Saints kill off Devils’ dream
Holbrook’s men 2019 champions
SUPERIORITY trumped storyline. There was to be no miracle in Manchester as favourites St Helens saw off spirited Salford to avoid being the victims of one of the greatest sporting upsets of all time.
Regardless of the valiant defeat, those who had made the shortest of journeys would paint the dirty old town red last night and they had every right to. That Salford, second favourites for relegation, somehow managed to progress to a final was almost a miracle in itself.
Once here they finally met their match in Justin Holbrook’s brilliant Saints. They took hold of a gripping contest from the off and refused to let it out of their grasp, despite Salford’s best efforts.
Those who follow the men wearing the famous red ‘V’ will have been sick of reading all about their opponents in the build up. Quite rightly, the glory is theirs. The honour, however, belongs to their defeated opponents.
This was Salford’s first visit to the big show. Put simply, this does not happen. Rugby league has its traditional powerhouses.
Since the Grand Final was introduced in 1998, just seven different teams have appeared. It is now eight. Each year, Salford battle against relegation. At a meeting before the season started, Super League officials urged the cashstrapped club to aim for 11th out of 12. They were trying to be helpful, trying to help ensure that Salford, still reeling from the departure of owner Marwan Koukash, survived.
But they were having none of it at the AJ Bell Stadium. Not this year, not t his t eam. Assembled for around half the price of the top sides in the competition, the selftitled misfits have defied the odds week after week.
That said, not all of them expected to be here. Second rower Josh Jones had to put back his wedding to today. He may well be walking up the aisle with a fuzzy head.
He will certainly be sore, as will man of the match Luke Thompson, the first prop to win the Harry Sunderland Trophy since 1992, he said: “I’m just made up, I’m over the moon. It is a pleasure to play alongside Big Al [Alex Walmsley]. He’s an absolute beast, just unreal like all the boys. We have a great team here, we all work so hard for each other.’
Salford’s is a feat that is hard to compare. Rugby league is not football. You cannot grab a goal on the break, sit back and defend it. Over 80 brutal minutes, the best team tends to win. That is what happened here. St Helens finished top of the table by 16 points. But on the big stage in recent years, a reputation for choking has stalked them.
They had not lifted the Grand Final since 2014. In August, they lost the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley to an injury-ravaged Warrington side that had no right to get anywhere near them. They clearly had no intention of allowing that to happen again.
Salford, who were 150/1 outsiders at the start of the season for a reason, needed to stop Saints from getting off to a quick start. They somehow managed it in a breathless opening thanks to some tremendous defence and questionable decision-making from the fancied men from Merseyside.
But it simply could not last. Saints were relentless and on 15 minutes the deadlock was broken when, with Salford pulled from pillar to post, prop Alex Walmsley popped up a smart pass for loose forward Morgan Knowles to stroll through.
You feared the worst for local lad Ian Watson’s battling warriors and it quickly got worse. Following a smart move from the back of the scrum wily veteran James Roby sent second row Zeb Taia in and when Lachlan Coote nailed his second kick it was 12-0 without Salford having a sniff of the Saints tryline.
From somewhere, Salford summoned the energy to hit back. First, stand off Tui Lolohea had a score ruled out for obstruction, then – with mercurial scrum-half Jackson Hastings influential — wing Jake Bibby dived over in the corner and those from just down the road nearly lifted the roof off.
This was like a fight from a Rocky film, seesawing one way then the other.
After 40 breathless, brutal minutes, it remained 12-6. How Salford managed to get back to the sheds only six down is almost beyond words - but they did, and there was life in the underdog.
The pace slowed after the break, it had to. Salford will feel aggrieved at some of the decisions made by referee Chris Kendall but there could be no complaints about the try that gave Saints breathing space. Little seemed on when Mark Percival took the ball out wide but the centre wrongfooted the defence with a weaving run before dinking a kick through for himself to dive on under the posts. It was a try worthy of the occasion.
A Coote penalty from in front extended the gap and, in fairness, it felt like the game was up. Another one with less than 10 minutes to play ensured it was. There was still time for winger Tommy Makinson to boot a drop goal from around 40 out.
St Helens prop Kyle Amor said: ‘We’ve all got our own stories but to work my way back and stay in this side and be here tonight, I promised my son I’d win him a Grand Final ring and I’ve delivered on that tonight.’
Half-back Jonny Lomax added: ‘I missed 2014 and it was gutting, I went through some dark times but it means everything to win it for my hometown club.
‘We went well in the first 25-30 minutes; the started to get on top.’