“NEVER write off the Saints”, former skipper Chris Joynt once so memorably proclaimed.

Writing for the rugby newspaper League Express following Saints’ capitulation at home to Warrington, like many others I ignored that warning from history and confidently predicted that Saints’ season was as good as over.

So the last place I expected to be last Saturday night was Old Trafford – and what a delight it was to be proved wrong.

What an astonishing performance.

Simply reaching the Grand Final, with so many crucial players missing, represented a triumph of sorts in the face of adversity; in winning it Saints’ class of 2014 secured their own place in the history books. And don’t let anybody tell you that the sending off was the difference. We’ll never know.

But we do know that Lance Hohaia was an integral part of Saints’ strategy and in losing him Saints couldn’t have had a worse start to the game.

There’s little to say on the Flower incident that hasn’t already been said, but Hohaia’s dignified response – “I don’t hold any grudges against Ben” – perhaps illustrates the difference in class between the two clubs, both on the field and off. Well done Saints.

Andy Donnelly