[ad_1]
In a world shrouded in uncertainty, perhaps we should have always relied on the Super League to offer an event that reminds us all of what life was like before Covid-19.
Once again, in 2020, there will be no new Super League winner, and once again, it is two teams that have more Grand Final appearances than any other that will fight for the right to be crowned champions.
Wigan and St Helens often don’t like being reminded of the things that link two towns only eight miles apart from the Lancashire road, but rarely has that feeling of similarity prevailed more than the two semi-finals that ultimately secured their respective places in the final next Friday in the unusual setting of Hull. On Thursday, Wigan was brilliant defensively and clinical offensively, keeping Hull down all night and scoring a series of wonderful attempts in response.
Here, St Helens was the same against a Catalan team that deserves credit for completing the national season, with this their 10th trip to England in less than four months, but whose hopes for a first final were desperately short here, in part thanks to his own indiscipline. “It’s such a disappointing finish after a lot of effort from the club throughout the season, but clearly, they are the two best teams in the competition,” said their coach, Steve McNamara.
James Maloney’s early penalty to put the Catalans 2-0 ahead was all they could muster all night. At halftime, they trailed 14-2 thanks to tries by Lachlan Coote and Kevin Naiqama, after repeated penalties put St Helens in attacking position time and time again. One of them, a high tackle on Regan Grace, saw Maloney in the trash for 10 minutes, with Coote scoring the first try of the game moments later.
And when Naiqama extended that lead two minutes after the break with his second, you felt that even then, the Catalans had no answer for what St. Helens threw at them. “They were outstanding,” said Kristian Woolf, the St Helens coach. “We are going to enjoy this week, because it is a great week, to be involved in the finals.” The prospect of being the first team to defend the title since Leeds in 2012 is now within reach, and there was seldom a doubt that the dream would end here.
Coote’s second, after a superb pass from Zeb Taia, was followed by a try from Jonny Lomax and then a sin binning for Ben Garcia that opened the floodgates further. In two tackles, James Bentley had crossed from another well-crafted play, before Grace replicated Naiqama’s hat-trick, an impressive field-length effort as the Catalans simply couldn’t do anything but watch the international run of Welsh. and underline the gulf in class between the sides.
It means that, like Sean O’Loughlin, James Graham will have a chance to end his career with another Super League title – although he will have to pass the concussion protocol in the week after failing a first-half head test here.
Sign up for The Recap, our weekly email of editor picks.
The subplots are fascinating, and the prospect of one of the great Grand Finals is now a clear possibility after seeing, as McNamara correctly put it, the top two teams in the competition reserve their place in the final.
Three weeks ago, St Helens and Wigan delivered one of the best games of recent years in a season that, at one point, didn’t look like it was going to be completed at all. That night, it was Wigan who emerged victorious, but if the rematch is half as good as next Friday, a great climax awaits us for 2020.
St Helens Coote; Makinson, Naiqama, Welsby, Grace; Lomax, Fages; Walmsley, Roby, Graham, Taia, Bentley and Knowles Exchange Peyroux, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Lees, Love Attempts Coote 2, Naiqama 3, Lomax, Bentley, Grace Goals Coote 8
catalans Tomkins; Mead, Langi, Folau, Davies; Maloney, Drinkwater; Bousquet, Da Costa, Moa, Whitley, García, Casty Exchange Simon, Seguier, Baitieri, Kasiano Goals Maloney Referee L Moore
