Hurrell and Makinson set St Helens on way to narrow win over Huddersfield
It is an unfortunate by-product of the dominance St Helens have enjoyed in Super League in recent years that even with this, a perfectly reasonable start to the season given there has been a trip to Australia thrown in the mix to contend with, you are left wondering what more there is to come from the reigning champions in the weeks and months ahead.
Three wins from five is far from a perfect start, but it is not a disastrous one either. Here, the Saints did just about enough to edge an attritional contest against a Huddersfield side who will almost certainly be in the mix come the end of the season so to that end, this is a result which showed plenty about the character of the champions, if nothing else. They were made to work hard for it, and got the job done in that regard.
But it is fairly obvious that there are still a few more gears for the side who have won the last four Grand Finals to click through. Whether there is a hangover from their historic World Club Challenge victory over Penrith, or whether they are just not quite on form under their new coach Paul Wellens yet, remains something of an unknown. But victories at places like this are hard to come by, making this a good test passed for a side still not quite firing on all cylinders.
“It was extremely tough,” Wellens said. “We spoke all week about how tough it would be. To compete and to hang in there, it was a true test of our character.”
The difference in the end was a second-half penalty from Tommy Makinson which put the game out of reach, on a night when both sides scored two tries each. But the fact the Saints had to do it a man light after losing Sione Mata’utia to a concussion after just 30 seconds is perhaps even more impressive.
St Helens needed