World Club Challenge Preview - A tale of chances galore!

On Saturday night, two giants of the rugby league world come together. It’s always special when two champion sides meet and hopefully this will be no exception.

St Helens surprisingly named their 21-man squad a day early. The key news is that Lachlan Coote remains out, Regan Grace misses out with injury, but James Roby and Mark Percival return. Yes, the same Mark Percival who St Helens told us would be missing for several months just last week.

Has there been a Lazarus-like recovery? No. Kristian Woolf told the St Helens Star: 

“He [Percival] needs surgery and that happens next week…There is no danger of making the injury any worse and [we] wouldn’t put him out there if there was any chance of putting his health at risk.”

Mark Percival is a man who we were told suffered chest and sternum injuries under two weeks ago of such severity that he required surgery and a lengthy period out of the game. This raises two questions.

1. Is it just mind games?

Perhaps. The 21-man squad rule was brought in this year to prevent the farcical situation of players being drafted into a matchday squad, who were not named in an original 19-man squad. What this allows is greater scope for mind-games from coaches. The inclusion of a potentially injured player still leaves a coach with plenty of room for manoeuvre with his remaining 20 players.

2. Hang on, what about player welfare?!

This is the far more pertinent question. Before going any further, read the sentence below Kristian Woolf’s quote again. The information in the public domain suggests that Mark Percival has suffered a serious injury that necessitates surgery.

Now ask yourself the following question, is it wise for a patient awaiting shoulder surgery to play rugby league against some of the biggest, strongest players in the world? I am not a medic, but the answer seems obvious even from a lay person’s perspective.

I am also unsure how Kristian Woolf has concluded that Percival is in no danger of making the injury worse by playing on Saturday and what medical evidence he has to support such a claim. My suspicion is none.

“Player welfare” is a buzz phrase in rugby league. You hear it from players, coaches and pundits alike, but numerous examples show a serious lack of commitment to it. The phrase at the minute is a mere platitude.

This is not a criticism of St Helens. It is a whole game problem. That can be seen from Brian McDermott’s baseless comments this week that people are making too big of a deal of head injuries in rugby league. 

Home Advantage

Sydney Roosters are the best club side in the world at the minute. Not many rugby league teams win back to back titles, especially in the NRL, but this side has.

St Helens need everything to go their way in order to win. And the English side do get some advantages:

1. They play at home

2. They are already in season

3. They are more acclimatised to the conditions

But the Australian side has one advantage that outweighs all of those. A higher salary cap. They are richer and can therefore attract the better players and therefore should be expected to win on most occasions. The fact that the number of English and Australian wins in this fixture are quite even is a credit to our clubs and league.

I have seen an interesting debate this week regarding whether the event has lost something by not being played at a larger venue. For example, St Helens have played at Bolton in the past and Leeds at Elland Road.

Whilst the crowd numbers may suffer, I disagree that the event loses out. By playing the fixture at the English teams home ground, it creates a magical night at that teams stadium. A rare occasion where all four sides of the stadium unite around the home side and a special atmosphere is as closed to guaranteed as you can get.

St Helens have the chance to manufacture to create the greatest night in the history of their eight-year old stadium on Saturday night.

It will be hard. It has been made harder by the absence of Lachlan Coote, Regan Grace and Mark Percival. With injuries comes opportunity. The injuries give Jack Welsby, Matt Costello and possibly James Bentley (who was unfortunate to miss out on both major finals in 2019) a chance of a lifetime.

The chance to become a hero, the chance to make a name for yourself, the chance to be part of 18,000 people in one stadium united behind one cause, team and even country, the chance to be part of club folklore, the chance to make history. 

Whether you are 18 year old Jack Welsby making your 16th career appearance, or 34 year old James Roby making your 451st career appearance, the stakes, the pre-match butterflies and the prize is just the same.