SAINTS will win the League Leaders’ Shield today for the first time since 2019 should either the youthful side they have selected avoid defeat at home to Wakefield or if Wigan fail to win at Hull KR.

Wigan, who are four points behind with two matches to go, have selected a similarly young side for their trip to Hull KR.

That both sides went as strong as they could on Friday and then made multiple changes for today’s games says a number of things.

First, the obvious one – playing a double header, late in the season, when squads are already shattered and depleted is up there with the most senseless decisions the fixture planners have come up with.

We know the programme has been jammed in due to the World Cup time constraints – but this week was essentially created to allow a blank weekend earlier in the season for the England v All Stars.

This case of robbing of Peter to pay Paul is a monumental own goal has been harsh on players who have to back up and cheats the fans who pay for the extra game that we are told the game/clubs need.

Secondly, the way Saints and Wigan have approached this weekend shows that getting battle-hardened and up to the mark for the Grand Final far outweighs the chance of winning the League Leaders’ Shield.

An admittedly injury-hit Saints have not had the same level of physical test since the run of mis summer games against Leeds, Catalans, Wigan and Huddersfield. (Even if they were rattled by Salford after that).

Going all out against Wigan even with a threadbare backline to see where the benchmark was more valuable than conceding the game and then going strong today against Wakefield to clinch top.

Coach Kristian Woolf has always talked about the priority of finishing 'top two' and getting in the best position to with the Grand Final.

It appears that finishing top will be a nice by-product of that preparation for Old Trafford rather than an objective in itself.

It is a shame but finishing top doesn’t really carry the weight that it should – nobody really remembers the teams who only finish top.

In recent years Warrington, Cas, Catalans, Huddersfield, plus Wigan and Saints have all finished top and then failed to win the big prize. There was no open top bus parade for any of those.

St Helens Star:

And as much as there has been attempts to say “more should be made about finishing top”, the reality says differently. The fact that Sky Sport’s TV cameras will be covering the battle for sixth rather than the top tells you all you need to know.

And finally, finishing top does not carry any more significant advantage than finishing second.

It is not like the original top five that genuinely rewarded the teams separately finishing 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Under this top six first will theoretically play the weakest side left in the semi – but given Salford and Leeds both look resurgent at the back end, would either of those be classed as clearly weaker than the teams finishing third or fourth?

And even the reward of having the first semi seems to be up for debate given Wigan’s ground availability issue on 17 September.

So although Saints may appear to be going the long way round to clinching League Leaders, there is no real panic here.

And touch wood, even if they don’t win it today, they may even have a few bodies back for the last game of the regular season at home to Toulouse on Saturday to absolutely nail it.