Set of Six: Cheating, Green Cards, climbing up Super League

1. "Effectively cheating."

There's an old expression that goes something like 'Opinions are like the holes in your backside – everyone has got one.' The holes and opinions have another similarity in that it does no harm to have both thoroughly examined from time to time.

So let’s examine the one of Phil Clarke – opinion that is – specifically his suggestion that Saints’ defensive resilience is based on "effectively cheating".

In his pundit role on Sky after Saints’ tight win over Huddersfield said: “Maybe when they are prepared to defend on their own try line, maybe one of the reasons why Huddersfield and other teams can’t score against St Helens is that they’d rather slow down the opposition and concede six more tackles in their belief that ‘we’ll defend, as long as it’s not quick, we can defend our try line for two minutes’.”

He then went on to say Saints had “effectively cheated” against Salford last year and called for “the game” to take action.

The truth is no team jumps off the tackle immediately, especially when defending their line.

This is standard practice so it seems odd to single out Saints for it – particularly as this will clearly incite the crowd to bring pressure to bear on the officials going forward.

Of course, the game can take action if it is deemed to be such a big issue – and they could do that by publishing the full timings and stats of all 12 Super League sides’ play the balls – both defensive sets and attacking ones – for the last couple of years.

Just my opinion from watching but historically Saints seem like a team that are more sinned against in these stakes, but it would be good to see that backed up with the actual stats.

Take Alex Walmsley. Whenever he carries the ball strongly and bounces off a tackler, he is often denied the quick play the ball he has rightly won given players he’s already repelled are allowed to join the pile on once the tackle is complete, almost like an unofficial handicap.

Cheating does happen in the sport and we still see players feigning injury to get an incident checked on the screen in order to get a man binned or to win a penalty.

In years previously some players would go down injured to stop play when defending their own line and there were no doubt cases of players going off and taking a head check instead of a sub and remarkably rarely failing it.

2. Jonny Lomax Green Card.

When Jonny Lomax was hit off the ball by Jack Ashworth – the incident looked similar to the one in which Morgan Knowles was suspended for against Hull.

The ball had gone but the player followed through with the tackle and clearly knocked the wind out of Lomax.

That the incident was not punished with a penalty is one thing, the ref can’t see everything, but to then issue a Green Card to Jonny Lomax effectively punished him for getting hit.

Let’s look at the facts here. Saints were on the attack – Lomax's short ball, before being belted, had sent Jack Welsby through a hole and then they won a drop out.

It was not in Saints’ interests to stop the game.

And so this is different to all those incidents where players go down defending their line. There were two in one set last year at Wakefield, if you recall.

For me, the Green Card should be used to stop players buying their side an advantage by getting treatment.

In this occasion Saints were punished twice, with the late hit missed and the victim effectively sent off for two minutes.

3. Patience of a Saint.

Saints spent a lot of time defending last week. A couple of tries in a three-minute purple patch turned the game.

However, one thing Saints will have to learn is the need to go back to being patient with the ball – as dull as that sounds.

We can see they have not found it easy since they returned from Australia – particularly struggling in their yardage sets as the opposition have clearly spotted ways of getting to Saints’ early ball carriers.

Paul Wellens on Lewis Dodd, Jack Welsby and Jonny Lomax running game>

It was a clever move to keep kicking high to Tommy Makinson, one of Saints’ strongest set starters, as he was invariably smothered on landing.

So when Saints did get over the half way line, they tended to try and chase points rather than build pressure.

Going forward they maybe need to be a bit more ruthlessly dull in getting control of the game, vary the kicks and try and win goal line drop outs and repeat sets and play more of the game away from their own end.

4. Super League Table.

The Super League table has an unfamiliar look, with Warrington top and now the only remaining unbeaten side.

There are a lot of games still to play – but Saints have won their last two games – and with a game in hand – have begun to climb up the table.

That helps confidence and morale. It can be a bit chicken and egg – and you could see at the Hull game how jittery Saints were with the ball. That was purely down to losing the previous two games.

Under the Play-Off system any early defeats – although not great to experience – are pretty insignificant unless teams fall into bad habits or don’t learn from them.

Saints have Wakefield on Friday, but after that comes a tough run with trips to Wigan, Hull KR and Catalans and one home against leaders Warrington.

After this spell we will begin to get a true picture of where we are at for 2023.

5. Why can't Huddersfield Giants break through?

Ken Davy has ploughed so much into Huddersfield Giants – the team with the privilege of playing in the town that was the birthplace of rugby league.

They have some big players, are regularly at the top end of the table and have made it to three Challenge Cup Finals in the past 17 years.

But looking around all the empty stands and a Thursday night gate of 4,600 it is clear they are still they are not breaking through in the town.

In IMG’s grading criteria, stadium facilities are up there – but so too is fandom. Giants score highly on the ground – but that is undone when all you can see is empty blocks of seats.

Daft as it sounds, a packed Castleford – despite their outdated facilities – looks better on TV than an empty John Smiths.

So what do we do?

6. Beware of a desperate Wakefield Trinity?

Saints will have to be careful on Friday night when basement side Wakefield visit.

Trinity won on their last visit to Saints – but that was against a very youthful team. There are anchored to the bottom with no wins from six matches – including a 60-0 hiding at Wigan.

However, they were desperately unlucky against Salford, losing by a golden point drop goal, and they ran Giants close.

But there is something else that makes them dangerous…desperation. With Leigh winning three games already, and boasting a strong playing roster, it will focus the minds of those teams below them. And Wakefield, who have been Super League’s perennial survivors, will be looking for ways and means to dig their way out of this spot.