How ethos of 2014 can help Saints to overcome current challenges

Was it history repeating itself? Were we being braced for a year like 2001, when the reigning champions had added the World Club Challenge and the Challenge Cup to a sideboard boasting the Super League only for the year to disintegrate largely as a result of losing linchpin Sean Long in May.

That late hit, on a wet night at Huddersfield, ended Long’s season and compounded by other injuries made it too much of a mountain to climb in a league boasting a strong Bradford and Wigan.

Or does it begin to feel like 2014 – a grim roll call of casualties but with a defiant punchline.

To recap Saints lost full back Jonny Lomax with a season ending ACL injury in the June of that year, and in July their woes worsened in pivotal positions losing skipper, loose forward and stand-in half back Jon Wilkin with a shoulder injury.

A week later Australian scrum half Luke Walsh snapped his fibula in an innocuous tackle against Widnes and that was him done for five months.

It meant that by the business end, Saints had re-instated Paul WeIlens as skipper and put together a makeshift half back pairing featuring Lance Hohaia, Mark Flanagan and Jordan Turner…the rest is history.

That side finished top of the pile, despite almost letting the League Leader’s Shield slip away to add a little back in the box drama for the SKY cameras.

And then – to crown what packman Sia Soliola classed as mission impossible – Saints, inspired by a heart-on-sleeve performance from Wellens, wiped away the bitter taste of five in a row and made light of the stars sat in the stand to make history.

So understandably those remaining players from that tumultuous season have plenty of experience banked to inspire them to overcome the hurdles already in their way this term.

With Kyle Amor’s departure, it leaves five players remaining from that 2014 Grand Final, James Roby, Mark Percival, Tommy Makinson, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Alex Walmsley.

It is certainly a year that Walmsley acknowledges as he surveys the 2022 season at its midway point.

He said: “In that spell after Easter it felt a little bit like 2014 – and for the lads that experienced that we had that sort of mindset in our heads anyway that we will find a way.

“That was our ethos for that year – and so it is again.

“What I love about it, and Wello talks about it really passionately, is that when it comes to dealing with adversity we as a team really acknowledge it and embrace that challenge.

“We have been here before and know what it takes when we are up against it, ‘We will find a way’ is our ethos.

“It does not get any easier, but you throw yourselves amongst it.

“We have enough quality there to get the job done.”

The injury situation is not as grim as it was in 2014, with coach Kristian Woolf expecting Hopoate, Grace and Jon Bennison back next week – and Lomax has been playing on with an injury that cannot get any worse.

“We are gutted to lose Doddy for the year, and Hoppa has been out and Jonny has had his injury, but we still have very much a quality squad capable of achieving what we want to achieve and that is how we are going to approach the rest of the season,” Walmsley said.

“We have a strong leadership group here – and that includes senior players but also lads like Jack Welsby, young but a player who is old between the ears and will lead by example and know what we are still capable of.

“We can’t underestimate the coaching staff – it always helps to see the belief that Kristian, Wello and Ian Talbot have in us as a team.

“Their belief and passion in the team is infectious for us as players – they are not just saying it, they know we are still capable of doing it and achieving.

“They are the obstacles that we will have to hurdle.”