Can Anyone Stop St Helens?

We are now five rounds into the Super League season and only one 100% winning record remains. St Helens. They have scored the most points, conceded the fewest points and have rarely looked in danger of losing a match. Saints have already won three consecutive titles and, if anything, look stronger in 2022. Can anyone stop them?

In this blogpost, we will explore the arguments for and against another year of St Helens dominance. Time will tell which is accurate.

The Case Against

Winning a title is hard. Winning three in a row is even harder. It's why it happens so little in professional sport. In the salary-cap era, no side has ever made it four titles in a row. The only other side who had the chance to do that was Leeds in 2010. It was Wigan who ended these hopes in a play off semi final at Headingley.

In the last three seasons, St Helens have had a good run without major injuries. In 2020, Mark Percival missed most of the season. In 2021, Theo Fages missed from July onwards. Both were key players, but in isolation could be covered. Saints' relative lack of injuries may be down to good fortune or may be down to better conditioning. Nevertheless, if an injury crisis does hit, the dynamic may change.

It is easy to forget that St Helens did not top the table in either 2020 or 2021. Over the course of the season, Wigan and Catalans have claimed the last two Minor Premierships. St Helens did the business when it mattered, in the last two Grand Finals though.

Yet, neither Grand Final was a blowout. In 2020, who could forget St Helens won with the final act of the season, a try from Jack Welsby after the final hooter had sounded. In 2021, St Helens had to be at their absolute best to hold off a ferocious Catalans surge. 

I am not saying that St Helens did not deserve to win both matches, they did. The wider point is that the side is not infallible and on another day, either or both of those Grand Finals could have ended with different winners.

The Case For

At present, this is the easier case to make. Young players Jack Welsby and Lewis Dodd have slotted in seamlessly into their new roles, the likes of Alex Walmsley, James Roby and Morgan Knowles are as impressive as ever and Sione Mata'utai's game has stepped up several levels.

St Helens have conceded just 28 points this season, an average of 5.6 per game. The next best defence in the competition is Catalans is 72, an average of 14 per game (an impressive defensive record in its own right).

This isn't new. St Helens' defence was incredible last year too. What has changed is that their attack seems to be stronger and carry a far greater threat than in 2020. That's why they have been behind in matches for just 17 minutes all season.

A key difference between this St Helens side and their predecessors is their big game mentality. Between 2009 and 2018, St Helens won one major trophy. They were in many semi-finals and finals, but more often than not lost, sometimes to opposition that were inferior over the course of the season.

Even under the impressive Justin Holbrook, St Helens lost many big matches and seemed to struggle to cope with the pressure when the scores got tighter and the intensity levels rose. Now, the opposite is true. St Helens are a club that thrive in the big games and are not overawed by the occasion.

With St Helens' record of winning when it matters, it may even be that they have the psychological advantage over the other teams in Super League who have tried and failed to break their monopoly.

What does 2022 hold?

The beauty of sport means that we do not know. Catalans have made a strong start to 2022 with a string of impressive away wins against potential play-off opponents (and a thumping home win against Wigan) in spite of an ever-growing list of suspensions and injured players.

St Helens did better Catalans in round 1 but that will mean little when these two clubs inevitably face off in far more important occasions throughout 2022.

Whilst we don't know how the year will go for St Helens and whether their dominance will continue, what cannot be doubted is that they are one of the strongest sides ever to grace the Super League competition. Kristian Woolf has taken a good team and turned them into a relentless winning machine. 

Will the winning machine continue to crush all in its path or will a brave challenger succeed in its quest for dominance? I'm looking forward to finding out.