Saints 2 Warrington Wolves 6 - Review

Lots of fans will will offer differing opinions about what went wrong in Thursday night’s defeat to Warrington. There will be a variety of views about its long term consequences too. But can we agree on one thing? Can we all be grown up enough to admit that it was absolutely and unrelentingly awful? 

Maybe we won’t. There will no doubt still be some who refuse to see the team’s shortcomings and instead focus their attention on referee Chris Kendall. Or perhaps point to Warrington players feigning injury as if this is a) any barrier to Saints playing something that resembles rugby or b) a new thing and not something that has been going on in rugby league since professionalism raised the stakes 25 years ago. But what cannot be disputed is that in losing to Steve Price’s side Saints missed the chance to go back to the top of the Super League table. It’s a position from which they had only been originally removed by Leeds Rhinos’ inability to fulfil their fixtures and Catalans Dragons’ victory over a still winless Leigh Centurions side. Now Saints’ task of reclaiming it has been made just that little bit more tricky.

The bottom line is that Warrington deserved to win and Saints did not. Not that Wire were particularly good. For all the usual cheerleading from Baz and Tez about what a great game this was, from my position on the sofa during these times of ballot dependency it was a fairly smelly affair. Yes there was intensity and admirable defensive efforts. The level of fitness required from both sides is off the charts. But in terms of skill levels it was - in cricketing parlance - absolutely village. 

Despite an approach from both coaches for which the word conservative is as inadequate as Matt Hancock there were still 23 errors in the game. Ten from Warrington and 13 from Saints. Many of those were simple dropped passes under very little pressure or little fumbles from dummy half at the play the ball. The kind that when they go against you are always the fault of the referee for not awarding a penalty for the ruck interference that goes on at every single play the ball ever. Yes, even your team does it, whoever you support. What those errors also signify is a lack of concentration and a general sloppiness on the part of the culprits.

The one genuine moment of class in the game ultimately decided it. Saints were clinging to a slender 2-0 lead given to them by Lachlan Coote’s 13th minute penalty awarded after Stefan Ratchford had stolen the ball illegally from Alex Walmsley. Nine minutes later Ratchford found Tom Lineham in space on the left flank and the former Hull man raced clear to find Ben Currie in support on his inside. Currie hasn’t been quite at the level of his 2016 breakthrough in recent seasons mainly due to persistent injuries, but he produced a moment here that reminded us all of his quality. 

It was hard to imagine one of Saints second row duo on the night of Sione Mata’utia and Joel Thompson coming up with a similar play. They run hard, are often complemented for their industry and ‘good lines’, but the Saints pair don’t really do clean breaks and try scoring in the way that Currie does. Or the way that say...Zeb Taia did. Not to beat you over the head with stats but Saints second row pairing made 173 metres between them. Currie made 113 by himself and even that does not itself qualify as pulling up trees. There seems little doubt that Saints need more in that area. 

The loss of James Bentley - who is currently out with a broken leg but has in any case agreed to join Leeds Rhinos from 2022 - will not help. Given my previous comments about Bentley in this column it would be hypocritical of me to start phoning the Samaritans in response to the loss of the Irish international. He is just another solid grafter with perhaps the potential to be something more in the right system under the right coach. Personally I doubt that is Leeds Rhinos under Richard Agar. But as he has explained Bentley is a Leeds fan and from that area. Those are compelling reasons for him to make the switch even if at this moment in time it doesn’t look like a very ambitious career move. Nevertheless Bentley was a starter for Saints before his injury and we are seeing the limitations of those tasked with replacing him. Suddenly there is a lot riding on the development of Jake Wingfield.

Some fans have criticised Saints on the assumption that the club were outbid by the Rhinos in their attempts to keep Bentley. But sometimes those are the realities of the salary cap, particularly in the aftermath of a pandemic which shut down the whole game for five months, wiped out gate receipts for 14 months and continues to limit attendances to only a quarter of the stadium capacity. Add that to the fact that the player had a desire to move and it becomes almost impossible to keep him. 

Back on the field a lot has rightly been made of the fact that Saints failed to score a try all night. For a champion team in a game of this magnitude, at home, this is a fairly embarrassing stat. Yet have you heard the one about the champion team playing at home in a game of this magnitude who only managed one clean break all night? That came from Joe Batchelor - a fringe player who is only in the 17 because of the injury to Bentley. Warrington weren’t exactly tearing holes in the Saints defence. They only broke the line on three occasions which tells you something about the lack of excitement on offer throughout this tedious affair. But it also tells you that there is very little wrong with Saints defence. It is the best in Super League by some distance. Kristian Woolf’s side have conceded 76 points in nine outings at an average of just 8.4 per game. They are the only team to concede fewer than 100 points so far in Super League in 2021. Phenomenal. But the game is about more than just stopping the opponent from scoring. At some stage you have to put some points on the board.

Woolf’s team has basically neglect attack as if it will just happen. Like a Jose Mourinho-led football team parking the bus. Make sure you don’t concede and you can’t lose. But you can’t play rugby league like that. If you only concede six points you are within your rights to expect to win but you can’t just wait for the opposition to fall over. Rugby league is more than just a fitness test.

The problems we had in attack against Warrington are not particularly new for this season. How often have we reflected on a win by commenting that we are not doing well in attack? That defence is winning us games? Yet it is not going to improve unless we address it head on. Woolf will no doubt step into another press conference and explain that we were ‘a little bit off’ in attack. As if there is some previously achieved level of bewildering expansiveness that we are just not reaching at the moment. This is at best a myth and at worst a glaring example of a coach blatantly attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the fans. Saints are not ‘a bit off’, ‘off the boil’ or that modern fan favourite ‘clunky’. They are as dull as a day at the office and it is unquestionably by design. The risk averse strategy that produced no clean breaks here is quite deliberate from Woolf. He is a disciple of The Grind. The kind of thing Keiron Cunningham was trying to do only he had Jack Owens and Matty Dawson while Woolf has Regan Grace and Jack Welsby. This team is just better at it than Cunningham’s side. Usually.

From that point of view I am reluctant to blame the players for this performance, or for any of the previous occasions this year that I have expressed how underwhelmed I am even after winning displays.  I have been critical of individuals at certain points this year but in fairness what do they have to work with? They are clearly being sent out with instructions to keep the ball close to the ruck, minimise passing and prioritise getting to the end of the set. Theo Fages may put up a bomb too many for my tastes but in this environment Wally Lewis would struggle. Ask your dad. Or maybe your grandad. It is all very un-Saints-like. It would be easy to lambast Woolf for failing to have a grasp on the history and traditions of the club. But the uneasy truth is that increasingly this is modern rugby league. Even the English coaches in Super League talk about completing sets, going through the processes and getting into The Grind. It is a big problem in the game and Woolf is the embodiment of it. And never more so than when he has success with it as he did last year and has for the most part this year too.

If we are getting into specifics the problem with the attack is largely that it is too predictable. If we are not stuffing it up the jumper of Walmsley and asking him to take us forward we have a very basic, two-option play that we seem to run and run whenever we get into what Woolf deems safe attacking territory. There is one lead runner who can be hit with a flat pass and one out of the back whose greater depth is meant to create space. Often it does, but on this night Warrington read it every time and were there in enough numbers to cover it. Woolf might just as well have sent Price an email detailing what we were going to do in attacking situations. Some have complained that there is no Plan B which is demonstrably true. But when Plan A is this dull and predictable you’re in decidedly even choppier waters. 

Controlling Walmsley’s output was also a big key for Warrington. We rely on him so much now. Not just since the devastating loss of Luke Thompson to Canterbury Bulldogs but also with Matty Lees out. Agnatius Paasi adds impact but does not seem to be seen by Woolf as someone who can play big minutes. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Kyle Amor are what they are, but they should be nobody’s idea of an effective front row for a potential title winner. 

Price’s men restricted Walmsley to 91 metres on 14 carries. That may sound like a decent enough contribution from Walmsley but he regularly breaks through the 100 metre barrier. When he does not it invariably means bad things are happening for the team as a whole. Saints had no forwards over 100m on the night. Their top metre-maker was Tommy Makinson. His 220m game is both a supreme individual effort but also a revealing insight into how Saints insist on using a try-scoring, injury-prone winger as a battering ram on their bloody ‘exit sets’. What are the forwards doing?

Will that winning feeling return next week?  Saints go to Hull KR on Friday night. They do so potentially without Walmsley, Makinson, Morgan Knowles and Jonny Lomax all of whom are in Shaun Wane’s 24-man party for England’s match against the Combined Nations. That will be whittled down to 19 in midweek and our best hope at this point looks to be that some of our guys don’t make the cut. Of course that is a selfish viewpoint and in reality we all want England to do well, especially with Saints players involved and even if it means the former chief pie getting all of the credit. A successful World Cup could be a game changer for the sport and in the grand scheme of things is more important than a win at Hull KR. There shouldn’t be any league games when clubs have to release players for England and the Combined Nations but that is another debate. Whichever way you slice it if you are a Saints fan you are probably apprehensive about going to an improving Rovers side on the back of an abject performance and loss.

Saints v Warrington Wolves - Preview

Refreshed, revitalised and replenished after an unscheduled hiatus Saints return to action when they host Warrington Wolves in a Super League Round 10 clash on Thursday night (June 17, kick-off 7.45pm). 

Last weekend’s planned trip to Headingley to face Leeds Rhinos was postponed due to the Yorkshire side’s need for a more convincing reason for avoiding the trip to France this week Covid-19 issues. As a consequence Saints haven’t played since the epic Challenge Cup semi-final win over Hull FC at Leigh Sports Village on June 5. A 12-day break at this point in the season may turn out to be a good thing for Kristian Woolf’s side. Overall though it was still disappointing to note that the sport is still losing fixtures to the pandemic fully 15 months on from the initial lockdown. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the match at Leeds will be rearranged given the congested nature of the schedule. Hanging on to those loop fixtures doesn’t make as much business sense when you are losing marquee fixtures with the eight-time Super League champions as a result.

Despite the extended period of inactivity Woolf has not needed to make any changes to his 21-man squad. There is however likely to be a change to the match day 17. Agnatius Paasi was not risked against Hull FC despite being named in the 21. He had come off the field early in the second half of the previous week’s league victory over the black and whites with what looked like a hamstring issue. Woolf has already stated that Paasi will be involved against Wire. Whether that is from the start alongside Alex Walmsley and James Roby in the front row or from the bench to allow Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook another start at prop is the question. Also in the hunt for game time at prop are Kyle Amor and - hoping to build on the pointless tokenism of his two-minute debut at Leigh - Dan Norman.

Behind those there is a familiar feel now with Sione Mata’utia and Joel Thompson occupying the second row berths with cheif tackler Morgan Knowles nominally at loose forward.

No changes does of course mean no Mark Percival. Woolf has described the decision to leave the England centre out for a couple of weeks at least as ‘cautious’. There will be those that are starting to worry about the frequency of Percival’s injury problems. For now though there is very little drama, especially when his position can be filled by the always excellent Jack Welsby. Since his last outing for Saints in that semi final win Welsby has put pen to paper on a new deal that will see him remain at Saints until at least the end of the 2024 season. 

With so much talk about out of contract stars and imports reaching the point where a return home gathers more appeal it is heartening to know that the club have secured Welsby for as long as any young professional athlete is prepared to commit these days. At his current rate of progress Welsby will attract the attention of NRL clubs at the end of his deal but if it is all the same to you I’m going to leave the fretting about that one for another day.

Welsby will likely be partnered in the centres by Kevin Naiqama while Tommy Makinson and cup hero Regan Grace are back in situ on the wings ahead of fullback Lachlan Coote. Theo Fages - who has reserved his best form for the exact moment before he probably leaves for Huddersfield - partners Jonny Lomax in the halves. Lewis Dodd may or may not get an opportunity from the bench and if you can predict what Woolf is going to do with Aaron Smith this week then you’re wiser than I.

Like Saints Warrington have an unchanged 21-man party from their last outing. Steve Price’s side recovered from their Challenge Cup calamity against Castleford with a strong performance in beating Wakefield Trinity 38-18. 

On their day they have threats all over the park with the likes of the in-form Gareth Widdop and the James Blunt of rugby league, Blake Austin (critically acclaimed not that long ago but now somehow a byword for abject shiteness). Tattoed bus-crooner Josh Charnley scored a hat-trick a week ago to offer a reminder of his finishing abilities while Jake Mamo is one of those players who is dangerous because he doesn’t quite know what he’s going to do next himself. The one glaring omission from the back division is moneybagged former NRL legend Greg Inglis. The former Souths man has been seen in a Warrington shirt since coming out of retirement but not often. It’s a bit like trying to spot the jaguars at Chester Zoo. You might get lucky. But not this week.  

It’s on the very front line where Saints seem to hold a significant advantage. Warrington have forwards like Ben Currie and Daryl Clark who would light up the best sides in the world but the prop department looks less impressive. Chris Hill’s best years are probably only now visible on a club DVD while Mike Cooper and Price are seemingly in the midst of an uneasy truce following some toy-chucking shenanigans at Leigh. Beyond those two Rob Mulhern and Rob Butler are decent options but you look around the Warrington front row and you can’t help wondering who exactly is going to get a handle on Walmsley. 

For all that there is a chance of what would be perceived as an upset here. If Saints defend like they did in the second half at Leigh then trouble could lie ahead. If Warrington get that left edge of Widdop, Currie and Toby King enough quality ball they pose a real threat. It’ll be a close one but look for Saints to just edge it by a score or two.

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. Joel Thompson, 13, Morgan Knowles, 14. Sione Mata’utia, 15. LMS, 16. Kyle Amor, 17, Agnatius Paasi, 18. Jack Welsby, 19, Aaron Smith, 20, Joe Batchelor, 21. Lewis Dodd, 22. Josh Simm, 25. Dan Norman, 30. Sam Royle.

Warrington Wolves;

Sitaleki Akauola, Blake Austin, Rob Butler, Josh Charnley, Daryl Clark, Michael Cooper, Ben Currie, Matt Davis, Chris Hill, Jack Hughes, Toby King, Tom Lineham, Ellis Longstaff, Jake Mamo, Robbie Mulhern, Joe Philbin, Stefan Ratchford, Josh Thewlis, Danny Walker, Gareth Widdop, Connor Wrench.

Saints 33 Hull FC 18 - Challenge Cup Review

At the risk of sounding like an especially deluded Warrington fan, this really could be our year. Saints are back at Wembley following a breakdown-inducing 33-18 victory over Hull FC. It’s a comfortable looking scoreline, but it was anything but until Regan Grace’s miraculous intervention five minutes from time with Hull knocking on the door and threatening to take what could have been a decisive lead. Instead Saints will get an opportunity to end a 13-year wait for a Challenge Cup triumph when they face Castleford Tigers on July 17. So no, not Warrington then. Not their year.

There were changes to the 17 which had beaten FC at home in the league a week previously. Some were welcome and others were forced on coach Kristian Woolf. Grace came back in after missing out last week due to concussion protocols and Tommy Makinson also returned after a month out with a foot injury. However, Mark Percival’s persistently uncooperative hamstring kept him out and a similar fate befell Tongan prop Agnatius Paasi. It meant that the return of the two wingmen was especially timely as it allowed recent stand-ins Kevin Naiqama and Jack Welsby to return to the centres where they are arguably more effective. Josh Simm was the unfortunate man to miss out.

Paasi’s place in the prop rotation went to Dan Norman. If you’re not that familiar with the name it’s because the former London Bronco had yet to feature in a competitive first team match for Saints. A cup semi-final is quite the game in which to be making your debut. You sensed that even Woolf realised this, choosing not to use Norman until the final two minutes of the game, by which time the result had been settled. 

Woolf effectively went with 16 players in the biggest game of the season so far, which if you were being kind you might call an eccentric decision. If you were not you would call it something else entirely. To be fair to Woolf Saints were all out of props with Paasi and Matty Lees out injured but it would surely have made more sense to have Aaron Smith on the bench if the intention was not to use Norman? Or, here’s an idea, pick Norman and give the lad some game time and show that you have a modicum of trust in him. To his credit Norman remained positive about making his brief debut but the experience will not have filled him with confidence. 

The game featured one inescapable talking point. Saints led 8-2 thanks to Grace’s first try and a penalty from the boot of Lachlan Coote when the first half’s pivotal moment arrived on 24 minutes. Josh Griffin stepped out of a tackle and into space before suddenly and quite shockingly hopping his way to the floor with no defender near him. As he did so he let go of the ball and immediately made a grab for his ankle. There was a moment of hesitation before Theo Fages scooped up the loose ball and raced over for a try which Coote converted to give Saints a 14-2 lead. 

Fages did not break any rules. In fact, there is a reasonable argument that he did what would have been expected of him by his coach and his team-mates, not to mention the majority of fans. Play to the whistle, ask questions later. Yet scoring such a huge try in a mammoth game like this does not sit well. Referee Liam Moore was apparently also powerless to stop the game because it was not a head injury. This seems a curiosity within the laws of the game. For all the claims to the contrary it was abundantly clear from the moment he went down that Griffin’s injury was serious. Top players do not just drop the ball on the floor 15m from their own posts. 

I’m not familiar with the pain of a ruptured Achilles, which is what Griffin’s injury turned out to be. I have never felt any lower leg pain of any description. In the area of leg pain I’m like Clark Kent. If you attacked that area of my person you would be waiting a long time to elicit a response. Yet since Saturday I have heard ex-players describe it as like being shot through the back of the ankle. So you can think what you like about Fages actions - with which I have no problem - but if you’re selling me the idea that nobody knew the severity of the injury I’m not buying. There has to be some scope in that situation for Moore to stop the game.

There have even been suggestions that having scored a try in such queasy fashion Saints should have let Hull run one in at the other end. Just as parallels were drawn to Paolo Di Canio’s catching of the ball to stop play for an injured goalkeeper at Everton in 2000, so there have been comparison’s to Marcelo Bielsa’s insistence that his Leeds United team allow Aston Villa to score after Leeds had scored with a Villa player down injured. These things get remembered and perhaps that is bigger than any one game - even a cup semi final. But it’s a tough balancing act. After all, had Fages stopped how long would it have been before we started to see players in  busted defences feigning injury to halt the attack? It’s a tricky moral dilemma. To be fair to Hull coach Brett Hodgson he had no complaints afterwards, accepting it was fair play from Fages. It has already been pointed out what a stark contrast this is to the way certain senior members of staff at Saints reacted to Robert Hicks’ failure to review what looked a fair Morgan Knowles try at Wembley in 2019.  The incidents are very different but there is certainly something to be learned in there about accepting your ill fortune with a bit more decorum.

In the end it was a good job for our cup prospects that Fages did the ruthless thing. After Welsby had pulled off a fine finish in the left hand corner to put Saints 20-2 up we seemed to be cruising. Mahe Fonua’s try created a bit of doubt but when Fages - turning in his second consecutive impressive display against the black and whites just as it looks as if he might be headed to Huddersfield - smartly dropped a goal to make it 21-8 we seemed comfortable once more. That was before Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook was penalised for a two-on-one ball steal close to his own line to set up the position from where Carlos Tuimavave offloaded to put Danny Houghton over. A Marc Sneyd conversion made it 21-14.

The twitchometer soon cranked into overdrive. Cameron Scott hustled his way over on the left edge through some average Saints defence and suddenly the lead was just three at 21-18. Sneyd could not convert that one but when Josh Reynolds conjured up a sublime and frankly infuriating 40/20 moments later the Saints boat was well and truly rocking. That it did not capsize is down almost entirely to Grace, who darted out of the line in a defensive move that can be best described as shit or bust to snaffle Jake Connor’s pass and take it 90m in the other direction. It was an absolute bloody miracle.  There was joy, there was emotion, and not a small amount of relief as the Welshman streaked away. The 10 or so seconds it took him to make it to the Hull line were quite glorious. The only way he was not scoring once he’d got behind the Hull players still lined up to attack was if he’d suffered a Griffin-like injury calamity. 

For all that heart-stopping drama, the scoreline toppled further towards Saints when Naiqama was first to a Fages bomb and tapped it back for Coote to go over. It gave the scoreline a healthy look which reflected the fact that Saints were the better team over the 80 minutes but masked the horrors of the events of 10 minutes earlier. Ultimately what won this one for Saints - aside from Fages’ much talked about try - was another strangling defensive showing in that first half. A 14-2 half-time deficit always looked a steep hill to climb for Hull and when Welsby’s effort stretched the lead to 20-2 it looked an impossible task for Hodgson’s side. And so it proved, if only just as it turned out.

After their surprise win over Warrington in the other semi final it will be Castleford Tigers standing between Saints and that first Challenge Cup win since 2008. Saints will start favourites but we shouldn’t take anything for granted against a side which bounced back from the ignominy of a 60-point towelling by Leeds Rhinos to deservedly beat what was an in-form Wire side in the space of a single week. 

For Saints the scramble for shirts will start now, with many questions for Woolf to ponder over the next six weeks. Will Percival make it and if he does - should he go straight back into the side at the expense of either Welsby or Naiqama - both of whom were excellent in this semi final triumph? Should Paasi start instead of McCarthy-Scarsbrook? Will Norman have to pay to get in? And whose turn will it be that week to make the bench between Smith and Lewis Dodd? 

But most importantly...is it finally our year?

Saints v Hull FC - Challenge Cup Semi Final Preview

It’s a quick reunion for Saints and Hull FC as they meet in the semi final of the Challenge Cup at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday (June 5, kick-off 2.30pm). The two sides met just a week ago in Super League as Saints recorded a 34-16 win fuelled by a fast start.

This time the stakes are somewhat higher. This week’s winner will seal a place in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley. For Saints that would mean a chance to lift the trophy for the first time since 2008 when a 28-16 win over the black and whites brought what was then a third successive cup win. Saints have only been back to the final once since, when a warm milk of a performance saw them go down to Warrington 18-4 in 2019. 

Meanwhile Hull were back-to-back cup winners in 2016 and 2017, doing us all a favour on each occasion by denying silverware to Warrington and Wigan respectively. They made a hot start to 2021 under new coach Brett Hodgson but have recently gone a little frosty. They have lost three of their last four league games to spark age old questions about whether Hodgson is the real deal or merely another facilitator of the latest false dawn. 

One man you wouldn’t want to meet at dawn is Saints coach Kristian Woolf. He has had to make two changes to his 21-man squad for this one. Mark Percival is the glaring omission having come off early in the second half last week as a ‘precaution’. It turns out that Percival - whose injury record means he is now starting to make Jack Wilshere look like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable - will be out for a couple of weeks with a hamstring problem. 

So what we all need is some good news. It arrives with word that first choice wingers Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace - both of whom missed out last week - are named in the 21 and should start. If they do then expect Kevin Naiqama and Jack Welsby to move back to the centres from the wings and the unfortunate Josh Simm to miss out. Lachlan Coote will sweep up behind these four at fullback as well as finding time to do a lot of the creative heavy lifting. Despite suggestions that he will be in Huddersfield in 2022 Theo Fages remains almost a certainty in the halves alongside Jonny Lomax.

The pack is boosted by news that Agnatius Paasi is fit after he left field at a similar time to Percival last time out. The Tongan turned in an impressive cameo in that one and has pressed his claims for more game time in a front row featuring the long-serving titans Alex Walmsley and James Roby. Equally long-serving but often Titanic in a different way is Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook. Nevertheless the Londoner was excellent last week and will play a significant role in the continued absence of Matty Lees. Kyle Amor is the other prop likely to be involved in the rotation.

The back row is still without the services of James Bentley so Joe Batchelor should get another chance to shine somewhere in the 17. He may have to bide his time from the bench however with Sione Mata’utia, Joel Thompson and Morgan Knowles forming a fairly well established back row.

FC have picked up just one new injury concern since last week. Joe Cator has suffered a calf strain and misses out, replaced in the 21 by Connor Wynne. Hull were already without longer term injury victims Jamie Shaul, Scott Taylor and Masi Matongo. While the loss of the latter two does restrict Hodgson’s front row options Shaul has it all to do to get back in the side when fully fit now that Jake Connor is operating regularly at fullback. The modern game continuously shows the value of slotting one of your best attacking players in at fullback and it is a move which has allowed the halfback partnership between Josh Reynolds and Marc Sneyd to prosper.

The backs feature ex-Saint Adam Swift and cup winner Mahe Fonua, while in reserve the black and whites can still call on USA international Bureta Fairamo before his move to Castleford in 2022. The centre pairing is the strong running Josh Hodgson alongside the silkier but no less effective Carlos Tuimavave. Hull have all the weapons they need. Their problem last week was that they could not get the possession and territory required to unleash them. That will be the challenge for them again.

Without Taylor and Matongo Chris Satae is the standout prop. He’s been excellent so far in 2021 but whether he has enough support in the likes of Brad Fash, Josh Bowden and company to wrestle control away from Saints in this area has to remain doubtful. In the back row Andre Savelio is another one once held in high regard in the red vee who will look to show his old club what they are missing. He was ruled out of last week’s game and the black and whites missed his skill and industry. If Ligi Sao and Manu Mau get their handling up to scratch they can also cause Saints some real problems. The pair had an off day a week ago, seeming to lose composure on the few occasions they created opportunities. They cannot afford to be similarly wasteful this week. It will all be held together in the Hull pack by the ever consistent Danny Houghton at hooker, backed up by Jordan Johnstone off the bench. Their battle with Roby and whichever of Lewis Dodd and Aaron Smith is picked by Woolf this week could be pivotal.

Ultimately, you wouldn’t expect this column to predict anything other than a Saints win. If it did then defeat would be viewed as my self-fulfilling prophecy and I’d get more hate mail than usual. Fortunately, the evidence of seven days ago suggests that Saints have the number of a promising FC side which has just looked like it is still trying to find itself in recent weeks. There’s little time to look in a semi final, especially when Walmsley is running at you, your defensive line is busted and Coote, Fages and Lomax are lined up waiting to fire the bullets for Tommy and Regan. 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. Joel Thompson, 13, Morgan Knowles, 14. Sione Mata’utia, 15. LMS, 16. Kyle Amor, 17, Agnatius Paasi, 18. Jack Welsby, 19, Aaron Smith, 20, Joe Batchelor, 21. Lewis Dodd, 22. Josh Simm, 25. Dan Norman, 30. Sam Royle.

Hull FC:

1.Jake Connor. 2. Bureta Faraimo 3. Carlos Tuimavave 4. Josh Griffin 5. Mahe Fonua 6. Josh Reynolds 7. Marc Sneyd 9. Danny Houghton 10. Chris Satae 11. Andre Savelio 12. Manu Ma’u 13. Ligi Sao 14. Jordan Johnstone 16. Jordan Lane 17. Brad Fash 19. Ben McNamara 20. Jack Brown 21. Adam Swift 22. Josh Bowden 23. Connor Wynne 24. Cameron Scott

Referee: Liam Moore

Saints 34 Hull FC 16 - Review

Well, that was much more like it, wasn’t it? On the back of last week’s defeat to Catalans Dragons in Perpignan Saints bounced back in style. It was a win which not only dealt Hull FC a psychological blow ahead of next week’s reunion for the Challenge Cup semi final at Leigh, but one which has also shot Saints back to the top of the table after Wigan’s hilarious capitulation in France on Saturday (May 29).

Kristian Woolf still has a few injuries to cope with so his side was by no means at full strength. Regan Grace was the latest star to be sidelined after he picked up a concussion in scoring a late try against the Dragons last week. He joined Tommy Makinson, James Bentley and Matty Lees on the list of absentees for this one. That gave an opportunity to Josh Simm, whose last first team appearance for Saints had been the 12-10 defeat by Salford which ultimately cost Woolf’s side the League Leaders Shield back in October. 

Simm’s loan spell at Leigh Centurions earlier this season yielded just one appearance in a 52-16 defeat to Castleford Tigers. Yet with Jack Welsby covering Grace’s wing position and Kevin Naiqama continuing to cover Makinson’s it was Simm who got the nod to partner Mark Percival in the centres. Interestingly, Woolf chose to switch Percival back to the left edge with Simm, who had caught the eye on that side during his six appearances in 2020, asked to play on the right. Fourteen carries for 102 metres represents a more than creditable return to the fold.

The only other changes saw Alex Walmsley restored to the starting line-up after a hopefully brief experiment as an impact player off the bench, while Woolf again rotated Lewis Dodd on to the bench in place of Aaron Smith. Agnatius Paasi stepped down from the starting line-up to the bench to accommodate Walmsley.

The changes had the desired effect as Saints made a rapid start. Marc Sneyd handed them the early initiative by fluffing Lachlan Coote’s opening kick-off and forcing Hull to drop out from beneath their own sticks. James Roby, Theo Fages and Jonny Lomax combined quickly to send Welsby over in the corner. Coote’s first goal of the day gave Saints a 6-0 lead. 

It was a lead that should have been added to on five minutes when Fages put Percival through a gap but his return pass to the halfback was knocked down by Jake Connor. It would have been a walk in for Fages who along with Jonny Lomax and Percival repeatedly caused panic down that side of the field against Hull’s right edge defence. That near miss was a warning not heeded by Brett Hodgson’s side who fell further behind on the next set when Roby and Fages again combined before Coote dummied and shimmied over. The position had been set up by a strong carry by Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook who had one of his more effective outings, reeling off 122 metres on 16 carries. Only Walmsley (172) and Joel Thompson bettered that for Saints while only Josh Griffin (124) did so for Hull.

Coote could not add the extras to his own try and within three minutes FC were back in the contest. Percival had lost possession 30m from his own line in a crunching tackle from Chris Satae, setting up the position from which Connor grubbered into the left corner for Adam Swift to touch down. Sneyd could not convert but it was a one score game at that point at 10-4. 

Amid the incisive rugby Saints were playing there were some misfires. Notably when Lomax again tried to find Welsby out on that left flank only to send the ball sailing into touch. Errors like this can frustrate but given what we have been served up stylistically by Saints in the opening seven rounds of Super League it was refreshing to see the intent to move the Hull defence around. It was still built on the back of some powerful bursts in the middle of the field but there seemed far more imagination in attack once the big men had punched their holes in the FC defence. 

Roby and Walmsley provided a good example of this a few minutes after Lomax’s errant pass. Both left defenders on the floor to enable Saints to shift the ball out to Simm who attracted the attention of several black and whites defenders. With the line pulled out of position Fages was able to turn the ball back inside to Morgan Knowles who shrugged off two defenders and spun over for Saints’ third try.  Coote’s goal gave Saints a 16-4 lead. They were in total command again.

It was a first half dominated by Saints who gobbled up a ridiculous 74% of the possession before the break. However good your defence is the best way of stopping your opponents from playing is to deny them any possession. Saints certainly achieved that. 

When Hull did get an opportunity in that opening period they invariably blew it.  Just after Knowles’ try Sneyd broke the line and put Manu Ma’u through a gap. However, the former Parramatta Eel seemed beset with panic as the covering Saints defenders converged. His return pass to Sneyd was a stinker which ended up on the ground. That was a chance that Hull could not afford to waste given the weight of territory and possession going against them at that time.

Saints were denied by the video referee as much as by their own lapses in concentration. Repeatedly video referee James Child gave a negative verdict when asked by Chris Kendall to adjudicate on a possible Saints try. On another day Saints could have joined Warrington, Leeds and Catalans in running up an embarrassing scoreline on this weekend of Super League blowouts. The first of these came just after Sneyd’s break. Saints again made inroads on their left and when Coote’s attempted offload went astray Lomax managed to get a boot to it. As the ball crossed the Hull goal line it was snaffled by Percival who touched down. It took an eternity to determine that Sione Mata’utia was stood in front of Lomax at the kick and was within 10 metres of Connor as he tried to deal with it. Mata’utia was making no attempt to get involved in the play but to the letter of a very questionable law he was offside.

There was time for Percival to break through again only to see Lomax’s pass batted down by Griffin to deny the opportunity before Saints were again unsuccessfully claiming a try. Swift lost the ball in a gang tackle and Fages found himself with the simple task of picking up and dotting down. Yet Kendall decided that the tackle on Swift had been completed before the ball came loose. In all honesty it looked a poor call and something of a sympathy vote given that Saints were threatening to run away with it at this point.

Coote added two more to Saints lead after Hull were caught offside. At this point were treated to a cameo from Paasi. The Tongan probably only played around 20 minutes, leaving the game after around 53 minutes with a slight concern over his hamstring. Yet he used the time he had well, earning a set restart on his first explosive carry and in all gaining 91 metres on just 11 carries with a couple of tackle busts. He even had a hand in Welsby’s second try six minutes before half time. Paasi showed he isn’t just a wrecking ball, linking up with Roby and Fages to send Welsby strolling over in the corner for his second try of the night. No Grace? No problem. Coote missed again with the conversion but Saints held an ultimately decisive 22-4 half time advantage.

Paasi was involved again when Saints were next rebuffed by Child. The big prop’s offload found Fages whose lobbed kick was plucked out of the air by Welsby. Though he gathered it cleanly enough he was just unable to ground it under pressure from Mahe Fonua. Paasi wasn’t done there, ringing Jordan Lane’s bell as the Hull man found himself in the unfortunate position of having to tackle the Saints prop one on one. Before his day was curtailed Paasi them went close to scoring as along with Coote the pair just failed to ground Fages’ neat grubber close to the line. 

The Frenchman’s next attacking kick paid more dividends. It seemed a routine bomb of the kind that ordinarily induce steam from the ears but this was Fages’ day almost as much as it was Welsby’s. Connor flapped hopelessly at it allowing Welsby to snatch it from him to complete his hat-trick. Another Coote goal meant Saints led 28-4.  They went close again on 51 minutes when Lomax released Naiqama down the right. Just as it looked like the Fijian would dive over in the corner he was bundled into touch by a spirited defensive effort by Sneyd and Swift.

Paasi’s exit was played down as precautionary by Woolf, along with that of Percival who had by now left with a hamstring issue of his own. Yet there was a notable drop off in performance when the pair left. The fitness of both will not be decisive at Leigh next week given the other weapons Saints possess but it would instil a lot more confidence that we can repeat this level of performance if those two are involved.

Fonua reduced the arrears on 58, barging through Lomax and Coote after being fed by an hitherto subdued Josh Reynolds. Sneyd’s goal made it 28-10, but 18 points was as close as Hodgson’s men would get. Lomax narrowly missed Welsby with a looping pass for what could have been his fourth try of the night before arguably the best score of the evening by Joe Batchelor. Knowles - a man who has been known to be questioned for his attacking inactivity on these pages - surged through a gap and found Lomax who had the presence of mind to turn the ball back inside to Batchelor to touch down. Neither Batchelor nor Knowles broke 100m which perhaps suggests that they could still contribute more in attack, but both were beautifully in sync here to stretch Saints’ lead to 34-10 once Coote landed his sixth goal of the game for a personal haul of 16 points.

The game was won, but Saints did deflate a little in the latter stages. Both McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Amor came up with basic errors as the intensity dropped just a little. That drop off culminated in Fonua scoring his second try of the game on the very last play, latching on to a Sneyd crossfield lob to grab another four. Sneyd’s conversion gave a final scoreline of 34-16 which arguably flattered Hull given Saints’ dominance particularly in the first half.

It all means that Saints lead the table, joining Wigan and Catalans with a record of seven wins and one loss from the first eight rounds. Meanwhile Hull have now lost three of their last four in the league after a promising start. They will now need to beat Saints by 19 points when they meet in Hull on August 1 if they are to win the Steve Prescott Cup played annually over the two league meetings between the sides.

None of which means that overcoming them when a place in the Challenge Cup final is on the line next week is a given. A performance as good as this one will do the job. That has to be the challenge now for Woolf’s side who proved here that they can turn it on in attack if they punch the right holes in the opposition pack. It will still be a forward orientated gameplan, but there is hope for the backs too on this evidence.

It’s still not the razzle dazzle of yesteryear nor the heart stopping, do everything the hard way approach of some other days gone by. But it’s a marked improvement on anything else we have seen from Saints in 2021. We’d all swap it for victory next week, but if Saints can show this kind of dominance 

Sants v Hull FC - Preview

Saints and Hull FC are about to get sick of the sight of each other. They meet next weekend in the Challenge Cup semi final at Leigh Sports Village. First though, FC visit Saints in a Super League Round 8 clash on Friday night (May 28, kick-off 7.45pm).

Coaches Kristian Woolf and Brett Hodgson probably wouldn’t publicly admit that next week’s cup meeting is of greater importance. Yet if either was told that he could only win one of the two they’d be foolish not to choose the semi final. Neither is foolish, but it will nevertheless be interesting to see how they approach this league meeting. Will it be a phoney war? Will any players carrying slight knocks which wouldn’t ordinarily stop them from playing be given the night off? Does either side look likely to beat the other twice? And if not, is winning this one something of a booby prize?

Woolf’s squad selection suggests he isn’t treating this one any differently. He has been forced into just the one change to his 21-man party. Regan Grace suffered a head knock in scoring a late try in last weekend’s defeat at Catalans Dragons and will miss out due to the six-day turnaround between games. His replacement in the squad is Sam Royle, a 21-year old back rower who has yet to make his first team debut. 

It’s tempting - given the way that Woolf’s side have played this year - to view this selection as the start of his grand plan to fill the team entirely with back rowers. There was a joke doing the rounds this week that Woolf’s lack of interest in the newly available George Williams was down to the fact that Williams isn’t great at those tough yardage carries beloved of Woolf and the Sky Sports commentary team. In reality, Saints are just fresh out of wingers with which to replace Grace. Tommy Makinson may or may not return for the semi final but will not be considered here, while Tom Nisbet is on loan at Oldham for at least another week. Someone is going to have to play out of position. The smart thing would probably be to give Josh Simm a run in the centres alongside Mark Percival and ask Jack Welsby to join Kevin Naiqama in covering the wing positions. Simm has had his own loan spell at Leigh Centurions this season, that after impressing in his occasional appearances last season but falling out of favour as Percival returned and Welsby continued to shine. 

Elsewhere the team should look much like it did last week, with James Bentley and Matty Lees still out with long term injuries. Lachlan Coote has been the subject of murmurings on his future with no deal in place for next year and beyond, but for now is a fixture at fullback. Theo Fages is another linked with the exit who nevertheless is an almost automatic selection in the halves alongside Jonny Lomax. It will be instructive to find out whether the deepening injury crisis has any effect on Woolf’s apparent bench rotation policy between Lewis Dodd and Aaron Smith. We may see both, but I suspect we will certainly see Smith as any opportunity to give James Roby a breather before next week’s big show must surely be seized upon.

Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook has been the man to fill Lees’ starting prop role. He did so last week alongside Agnatius Paasi as Woolf reckoned that Alex Walmsley might be a useful impact player off the bench. And he was, the problem being that when you bench Walmsley you inevitably weaken the team from the start. It might not be a coincidence that Walmsley did not start and Saints only scored two points in the first half, although there have been other games in which Walmsley did start which have seen Saints struggle in attack early on. It’s almost certainly a tactical problem for which Woolf is responsible, but playing without Walmsley does not help.

With Bentley out the back row is fairly fixed, with Joel Thompson and Sione Mata’utia in the second row ahead of the recently returned Morgan Knowles. Royle will battle for a bench spot along with Joe Batchelor, Kyle Amor, Dan Norman, Ben Davies, Smith and Dodd.

FC have looked a more realistic title contender in their early days under new coach Hodgson. They have knocked Wigan out of the Challenge Cup, lost narrowly to the same opponents in the league and held Warrington to a 14-14 draw. You can now expect them to be competitive against any Super League opposition, though they will be a tad concerned about their last two performances. They lost 27-10 at home to Catalans on the Monday that fans were welcomed back into rugby league grounds and although they got back to winning ways last week against Leeds Rhinos they would surely have lost to a side with a few more ideas in attack than Richard Agar’s side. The Rhinos battered Hull for large parts of the second half without ever really threatening to score enough points to win. Saints attack is not flash, but you would imagine they have enough to take advantage if Hull afford them similar levels of possession and territory.

Hodgson has also made just a single change to his squad. Josh Bowden comes back in after an arm injury, replacing Connor Wynne. That means that pretty much all of his big guns are on deck. Jake Connor has moments of madness but is among the most talented players knocking around in Super League right now, while Marc Sneyd’s halfback partnership with Josh Reynolds seems to have pushed the black and whites to a new level. Across the backs former Saint Adam Swift is playing as well as he ever has - oh to have him in the squad to step in for Grace - while Mahe Fonua and Carlos Tuimavave are dangerous too. Josh Griffin made a mockery of Konrad Hurrell in the first half last week and will provide a stiff test for Saints right edge defence.

Up front Hull have their own Roby-lite in the tireless Danny Houghton while prop Chris Satae has performed consistently well this year. Scott Taylor is still out injured but Bowden’s return beefs up a pack that also could feature another ex-Saint Andre Savelio as well as Brad Fash, Ligi Sao, Mane M’au and Joe Cator. 

Predictions are difficult with next week casting a large shadow over this one. There have been some slight cracks appearing in the Saints defence in recent weeks after some dominant displays earlier in the season. The nilling of Salford on May 17 showed that Saints can still be miserly, but it seems likely that if they have another off night and don’t defend well they will not score enough points to beat Hull with all of their attacking weapons. 

If we can only win one of the two let it not be this one. We can recover from a defeat here whereas lose next week and the wait for a cup win extends to 14 years. But let’s be greedy and back Saints to edge both. After all, there is never really a meaningless game between Saints and Hull now that all meetings are part of the Steve Prescott Cup, held in memory of the former international fullback and champion fundraiser who served both clubs with such distinction. 

Saints by four.

Squads;

St Helens;

1, Lachlan Coote, 3. Kevin Naiqama, 4, Mark Percival, 6. Jonny Lomax, 7. Theo Fages, 8. Alex Walmsley, 9. James Roby, 11. Joel Thompson, 13, Morgan Knowles, 14. Sione Mata’utia, 15. LMS, 16. Kyle Amor, 17, Agnatius Paasi, 18. Jack Welsby, 19, Aaron Smith, 20, Joe Batchelor, 21. Lewis Dodd, 22. Josh Simm, 25. Dan Norman, 29. Ben Davies, 30. Sam Royle.

Hull FC:

1. Jake Connor 2. Bureta Faraimo 3. Carlos Tuimavave 4. Josh Griffin 5. Mahe Fonua 6. Josh Reynolds 7. Marc Sneyd 9. Danny Houghton 10. Chris Satae 11. Andre Savelio 12. Manu Ma’u 13. Ligi Sao 14. Jordan Johnstone 15. Joe Cator 16. Jordan Lane 17. Brad Fash 19. Ben McNamara 20. Jack Brown 21. Adam Swift 22. Josh Bowden 24. Cameron Scott

Referee: Chris Kendall

Catalans Dragons 20 Saints 16 - Review

Given the way Saints had been playing in 2021 it always felt like a question of when and not if their winning run would come to an end. The fixture list had so far been kind. Of the sides Saints faced in the opening six rounds of Super League only Huddersfield Giants were considered playoff contenders before the season began. Even they are only now starting to find form after a torrid start under new coach Ian Watson. A trip to Perpignan to face Steve McNamara’s Catalans Dragons was viewed by many as Saints first big test of the campaign. It was a test they failed. 

There was a slight surprise in Kristian Woolf’s starting line-up. Alex Walmsley - who has been arguably Saints most important player given their forward-orientated, grinding game plan - was left on the bench at the beginning of the game. Agnatius Paasi got the nod to start in the front row alongside Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and hooker James Roby. 

Walmsley wasn’t the only key player who did not make it on to the field from the outset. Woolf was still without the injured trio of Tommy Makinson, Matty Lees and James Bentley. With these players missing altogether it was a brave and slightly curious decision to hold Walmsley back. It was probably exactly what McNamara might have wished for. His side had endured late problems of its own. They had to find a way to settle in to their biggest game of the season without the talismanic Sam Tomkins at fullback and starting centre Samisoni Langi. Both had been named in the side an hour before kick-off but both withdrew late on in circumstances mysterious enough to evade the investigative skills of Bill Arthur and the Sky commentary team. Still, you don’t expect a man who can’t tell the difference between Kevin Naiqama and Regan Grace to get the scoop on last-minute team changes. You might as well ask your cat to rustle you up an omelette.

Woolf made another change to his 17 in bringing back Lewis Dodd into the fold. The young half had missed the previous two games but was preferred on the bench to Aaron Smith for this one. My attempts to work out what is going on here between Woolf and these two players have so far proven fruitless. Just what is happening? It’s a real head-scratcher. What exactly is the criteria here? Does Woolf believe that some games suit the genuine back-up nine that is Smith and others call for the silkier skills of Dodd? Is there a rota system being employed here, like Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence alternating in goal for England in the 1970s and 80s? Or does Woolf just play eenie meenie miney mo with the two of them each week? If you know then please enlighten me because I’m genuinely baffled. I feel like a contestant due to to appear on Catchpoint who has wandered into the wrong studio and ended up on University Challenge answering questions about Norwegian literature.

The game might have gone differently had Naiqama not been rumbled putting a foot in touch before claiming a 7th minute try. It was a close call but referee Robert Hicks and his touch judges were 100% correct to disallow the effort. Television replays showed the Fijian had clearly stepped on the whitewash before diving over. But that evidence came later after Hicks had decided to back his own judgement and that of his fellow officials. Given the technology is available it is perhaps arguable that it was worth a review. Yet as every Saints fan knows to their cost Hicks has previous for placing absolute faith in his own decision making and spurning the opportunity to double check. As we also know he is not always right. He was in this instance but there is some debate about whether he was correct about a subsequent incident involving Mike McMeeken in the build-up to an ultimately crucial Benjamin Jullien try. More on which later.

It was another five minutes before either side broke the deadlock. McCarthy-Scarsbrook was pinged doing McCarthy-Scarsbrook things, horsing around in the tackle in front of his own posts.  But hang on! Isn’t this now a set restart? Where is the line at which it becomes a penalty? I’m not sure what McCarthy-Scarsbrook was up to. He left his arm in on the tackled player which helped dislodge the ball as he got up to play it. The Saints man’s clear intention was to slow the attack down but I’m not sure that it constituted foul play. Can a set restart not be awarded if the ball is lost by the attacking team as a result of the offence? Can they not just go back to the mark with a fresh set? If not, why don’t we see more attacking players let go of the ball when they fancy a relieving penalty or a shot at goal instead of what might only be one or two extra tackles? 

A penalty may have helped a desperate Saints late in the game when the Dragons started lying on for as long as they could, safe in the knowledge that Hicks would only order a set restart. Saints were awarded one with 15 seconds left when they were deep in their own territory and four points adrift in pursuit of a game-saving try. It was a bit like winning a speedboat on Bullseye when you live in Coventry. There is scope for the referee to award a penalty if he thinks the interference is cynical but the Dragons wisely deduced that by the time Hicks started viewing it as such the clock would wind down sufficiently to preserve the win. It was what you might euphemistically term a professional use of the law. It is a confusing, inconsistent and unfathomable law that simply has not worked. It should be consigned to the dustbin of tried and failed rugby league innovations along with Clubcall. Nevertheless McCarthy-Scarsbrook was penalised and James Maloney kicked Catalans into a 2-0 lead. 

Maloney scored the game’s first try also, and it came on 22 minutes after another decidedly Hicksy call. That is to say possibly correct to the letter of the law but only called when the mood takes the overly demonstrative, champion beard wearer.  Naiqama had fought hard to get back into the field of play and avoid a goal-line dropout after retrieving a searching kick but was then judged to have played the ball incorrectly. And he did, failing to get to his feet before placing the ball on the ground and rolling it back with his foot as the law states. But his attempts to do so were hampered greatly by a couple of Dragons defenders who were McCarthy-Scarsbrooking for all they were worth having frankly been embarrassed by Naiqama’s escape. 

If that was unfortunate then it didn’t necessarily have to lead to a try. Saints have been immense in defence for most of 2021 but were found wanting on the ensuing set when Maloney glided between Jonny Lomax and Sione Mata’utia to score. He converted his own try to push the Dragons out to an 8-0 lead. 

Naiqama had a busy last few minutes before half-time as Saints tried to get a foothold. First he was the victim of a fairly scandalous third man in tackle by Dragons centre Mathieu Laguerrre who had only been drafted in after the late loss of Langi. It was an unnecessary, dangerous intervention from the 22 year-old which went unpunished by Hicks. We are seeing far too many of these in the modern game and far too little is being done to legislate against them. I expect we will see some unfortunate soul have his season ended and his career threatened by one before we start seeing some positive action from referees or the disciplinary panel. A red card and a minimum three-game ban would be a good starting place.

Thankfully recovered, Naiqama came close to putting Saints back in the contest when he went over from Mark Percival’s pass late in the half. The problem was that Percival’s pass was so far forward it landed in 2022. Play was brought back for a Saints penalty because Jullien had hit Theo Fages late in the build up. This caused some confusion among fans who thought Hicks had failed to play an advantage. 

Percival’s mistake was not just throwing a forward pass but throwing any sort of pass at all. He had already convinced the defender that he was going to throw it out to Naiqama and the defender had already moved over to try and cover the winger. All Percival had to do was hold on to the ball and he would have strolled over. It is hard to be too harsh on Percival. He did manage two tries in Saints spirited late fightback. Yet there is a certain irony in a player often criticised for having hands of glue electing to pass when he doesn’t need to and making an absolute pig’s arse of it. The sort of thing Alanis Morrissette might have been interested in. Instead of six Saints settled for two as Lachlan Coote slotted the penalty to make the half time score 8-2.

Two minutes into the second half Saints took out the big spade and dug themselves into a hole from which they would not escape. Coote fielded Maloney’s kick and defied every rule in the Woolf coaching manual by throwing a fairly speculative pass in the direction of Grace. Ninety-nine times out of 100 Saints backs returning kicks take the tackle and start the set. Not this time. As if to prove beyond question the Woolf philosophy that passing equals risk Coote’s pass headed only vaguely in the direction of Grace. He couldn’t handle it which enabled McMeeken to swoop on the loose ball and release a lovely offload for Dean Whare to stroll in. Maloney’s third goal of the afternoon gave the Dragons a 14-2 lead.

Eight minutes later Saints finally crossed for their first try. As is the standard these days it was a shorter range effort. Coote and Roby linked up well on the right to allow Percival to do the rest. The thought of passing this one never crossed his mind. Coote was unable to add the extras so Saints still trailed 14-6 with half an hour left. It was at this point that a point of genuine controversy arrived. Saints had struggled with the speed and footwork of Arthur Morgue and Tom Davies all evening and when they failed to halt the progress of the ex-Wigan winger the ball found its way to McMeeken. The former Castleford man crabbed across the defensive line from right to left before suddenly straightening up and bursting towards the line. Theo Fages grabbed a hold of his ankles and appeared to have effected a last ditch tackle. Yet just at the point where McMeeken hit the ground he also slipped from Fages’ grasp. Hicks - who last week awarded a golden point penalty to Leeds for activity he deemed to have taken place after the tackle - decided that this one had not been completed allowing McMeeken to get up off the floor and continue the movement which culminated in a try for Jullien. 

It was a borderline call which Hicks may or may not have been right about. But even if he was right it seems negligent, borderline arrogant not to send it up to the video referee for a quick check. No doubt Hicks will say he was certain and I can’t sit here and categorically state that he was wrong. I’m not sure. But I can categorically state that he was certain that Morgan Knowles hadn’t scored in the early moments of the 2019 Challenge Cup final. I know, let it go. But Hicks is a man who seems quite immune to learning from the past. He has been the victim of his own hubris before. Rob, you might be right. You might not. But make sure while you have the technology. If not, let’s just scrap it and accept all calls by the referee unquestioned.

Maloney’s conversion of the Jullien try gave Saints real problems at 20-6 down but again it was Percival who gave us hope. He scored with 10 minutes to go after good work by Fages and Coote. It was a try that came with an assist from Hicks too, who awarded Saints three consecutive penalties to set up the field position. Were this try scored against Saints the social media conspiracy theorists would absolutely credit it to Hicks and offer him their sarcastic congratulations. In this reality it was just a well worked movement from Saints finished off by Percival who was returning to try-scoring form. Coote could not convert and Saints still trailed 20-10.

Yet Woolf’s side were not quite done, and nor was the controversy. It’s no coincidence that as they emerged from their five-drives-and-a-kick shell late in the game Saints started to trouble the Dragons defence more. Four minutes remained when Lomax sent a missile out to Grace’s wing to send him over for his seventh try of the year. In a desperate bid to stop him McMeeken hit Grace suspiciously high. Not as hard as it might have appeared from the Welshman’s reaction. He spent several minutes receiving treatment from the medical staff. But it was high, and given the crackdown we have seen on contact with the head on the other side of the world the shouts for a foul in the act of scoring and an ‘8-point’ try were not as desperate as they might seem. Contrary to popular belief it was reviewed by video referee Ben Thaler (it must have been tricky if Hicks wasn’t certain) and he decided the contact did not warrant a penalty. Another call that was not quite scandalous, not even outright incorrect, but one which could have gone the other way on another day. But this was not Saints day.

In analysing why we must not look to the ever eccentric Hicks but to the continuation of Woolf’s stifling tactics. Saints remain stale and predictable in attack and they no longer possess the dominant pack of Justin Holbrook’s side with which to lay the platform to bring the backs into play. Particularly with Walmsley on the bench and McCarthy-Scarsbrook not being Luke Thompson and all. 

The halves are asked to do very little creatively as a result and were subsequently outplayed by the Dragons pair of Josh Drinkwater and - probably enjoying his best game since arriving from the NRL amid much fanfare - Maloney. Calls for Dodd to be drafted into replace Fages are understandable but are akin to moving deck chairs on the Titanic if we continue down this tactical route.

Which we will. Next up are back to back league and cup clashes with Hull FC. One disappointing defeat will not convince Woolf to change course. He will still believe that his safety first grind is the most likely method of winning those two games. He won’t make excuses. Talk of early mornings and European travel issues are the preserve of fans desperate to find any reason for a loss other than We Weren’t Good Enough. Saints had a choice about whether to travel on the day or stay overnight. They made it and they live with the consequences. But Woolf will know also that in this system and league structure one defeat is just a minor inconvenience, hardly even qualifying as a setback. He’ll keep faith with the methods that brought him success last season and earned his side six wins out of six to start this campaign before the defeat to the Dragons.   

So the wait will go on for those of us who seek entertainment as well as success. Yet if losing becomes a habit playing this way the dissenting voices will grow. He’s betting everything on results and he’s just learned that his team are vulnerable.