Team 12

Among the general weirdness of 2020 one of the many regular strange sights was that of an 11-team Super League table. It just didn’t feel or look right. It was a guarantee that at least one team would find themselves without a fixture each week. That was immediately disconcerting, even before considering the reality that Covid made postponements and fixture reshuffles an inevitability. 

After declaring Toronto’s bid for re-entry into the competition about as reliable as one of Joe Anderson’s development contracts the game’s decision-makers nevertheless decided to restore order to the table by adding a 12th team for the new season which starts in March.  Staying optimistic, once in a century pandemics should have less impact in 2021.  It makes sense to try and press on towards a version of normality even if there is still uncertainty. To that end - and in the absence of any on-field Championship action to decide promotion - bids were invited from interested clubs. Fans of franchising could settle in for a rare treat. Never mind antiquated sporting concepts like promotion and relegation - this would be decided by far more thrilling and subjective issues like geography, stadium capacity and how likely you are to persuade beer companies to buy television advertising space on a Thursday night.

The franchisers dream has turned into a nightmare with the selection of Leigh Centurions as Team 12.  Taking actual rugby league results out of the equation had to open the door for a more ambitious selection, didn’t it? Toulouse offered the prospect of all-French match-ups against the Catalans Dragons. Another good excuse to enjoy a bit of summer sunshine across the channel, assuming you can still get into France after Brexit. York has plenty to recommend it as a tourist destination while the Knights continue to impress on and off the field. Or what about London? Page one of The Franchiser’s Handbook decrees that any competition worth its sodium chloride has to have a team from the nation’s capital involved. The Broncos had ambitious plans to share AFC Wimbledon’s new stadium, which if nothing else would mean that wheelchair-using visitors like myself would have no longer had our view obstructed by a whacking great shed.  

The only way this could have turned out worse for expansionism is if Bradford or Featherstone Rovers had got the nod. The Bulls remain the kind of financial risk that Charlie Sheen would shy away from, while Featherstone seem doomed to be forever stigmatised by the modest size of the town, it’s location in the rugby league heartlands and its association with the mining industry. Social media lit up after today’s announcement, with scores of fans of clubs from just off the M62 piling in to complain about the addition of another in Leigh but express their relief that it was not another in Featherstone. And they did so without a trace of irony.  They’re unequivocally against heartland clubs in their vision of what Super League should be unless we’re talking about their heartland club. All of which is drawbridge-pulling Priti Patel-ery. There but for the grace of God. Or something. A bad run of form - as we have seen from Leeds and Warrington in recent years with both reduced to slumming it in the hastily scrapped middle eights - and it could be your lot being told they ‘add nothing’ to the competition and that they need to be replaced by the Dublin Dolphins at the earliest opportunity.

Leigh is an unimaginative choice in the context of growing the game outside the north of England. There seems little doubt that there has been a reluctance find out what other areas could offer the sport. Some called it backward or cowardly and it is difficult to make the case that the Centurions are a particularly progressive choice. In many ways they will maintain the status quo even if they out-perform expectations. They’ll be immediately installed as favourite to finish bottom and go back down to the Championship.  That is if we’re doing relegation next year. But even if they compete it will do nothing to combat criticism of rugby league as an insular and parochial game paralysed by fear. It will just be a new name in the frame. A differently labelled version of what we have already seen. The question is whether we should necessarily be ashamed of that if that is currently where our strength lies.

Yet what Leigh also are is a safe bet in troubled times. The shadow of the pandemic still looms, with no guarantees that matches won’t be affected next season. We can’t be sure what kind of attendances will be allowed. Restrictions are still likely for some months to come despite the development of the vaccine. It may just be that a punt on Toulouse was discounted because memories of the problems experienced by other non-UK clubs in 2020 are all too fresh. Toronto’s withdrawal is well documented and perhaps an exceptional case given the logistics involved, but it should not be forgotten that Catalans only managed to play 13 regular season games in 2020. Whether that was their reluctance to travel in the Covid climate or that of their opponents, the effect is the same. Still, someone at Super League might want to make a note to try and avoid the premature introduction of easily abused win percentage systems if they ever find themselves in a similar situation to the one seen this past season. You live and learn. Leigh might lose more than they win and bounce straight back down, but they will probably fulfil their fixtures and they are highly unlikely to withdraw after six weeks. Again the blame for the Wolfpack’s controversial exit is almost secondary. The sport just can’t endure the humiliating negativity of a similar happening this time around.

Whoever pulled out the winning ticket was always going to find it tough anyway. Entry into Super League post-Covid is something of a poisoned chalice.  We have already endured the baffling decision of the clubs to offer reduced funding for 2021 to Team 12. The argument that everyone is tightening their belts right now does nothing to ease the suspicion that this is more protectionism from the established elite. Too many clubs aren’t concerned about the health of the game as long as they can retain their position within its hierarchy. It is the reason why only one bid could be accepted when there were six clubs who felt they could contribute. Maths geniuses at the elite clubs have long since worked out that an equal share among 12 clubs is greater than an equal share among 14. That is unless by increasing the league’s size you also increase interest, spectators and sponsors and therefore revenues. But again that’s too risky for some of our club owners to contemplate. They have little faith in the sport and so their prophecies are self-fulfilling.  

I wish Leigh well and genuinely hope they can grow to be competitive. The example of Salford in reaching two finals in the last two seasons should be inspirational. The Centurions have yo-yoed between the top two divisions too often in the past, an accusation that can also be levelled at London and some existing Super League clubs too. Castleford, Wakefield, Salford, Huddersfield and Hull KR have all spent time in the second tier in living memory. There’s a good argument that all of the brickbats aimed at Leigh, Bradford and Featherstone during this process apply to some of those clubs too. They just happened to be sitting in a Super League seat when the music stopped. It is not going to be easy to remove them or - more desirably perhaps - force them to up their standards to compete. But I do hope the five clubs who were unsuccessful today get another opportunity before too long. 

By The Barest Of Margins - Saints 8 Wigan Warriors 4 - Grand Final Review

Once in a while sport throws up moments that just can’t be explained. Michael Thomas’ second goal for Arsenal at Anfield in 1989, say. Or - if you prefer - Sergio Aguerooooooooo’s 2012 title-decider for Manchester City against Queens Park Rangers. Or in cricket how about Shane Warne’s Ball Of The Century to Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in the 1993 Ashes series? Or England’s 2019 World Cup win ‘by the barest of margins’ following a Champagne Super Over against New Zealand in the final? In athletics your mind wanders to Usain Bolt slowing down while still setting a world record mark of 9.58 seconds in the Olympic 100 metres final in Beijing in 2008.

You may only feel such excitement about rugby league. Within those parameters there is Don Fox’s missed conversion in the 1968 ‘Watersplash’ Challenge Cup Final - memorable for all the wrong reasons as it snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for Wakefield Trinity against Leeds. Or Chris Joynt’s ‘Wide To West’ game-winning try in Saints 2000 playoff victory over Bradford Bulls at Knowsley Road. These  are moments when all logic leaves the scene and something miraculous takes place. They are extremely rare. At the same time the possibility of witnessing such a moment is always there. It’s one of the major reasons why we love sport and in particular rugby league. 

The 2020 Super League season was never going to be one that would be easy to forget. Yet until Jack Welsby’s post-hooter, Grand Final-winning try left Saints bitterest rivals vanquished the campaign had been memorable for what had gone wrong. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected every facet of our lives this year and rugby league has been hit particularly hard. Leagues below the elite competition did not restart after the March lockdown, largely due to the economic difficulties of the ban on fans inside grounds and the regular testing that would have been required. 

Super League soldiered on, but it was an utter mess at times. Fixtures were changed at a few days notice as squads were hit by Covid outbreaks and forced to isolate in numbers. Win percentage was introduced to decide league positions as it became clear that some clubs would not complete the same number of fixtures as others. Eventually the regular season was abruptly curtailed and the playoffs expanded to accommodate six teams instead of the four that had been agreed ahead of the August restart. The league even made a contingency plan to reinstate teams that had been eliminated should any qualified teams subsequently be unable to fulfil a playoff fixture due to Covid issues. Mercifully that never came to pass but the damage to the integrity of the competition remained significant.

As much as it could be determined Super League’s two best teams had still managed to make it through to the Grand Final. Saints had put together a run of 10 straight league wins after the resumption until an increasingly packed schedule persuaded coach Kristian Woolf to select a youthful side at Salford. They fell to a narrow defeat and - without the suspended Alex Walmsley - Saints went down 18-6 to Wigan in their next game to hand the initiative to Adrian Lam’s side in the race for the League Leaders Shield. It proved exactly the wrong moment to make a miss-step. 

Saints declined to travel to France to face Catalans Dragons in their next fixture as the Covid infection rate climbed and politicians talked of a second lockdown. Hull KR declared their season over with three matches still scheduled. Salford cited injuries caused by the increased workload as a reason for calling off their meeting with Warrington Wolves and were subsequently forced to forfeit the game. Rather than hit the pause button for a second time the league decided to halt the regular season early and start the playoff series ahead of schedule. That left Wigan needing only to beat Huddersfield Giants in what would now be their final league game to secure the League Leaders Shield. They duly did so, denying Saints what would have been a third consecutive League Leaders Shield.  Instead Saints finished runners up before they and Wigan cruised to semi-final victories over the Dragons and Hull FC respectively. The top two would meet for the title.

So that’s how we got to the fourth Grand Final between Saints and Wigan. The 23rd Grand Final since the event was introduced in 1998.  It was unquestionably the most dramatic denouement to any Grand Final. This is how Renton from Trainspotting felt when Archie Gemmil scored in 1978.  Sean Long’s 2002 drop goal winner against Bradford Bulls was unforgettable but even that could not match the ludicrous, bewildering and joyous way that the 2020 season reached its conclusion. If those in charge of promoting the game don’t use clips of Welsby’s last-gasp intervention to sell the sport to the uninitiated they should all be relieved of their duties. By the way, did I mention that it is 3-1 to Saints in Grand Finals against Wigan now?

This was the first Super League Grand Final to be played away from Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium. The more modest KC Stadium in Hull was selected as an alternative. Given that, and the fact that there were still no fans permitted inside the stadium the level of commitment, intensity and sheer effort on show from both sides was breathtaking. Despite everything that had gone before in 2020 this was a Grand Final between two desperate teams to whom victory meant every bit as much - maybe more - than it would have done ordinarily. It wasn’t pretty at times but it will live long in the memory of every Saints fan. No doubt it will haunt those of a Wigan persuasion too. Lam appeared visibly distressed in his post game interview having seen Welsby latch on to the rebound from Tommy Makinson’s longe range drop-goal attempt to score the try that broke a 4-4 tie. In doing so he may have also helped break Lam’s heart but he spared the rest of us the agony of a period of golden point extra time.

Barely a minute before that I and I’m sure many other Saints fans would have bitten your hand off for that extra period. Theo Fages had been penalised at the ruck by referee Chris Kendall just moments after Dominique Peyroux had been pinged for a set restart. The penalty was 45 metres out from the Saints posts but in a fairly central position. When the penalty was awarded I wondered whether Wigan might kick for touch and try to work the ball closer to the posts for a drop goal attempt. With the clock running down that is all they would have needed in all likelihood to complete a 5-4 win and evoke memories of their 1993 Lancashire Cup final win over Saints by that scoreline.

On the other hand the decision to kick for goal was understandable. All Zak Hardaker had to do was keep his aim straight, get enough power on it and the title would surely be Wigan’s. In the event he pushed it wide and a little short, from where Jonny Lomax ran it back with interest to start the set that would culminate in Welsby’s miracle play.  As the hooter sounded Makinson received the ball and launched a drop goal attempt. He’d landed one under somewhat less pressure but with a dislocated shoulder in last year’s Grand Final win over Salford. His 2020 vintage was no mean effort despite the sweat-inducing circumstances.  It cannoned off the upright, bouncing away from Wigan fullback Bevan French and tantalisingly towards Welsby. The youngster then etched himself into Saints folklore by grounding the ball just inside the dead ball line as French floundered and Wigan bodies crumpled in despair all around. 

It was checked by the video referee. Of course it was checked. Isn’t everything these days unless you are Robert Hicks? Firstly to determine whether Welsby had been stood in front of Makinson when he struck his drop goal attempt - and therefore offside - and then to make sure Welsby had not touched the dead ball line before grounding the ball.  It was tight. So tight that it was almost impossible to tell given the camera angles. Crucially, Kendall had sent it up for review as a try, seemingly happy that Welsby was onside. That made all the difference. Just as there had been insufficient evidence to overturn Kendall’s decision to call back Zeb Taia’s earlier effort for offside from a James Roby kick which ricocheted into the in-goal off Thomas Leuluai, so the video referee had no option but to stand by the on-field referee’s original call on Welsby’s try. Cue 17 kinds of delirium on the field among the Saints players and in thousands of living rooms from Haydock to Haresfinch. Few of us noticed that Lachlan Coote hadn’t even bothered to attempt the conversion which could have turned an 8-4 scoreline into a 10-4 scoreline. Only spread betters could have had the slightest interest. Time had long since expired. Saints had retained their crown. 

Analysis almost feels like something for another day given the circumstances, but when the dust settles Woolf will know his side can and must improve for 2021. Though not as conservative as during that 18-6 defeat to the Warriors on October 30 Saints still lacked the guile and creativity to make this a more comfortable evening despite enjoying the bulk of the possession and territory. Fages continually takes wrong options while his kicking game and that of Coote remains too predictable. Fages should be seriously challenged for his place by Lewis Dodd in 2021.

Most of the heroes could be found doing their best work in defence. The top-knotted nuisance that is James Bentley was relentless in making an absurd 69 tackles. Roby carried off a second Harry Sunderland Trophy for man of the match to add to the one he won last time Saints got the better of Wigan in a Grand Final six years ago. He made 56 tackles and was at the centre of everything Saints did in attack as they piled the pressure on a stubborn and steely Wigan defence. Lomax was kept relatively in check by the Warriors though such was the stand-off’s appetite for work that he still racked up 198 metres with ball in hand without ever really looking like breaking through.   

Saints defence was equally solid for the most part but it did crack once.  Leuluai, Jackson Hastings and French combined to send Jake Bibby over with just 15 minutes remaining. That gave Wigan a 4-2 lead which in such a low scoring game threatened to be decisive. The only points before that had come from the boot of Coote on the stroke of half-time. He converted a penalty after Morgan Smithies got into character with a late shoulder charge. It was not the only cheap shot of the first half. Leuluai was not even penalised for launching himself at James Graham’s ribs despite the fact that the retiring Saints prop did not have possession of the ball at the time. It has long been the Wigan Way to hit on suspicion. Mystifyingly, even the video referee saw nothing wrong with the shot which took Graham some time to recover from. He would be the one smiling at the end.

Walmsley’s questionable fitness was another big problem for Saints. It has since transpired that he had damaged knee ligaments in the semi final win over Catalans and now requires surgery. That is not surprising remembering the pictures of him hobbling out of the action last week but it is understandable if Woolf did not want to reveal any doubts about Walmsley before the game. That would have given Wigan a boost which could have proved very useful. However you just hope that no risks were taken with Walmsley’s long term health and fitness. He will now undergo surgery to correct the problem with a view to returning for pre-season in the new year.

Credit must go to Matty Lees, Kyle Amor and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook for filling in solidly for the two big guns up front when required. Wigan are a very physical side and it would have been easy to fold during the spells when Graham and/or Walmsley were off the field. Instead, but for the lapse which allowed Bibby to cross Saints only defensive vulnerability was on their right edge where Kevin Naiqama repeatedly shot out of the line to leave space which Oliver Gildart almost exploited. On one such occasion in the first half it took four Saints defenders to somehow prevent Hardaker from grounding the ball. 

As well as Graham both Taia and Peyroux were playing their final games for Saints as Woolf starts the job of shaping his own squad. Joel Thompson and Sione Mata’utia are coming in from Manly Sea Eagles and Newcastle Knights respectively to replace the second row pairing of the Justin Holbrook era, while Agnatius Paasi arrives from New Zealand Warriors to fill Luke Thompson’s position which has been kept warm by Graham in 2020. After seven losing Grand Finals in his career - five with Saints before his eight-year NRL spell - it was a delight to see Graham finish his playing days on this incredible high. It was clear from his post-game interview how much it meant to him. He was one of the few Saints players to manage to avoid an f-bomb as the giddy excitement started to take effect. Well, it was well after the watershed. Who could begrudge them outside Wigan?

Saints claimed a record-equalling eighth Super League crown and a seventh Grand Final victory, the first title having arrived via the first past the post system still in operation in Super League’s inaugural year of 1996.  We must now wait until March 11 2021 for our Super League fix. Saints fans...keep this one on your planner and use it to get you through the winter. In a world where not much feels right at present it’s reassuring to know that Saints are still top dog.

Grand Final Preview - Saints v Wigan

After Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Pirates Of The Caribbean and...er...Shrek comes the quadrilogy to end all quadrilogies as Saints and Wigan meet in the Super League Grand Final for a fourth time this Friday night (November 27, kick-off 8.00pm).

First there was 2000 when the largely unheralded Tim Jonkers stepped from the shadows of his more illustrious team-mates to score the try that sealed a 29-16 win for Ian Millward’s side. We had to wait 10 years for part two in 2010 when former Saint Martin Gleeson scored twice for Wigan to seal a 22-10 victory. He’d found his way to his hometown club via a betting scandal and the even greater ignominy of a spell with Warrington. In 2014 the second minute red card earned by frenzied Wigan nutcase Ben Flower for assaulting an already prone Lance Hohaia helped a Saints side totally devoid of halfbacks to pull off an unlikely but glorious 14-6 win.

The fourth instalment will be somewhat different to the first three. Like most things in the dystopia of 2020 rugby league has been walloped repeatedly by Covid-19. Fixtures have been changed at a few days notice. Win percentage replaced the traditional allocation of points on the league table in a move more premature than the appearance of your mum’s Christmas tree. It all culminated in the sudden curtailment of the regular season, the expansion of the playoffs and a first ever Grand Final to be played away from Old Trafford and on a day of the week that is manifestly not Saturday.

Yet as Freddie Mercury once told us the show - even if it’s at an empty stadium in Hull - must go on. For all it’s monstrosity the 2020 season still has a title on offer. As much as fans of the losing side will try to suggest it there will be no asterisk next to the name of the champions in the record books. Saints versus Wigan always matters and this one - despite all of the chaos that has gone before it - matters a little more than usual. 

With that in mind Saints coach Kristian Woolf will be anxious about the availability of James Graham. The former England prop is set to play the last game of his second spell with Saints before retiring. His two stints in the red vee bookend a stellar career in the NRL with Canterbury Bulldogs and St George-Illawarra Dragons. If he is cleared to play following his early withdrawal from the semi-final win over Catalans Dragons with a head injury Graham will turn out for Saints for the 237th time. He is named by Woolf in an unchanged 21-man squad and is apparently on course to come through all of the required concussion protocols.

The key difference in personnel for Saints in this one as opposed to the 18-6 defeat by Wigan on October 30 is the likely inclusion of Alex Walmsley. The former Batley man was suspended for that game and was badly missed. If he, Graham and James Roby are able to form the starting front row then Saints will have a much more solid base on which to set a platform for the outside backs who never got going in the last meeting. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Kyle Amor and Matty Lees are all in contention to provide back-up in that area but you get the sense that Walmsley’s presence is even more important than that of Graham.

Also playing their last game for Saints are the 2019 Grand Final-winning second row pairing of Zeb Taia and Dominique Peyroux. Taia is retiring at the end of proceedings at the KC Stadium while Woolf has taken the hardly universally popular decision to allow Peyroux to join Toulouse for the start of 2021. Peyroux was a man transformed under the tutelage of Justin Holbrook but has become somewhat marginalised under Woolf. The Tongan coach has preferred James Bentley in recent weeks and to be fair the ex-Bradford Bull has taken his opportunity with some fine performances. Yet if Woolf is shrewd he will find a place in his 17 for Peyroux who still has plenty to offer particularly as a wide running threat. 

Saints will need that having played so obviously into Wigan’s hands last time out with repeated trundling up the middle straight into the teeth of Wigan’s greatest strength - their defence close to the ruck. Saints must give Adrian Lam’s side more to think about defensively as they did when Catalans tried to emulate Wigan’s bruising, uncompromising style of cheating defence. Peyroux could yet be a key figure in that. 

The standout battle in the back divisions is between two ultimately unsuccessful Man Of Steel nominees at fullback. Lachlan Coote has had a second season of dependable swagger which has taken away all the stress of Ben Barba’s departure from the club. Coote is effectively a third halfback for Saints alongside the established duo of Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages. 

The former North Queensland Cowboy will be involved in pretty much everything Saints do in attack as well as providing a comforting reassurance at the back when needed. He is more creative than Fages but his real strength seems to lie in his ability to make good decisions and execute under pressure. He is arguably Saints key player in attack for all the talent elsewhere. 

On the opposite side Wigan have Barba-lite speed merchant and commentator’s favourite Bevan French. The former Parramatta Eels man has agreed to extend his stay with Wigan into 2021 and has certainly brought a new dimension to a previously predictable attack. If French gets into open space there is only Regan Grace on the Saints side capable of staying in the picture. The Welshman will hope that it is others chasing him down that left channel outside of Jack Welsby, who must have nudged ahead of the unfortunate Josh Simm in the race to replace the injured Mark Percival at left centre. Welsby produced an outstanding semi final performance in which he made Israel Folau look ordinary as well as bigoted.

Saints 48-2 win over the Dragons in that semi final was a welcome reminder of what Kevin Naiqama and Tommy Makinson can do on that right edge. It was Makinson who scored the decisive try in 2014 and no doubt the Wigan-born former Golden Boot winner would love to repeat the trick. He is one of five on show that night for Saints who have a chance to be involved again alongside McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Amor, Walmsley and Roby. Wigan also have five in their 21 with the retiring Sean O’Loughlin joined by Joe Burgess, Sam Powell, Liam Farrell and Tony Clubb. The villain of that night - Flower - misses out with a hamstring injury which if nothing else should help prevent the whole thing descended into chaos as early as it did six years ago.

Powell is probably the one likely change to Wigan’s starting line-up having missed his side’s 29-2 semi final demolition of Hull FC last week. Ethan Harvard is out so Joe Bullock and Brad Singleton look set to complete the front row with perhaps Clubb backing them up. Liam Byrne and the lesser-spotted George Burgess are also included along with twin grubs Morgan Smithies and Oliver Partington. Wigan’s middle remains a chamber of horrors sprinkled with a touch of class here and there from O’Loughlin and Farrell and the more workmanlike but less psychotic Willie Isa.  

As well as French the burden of creativity falls on Jackson Hastings - playing in his second consecutive Grand Final against Saints after being on the losing side with Salford last year - veteran schemer Thomas Leuluai who has a nasty habit of doing well against Saints and perhaps young star Harry Smith. His talent is not in doubt but his lack of experience may be a weakness that Saints chief halfback-botherer Morgan Knowles can exploit. If Wigan have a tactical epiphany and work it wide then the left edge duo of the classy Oliver Gildart and the pacy Joe Burgess spells trouble. Zak Hardaker uses all of his brain capacity for rugby league and has made a useful transition from fullback to centre while outside him Jake Bibby is another with bad memories of last year’s season finale with the Red Devils.

Refereeing arrangements are not something which warrant more than a passing mention in my pre-game scene-setters but there is a fair amount of controversy about the appointment of Chris Kendall for this one. Kendall has somehow managed to be appointed to what will be a seventh consecutive Wigan game which might as well put him on Ian Lenagan’s payroll. It’s an extraordinary decision by the always eccentric governing body which will hopefully not come back to bite them on their champagne guzzling, finger buffet-destroying collective derriere. 

Notwithstanding Kendall’s absurd run of consecutive matches involving the Warriors he was quite awful in the semi final win over Hull. For once, I am sad to have to report that the kind of myopic paranoid wrecks who announce their team’s defeat on Facebook as soon as they learn the identity of the referee might have something to fear here. Why would the authorities leave themselves open to the inevitable innuendos that will follow any shred of controversy should it go Wigan’s way? Hey...this is rugby league.

If you had asked me before the Catalans game how confident I was of getting the better of Wigan in a Grand Final my response would have been fairly cagey. The team that took to the field that day was capable but likely to hamstring itself with dullard, NRL tribute-band conservatism. Eighty minutes later Woolf had showed that perhaps he has learned that if he lets his side play to its strengths and successfully distracts them from the tsunami of shithousing that is coming their way from Adrian ‘coach of the year 👀’ Lam’s side then logic suggests Saints will be too strong. Saints by 12.

Squads:

St Helens;

1. Lachlan Coote, 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 5. Regan Grace, 6. Jonny Lomax, 7. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 11. Zeb Taia, 12, Dom Peyroux, 13. LMS, 14. Morgan Knowles, 15. Matty Lees, 16. Kyle Amor, 19, Aaron Smith, 20. James Bentley, 22. Jack Welsby, 23. Joe Batchelor, 26, Josh Simm, 27, Lewis Dodd, 32. James Graham.

Wigan Warriors;

1. Zak Hardaker 3. Chris Hankinson 4. Oliver Gildart 5. Joe Burgess 6. Bevan French 7. Tommy Leuluai 8. Tony Clubb 9. Sam Powell 10. George Burgess 11. Willie Isa 12. Liam Farrell 13. Sean O’Loughlin 15. Joe Greenwood 16 Morgan Smithies 17. Oliver Partington 19 Joe Bullock 20. Liam Byrne 23. Jake Bibby 28. Harry Smith 31. Jackson Hastings 38. Brad Singleton

Referee: Shaun Wane Chris Kendall

Saints v Wigan - Preview

If you thought the last derby was strange tomorrow night’s meeting between Saints and Wigan (October 30, kick-off 7.45pm) has the potential to be even stranger.

Saints 42-0 towelling of Wigan at Salford on September 29 was a non-event. Warriors coach Adrian Lam decided - understandably perhaps - to prioritise the Challenge Cup semi-final which had somehow been scheduled for just a few days later. Much good it did them. Corsets were required to stop sides splitting across the rugby league community as the nation’s least favourite club managed to lose to Leeds. Only Yorkshire-based journalists who took Leeds’ success as a sign that we were back in 2015 enjoyed it more than I did.

This time around it is not the strength of the Wigan side that is the issue but the dodgy dealing going on in the background as the playoffs approach. Predictably, teams with playoff-worthy win percentages have decided to stick rather than twist. Suddenly a heavy cold for the tea lady is reason enough for some clubs to call off games which would previously have gone ahead. Sometimes against the backdrop of seven or eight positive Covid tests and further contact tracing issues. 

Several clubs are now struggling to reach the 15-game minimum required to reach the playoffs, a rule which itself was made up on the spot at Super League’s last great meeting of minds. The worried response of fat-walleted chairmen is a genius ruse to expand the playoffs. There’s a famous line in The Simpsons in which the children at Springfield Elementary are asked what giving everyone an equal chance when they are clearly not equal is called. ‘ Communism’ they all reply in unison. It’s ironic that rich club owners with a financial position usually somewhere to the right of that held by Tim Martin have now resorted to evoking ‘the greater good’ to save their own skins.

The upshot of all this politicking is that this game - which could have been a genuine decider for the League Leaders Shield - is now severely diminished by the uncertainty surrounding the stakes. It may still decide the League Leaders Shield but if it does so it will be the most devalued honour since Jimmy Saville was knighted. To decide to make this week’s fixtures the final round of the season would be the kind of amateur shit show you get in pub sports. It’s the Dog & Bollock forfeiting their dominoes match against the The Three Bell Ends because Matt from Health couldn’t get out of his meeting in time to make the trip. Yet it is very likely to happen. Saints v Wigan for the League Leaders Shield in a straight shoot-out. Following that an expanded playoff series that is basically winner stays on.

You may remember that Saints boss Kristian Woolf gave most of his stars the night off on Monday as a youthful Saints side were edged 12-10 by Salford. No doubt he did so with this fixture in mind. All of Lachlan Coote, Regan Grace, Jonny Lomax, James Roby, Zeb Taia, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Matty Lees return to the squad. In addition you can expect Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Theo Fages, James Bentley and Morgan Knowles to return to the line-up having not been required in the 17 for Salford. 

Alex Walmsley will not feature as he is suspended. The two game ban he picked up for a dangerous tackle on Alex Sutcliffe has been reduced to one but that one just happens to be the derby. Maybe Lees will start alongside James Graham at prop with Knowles at 13. Alternatively Woolf could go with McCarthy-Scarsbrook or Kyle Amor.  The Cumbrian has just signed a one-year extension to his contract to keep him at Saints until the end of 2021. Assuming Lockdown Britain still counts days, months and years by then. 

One more interesting selection sees Josh Eaves included as the second hooker ahead of Aaron Smith. Eaves showed up well in the Salford loss scoring a great early try and is perhaps now emerging as a genuine alternative to Smith in relief of Roby. Peyroux did himself no harm with his performance and he will hope to push for a place in the 17 along with Jack Welsby, Joseph Paulo, Lewis Dodd and Jake Wingfield. Josh Simm joins Graham as the only starter against Salford likely to get the nod again from the beginning in this one.

With the whiff of undeserved silver in the air it is little surprise to see Wigan bring in the cavalry. Lam is without long term injury victims Jack Wells and Liam Marshall while Shaun O’Loughlin and Ethan Harvard are also out injured. Yet most of the rest of Lam’s star names are on deck. There are just two changes to the squad which trounced Salford 58-12 last time out as Liam Byrne and Chris Hankinson replace Joe Shorrocks and Dom Manfredi. 

The man to watch for the Warriors will be Bevan French. His combination of speed and elusiveness make him a force at fullback. Zak Hardaker and Oliver Gildart provide quality at centre with the wings likely to be occupied by Salford past and future in the shape of Jake Bibby and Joe Burgess. The latter has all the tactical acumen of Mike Bassett but if he gets a yard of space on that left edge even Makinson will struggle to get near him. 

In the halves Jackson Hastings will grin and bear playing for this awful club again alongside Thomas Leuluai. Sam Powell defines the term ‘grub’ at hooker while Lam’s middle options include the youthful psychosis of Oliver Partington, Morgan Smithies alongside the more experienced but rather fading trio of Brad Singleton, George Burgess and Cunty Blob Tony Clubb. Ben Flower continues to avoid capture for murdering Lance Hohaia in 2014 and could also feature. 

In the back row Liam Farrell is good enough to be above the barbs of this column such is the esteem in which he is is held. Alongside him is likely to be Willie Isa although former Saint Joe Greenwood may get some game time. Failing that he will at least get to ask Taia to autograph his Zeb Taia pyjamas.

Predictions scarcely matter if you’re changing the rules but my only doubt about a comfortable Saints win is the absence of Walmsley. The other Saints front rowers have a big job on to make up the go-forward that will be missing without the ex-Batley man. Nevertheless I’d still back Saints to put Wigan back in their box with a narrow 4-point win.

Squads:

St Helens:

1. Lachlan Coote 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 5. Regan Grace 6. Jonny Lomax 7. Theo Fages 9. James Roby 11. Zeb Taia 12 Dom Peyroux 13. LMS 14. Morgan Knowles 15. Matty Lees 16. Kyle Amor 18 Joseph Paulo 20. James Bentley 22. Jack Welsby 24 Josh Eaves 26 Josh Simm 27 Lewis Dodd 31 Jake Wingfield 32. James Graham.

Wigan Warriors:

1. Zak Hardaker 3. Chris Hankinson 4. Oliver Gildart  5. Joe Burgess 6. Bevan French 7. Tommy Leuluai 8. Tony Clubb 9. Sam Powell 10. George Burgess 11. Willie Isa 12. Liam Farrell 14. Ben Flower 15. Joe Greenwood 16. Morgan Smithies 17. Oliver Partington 19. Joe Bullock 20. Liam Byrne 23. Jake Bibby 28. Harry Smith 31. Jackson Hastings 38. Brad Singleton

Referee: Chris Kendall

Saints 10 Salford Red Devils 12 - Review

It ended in defeat, but Saints 12-10 reverse against Salford Red Devils on Monday (October 26) was not without its plus points.

Changes were expected for this one when we saw the squad that Kristian Woolf had named two days previously. Even so the scale of the reshuffle was a surprising, slightly jarring development. Not like finding out that Dido Harding is still in charge of test and trace, but you feared the worst in terms of the result. And so it proved. Yet we may one day look back on this game as a day when far more important gains were made. Five players made their first team debuts while there were further opportunities for Matty Costello, Josh Simm, Jack Welsby, Aaron Smith, Lewis Dodd, Jack Ashworth and Josh Eaves. In all 13 of the 17 on duty had come through the system at Saints, which would still have been true if Woolf had gone a little bit stronger and included any or all of Tommy Makinson, Regan Grace, Johnny Lomax, James Roby, Matty Lees and Morgan Knowles. There is nothing wrong with the production line.

None of Tom Nisbet, Ben Davies, Nico Rizelli, Matty Foster or Jake Wingfield let anybody down. My own feeling is just that youth benefits more from being introduced gradually rather than being thrown in together all at once to either sink or swim. With the exceptions of Alex Walmsley and James Graham the experienced players that were included were those on the fringes of the first team squad and not the regulars who have been playing every week. Men like Ashworth, Joseph Paulo and Joe Batchelor needed the minutes but none of them are currently part of what you would say is Saints strongest 17. Just one or two more of the established stars could have made the difference to the result and - crucially perhaps - to the confidence of the youngsters making their first appearance.

Not to say that there wasn’t justification for Woolf’s decision to give some players the night off. Saints had played Leeds only three days before this one and face Wigan on Friday (October 30) in a derby game that has the potential to decide the League Leaders Shield. Players have limits and three games in eight days is probably beyond what is good for them. Graham had missed the win over Leeds and Walmsley had learned earlier in the day that he will be suspended for the Wigan game, factors which gave Woolf a little bit more leeway with those two. Walmsley was hit with a two-game ban for an alleged crusher tackle on Alex Sutcliffe of the Rhinos. That has since been reduced to one but Walmsley will still sit the derby out.

Despite the changes the game started well enough for Saints. Inside three minutes Dominique Peyroux sliced through two or three defenders to put Eaves in for his first try for the club on just his third appearance. Peyroux was outstanding throughout. He did more than anyone to stake a claim for more minutes when the bigger games come along. 

He was a regular in Justin Holbrook’s outstanding 2019 side but has been edged out this year by James Bentley. On this evidence Peyroux is a more penetrative player than the combative Bentley and must at least be considered a useful option off the bench.  There will be those who will highlight his sloppy play-the-ball error which led to Pauli Pauli’s try just before half-time but that was a rare blemish. Peyroux carried the ball only 10 times but ran for 98 metres, contributing 41 tackles in defence. No Saints player managed more than that though it is some way short of the ludicrous 70 that Luke Yates managed. 

Eaves made his mark to the extent that he has been named ahead of Smith in the 21-man squad for the Wigan game. As well as scoring Saints only try of the night the young hooker made 26 tackles, 10 of which came from marker, while averaging nine metres per carry in attack. By comparison Smith made 15 metres per carry but from only three attempts and 24 tackles. Statistically then there isn’t much between them but there has just been a sense in recent weeks that Smith is falling out of favour with Woolf. Eaves may have emerged as a genuine contender to be Roby’s regular understudy. 

After scoring first through Eaves Saints had stretched out to a 10-0 lead before Pauli Pauli’s intervention. Yet they had done so courtesy of two penalty goals from the boot of Dodd. There is an argument that the decision to take the two on those occasions betrayed a lack of confidence in the young Saints ability to break the Salford line. With a stronger team on deck there would still be justification for taking the first one to push the six-point advantage out to eight and so force Salford into having to score twice. But the first XIII kicks the second one to the corner and goes for the try 100% of the time. Such is their attacking philosophy they would probably have ran both. Ideally, you’d like the philosophy to stay the same even when the personnel changes.

Maybe one reason why they did not feel confident in doing so was the absence of the three attacking pivots through which everything flows. With Lomax, Theo Fages and Lachlan Coote out of the side creativity was always going to be affected. In particular Coote’s role is crucial as a facilitator, almost like a third halfback. With Costello at fullback Saints just didn’t have that despite a solid showing from a man who has played most of his first team football at centre or on the wing. Costello did have 116 metres on 17 carries and led Saints alongside Paulo with three offloads but the assist column remained bare. That is not all down to him. Welsby and Dodd are not yet as practiced in the system as Lomax and Theo Fages and between them the trio just couldn’t get that link going.

Regrettably we have to address the one moment that could and probably should have won it for Saints. It was rare that the young Saints were able to strip the Red Devils for numbers out wide but they did so 15 minutes into the second half. Jack Welsby found space on the right edge and handed on to Nisbet for what looked like a simple walk-in. What transpired instead was horrific for the unfortunate 21 year-old, who dived for the line a fraction too early and lost the ball on impact with the ground. The ball had been grounded so there was hope before the video review that he might have got away with letting the ball squirm from his grasp. Yet the pictures told the sorry tale. The ball had been grounded short before coming loose.

Many were quick to point out that Nisbet would learn from the experience. And he will. Yet the lesson should be on how to put such a glaring error behind him and move on, and not about the execution. Nisbet did not reach the heights of Super League without knowing how to ground a ball from a technical point of view. He would not have got out of junior club rugby and into Saints famed youth system without knowing how to do that. He won’t need telling. He’ll just need the support firstly of all of us albeit socially distanced on social media, but also of the coaches and the senior players at the club.  The best thing that can happen for Nisbet is to get another first team opportunity as early as possible but with Makinson and Grace rather immovable objects on the wings it could be a while before he gets that chance. It should also be remembered in all of this that players like Nisbet - used to turning out for the reserves and under-19 side in previous seasons - have not had a game for some time thanks to Covid. 

Saints fledgling stars proved durable enough. Both Eaves and Wingfield withstood high shots from Lee Mossop. It’s a trait that the Salford man no doubt picked up from the Wigan School Of Grubbery but at least offered the pair a revealing insight into the physicality of the big league. In the end it was another error which led to Saints undoing. Rizelli had done extremely well to beat a couple of defenders in trying to clear his lines with Saints hanging on to a four-point advantage at 10-6. Rizelli arguably took on one too many as the ball came free to give Salford a late chance. They duly took it as the ball was moved to the other side of the field where Krisnan Inu got rid of Welsby like Ben Bradley swatting away a hungry child before cutting inside to score. For an encore Inu landed a superb conversion from near the touchline to deny Saints even the prospect of a shot at golden point extra time.

Even then there was one final chance for Saints. They worked the ball left as the clock ticked down but just as it looked like a gap had opened up Simm just couldn’t find the offload that might have earned Saints a reprieve. It means that a loss against Wigan this week will leave the two old foes on the same win percentage ahead of whatever manic, late season goalpost-moving is being cooked up by Robert Elstone and his trusty advisors otherwise known as club chairmen.

It’s a stretch to say the derby might not matter. The derby always matters even if Wigan tried to pretend otherwise in September’s meeting.  But whether it decides the destiny of the League Leaders Shield or not Saints look in good shape not only to defend their title - whatever that will mean in the madness of 2020 - but also for many years to come. 

The kids are alright, even if they didn’t quite do enough to win this time.

 

Saints v Salford Red Devils - Preview

It could be a more youthful, experimental Saints side which takes on Salford Red Devils at Headingley on Monday (October 26, kick-off 5.30pm).

Head Coach Kristian Woolf has made seven changes to his 21-man squad from the one which was on duty for Friday’s 40-8 home victory over Leeds Rhinos (October 23). Lachlan Coote, Regan Grace, Jonny Lomax, James Roby, Zeb Taia, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Matty Lees all drop out with a mix of youngsters and forgotten men drafted in to take their place. 

Back rowers Matthew Foster and Jake Wingfield, hooker Josh Eaves and fullback or winger Tom Nisbett are all included while there are recalls for Jack Ashworth, Joseph Paulo and Matty Costello. Paulo has not featured since the pre-lockdown 12-10 home defeat to Huddersfield Giants back in March. The word around the campfire is that he has given up on convincing Woolf that he can contribute in the final year of his Saints contract and instead negotiated a release to enable him to join Toulouse for 2021.

Ashworth has had some off field issues which have been a major reason why he has not seen first team action since a 54-6 win over the Giants at Headingley in early September. For Costello’s part he might have thought the injury to Mark Percival would give him an opportunity for a run in the first team. However he has been overtaken in the pecking order by both Jack Welsby and last week’s hat-trick hero Josh Simm. Costello will hope to make his first appearance since starting that big win over the Giants on the wing but long term his Saints future looks bleak.

Trying to predict what the final Saints line-up might look like is tricky. For all the new blood, Woolf has included 10 of the 17 who strolled past Leeds last time out who could still feature. Add to that the fact that James Graham and Lewis Dodd did not play any part against the Challenge Cup winners and we could still see a relatively strong side. Alex Walmsley’s inclusion is perhaps a surprise given that he has had a heavy workload of late and is one of Saints most important players in the pack. Maybe the prospect of Walmsley picking up a ban after being sin-binned for placing Leeds’ Alex Sutcliffe in a dangerous position is in Woolf’s thinking. If a ban is imminent the England prop might be involved on the basis that he’ll get his rest when that ban comes. If not then maybe he could sit this one out to stay fresh for Wigan on Friday (October 30).

Aside from Walmsley Saints have all of Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Theo Fages, Joe Batchelor, Morgan Knowles, Kyle Amor, Aaron Smith, James Bentley and Simm on duty. How many of them we will see is likely to depend on how healthy they are following Friday’s run out. Woolf has said publicly that Dodd will get a start in the halves soon and this looks like being the time. For his sake I hope he is able to do so within a relatively strong line-up. I’m not sure we will learn too much about how he fits in to the shape of the team if he is having to steer a ship that is too reliant on youth. Along with some of the 10 who played on Friday perhaps Dominique Peyroux would be a useful inclusion. He needs the game time and has the experience which could prove vital.  

Turning our attentions to Salford their coach Ian Watson has been linked with a move to Hull FC on social media this weekend. He has worked relative miracles in getting the Red Devils to last year’s Grand Final and to Wembley earlier this month. It is easy to see why Hull chief Adam Pearson might consider Watson the ideal candidate to get the best out of a talented but continually underachieving squad. 

No deal has yet been done at the time of writing so for now Watson remains focused on Salford. He has made three changes to his 21-man party after they were blown away 58-12 by Wigan on Friday. Dan Sarginson returns from the Covid issues that ruled him out of an appearance at Wembley and he is joined by Connor Jones and Tom Gilmore. Mark Flanagan misses out after being knocked out in that Wigan loss while Niall Evalds withdrew from that one late and does not make it here either. James Greenwood is the other man to miss out.

Watson will hope for a much better performance than the one served up by his players against Wigan. Clearly Wembley took a toll physically and emotionally but there is plenty of quality in the Red Devils line up. Krisnan Inu has been superb this year while Kallum Watkins has also made an impact after joining from Toronto Wolfpack without making an appearance for the Canadian side. Kevin Brown looks gone for the year so the creative onus is on Tui Lolohea and Chris Atkin or Gilmore if he gets the nod. 

The forward pack is led by former Wigan man Lee Mossop and there is further experience in the shape of Tyrone McCarthy, Gil Dudson and Parramatta Eels-bound hooker Joey Lussick. Sebastine Ikahihifo and Pauli Pauli bring the power and the unpredictability. 

Saints only previous clash with Salford in 2020 was way back on opening night A time before the new normal led us to the point where failing clubs are as I write apparently colluding to end the regular season early and expand the playoff series. That 48-8 home win was arguably Saints best performance of a shaky start to the season before Covid came along and changed everything. Whether they can repeat that depends to some degree on Woolf’s selection decisions but you get the sense that there is enough in the Saints squad to get home. Saints by 18.

Squads;

St Helens;

2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 7. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 12, Dom Peyroux, 14. Morgan Knowles, 16. Kyle Amor, 17, Jack Ashworth, 18, Joseph Paulo, 19. Aaron Smith, 20. James Bentley, 21, Matty Costello, 22. Jack Welsby, 23, Joe Batchelor, 24, Josh Eaves, 26, Josh Simm, 27, Lewis Dodd, 29, Matty Foster, 30, Tom Nisbet, 31, Jake Wingfield, 32. James Graham.

Salford Red Devils;

2 Ed Chamberlain, 4 Dan Sarginson, 5 Krisnan Inu, 6 Tui Lolohea, 8 Lee Mossop, 9 Joey Lussick, 10 Gil Dudson, 12 Pauli Pauli, 13 Tyrone McCarthy, 14 Sebastine Ikahihifo, 16 Greg Burke, 17 Luke Yates, 18 Chris Atkin, 22 Rhys Williams, 24 Elliot Kear, 25 Connor Jones, 29 Oliver Roberts, 30 Andy Ackers, 32 Kallum Watkins, 33 Tom Gilmore, 34 Oliver Ashall-Bott.

Referee: Ben Thaler

Saints 40 Leeds Rhinos 8 - Review

Saints position at the top of the BetFred Super League table was never really under serious threat during this fairly routine 40-8 win over an under-strength Leeds Rhinos side.

Although there has been a lot of it about during this strange, Covid-compromised campaign, Richard Agar’s decision to rest many of his senior players was nothing new in the aftermath of a cup final. Even in more normal times we have all attended games a week either side of a trip to Wembley in which a weakened team turned in a less than competitive performance. The scope for coaches to take the opportunity to rest their stars at such times has only increased with the introduction of playoffs and the Grand Final in 1998. Why risk injuries and burnout when there is no requirement to finish top of the league in order to be crowned champions? Leeds have played this system better than anyone down the years, twice winning the title despite finishing a modest fifth in the regular season standings.  

If weakened teams feels like a new phenomenon it is because those sorts of selection decisions have been made even more likely in the year of Covid.  A combination of a packed schedule featuring midweek fixtures and the frequent absence of those either infected or sidelined by contact tracing protocols have played their part. We will no doubt see a much changed Leeds side take on Castleford on Monday (October 26) just as we will see Kristian Woolf ring the changes for Saints against Salford that same day. More on which later.

First let’s focus on this one. At times it felt a little bit too much like a training run for Saints. Their line was rarely threatened in the first half. Saints gave the kids nothing. A bit like this callous Tory government. The baby Rhinos went without, but mercifully it was just possession and territory that they lacked for the most part in the opening half. For a while it looked as if Saints might shut out the Rhinos in both league fixtures for the first time following that memorable 48-0 win back in August. 

That they did not was due as much to lack of concentration as anything else. If we are picking holes in this Saints display the left hand edge defence still looks unconvincing and there were some sloppy errors in attack that allowed Leeds to build their way into the game. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Kyle Amor and Alex Walmsley all dropped passes you would not expect to see shelled at junior level. You couldn’t shake the feeling that a little bit of intensity was lacking from Saints at times. That is perhaps understandable given that the result was never in doubt and with that Salford fixture looming less than 72 hours from the final whistle.

One man who did enhance his reputation was Josh Simm. The young centre was left out of the last match against Wakefield Trinity and must have feared that Jack Welsby’s performance in that game would make it difficult to get back in. Yet he justified his recall in the grand fashion, scoring a superb first half hat-trick. These were the first tries of Simm’s Super League career and on this evidence there will be many more. He put on a clinic in how to finish, swerving inside and rounding Jack Walker for his first before crashing through two defenders for his second. His third was more straightforward, strolling in after a sublime looping pass from Jonny Lomax. Simm had a quieter second half and is one of those who needs to work to tighten that left edge defence. Yet we may one day look back on this game as the one in which he arrived as a Super League force.

Simm’s second try was also the second of two that Saints scored while playing with 12 men after the early sin-binning of Alex Walmsley. The England forward was invited to take a 10-minute rest by referee Liam Moore after an incident involving Alex Sutcliffe. As Walmsley wrestled the Leeds man to the ground he seemed to drop his weight on to Sutcliffe’s neck and shoulders. The level of intent was unclear and is something only Walmsley can really know. Yet irrespective of intent tacklers have a duty of care not to place ball carriers in dangerous positions. It is something that has crept into the wider game since the defensive emphasis has shifted towards wrestling techniques. For Walmsley it is an incident which comes quickly off the back of the controversial tackle in which Wigan’s Jack Wells was seriously injured. Walmsley was never ‘that sort of player’ before. The nagging feeling persists that there is something in Woolf’s philosophy, and in particular his approach to defending and slowing the play-the-ball, that has made incidents like this a more prominent part of Walmsley’s make-up.

Back to more positive thoughts, and the performance of the ageless James Roby. The skipper took us straight back to his Man Of Steel winning year of 2007 in creating a first half try for Zeb Taia. Roby dummied to Theo Fages before shooting out from dummy half and finding Taia with an offload for an easy walk-in. It was a vintage moment from Roby in an overall performance which saw him chew up 153 metres on 10 carries and make 44 tackles. Only tackle machines Morgan Knowles and James Bentley bettered that defensive tally for Saints. That Roby is a decade older than those two illustrates how remarkable his efforts are at this stage of his career. 

Roby has been so good recently that Woolf has felt able to do without the services of Aaron Smith. The understudy was recalled to the bench here for his first action since the golden point win over Hull KR on September 11. This was good news for those of us starting to worry that he was falling further and further from the coach’s thoughts. He repaid the faith with a try following a glorious break and exchange of passes with Fages. It was one of the highlights of the match along with Kevin Naiqama’s try in which the Fijian tipped the ball on to Tommy Makinson and supported the winger on the inside to touch down. Yet overall Smith was limited to only a 15-minute cameo and will hope to feature more against Salford. That seems more likely with the announcement of the 21-man squad which includes Smith but not Roby.

On which subject we now know following that squad announcement that the team will look significantly different on Monday. Lachlan Coote, Lomax and Regan Grace are all rested along with Roby, Taia, McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Matty Lees. Lewis Dodd was not in the 17 for this win over the Rhinos which hopefully points towards a first start in one of the halfback positions against Ian Watson’s men. Smith should get a decent run while the experience of Walmsley, Amor, Dom Peyroux and Joseph Paulo could prove useful if there are some unfamiliar names given an opportunity.  Along with Dodd and Simm and Joe Batchelor, Welsby is included as is Matty Costello but there still may be room for some new boys with Josh Eaves, Tom Nisbet, Matthew Foster and Jake Wingfield all included.

Saints form so far has afforded them the luxury of resting their stars just as it did at various times during both the 2018 and 2019 campaigns. Only the prospect of winning a third straight League Leaders Shield acts as a reasonable incentive now for Saints. They have reached the 15-game mark required as a minimum to qualify for the playoffs and don’t seem in any real danger of slipping out of the top four even should they suffer one or two defeats. With home advantage not really relevant there is a compelling argument that the bigger picture for Woolf is to keep everyone as fit and sharp as possible for the knockout games.

The League Leaders Shield would be most welcome but Woolf knows that he will be judged largely on events on a Friday night in Hull in November.