They’re in there. They’ve always been in there. Now they have finally raised their collective head above the parapet to allow us a glimpse. A glimpse of The Old Saints. The Saints who have won the last four Super League Grand Finals. The Saints who are World Champions.
On the back of a runaway victory over the Huddersfield Giants and the evil that is Ian Watson’s processes at Newcastle’s Magic Weekend, Paul Wellens’ side produced a complete performance to comfortably see off Wigan Warriors on Friday night (June 9). The 34-16 win sees Saints jump above Matty Peet’s side in the Super League standings into fifth. And with a game in hand to come against the Giants (hopefully before Watson gets the sack and is replaced by someone less rigidly woeful) suddenly Saints are looking more like top three material.
Wigan started the day in third but ended it sixth in what is a very heavily concertinaed Super League table. Hull KR’s failure to spring a surprise on league leaders Catalans Dragons in Perpignan on Saturday is the only thing which kept Peet’s men inside the playoff places. Quite honestly, the only club who endured a worse weekend was Leeds Rhinos.
The Team News
A big reason why Saints might be starting to look more like themselves again is the return of key personnel. Morgan Knowles was the only first team regular who hadn’t featured in the squad at Newcastle. He returned from a two-game suspension for this one which gave Wellens a decision to make. Should he bring the England international straight back in from the start or ease him back off on the bench? Or…as some suggested…should he leave him out altogether and give the exact same 17 who were so impressive at St James’ Park another opportunity?
Wellens chose to start Knowles at his customary loose forward position. For some it was a no-brainer but it remained awfully harsh on James Bell. He had been doing a fine job at 13 for the last seven matches in all competitions. Still, he had to settle for a place on the interchange bench. That was even worse news for Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook who was nudged out of the 17 altogether. That brought to an end a run of 24 consecutive Super League matches (including playoffs) in which the former London Bronco had featured.
Peet was particularly miserable about his side’s tonking by the Dragons at Magic, so rang a few changes. Jai Field and Bevan French swapped places with Field at fullback and French at stand-off. Turnstyle Toby King was considered so dreadful at Newcastle that Peet this week preferred Iain Thornley at centre. This is a guy who has been tried several times without convincing anyone including himself. He has even been sent away to seven other clubs - not all of them Super League standard - only to find himself back at Wigan again. This is the approach I take with my energy bills, always ending up back with the same provider because I just can’t be arsed to find anything better.
Sam Powell was axed too as Brad O’Neill came in at hooker. Morgan Smithies moved to loose forward from second row, swapping places with Joe Shorrocks. The latter had played at stand-off in Wigan’s home win over Saints at Easter. On the bench Brad Singleton replaced Junior Nsemba. Though the former Leeds Rhinos prop might well have regretted doing so after running into Agnatius Paasi.
The Game Story
Saints dominated this one from start to finish. The Wigan tries - as skilful as they were - felt like rude interruptions to a relentless march to victory. The metaphorical direction of the wind was established early. Just a couple of minutes had gone by when Thornley coughed up possession in his own half. Tee Ritson accepted the gift before Lewis Dodd put Joe Batchelor over to the right of the posts. It looked like Joe Wardle and Liam Farrell might have held Batchelor up on his back but the Saints man was able to free his arms as he twisted to touch down.
It was just his second try of the season and his 17th in 66 appearances in the red vee. Four of those 17 have come against Wigan which is a knack which is likely to see you held in high esteem in St Helens. Tommy Makinson’s first goal of the day pushed Saints out to a 6-0 lead.
The Saints winger would rack up another 14 points on the day to go with the Magic Weekend record tally of 28 posted against the Giants last week. An opportunity for the next two of this week’s total came five minutes after Batchelor’s try when Thornley went high on James Roby. The reintroduction of Wigan’s much travelled centre was clearly going swimmingly. However Makinson did not punish him, sending his penalty wide of the posts on another eccentric day off the kicking tee for the England winger.
This stirred something in Wigan who fought their way back into it with a try from Field. They were gifted field position when Knowles couldn’t hang on to a simple pass from Dodd in a good attacking position and then when Saints were caught offside by referee Chris Kendall. That allowed Field to conjure up a bit of magic, chipping ahead from just outside the Saints 20 and beating Jack Welsby to it to score under the posts. One Harry Smith conversion from bang in front later the scores were tied at 6-6. And yet it hardly felt like the visitors had been in the game.
Saints reasserted their dominance quickly. As they threatened the Wigan line again the Warriors were all offside. This offered another opportunity to Makinson from virtually in front. The 16,000+ in the crowd assumed that the outcome of another two points for the champions was inevitable until it wasn’t. Makinson clanged this effort off the upright, the force of which saw it fall kindly to Lees 20 metres out. That would prove handy as it happened. Saints earned another set when French could only knock Roby’s kick forward as he prevented it from going into the Wigan in-goal area. From the next set Saints moved it right through Roby, Jonny Lomax and Welsby who sent Makinson in at the right hand corner. Though he was having trouble nailing the simple ones Makinson had no bother landing the conversion to his own try from the northern touchline to give Saints a 12-6 lead.
Again Wellens’ men found a way to let Wigan straight back into it. Alex Walmsley spilled possession in the first tackle straight from the kick-off to give the Warriors an attacking set deep in Saints territory. Still it all ended up working in Saints favour when Welsby produced the defensive play of the game and one of the best of the season. On the final play of the attacking set French sent a useful low kick bobbling towards the corner post on the home goal-line. Abbas Miski was first to it, but instead of picking up a nice easy four points he had the misfortune to run into Welsby. The fullback lined him up, hit him hard and low and drove the winger into touch.
It was the cue for much shouting and posturing among the Saints side as they celebrated like they did Welsby’s last-gasp mugging off of French in the 2020 Grand Final. And the crowd went with them. The whole place lifted. Not only did it swing the game back in Saints favour, giving them a chance to clear their lines and greatly improve their field position, but it proved also that you can have the crunching physicality that the UFC fans claim is now missing from the game without anyone having to go for a brain scan. Miski was unharmed save for a bit of pride but the play was no less exciting for that.
Welsby then endured a moment in which he learned what it is like to go from hero to zero. Fear not reader…for he would make the journey back to heroism and then some. For now though - 10 minutes out from half-time, he hesitated for slightly too long as French grubbered through and gave chase. As he tried to adjust his weight Welsby slipped which allowed French to benefit from a kind bounce and waltz over untouched.
My company for the night - an Evertonian of limited rugby league knowledge (and football knowledge, evidently) - chose this inopportune moment to remind me of Steven Gerrard’s slip at Anfield against Chelsea in the 2014 title run-in. Yes I know it was nine years ago but Evertonians hold on to Liverpool’s on-field catastrophes. They are all they have. The language was industrial but suffice to say I made it clear to him that these two events were not comparable. There was very little coming back from Gerrard’s bambi-on-icery. Meanwhile there was still an hour to play of this one which - while derbies are always important - was ultimately a regular season game four months prior to the one game at Old Trafford which will settle it all regardless. I dare say Jack isn’t thinking about it now. Steven, on the other hand…
Smith couldn’t improve French’s try so Saints still held the lead, albeit a slender one at 12-10.
Another non-scoreboard-bothering highlight arrived soon after. This time it was Singleton playing the role of the sacrificial victim. He attempted what seemed a routine tackle on Paasi fully 60 metres from the Wigan try line. It didn’t go the way that the ex-Leeds man had seen it in his mind’s eye. He was run over by Paasi in cartoonish fashion, a cloud forming above his head in which stars whizzed around and birds tweeted. Singleton looked a bit groggy for some time after and he eventually succumbed to the need for an HIA as the Saints set ended meekly when they were caught in possession on the last play. Paasi’s effort had led to nothing tangible but it again lifted the crowd and - along with Welsby’s flattening of Miski - was an image which will probably stay with a lot of Saints fans for some time to come.
As will the last significant action of the first half. Smith was possibly unfortunate that he was adjudged to have knocked on when he got a hand to a Welsby pass while facing his own line. On the other hand he did seem to pull the pass in towards his body and therefore towards the Saints try line. When Thornley was whistled for his third instance of high contact it gave Saints one last chance to open a bit of daylight before the break. They didn’t waste it.
Receiving it from Dodd close to the line, Welsby dribbled through and returned Field’s favour from earlier as he beat the Wigan man to it to score a classy individual try. Makinson broke the cycle and made an easy conversion to send Saints in with an eight-point cushion at 18-10.
Roby doesn’t dominate games in the way he used to now that he is a 37 year-old setting a new Saints appearance record every time he turns out. Yet he can still make decisive contributions as he demonstrated in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. First his penetrative scoot from dummy half had Wigan defenders retreating before he found Dodd who put Paasi over for Saints’ fourth try of the night.
It was the Tongan’s first try of the season and his first since he crossed in a 25-0 win at home to Huddersfield last July. Saints dominated that match despite being a man down for most of it. Another night when poor old Watto’s process let him down. Paasi’s only try before that had come a month earlier in a 42-12 win over Leeds. His latest effort was goaled by Makinson who seemed to be finding his goalscoring groove as Saints now led 24-10.
Back to Roby, who bettered his earlier effort with a 30 metre dash through the Wigan defence before he was hauled down 20 metres out. It was vintage Roby, complete with a defence-befuddling dummy. It set up Dodd again, the halfback this time scooting out from dummy half and finding Welsby for his second try. This one was scored in front of the sizeable travelling support, a minority of whom let themselves and their club down by hurling plastic cups and bottles and whatever missiles came to hand at the Wigan-born Welsby as he celebrated. Admittedly with a little more aggression than was strictly necessary. Echoes of West Ham fan misbehaviour in their Europa Conference final win last week, except no lumbering centre halves were injured in the making of it.
I mean, I get it. It must be bloody annoying when a boyhood fan of your club is sticking it to you because your hapless youth development team have let him slip through the net. But there really is no place in the game for lobbing missiles at players or anyone else for that matter. Another Wiganer in Saints red and white stuck the boot in from a safer distance as Makinson added the extra two for a 30-10 lead.
When Wigan did have chances to get back into the game in the second half they fluffed them. Smith’s pass was intercepted by Makinson with the Warriors in good position and then Liam Marshall couldn’t get a handle on it at the play-the-ball under pressure from persistent nuisance Batchelor. Saints went down the other end and eliminated any lingering doubt about the result of this one and again it was the two prominent Wiganers in the ranks at the heart of it. Welsby produced what is now commonly referred to as a worldie of a pass, cutting three Wigan defenders out of the game and landing it on the chest of an unmarked Makinson. He crossed for his second of the night and his sixth in his last two outings. He couldn’t convert it but his work was done.
Makinson now has 10 tries for the Super League season, a tally bettered only by Josh Charnley and Tom Johnstone who between them seem to be embroiled in their own private battle for the title of Super League’s leading scorer in 2023. Yet there was a time when Makinson would all too often look on as Regan Grace and the left edge of Saints’ attack hoovered up all of the opportunities. Now things seem to be travelling in the other direction. One of Wellens’ tasks - besides trying to win that fifth title in a row and maybe another Challenge Cup - should be to see if he can balance the attack so that both Makinson and Ritson figure prominently in the try-scorers lists.
Annoyingly and following a late tackle by Makinson on Wardle the visitors managed to have the last word. French did his best to impersonate Welsby with a fine long ball to Miski who crossed for his seventh try of the season. Smith’s touchline conversion looked nice but was a mere footnote in Wigan’s 34-16 defeat, their sixth league reverse of the season and their fourth in the last five outings.
Restricting French & Field
We’ll touch on the stats in more detail later, but the way that Saints defended the Warriors’ two main attacking weapons was crucial. It is a rather cynical, over-simplistic running joke that if you stop French and Field you stop Wigan. Yet on this evidence there is something in it. The positional switch that Peet made between the two following their defeat in France last week did very little to perturb a Saints defence that was back to its stingiest best for large parts of this one.
French and Field, who have scored 23 tries between them this term and who average 113 and 93 metres per game respectively, managed only 106 between them in this one. French was held to just 60 metres on eight carries while Field managed only 46 from 11. That’s a good job defensively of keying in on the major threats of an opponent and nullifying them.
Improved Discipline
Another big reason for Saints’ success was improved discipline. Both in terms of the lack of any yellow or red cards and in how they controlled the ball. When I learned the news of Knowles selection - particularly from the start - my fear was that the two weeks he had spent out of action on the back of the five games he had missed before his red card at Halifax - would leave him with an excess of pent up aggression. To my mind he couldn’t be trusted not to do anything outrageous in the heat of a derby atmosphere. Thankfully I was wrong. The only concern he gave us was his late withdrawal with a rib injury.
That good behaviour was not quite emulated by the whole team but the results were not catastrophic. Saints conceded six penalties which is right around their average for the season. There is work still to do on that score, but if we can avoid the kind of penalties which come with cards or subsequent suspensions then we’ll be on the right track.
There was a greater respect for possession than has sometimes been the case this term. Saints came up with nine errors on the night, an improvement on the 10.3 per game average that they were making coming in. Wigan came up with 12, slightly up on their average of 10.7 per game before Friday which maybe says something about how Saints ramped up defensively.
The Old Saints
To this point it hasn’t been the season we had been expected. Though the performances were excellent, wins over Huddersfield and Wigan over the last two weeks aren’t quite enough to declare that the old consistency is back. It is - as I said - merely peeking out above the parapet. Yet with players returning to fitness and from suspensions we are at least starting to look like a team which might be a threat this season. When the likes of Sione Mata’utia and James Bell only make the bench and McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Jake Wingfield and Will Hopoate miss out on the match day 17 altogether you probably have a right to expect performances to improve. As they seem to have done. So far.
Many - including myself at times - had written off the chances of Saints winning that fifth in a row even though it will come down to how we are playing in September and October as opposed to the first part of the campaign. The last couple of weeks have shown that while we may not quite yet be hitting the heights of the Kristian Woolf/Justin Holbrook years, there isn’t anyone out there who we should fear and - perhaps more pertinently - there probably isn’t anyone out there who will want to face us when summer turns to autumn.
The Stats Bit
We’ve dealt with French and Field so let’s pay our weekly homage to Walmsley. He led Saints in ground-gaining once more with 150 metres. Following him were Curtis Sironen (126), Makinson (112) and Konrad Hurrell (110). There may be a slight concern at the fact that only two of our forwards made what we would call significant yardage (metre-age?). The pack may only be one Walmsley injury away from a crisis. But there is the talent there to step up if Walmsley is missing and others get more minutes as a consequence. Heck, George Delaney couldn’t even get in the 17 this week.
Wigan’s best in this department was Miski with 100 metres. He was the only Warrior to hit the century though Marshall and Kaide Ellis just missed out on 99 and 98 respectively.
Saints top tackler was Lees with 36. The front row did most of the defensive heavy lifting with Roby (31) and Walmsley (30) the only others to reach 30. Wigan were busier. Smithies led all tacklers with 53, one of which was legal and another was effected before two of his mates got there first to do all of the hard work. Farrell and Ellis chipped in with 31 each.
With the boot Makinson made five from eight attempts taking his season’s figures to 27 from 41 (65.8% success rate). Smith was two from three and has 42 from 69 for the year at 60.8%.
Next Up
All roads lead east to Hull now with back-to-back visits to the black and whites of FC. The first comes next Saturday (June 17) in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup before Saints return for a league meeting the following Thursday (June 22).
Though I expect Tony Smith to ultimately improve the side if he sticks around long enough FC are an inconsistent beast at present. They remain as low as ninth in the table with only six wins from their 15 league matches so far. An excellent win over Warrington at Magic was preceded by a 29-22 defeat at Salford and followed up by a 28-16 reverse at Leigh. They will doubtless be very pleased to get back on home soil.
Ordinarily you might think that two wins at Hull in two weeks was a tall order. If you did, and you had to prioritise one you would plump for the cup game. No second chances in that one. No tomorrow. Whereas if you lose there in the league well…it’s June innit? Where’s the jeopardy?
But maybe two wins out of two on Humberside is not so fanciful now that Saints are at full strength. Pending this week’s Match Review Panel findings which increasingly and absurdly seem to rest on opponents’ injuries. If the last two weeks are a barometer and Saints are coming back to somewhere near their best then progress in the cup and another two points on the Super League table are a doable proposition.
Saints; Welsby, Makinson, Hurrell, Percival, Ritson, Lomax, Dodd, Walmsley, Roby, Lees, Sironen, Batchelor, Knowles. Interchanges: Bell, Lussick, Paasi, Mata’utia
Wigan: Field, Miski, Thornley, Wardle, Marshall, French, Smith, Ellis, O’Neill, Byrne, Shorrocks Farrell, Smithies. Interchanges: Cust, Mago, Singleton, Hill
Referee: Chris Kendall