The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of Super League Round 9
The Good
St Helens notched their ninth win of the season after breaking Widnes down 28-6 in their Merseyside derby. Saints’ backline tore their opponents to shreds with Mark Percival and Tommy Makinson each getting doubles, along with the customary try to Ben Barba. They have opened a four-point lead at the top of Super League, with Wigan second on 12 points. The Warriors bounced back from their tight derby loss to blitz Hull KR 44-6. Liam Marshall was the main destroyer, finishing with four tries, in a match where the Cherry Whites couldn’t stop scoring with eight tries in total.
Warrington have certainly turned a corner and recorded their fourth victory in a row after downing Castleford. The Wire endured an inconsistent start to 2018 but have hit their straps of late, racking up wins over Catalans, Wakefield, Widnes and now the Tigers. Steve Price’s side are sitting pretty in third spot on the table and have been boosted by the capture of Josh Charnley.
And special mention goes to Marc Sneyd who made it a very good Easter indeed for the Black & Whites. Sneyd’s monster drop goal from 52 metres out ensured Hull FC edged Wakefield by a point and made it back-to-back wins over the holiday period. The half-back has a magical left boot and is building an impressive resume of classy kicking at clutch moments. While Warrington are on a roll Wakefield have dropped back down to reality, losing four from their past four after a great start.
The Bad
Salford were very poor in attack yesterday against Leeds, failing to score a point in their 20-0 loss at Headingley Carnegie. The loss of Niall Evalds to concussion didn’t help, with Rob Lui moving to fullback and Jack Littlejohn in of the bench. But in an average game dominated by defence and loose carries, the Red Devils were never really in it.
Huddersfield were very impressive against Leeds on Good Friday, but reverted to type in Perpignan. After the ‘sacking coach bounce’ the Giants were soundly beaten by the worst team in the competition. Huddersfield need a new coach, and fast, someone who can discipline an undisciplined squad and sort their recruitment out.
The Ugly
What is ugly is making players play two games in three days, and then three games in just eight days. The standard of matches on Easter Monday particularly suffered compared with what we saw on Good Friday. The Easter schedule is a tradition and a chance for clubs to fill their coffers with more fans free to attend games with no work commitments. But this is the chase of quantity, not quality, and purely short-termism. Let’s hope the crammed Easter schedule soon becomes a thing of the past.
There was also farcical scenes at the Jungle as Castleford played Warrington om a completely drenched pitch. If the Tigers had not already been forced to postpone several games then surely yesterday’s game would have been cancelled. Respect to the hardy souls who turned up to the Jungle to watch a waterlogged fixture.
