johnson took his first steps towards fucking the country by winning the London mayoral election, Portsmouth won the FA Cup, Rihanna and Leona Lewis were engaged in a tense warble-off at the top of the UK charts and proof was provided that box office figures do not reflect quality as Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull raked in $126million.

It was the second year of rugby league’s bold new enterprise, Millennium Magic, in which all 12 Super League teams gathered at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to play a round of league fixtures. The first one had been deemed a success overall despite or maybe even in some small way because of its controversial ending. Kevin Sinfield was attempting to land a late penalty goal that would have earned a draw for Leeds Rhinos against the once mighty Bradford Bulls. His shot bounced away off the crossbar before falling kindly for the demonstrably offside Jordan Tansey to cross for a try to seal an unlikely 42-38 win. Video assistance was available - rugby league being 23 years ahead of football in that regard - but referee Steve Ganson decided to make his own mind up. Rather like Robert Hicks at last year’s Challenge Cup final but without the added grimness of Warrington winning a major trophy which tipped Eamonn McManus over the edge of reason.

Derbies were very much the thing in the early years of Magic. It was felt that they were the fixtures most likely to excite the fans. The hope was that fans would stay transfixed as Huddersfield and Wakefield duked it out rather than spend that time in the bar oiling themselves senseless on the cheapest beer they could find in South Wales. And so for the second year running Saints were paired with Wigan. Saints has beaten their rivals 34-18 in the inaugural event. Ordinarily the 2008 game might have been billed as a revenge mission for the Warriors but this was the start of the era we are still in now when great foes meet more often than you are currently allowed out for your exercise and your medication. This would be the fourth meeting since that first Magic Weekend and Saints had won them all by an aggregate of 85-34. It would be another year before Wigan would get the better of Saints again.

Coming into the clash both had been experiencing some iffy form. They had each lost five of their first 12 Super League games. This was unexpected for Saints who had won the League Leaders Shield for each of the previous three seasons and would do so for a fourth in 2008. By contrast two years earlier Wigan had not so much flirted with relegation but positively honey-trapped it like an undercover police officer in a cliched TV drama. They escaped and improved to a sixth-placed finish in 2007 but they had still not reached a Grand Final for five years, hadn’t won the League Leaders Shield in eight years and hadn’t been crowned champions for a decade. Expectation wouldn’t have weighed massively on coach Brian Noble with that sort of recent history at any other club. But this was Wigan, where regardless of the absolute state of their squad they book their Wembley tickets with their Christmas money and proclaim themselves a dark horse when they hobble into the playoffs like Hugh Laurie clanking down the corridor at Princeton—Plainsboro. There was still pressure on Noble.

Saints’ line-up should have provided the Wigan fans with all the anxiety they could handle. Packed with superstars they had four players that I consider all-time greats in the starting 13 (Paul Wellens, Sean Long, Kieron Cunningham and James Graham) and another on the bench in James Roby. Paul Sculthorpe was enduring an injury-ravaged final season with Saints and missed out to spare Wigan having to face a sixth. Outside of that group the options for coach Daniel Anderson weren’t too shabby either. Only 16 men have scored more tries for Saints than Ade Gardner, Matt Gidley played 11 State Of Origin games for New South Wales and 17 times for Australia while Chris Flannery also had Origin experience. Willie Talau and Jason Cayless were New Zealand internationals as was Francis Meli. The winger was slightly maligned by fans back then but would arguably be a standout now. Closer to home Leon Pryce and Lee Gilmour has arrived from Bradford Bulls and would end their careers with 32 Great Britain caps and a Boris Johnson-sized fridge full of medals between them.

On the face of it Wigan were bringing a half-eaten Curly-Wurly to a gunfight. Their star name was stand-off Trent Barrett but his two-year, 60-game stint never really hit the heights expected of a man who gained almost as much Origin and Australian Kangaroos experience throughout his career as Gidley. Barrett wasn’t awful, but he was probably more Josh Perry than Jamie Lyon in terms of impact. Pat Richards had a much longer and more successful Wigan career after making the switch from Wests Tigers. Thomas Leuluai and Sean O’Loughlin’s quality and longevity can be judged by the fact that they are still in the Warriors side in 2020. The one genuine British superstar in the ranks at the time was prop forward Stuart Fielden, drafted in two years earlier to help give relegation the slip.

After these individuals the Wigan group was one of nearly men. Of Richie Mathers’ and Darrell Gouldings. Paul Prescotts and Mickey Highams. On the bench that day was 22-year-old Tommy Coyle, who would make only five appearances for Wigan before a tour of the lower leagues that took in Halifax, Oldham, Hunslet, Whitehaven and Swinton among others. He came in to the squad after an injury to Phil Bailey. There’s probably a Phil Collins/Easy Lover joke in here somewhere but this Phil Bailey was a four-time Australian international and three-time Origin player who managed over 100 appearances for Wigan in case you’re struggling as much as I am to recall him. Yet he was out of this one with illness, giving Coyle an opportunity that he probably hasn’t forgotten.

Though the teams were level on points in the league table at the start of play it didn’t take long for the gap between them to begin to show. Only points difference separated third-placed Saints from fifth-placed Wigan when referee Phil Bentham blew the first whistle. Five minutes in it was Long who bagged the first try. Continuing his decade-long torment of his hometown club who had once released him Long darted over from dummy half to put Saints in front. He converted his own try to make it 6-0.

When listing the array of talent available to Anderson I didn’t mention the name of Jon Wilkin. A future captain of the club who would go on to make over 400 appearances for them. The 2008 Wilkin was a recent Great Britain international. He was next to go over after he was put through by Cayless and avoided the apologetic tackle attempt by Mathers. Long goaled again and Saints led 12-0 at a rate of only just lower than a point a minute.

Six minutes later Wigan drew up plans for their own demise. A pass near midfield was knocked backwards by Talau and scooped up by Meli. Wigan’s players seemed to stop in anticipation of a knock-on call from Bentham. As they hesitated Meli raced 50 metres in a display of what in the current climate would be viewed as admirable social distancing. Long’s third successful conversion gave Saints an 18-0 lead. The contest was as good as over in the first quarter. Thoughts may have even started to turn to the events of three years earlier when Saints had flogged Wigan 75-0 in a Challenge Cup tie at Knowsley Road.

Wigan held out for a spell after Meli’s effort, but would have been dismayed to see Roby entering the fray fresh from the bench after 25 minutes. He replaced Cunningham and within two minutes Saints went further ahead. Gidley spun brilliantly out of the tackle of Richards before placing a pin-point grubber on to which Gardner pounced. Long could not land the extras this time but Saints were putting on a show now at 22-0.

Barely three minutes later Long was creating more goal kicking practice for himself. His pass put Gilmour through a hole in the Wigan defensive line and the second row forward handed on to Talau to touch down. Long’s fourth goal of the evening made it 28-0 with only half an hour played. He was racking up the points, and added four more when he supported Pryce’s break inside his own half and went 55 metres to score Saints’ sixth try of the first half and his second. Long’s conversion made it 34-0. He wasn’t done there, adding an insulting drop-goal four minutes from half-time. It took the proverbial out of Wigan and was completely in keeping with Long’s personality and style of play. It would have been frowned upon perhaps when Mick Potter took over from Anderson the following year, or during the Building Pressure, Energy Battle years of the Cunningham philosophy. In 2008 it was joyful, almost funny, and Saints went to the break 35-0 up.

Then something odd happened. Wigan scored. A rare mistake inside his own quarter from Wellens gave Coyle the opportunity to make his mark. He fed Leuluai from dummy half and the New Zealander broke out of Long’s tackle to score. Richards could not convert but you can’t have everything Wigan fans. At least your lot were on the board now at 35-4.

Long’s response to this rude interruption to what had hitherto been a procession was to complete his hat-trick. Gidley was the creator, breaking the line before finding Long on his inside. It was Long’s fourth hat-trick for Saints but his first since a 54-12 win over Castleford Tigers at Knowsley Road five years earlier. It would also be his last. Long scored only another nine tries for Saints before moving to Hull FC at the end of 2009. Fittingly, his last try was also against Wigan and helped Saints reach the third of five consecutive Grand Finals at the expense of the old enemy. Though we may reflect now that we wish we hadn’t bothered going to Manchester until 2014.

Back to 2008. Saints led 41-4 at this point and their next score sparked the beginning of the famed Wigan Walk. To be fair to their fans they had endured 50 minutes of this outright pummelling before Talau grabbed his second. Wellens shimmied Goulding into one of the many attractive bars outside the Millennium Stadium and handed on to Talau to score. Long failed with the conversion but a 45-4 deficit was enough to convince a few Wigan fans that their time might be better spent elsewhere.

They had probably got far enough away not to have to listen to the roar that greeted Saints’ next score. Even when Long was making mistakes he profited. On 57 minutes he threw what NRL commentators refer to as a ‘bludger’ of a pass out to the right hand edge. It went to ground but bobbled around conveniently for Gardner to pick up and notch his brace. Long’s conversion made it 51-4 and was almost his last act of the day. Anderson withdrew his his halfback combination of Long and Pryce shortly after, presumably to spare Wigan further punishment.

It could have been a coincidence but that move preceded a mini Wigan fight back as first Harrison Hansen and then Higham got over for tries. Hansen’s was the result of a glorious short ball from Barrett as the former St George man showed a flash of his quality. Higham benefitted from an offload from Iafeta Paleaaesina to claim his meat pie. Richards made good on both conversions and Wigan were into double figures at 51-16.

Yet predictably, inevitably, it was Saints who had the last word. Nine minutes from time a move involving Graham, Wilkin and Wellens allowed Gilmour to score against the club for whom he played 108 times from 1997-2001. With Long off the field Gidley took the opportunity to notch the first of his six goals for Saints and complete the scoring at 57-16.

Saints would not lose again in 2008 until the Grand Final. They won 18 out of 19 games in all competitions after this Magic Massacre, the only blemish being a 16-16 draw with Wigan at Knowsley Road in September. They picked up the Challenge Cup during that run, beating Hull FC 28-16 at Wembley in what would turn out to be Sculthorpe’s last game for the club. Yet it was Leeds who were crowned champions. They had finished the regular season a point behind Saints but edged them 24-16 at Old Trafford thanks to a double from Danny McGuire and further scores from Lee Smith and Ryan Hall.

We can’t end on that note. Would it help if I told you that after this drubbing Wigan lost five more times in the league, including another 46-12 hiding by Saints on their own patch? They could only finish fourth before being eliminated from the race to Old Trafford by Leeds.

No. Thought not.