How do you improve on greatness? It is a question many rugby league clubs have never even really had to ponder. But as the dust settles on another historic night for St Helens, it is perhaps fair to take a step back and not only appreciate the scale of their latest achievement, but wonder where the Super League champions go next after again successfully defending their Super League title on Saturday night.
The Saints are only the third club in the sport’s 126-year history to win the championship three seasons in a row, emulating Wigan’s legendary class of the 1990s and the Leeds side that won it in 2007, 2008 and 2009. However, this does not feel like the end for a group of players yet to hit their collective peak. “I’m very confident in what we’re going to do going forward,” their coach, Kristian Woolf, said on Saturday evening.
“The majority of the group will still be here next year, and there’s a work ethic and a culture built into them. They’re going to go out and compete just as hard as they did this year.” The likes of long-serving scrum-half Theo Fages and full-back Lachlan Coote will head for pastures new in 2022, but St Helens have long been preparing their replacements in Jack Welsby and Lewis Dodd, both of whom played in Saturday’s final.
Fages’s St Helens career was cut short by injury, which gave Dodd an extended run in the side ahead of a permanent role as the club’s first-choice No 7 next year. “It didn’t end badly this year, did it,” he said on Saturday, smiling. “My chance as a half-back came in the way nobody wanted, myself included. Theo is a great guy, and I knew I had to do him justice for how good he’s been for the club, but also take my chance.”
Dodd and the rest of the slightly new-look St Helens class of 2022 will turn their attention to the possibility of the chance to become world champions again next spring. Covid-19 deprived the Saints a chance to face last year’s Australian champions, Melbourne Storm. But there is a hope that the World Club Challenge can be revived for next year, which would mean a showdown with the NRL’s best, Penrith Panthers.
“The media portrayed us as villains going into this,” the St Helens forward, Morgan Knowles, said. “British culture likes to see people fail and see an underdog win, but it’s about time we get the credit we deserve. We’re the best team, we’ve been the best team for the last three or four years and the consistency we’ve shown has been better than any team around in Super League. Covid robbed us of the World Club Challenge last year but it would be good to get a chance to play them.”
Quick GuideToulouse enter Super League
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The former Catalans Dragons captain Rémi Casty expressed his delight after helping Toulouse to join his former club in Super League but insisted he would not be around to play in the 2022 French derbies.
The 36-year-old former France Test prop, who was discarded by the Dragons at the end of 2020, confirmed his retirement after Toulouse's 34-12 victory against Featherstone in the Million Pound Game, which ensured there would be two French teams in the top flight next year.
"It's over," Casty told Sky Sports. "This was the last dance and what a day for it. This club has fought for 10 years to get into Super League. It tried in 2005 when Catalans won but kept going and I'm thrilled for the club and for French rugby league. I'm disappointed Catalans lost [in the Super League Grand Final] but French rugby league is going up."
The centre Mathieu Jussaume scored two of Toulouse's five tries and the full-back Mark Kheirallah kicked seven goals from eight attempts as Sylvain Houles's side made it 20 wins in a row to the delight of a crowd of 9,235 at Stade Ernest Wallon.
"I'm lost for words, it's unbelievable," Houles said. "Who would have thought a few years ago we would have a packed ground for a grand final who help get us promoted into Super League? They pushed the boys all the way, it's magnificent."
Toulouse led 16-0 at half-time and were forced to withstand a Featherstone fightback before clinching victory thanks to late tries from the veterans Harrison Hansen and Johnathon Ford.
Ford, a 32-year-old Cook Islands international who has been with Toulouse since 2011, says promotion will be a major boost for the 13-man code in the south of France. "It's huge," he said.
"It's big for rugby league in general to see the growth of the game, not just for us but for the community of Toulouse and rugby league in France. It's one of the main reasons I hung around for so long. I'm so proud of all the players who have been a part of this. It's pretty surreal, I'm stoked." PA Media
Dodd and Knowles, both products of the never-ending St Helens production line, have a unique opportunity to take this club not only into a new era without the likes of Coote and Fages, but continue the dominance they have established for the last three seasons. A chance to face Penrith and win the world crown would also be fitting for players such as Dodd, who has toured Australia with the Saints’ academy in the past, and returned home a winner.
“It was an incredible experience for the young boys to learn the game,” he said. “It changed me massively and put me in this position now.” It felt as though one era ended on Saturday night, but as the Saints’ new guard prepares to take the three-times champions forward, you wonder exactly where the ceiling is for this famous old club.
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