Battered, bruised and depleted – but the reigning Super League champions are still very much in the fight for history and an unprecedented fifth consecutive title. It has been a bruising week for St Helens, the kind of which they haven’t really endured during their four-year dominance of British rugby league.
Their Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Leigh last Saturday was painful enough, but the loss of a number of key players to season-ending injuries was a further blow. Their coach, Paul Wellens, spent this week hitting out at those tackles from Leigh’s John Asiata, calling on the governing body to do more. The debate about the legality of the chop tackle Asiata employed – he is not the only one in the competition to use it – will rumble on , but one other debate is surely closer to being settled.
