The Super League playoffs may only be 48 hours old but if this is what the remainder of the road to Old Trafford looks like, we are in for some treat: not that it will be any consolation to supporters of St Helens after this most remarkable of sudden-death ties.
For weeks, the Saints have been so brittle that many felt when they ended the year sixth – their lowest league finish since 1994 – this would be somewhat of a formality for a Warrington side who have caught the eye so much in Sam Burgess’s first season as a head coach. But anyone with even a brief history of Super League should not know you can never write the Saints off.
When Mark Percival kicked a stunning touchline conversion to send this incredible playoff eliminator – which looked and felt every inch like a Grand Final – into golden point extra time, you wondered if history would repeat itself again, and the Saints would be the ones celebrating. But Burgess has added the steel and resilience to this side he himself was famous for as a player.
“We weren’t at our best tonight but we won a different way,” Burgess reflected. “Saints are a champion side, you can see why they’ve won it so many times but we just aren’t ready to finish yet.”
Golden point is essentially about which side holds their nerve and keeps their composure the best, and when it comes to that, there is really only one man for such a moment: the England captain, George Williams.
Warrington may not have been faultless but Williams was majestic. And when the ball came to him in the third minute of extra time, you really felt the outcome was inevitable, as Williams nervelessly kicked the drop goal that set up a winner-takes-all semi-final at Hull KR on Friday, while St Helens’ season is now over. The second semi-final sees Wigan host Leigh on Saturday evening.
Burgess’s side took an early lead when Toby King crossed following an error from Tommy Makinson at the kick-off but by half-time it was the Saints in the ascendancy.
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Two tries from Makinson and another from Mark Percival put the visitors 16-4 ahead but as half-time approached, the Wire struck a decisive blow. Matty Ashton’s first try of the night only halved the deficit but it brought the hosts right back into the contest and from there, they grew back into proceedings. King scored his second to level it at 16-16 as the hour mark approached but the drama was nowhere near over.
A Saints error in their own half led to Ashton scoring his second to put Warrington back ahead and as time ebbed away, it looked as though the Wolves would hold on. But with 60 seconds remaining, Jon Bennison touched down in the corner and Percival converted to send it to extra time.
Yet there would be no grand Saints comeback this time – as Williams decided matters just three minutes into golden point. “It’s soul destroying,” the St Helens coach, Paul Wellens, said. “It’s clear to see what that team left out there. It was a brilliant game to be a part of but I’m devastated with that result.”
For nearly 70 years, the league title has evaded Warrington’s grasp. The manner of this victory perhaps offers just a subtle hint that wait could potentially end in the next fortnight.
