Ben Barba scored two tries for St Helens against Castleford at Langtree Park.
Photograph: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images
So the bookies are right again. St Helens showed exactly why they are favourites to win Super League; Castleford, last season’s great entertainers – rugby league’s Leicester City (only without actually winning the title) – have had their moment; Wigan are stronger than first thought; Catalans have problems; and Hull KR and Salford are doomed. Well, that’s what round one told us. But perhaps we shouldn’t jump to premature conclusions.
What is without doubt is that St Helens were superb in their 46-6 win against Cas on Friday night. The 13,000 of us in attendance did not get the cracker we had gone to see, we were treated to what Saints coach Justin Holbrook rightly described as a “fantastic” performance from start to finish.
Thrill machine full-back Ben Barba got all the headlines for an inspiring display in both defence and attack, tossing the breaking Greg Eden over the right touchline seconds before popping up on the left to finish off a fine Saints move. The charismatic Aussie capped his outstanding display with a sublime, searing, swerving run in the last minute suggesting he would be a seriously tasty indoor 200m runner.
Welsh youngster Regan Grace enjoyed more runs than he had in the whole of the World Cup and Alex Walmsley played like an angry father who had not quite grasped the charitable etiquette of a Dads v Lads match. The fact that Saints are so strong they could leave out England half-back Matty Smith, Scotland captain Luke Douglas and Adam Swift (who were all sent to play for the reserves in North Wales on Sunday) should have the rest of Super League cowering.
Other than Smith, Saints spent the second half with all their pivots on the field: in the halves youngster Danny Richardson played the whole game while Theo Fages came on, Jonny Lomax moved to centre, and James Roby – on his 400th appearance – dictated the tempo at hooker. Jon Wilkin could take a breather. Veteran Smith might spend longer in the stands than he wishes.
“It was a difficult call,” admitted Holbrook after leaving out one of Saints’ main men. “He’s a tough competitor and he wants to play. It’s not something a coach likes to do, leaving top players out. But we want competition for places.”
Castleford coach Daryl Powell dismissed their display with a wonderful repertoire of derogatory descriptions: “appalling”, “shocking”, “a rude awakening”, “poor attitude”, “terrible”, “a smack in the chops” and “beaten in everything”. Other than that, the Tigers roared. It was hard to argue and although it was rather cruel of the Popular End to chant “you’re just a one-season wonder” as Saints went 28-0 up, it was understandable.
Yes, Castleford were without new recruits Joe Wardle (injured in training) and Papua New Guinea star Garry Lo (who has gone back to Sheffield to defrost) but they were sloppy, shabby and altogether shambolic. They lacked cohesion and calmness under pressure, and their normal thrilling, expansive passing game was rarely given a chance to show its face. Luke Gale didn’t even show his hair, the halfback protecting his new barnet under a scrum cap following an off-season transplant.
Clubcall: St Helens
They do things right at Saints. In their first home game since the death of the legendary Tom Van Vollenhoven, his widow, daughter and granddaughter came over from South Africa to walk out with the matchball through a guard of honour, accompanied by a minute’s applause.
Tom van Vollenhoven. Photograph: St Helens RFC
Signed in 1957 for the equivalent of £180,000 now, by the time he retired in 1968, TVV had scored 392 tries in 409 games. His testimonial earned him a record cheque, worth £80,000 at today’s prices, some of which came from sales of the Vollenhoven Calypso seven inch single!
Foreign quota
If you watched Sunday’s Super Bowl wishing the Super League Grand Final was as big as that, remember their game was not always a daunting behemoth. When the Patriots launched in 1960, they drew attendances similar to Leeds Rhinos’ now – around 16,000 at BU Field. That was pretty good compared to some other AFL teams.
If the England v New Zealand Test goes ahead in June, the promoters will be hoping to attract more to Mile High Stadium than the 10,000 who rattled around it watching Denver Broncos. Just over 5,000 saw the utterly hapless Oakland Raiders’ last game at Kezar Stadium and the Raiders were still getting four-figure gates after moving to Candlestick Park. New York Jets averaged 5,000 in 1962, while Dallas Cowboys were getting just 2,000 in the Cotton Bowl. So let us not be limited by our imaginations.
Goal-line drop-out
Although the longer the delay in announcing the format for Super League 2019 goes on, the less likely it is to increase to 14 clubs, it would be simple to do. Just hand places in Super League to the top five of the middle eight and pitch team six against seven in the Million Pound Game for the final place. Any club unable to do better than two Championship teams in the Qualifiers would not belong in Super League anyway.
The assumption is that the current dozen clubs would survive that minor threat, and Toronto showed at Leigh on Sunday that they would make the cut, too. It seems ludicrous that Super League could yet announce it will expand at the end of this season, given half the Championship clubs could have invested more to seek promotion while some in Super League would have spent less.
A sixth v seventh Million Pound Game last year would have seen London host Featherstone (last in the top flight 23 years ago) while in 2016 Batley would have needed a win at the Broncos to return to the top flight for the first time since Eddie Waring was behind the mic.
Fifth and last
Tournament director Jon Dutton says he intends to deliver a “bold, brave, transformational and profitable” World Cup in 2021. With the 2017 World Cup expected to make around $7m profit instead of the predicted $10m, it may be a blessing that England 2021 paid a rights fee for the tournament rather than the RLIF waiting to see what profit is made. With £15m Treasury money to spend and the bar set fairly low, it will undoubtedly be “the biggest and best” RLWC yet. They are aiming to sell almost twice the measly 375,000 tickets the 2017 edition managed, while there may also be Masters, Tag or Touch in the Festival of World Cups that summer.
The 40 expressions of interest will be narrowed down this autumn and decisions made on the final 13 venues (and numerous training bases for men’s, women’s and wheelchair World Cups) by December 2019, while a Tour de France-style Team Event launch is being considered. Dutton said a “compelling case” would be needed to take games outside of England but he is “engaging” with governments in Wales and Scotland. There is £10m Treasury money for “legacy”, with clubs being able to apply for facilities grants now. RLWC 2021 are also willing to alter the funding model so players from all 16 teams are paid the same. That would have fascinating consequences.