I haven’t missed many games since Saints moved into their new home for the start of the 2012 season. Back when it had a sensible name but a serious cladding problem. Until this season I had only missed two. One was a snow covered fiasco with Salford and the other a Monday night derby won by Joe Greenwood’s try when I was enduring heart palpitations at Whiston Hospital due to high potassium.
But that was until this season. The minor inconvenience of a February kidney transplant meant I didn’t get to any games until the Good Friday win over Wigan. Since then I have only made wins over Salford, Leeds and Hull KR. I missed Hull FC to be at a wedding in South Yorkshire. Yet I regret none of these absences as much as missing this masterful nilling of a supposed Grand Final rival on Friday night (July 15). Saints maintained their four point lead at the top of Super League with a quite extraordinary 25-0 success over Ian Watson’s Huddersfield Giants. And I wasn’t there due to a positive Covid test.
Thankfully the Sky cameras were on hand to beam it into my living room. It was a win for the ages which - much of the chatter suggests - was played in one of the best atmospheres of the stadium’s relatively short life. It was meant to be a true test against a top four rival, coming on the back of mixed fortunes against the other top four sides over the previous two weekends. Yet it was no such test. In nilling the Giants with 12 men for over an hour - and 11 for much of the last 10 minutes - Saints put on a clinic of defensive desire, team work and clinical execution in attack when their chances arrived. Taking all of the circumstances into account it has to rank as Kristian Woolf’s sides best performance of the season. Maybe the best since he arrived in England.
Jack Welsby was at the centre of much of it. His first involvement was a careless late hit on returning former Saints halfback Theo Fages. While some of his team-mates haven’t been so lucky with the disciplinary in the aftermath of this one Welsby has avoided any further punishment for the clash.
What he could not escape was another positional change. Named in the halves alongside Jonny Lomax, Welsby was forced to revert to fullback after the latest in a long line of disasters befell Will Hopoate. Less than four minutes had elapsed when Hopoate left the action, first for an HIA which he passed but ultimately with a shoulder injury which ended his night. He sustained it trying to stop an early Giants raid. Innes Senior found space on the left flank where he was met by Hopoate. The Saints man attempted to wrap his arms to effect the tackle but bounced off. Saints have played 22 matches in all competitions in 2022 since Hopoate’s switch from Canterbury Bulldogs. He has featured in only nine, including this one which lasted about the length of an early Beatles pop song. It’s a sorry tale.
In response Woolf moved Welsby to fullback, put James Roby alongside Jonny Lomax in the halves and pressed Joey Lussick into early action from the bench. Roby had to play in the halves when Saints travelled to Huddersfield on Easter Monday in the immediate aftermath of Lewis Dodd’s injury. Here he was again in the same situation. Here we were again having to manufacture a decent team shape owing to the brittleness of Hopoate. Obviously Roby, being Roby, didn’t miss even half a beat and was influential throughout.
With this level of disruption early on it seemed no surprise that the Giants dominated the opening stages. A period of sustained pressure on the Saints line resulted in a penalty in front of the posts for a ball steal. With the benefit of hindsight the visitors may well have chosen to kick at goal and get off their duck egg there and then. Yet at that stage the thinking - not unreasonably - was that you don’t win at Saints by kicking penalty goals. You have to turn any territorial advantage into as many points as possible and that means tries. So they tried. And failed when Sione Mata’utia stole the ball one on one. It was then taken from him by Fages but referee Chris Kendall decided that the Frenchman had been joined by an accomplice in his tackle on Mata’utia and awarded Saints a penalty.
When Saints’ first attacking threat came it was Roby at the centre of it. He received an audacious flicked pass from Morgan Knowles but lost possession close to the line as he stumbled out of an attempted tackle. Yet it wouldn’t be long before Saints did hit the front. Lomax was caught high by Chris McQueen and got to his feet to become the latest Saint to try his hand at goal-kicking from the resultant penalty. Dodd, Tommy Makinson and Mark Percival are all ahead of Lomax in the goal-kicking pecking order but all are currently injured. Jon Bennison struggled badly with it in last week’s Magic win over Wigan at Newcastle and Ben Davies is currently out of the side. That left Lomax, and things didn’t get off to a great start when he failed from the penalty, his first very kickable attempt of the evening.
Some 16 minutes in the game changed dramatically. Giants hooker Danny Levi was carrying the ball out from his own end of the field when he was involved in a heavy collision with Mata’utia. Nothing illegal, just one player carrying the ball enthusiastically into the tackle of another. Levi was slow to get up, later receiving a routine once over from the Giants medical staff but without being required to leave the field for a head injury assessment. Clearly of the opinion that Levi was trying to milk a penalty, Mata’utia had a foolish tug at Levi’s shirt, almost lifting him up off the ground. As the game halted while Kendall took advice from video referee James Child the reality dawned that the oft-suspended former Newcastle Knight was in another spot of bother. All of which was confirmed moments later when Kendall produced the red card.
Mata’utia can have few complaints. His defenders will point out that there wasn’t a huge amount of lift in the action, and that Levi was indulging in the football style simulation that perceived wisdom says is ‘creeping in’ to our game. But ultimately Mata’utia may believe what he likes about the nature of Levi’s injury or otherwise. He’s not qualified to make that assessment and it is not Kendall’s job to make a call on Levi’s condition either.
When a player is down with an injury only those medically qualified to do so should be putting a hand on him. Memories of the life changing injuries sustained by Mose Masoe in 2020 should be enough to persuade any rugby league fan that we absolutely cannot tolerate actions like Mata’utia’s. It’s just far too dangerous. Spinal injuries are not that uncommon in a very physical sport. I can personally testify that having a spine which can be most kindly described as pickled is not a fun experience. It is a life choice you would not make if you had any say in the matter. The lack of any genuine protest from the Saints back rower turned centre spoke volumes.
Initially it looked like it might be a long night for the short handed Saints. Konrad Hurrell was perhaps a little unfortunate to be penalised for not playing the ball correctly inside his own half and it offered the visitors an opportunity. The ball was worked left by Fages and Will Pryce to Senior. He went very close to squeezing in at the left corner but was denied on review by Child. It looked very much like Senior’s knee had gone touch in-goal almost simultaneously to the grounding as Welsby got across to cover. Kendall had sent the decision up as no try so there seemed no case for awarding it on review. There was no indisputable evidence that Kendall had made the wrong call in doubting the validity of the grounding.
Having repelled that raid Saints went back on the attack. The position was set up by a poor error from Oliver Wilson in his own half. From there Lomax placed a deft kick in behind the Giants’ line where Joe Batchelor was first to react and touch down. It was again reviewed and Child confirmed Kendall’s original suspicion that the ball had been grounded cleanly. It was Batchelor’s second try in consecutive games after his masterful bamboozling of Jai Field at Magic last weekend - and his 10th try for Saints in 50 appearances. Lomax kicked his first goal for the club since March 2014 and Saints led 6-0.
It is still strange to think that we will not be seeing Regan Grace in Saints colours after this year. The Welshman gave us another taste of the excitement that is generated when he gets into open space when he was sent clear by Roby and the excellent Curtis Sironen. Grace raced 40 metres down the left flank but declined to take on Pryce at fullback for the Giants. Instead Grace cut inside where he was eventually dragged down by Wilson. It was a moment which encapsulated the strengths and weaknesses of Grace who will be playing rugby union in France in 2023.
The Giants had a chance to finally put points on the board close to half time. Knowles was deemed to have been too late applying pressure on Oliver Russell as the Giants man found Fages on his left. It not only gave Watson’s side a penalty in reasonable range with time running out in the opening half, it also later led to the suspension of Knowles for one match at Monday’s meeting of the Match Review Panel. It didn’t seem any worse than the similar offence committed by Mata’utia last week and that ban was overturned on appeal. Maybe it might be worth lodging an appeal on Knowles’ behalf. On the other hand overturning Mata’utia’s ban didn’t end well with his transgression in this one. In any case it’s Wakefield next week. Ideal Morgan Knowles rest territory if such a thing exists. There was no immediate punishment for the offence as Pryce pulled his attempt at goal wide and Saints went into the break 6-0 up.
That lead was doubled four minutes into the second half. Jermaine McGillvary was the unlikely source of the error which gifted Saints possession. Lussick was stopped short of the line but when Roby found Knowles he in turn hit Agnatius Paasi. The Tongan prop - in the midst of an impressive stint in relief of Alex Walmsley - brushed off the attentions of McQueen to crash over for only his second try for Saints in 42 appearances. Lomax again landed the conversion and suddenly Saints had a bit of breathing space at 12-0.
Welsby was a constant source of havoc in the Giants defence. His influence on Saints’ attack grows with each game and he was in imperious form again here. His 30 metre dash through the Giants rearguard set up the champions’ next opportunity for points just three minutes after Paasi’s intervention. Welsby embarked on a winding run which was only halted a metre short of the try line. Scrambling to get back into some sort of defensive shape the Giants were caught offside leaving Lomax an easy opportunity to extend the lead to more than two converted scores at 14-0.
Three minutes after that came the double whammy which effectively ended Huddersfield’s interest in the two Super League points. First McGillvary fell awkwardly when carrying the ball deep inside his own half and had to be helped off the field in a visibly substantial amount of pain. Following that Welsby scored the try his busy performance had always threatened. Knowles found Lomax on the right and his pass was perfectly placed to take Toby King out of the play and allow Welsby to skip round him to open up a clear route to the line. It looked so simple but is no doubt the result of hours of work on the training pitch on timing and execution. Both were so perfect that former Warrington man King barely got a hand on Welsby as he eased over. It was his 10th try of 2022 and his 36th in 76 games since making his debut against Hull FC as a 17 year-old substitute in September 2018. Lomax could not add the extras this time but Saints were all but home at 18-0.
There was still work to do to keep that zero against the name of the Giants. Twice in the space of five minutes Senior saw his efforts come to nothing as Saints’ insatiable appetite for defending their line continued. Hurrell’s error gave the Giants good ball inside Saints’ half and when Russell and King found Senior he looked odds on to score his side’s first points of the night. Yet Saints scrambled desperately, Hurrell making amends for his earlier mistake as he joined Bennison and Lomax in bundling the Giants winger into touch.
Senior didn’t find life any easier soon after when - having found himself on the end of a move involving Levi, Fages, Russell and Pryce he was thwarted by a shuddering hit by the ubiquitous Welsby. Saints were by now starting to get more excited about saving tries than about scoring them, Welsby in particular revelling in the fact that his thudding intervention not only stopped Senior from scoring but also forced the ball from his grasp. Despite being a man down it seemed that nothing was going to force Saints to give up a breach of their try line.
Saints still found time to launch more attacking raids of their own and almost extended their lead as the game moved into the last quarter. Lomax was the man behind it, aiming a neat kick to the right hand corner where Bennison just failed to bring it under his control as he tried to ground it. Kendall again reviewed it - just to be sure - and replays confirmed his initial decision.
Now, it’s one thing nilling and putting points on a top four rival when you only have 12 men. It’s quite another to do it with 11. That came to pass in the last 10 minutes of action. First Knowles - carrying the ball away from his own goal line - got involved in a bout of silliness with Greenwood and was promptly sent to end his evening in the sin bin. Knowles clearly took exception to something that had gone on in the tackle as Giants players converged on him. Yet it was Greenwood who felt the full force of the Saints loose forward’s wrath. Knowles needlessly thrust his forearm into Greenwood’s neck and face area on multiple occasions. If he hadn’t been banned for next week for the alleged late hit then perhaps he should have been for this nonsense.
Not that it hindered Saints any. Welsby had more tricks to play, slicing through a bewildered Giants defence before finding Lomax on his shoulder to finish off another clinical attack, this despite now playing two men light. Lomax tacked on the extra two points to put the exclamation mark on Saints’ outright dominance at 24-0. Lomax then turned up trumps at the other end, swatting the ball away from Pryce’s grasp as he dived over following good approach work by Fages. Bennison picked up the loose ball and began streaking down the other end only for Kendall to stop the play to give Child a closer look at how the ball came free from Pryce as he crossed. There was never any chance of a try being awarded, replays showing that after Pryce’s progress had been slowed by Hurrell he had been rejected - NBA style - by Lomax as he tried to plant the ball down.
The last act was left to Welsby. With time about to expire he took possession just outside the Giants 20 metre line. He could probably have run the clock out but instead chose to nonchalantly despatch his second drop goal for Saints and his first since March 2021. That gave the scoreline an even more pleasing look about it at 25-0. It had been an extraordinary performance from Saints. A masterclass in how to defend your try line. For the Giants it is hard to imagine how their evening could have been more dispiriting if they have any genuine designs on reaching or even winning the Grand Final. At least now they know the standard they need to reach, particularly defensively.
The only real area of concern for Saints performance-wise was discipline. Although they showed a remarkable ability to cope short handed it is not a position they would want to find themselves in too often. Key performers in attack included Welsby, who ran for 176 metres, Sironen who had arguably his best game as a Saint with 135, the indefatigable Hurrell who ripped off 128, Paasi with 116 and Walmsley with 114. Huddersfield’s best metre maker was Fages with 133 against his old club. Pryce added 124, Senior 103 and Leroy Cudjoe 100.
Defensively Roby’s move to the halves saw him have a week off from being Saints leading tackler. Instead it was Lussick leading the way with 46. Matty Lees had 41 while Batchelor (34), Knowles and Sironen (32 each) also made major contributions. For the Giants Luke Yates put in a big shift with 48 tackles, McQueen managed 40 while there were 39 by Levi, 38 from Greenwood and 30 by Josh Jones.
Saints made five breaks to the Giants one and there was a rather high error count. Saints came up with 11 while the visitors’ 15 was a contributing factor to the big zero next to their name. Many of those were forced by Saints’ outstanding desperation in defence but Watson will see it as an area requiring special attention for the weeks ahead. They may want to work on stopping the offload too, Saints winning that count 10 to 7 on a night when they dominated pretty much every single important stat.
It all means that Saints have mathematically qualified for the top six and the end of season playoffs. Not that it was ever in doubt, but to have it confirmed with eight league games to play is evidence of a highly consistent team. Whether they remain so in the gentler looking next three fixtures against Wakefield, Salford and Castleford will depend firstly on improving discipline to keep everyone available for selection and secondly on how much Woolf wants to rest and rotate his players ahead of the knockout football to come in September.
Don’t bet massive amounts on Woolf keeping the foot down to win a first League Leaders Shield of his tenure, but at the same time don’t bet anything against a side this accomplished in attack and fearsome in defence winning that fourth consecutive Grand Final.
Saints: Hopoate, Bennison, Hurrell, Mata’utia, Grace, Welsby, Lomax, Walmsley, Roby, Lees, Sironen, Batchelor, Knowles. Interchanges: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Paasi, Lussick, Wingfield
Huddersfield: Pryce, McGillvary, Cudjoe, King, Senior, Russell, Fages, Trout, Levi, Greenwood, McQueen, Jones, Yates. Interchanges: Wilson, Hewitt, Ashworth, Golding
Referee: Chris Kendall
Video Referee: James Child