St Helens v Leigh Leopards - Round 2 Super League 2026

 

BrewDog Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in St Helens, Merseyside, England. Previously known as the Totally Wicked Stadium, between 2017 and 2025, and as Langtree Park between 2012 and 2017, it has a capacity of over 18,000 and is the home ground of rugby league club St Helens R.F.C.

In Super League, there are two teams that didn't get the memo, Saints are one and Hull FC are the other. Super League was supposed to be about monikers, something to make dreary Northern towns sound more accessible and exotic. Hull FC had a short dalliance with Hull Sharks but they soon changed back to FC after stabbing Gateshead Thunder in the back. St Helens maybe known as the Saints, but they are not St Helens Saints, no they go by the drab Rugby Footbal Club tagline. In Britain we have clung to the past and still use RFC and RLFC, it makes no sense we are not Football Clubs we should be proud to be Rugby League. The NRL all adopted monikers, and we often refer only to the monikers. One of the newest clubs in the NRL go by the Dolphins and ignore the fact that they are really called The Redcliffe Dolphins.

Anyway I digress, Round 2 of Super League throws up an interesting tie, (dubbed the "Rowley Derby") St Helens v Leigh Leopards. St Helens are one of the most decorated teams in Rugby League:

Championships	17 (1932, 1953, 1959, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2014,  2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
Challenge Cups	13 (1956, 1961, 1966, 1972, 1976, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2021)
World Club Challenges	3 (2001, 2007, 2023)
Other honours	39

By the virtue of being extremely successful, they are also one of the most entitled clubs and supporters in Super League. They expect to win every trophy, every year without fail (see also Wigan Warriors and Leeds Rhinos). If you doubt me then check out Redvee TV – RedVee.Net they can be found all over YouTube, and particularly interesting when Saints lose. St Helens dominated Super League for four straight seasons 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 but have been in decline ever since. 3rd, 6th and 5th would be good performances for normal teams, but for the Saints fans this is totally unacceptable. The scapegoat for their woes was club Legend Paul Wellens, his sacking at the end of the 2025 season is very much part of the current woes bestriding the club at present. Paul Rowley was drafted in from the wreakage of Salford Red Devils, along with a number of his former charges: Nene McDonald, Deon Cross and Joe Shorrocks. The shenanigans at the club resulted in no pre-planning for the 2026, and St Helens have been behind every club in a scramble for new recruits. Considering how far they were behind it is a wonder they have managed to recruit David Klemmer, Jacob Host and Jackson Hastings, plus the ex-Salford players already mentioned. For many pundits this was a team ready to assume it's rightful place at the top of Super League.

Round 1 found St Helens playing away at local rivals Warrington Wolves. The Wire had a difficult 2025, finishing in 8th place, 10 points of the play-off spots. This was considered to be an easy win for St Helens, but by half-time they were already 18 points down and an improved 2nd half did little to change peoples opinions that St Helens are perhaps not the finished article just yet.

Round 2 sees St Helens host the Leigh Leopards in a local derby. For a team under pressure so early in the competition, Saints will not be looking forward to a tussle with the Leopards. A win for Saints however, will ignite their season, but a loss will put a huge dent into any title aspirations before the season has got going. 

For Saints, having already lost their Captain Matty Lees for a 10 week period, they now have to contend with the loss of Jack Welsby for 3 months. St Helens suffered several key injuries last season, but in particular Paul Wellens was forced to tinker with the spine. It became so serious that nobody could accurately guess what spine options would be used on any given day. The start of season was still plagued with questions as to what options Rowley would choose and which square pegs would be used in which round hole. The recruitment of former Man-of-Steel Jacson Hastings, seemed to establish at least one of the spine spots. The loss of Jack Welsby will result in shuffling the pack of cards with at least 3 players: Nene McDonald, Tristan Sailor and Harry Robertson all options at Full-back. The obvious choice is for Tristan Sailor to move to number 1 and Jonny Lomax move to stand-off. For this reason I fully expect Rowley to choose Nene McDonald and shoe-horn a winger into the vacant centre spot. Whatever happens I expect some form of tinkering to this St Helens side and for Rowley he needs to find a solution fairly quickly, with Welsby out for up to 12 weeks.

Leigh Leopards on the otherhand have moved from being 11 players out for the Challenge Cup 3rd round, only 2 weeks ago to naming an almost full 21 man squad. David Armstrong is still unavailable, but the only other gap from 2-23 is that of AJ Towse, which understandable because their already 3 wingers named in the 21 man squad. 

Umyla Hanley is close to a return after injury, and Frankie Halton and Jack Hughes both picked up knocks. I fully expect Issac Liu and Aaron Pene to be in the matchday squad.

Lammy has different headaches than Rowley this week, and it going to be interesting what selection choices he will choose.

Looking forward to the lightshow at the Brewdog Stadium, once the World Club Challenge is out of the way.

Is This the End of the Big Bopper?

 

Will faster ruck speeds be the death of the Big Bopper? Several pundits have discussed the 2026 Man of Steel, and the choices normally centre around the key spine positions of Hooker, Half-back and Fullback. This year is slightly different in the expectation that the speedsters in the game are going to get more ball time in broken play. The top ten appear to be:

1. Bevan French
2. Mikey Lewis
3. Jai Field
4. Lockie Lam
5. Lockie Miller
6. Jake Connor
7. Jez Litten
8. Jack Welsby
9. Will Pryce
10. David Armstrong

Hull KR, Wigan, Leigh and Leeds have 2 representatives each, with St Helens and Hull FC having just one. This tallies nicely with the table positions from 2025. Field, Miller, Pryce and Armstrong are all full-backs with pace to burn. Jack Welsby appears to be the outlier and is a clever player rather than an all-out speedster. There are four half-backs in Lewis, French, Lam and Connor, three of these have previously won it in the last 3 years, with only Lam missing out. Only one hooker is in the top 10 - Jeremy Litten. I had originally assumed that those acting at dummy-half would attract a lot more attention, especially those with a tendency to dart from the play-the-balls. The sensible money is on those players who will benefit from broken play.

I was watching this week The Rugby League Coach - The White Wall Brisbane Have to Break to be World Champions! Hull KR Defence Analysis. I was struck by how Hull KR adapted the old interpretation of the rules to their benefit. Four men in the tackle, fast advancing defence, and the slowest play-the-balls against them, due to the time to untangle 4 players from the ball-carrier. Four-man tackles will regularly get pinged with the new interpretation, and with faster play-the-balls, the Hull KR defence will get beaten out of shape. On the flip-side Litten and Lewis will love the chaos created by defences that have not had time to get set.

This got me thinking about how the Big Boppers will fare when they cannot manage for more than 15 minutes with a slowed-down game. Hull FC, whom I tipped to finish in the Play-off positions, have compiled a large pack, the diamond being the steal from Leeds of Sam Lisone. Many have suggested he had a good season in 2025 because his contract was up. Lisone was used by Leeds as a wrecking ball in short spells to change the momentum of the game. Will this tactic still work in 2026? The trend in the NRL has been for uniformity in shape and size across most positions, with athleticism being the more valued trait over bulk and strength. 

Last season Tevita Pangai jnr, the Catalans' very own wrecking ball, never managed to get to the required level of fitness to be fully effective last season. Steve McNamara signed him Catalans, but many believe that he was responsible for Warrington terminating his contract. Speaking of Warrington, their very own battering ram, Joe Philbin, appears to have lost a considerable amount of weight in an attempt to play more minutes.

Of the other clubs Wigan still have the 31 year old Patrick Magoo, Saints have 35 year old Alex Walmsley and the 32 year old David Klemmer. My biggest concern is for Castleford's very own Bradley Singleton. Now at the age of 33, Brad has been slowing down for a number of years. To make up for the lack of speed and stamina, he has delved into the dark arts of slowing down the play-the-ball. Many people might suggest he is going to be a penalty machine going into the new season. Holding down, hands on the ball, slow to distangle from the tackle and the push or knee when the attacker is playing the ball. Expect a flurry of 6 agains, penalties and yellow cards for repeat offences.

Adrian Lam, has never utilised a Big Bopper, preferring the forwards to be imbued with leg speed and high levels of stamina for big minutes. This may prove to be the way forward in this new era of the game. Leigh Leopards are still not without their own penalty machines. In particular, I would single out the chaos twins (Jack Hughes and Matt Davis) and top tackler Frankie Halton. All three need to learn quickly how to keep the rucks clean; old habits die hard.