Super League fixture finally set to receive a date and time

The Super League season started with some huge fixtures like the match between Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves, the shock win for Hull KR against Wigan Warriors and Leigh Leopards Super League debut against Salford Red Devils but we missed out on a huge game.

St Helens went into the season having won four Super League titles in a row and were expected to finish top but after finishing third in 2022 and reaching the Challenge Cup Final, many though the Giants would be the side closest to Saints in the table.

So their Round One meeting looked massive but didn’t come to pass with Saints taking on Penrith Panthers in the World Club Challenge.

However, now this game can now take place with St Helens being knocked out of the Challenge Cup.

“I think the intention from the Super League perspective was to see how both teams progressed in the Challenge Cup and obviously we’re hopefully going to progress to the final and win it, that’s our aim,” Ian Watson explained earlier this year.

“Should that not be the case I think that fixture would be slotted in on one of those weekends however like I just said we’re hoping it gets slotted in further down the track.

“There’s a few options available but it’s never going to be an easy fit. What we’ve got to ultimately do wherever it slots in is likely play three games in the space of eight or nine days.”

Saints would obviously prefer to play in the final with Paul Wellens opening up on his disappointment.

“I’m obviously devastated,” Wellens said on Saints TV, “There was a huge prize at stake and the opportunity to go and play at Wembley does not get much bigger.

“I have been in this position before as a player when you lose a semi final and it is never nice and I am gutted.”

He then went on to explain what went wrong: “Perhaps when you look back on the game and the opportunities are very few and far between.

“It’s probably an area of our game where we need to be better: attacking the opposition’s goal line.

“In a game like that where the margins are so fine we probably need to nail one or two more of them and if you do, you are probably on the end of a different result.”

He was also disappointed with the try Saints conceded straight after halftime:

“I was disappointed with the way we conceded that try particularly given the stuff that we’ve worked on during the week in terms of how to defend that threat in particular.

“We probably clocked off a little bit there and got burned early in the second-half which in big games with the small margins make a massive difference.

“And so the way we started the, the second-half was certainly not ideal.”