SAINTS – as Super League Leaders – have earned the reward of sitting out the first round of matches when the Super League play-off series gets under way this weekend.
Kristian Woolf’s men finished four points clear of runners up Wigan – and both the top two go directly to the semi-finals where they will have home advantage.
It will come as some relief to see the business end crank up again – with the job done and top-two effectively secured weeks ago.
That, plus the significant numbers of injuries and suspensions Saints have endured, has contributed to a meandering last seven weeks of the campaign.
The stats speak for themselves with Saints losing just three of their opening 20 Super League matches while falling down in three out of their final seven encounters.
But suddenly it is game on again and the focus on a return to Old Trafford and sights on what would be an unprecedented four Super League titles in a row.
Woolf has his own theories on why the back end of the campaign appeared to go off the boil a little – pointing directly to the significant chunk of the club’s salary that has been left sat in the stand.
This term Will Hopoate, Regan Grace, Mark Percival, Tommy Makinson, Sione Mata’utia and Lewis Dodd have all had spells out of various lengths and now there are serious doubts over Alex Walmsley.
Woolf said: “There have been a lot of factors at play – and plenty of games where we would have liked to have played better at the back end of the season, but the amount of disruption and the real experienced and quality players we have had to do that without at the back end of the year has been significant.
“This is particularly true in the backs and if you have a look at our starting 7, our starting 1, centre and both wingers.
“Then Sione Mata’utia was the best back rower in the comp by a long way at the start of the year – he has been filling in at centre – but he is out too.
“The quality and number of those players is compounded by losing guys underneath them like Jumah Sambou and Danny Hill have been unavailable. That hurts you too as they are our next in line.
“When you put all of that together and a lot more blokes have played a lot more footy than they would have expected that becomes fatiguing.”
A heavier load has had to be taken on by the group leaders – especially James Roby and Jonny Lomax, the latter playing since Easter with a ruptured bicep.
It is something Woolf acknowledged when he singled out Lomax.
“There are your older heads, who are there every week, who have to take a bit more responsibility and a bit more load.
“Examples of that are Jonny Lomax, knowing that he’s had to play with injury because we did not have anyone else to replace him with.
“He deserves so much credit for the way he has got through that, helped us stay in games and win games off the back of that – but it all becomes fatiguing and there’s been a bit of that on show in the past few games of the season.
“I am so proud of the group for that,” Woolf said.
“But there are other things too – we travelled to France four times, went to Hull three times and Whitehaven.
“All that travel starts to add up when you put everything together, 27 rounds, Challenge Cup and then more than any other team involved in the international trial in the middle of the year.
“They all add up and cause fatigue and there has been some of that in us in the back end of the year.
“What we have earned is a week off – that comes at a good time and that gives us a chance to get some of our good players who are fresh and haven’t played for a while available.
“They will make a big difference to us and it gives us a two week preparation for a really big game.”
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