It is one of those imponderables of life that the closer you come to winning, the greater the hurt and disappointment is when you don’t. That certainly was the case at St Helens, last Thursday evening, when the Saints snatched the victory with a drop goal, three minutes into extra time.
If we supporters feel so despondent after such a conclusion to a game, one can only guess at how deflating it must have been for the players who had to cope with it having run themselves to a standstill over eighty-three minutes, not to mention the incredibly hard collisions which they had to endure over that period.
For this was not the St Helens side, which had lost five matches in a row. Whilst there were still a couple of absentees, the bulk of those who had been missing in recent weeks, in particular the forwards, had returned on block to form the most formidable of packs, and all fully refreshed from their enforced absences.
That in those circumstances, together with the obviously challenging context of the game surrounding the current league positions at that time, that our players were able to take their much-vaunted opponents to extra time, was, in itself, a massive achievement, and displayed to the public at large, the calibre of the side they have become.
From the very outset, the Saints set down the marker of their ability to make ground up-field with the ball. The power of their hit-ups ensured that on completion of each set they were much better placed than at the start of it, whereas Salford’s progress was rather more modest, and they had to rely significantly on Marc Sneyd’s kicking game for this.
Certainly, the opening quarter belonged to the home side as they set up waves of attack on the Salford line, but were successful only once in breaching it, via Makinson, on seven minutes, as a consequence of prolonged pressure from a penalty, a set restart, and a Salford handling error. All other of their subsequent attempts to stretch their four-point lead further, were repelled, though on occasions only just.
The game swung in the nineteenth minute on the sin-binning of Joe Shorrocks. His tug on the collar of the supporting Clark, who would otherwise certainly have scored, not only saved a try and probable conversion, it also altered the balance of the game, but far from it being St Helens who got the bit between their teeth, it was Salford who took the initiative.
If you want to stop the opposition from scoring, the best way to do it is to starve them of the ball, and for the whole of the following ten minutes it was the Red Devils who got on top because of this. Far from conceding points, it was they who scored next, on 26 mins, with Sneyd’s penalty goal. This, most cleverly, not only opened their account, it also wore away over a full minute of the sin-binning time.
When, six minutes later, Sneyd repeated the act to draw Salford level, the remaining eight minutes were spent with the Saints penned down close to their own line having to defend attack after attack of Salford pressure, but without conceding any more points.
The start of the second half was almost a mirror reflection of that of the first, with St Helens regaining the initiative and Blake’s going over on 45 mins, for their second, this time, converted try. That, however, was the only similarity between the two, with momentum fluctuating between the sides far more frequently in this second forty.
Twice the home side took the lead, with each of them being cancelled out by the visitors with two of their own. Five minutes after, the Reds were back level, when Chris Hankinson was first to get a hand to Sneyd’s delicate kick-in-goal, which he then converted.
A Salford lost ball, on 60 mins, proved costly with Saints then gaining a set restart and enough possession to put Batchelor over and Percival kicking his second conversion, but the game was thrown into disarray, on the 68th minute when three players – Knowles, Batchelor and Oli Partington were all sinbinned within fifty seconds of each other.
With the balance of numbers favouring the Reds, it took them a mere minute for Nene Macdonald to find his way to the line, and Sneyd’s fourth goal setting up an enthralling finale.
In the end, it was the Saints who showed just how good their renowned defence really is when, on 75 mins, Mbye came from nowhere to crash-tackle Deon Cross into touch just when it looked for all the world as though he was about to go over for the winning score, after a class piece of centre play from Hankinson.
Sadly, the extra time proved to be a bridge too far for a team which had given their all against a side with by far the greater physical prowess, and no-one can do more than that.
