These two great rugby league clubs may both be preparing for the Super League playoffs in a fortnight’s time but on the evidence of what we have seen both here and in recent weeks, you suspect only one has a credible chance of walking out at Old Trafford in a month’s time.
And incredibly, it is not the side who were world champions just two years ago and won four consecutive league titles at the turn of the decade. For all of the brilliance St Helens showed in that run of unprecedented domination, this is now a very different side: underlined by the fact that for the first time in the summer era, they will finish outside the top four in consecutive seasons.
