The Morning After: Silky Saints, Catalans deserve praise & classy Coote

Drew Darbyshire

The Morning After looks at three talking points from the latest Super League action.

Silky Saints

St Helens will meet rivals Wigan in the Grand Final after comfortably beating Catalans 48-2 at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

READ: St Helens 48-2 Catalans: Saints to lock horns with Wigan in Grand Final

Saints were favourites heading into the game against the Dragons – but not many people would have expected the scoreline to be as one-sided as it was.

Kristian Woolf said his side were “outstanding” after the game and he was exactly right. They were fantastic with the ball in hand and ruthless in defence.

The backline for Saints were superb. Tommy Makinson, Regan Grace and Kevin Naiqama are brilliant in getting out of yardage while Jonny Lomax is just box office.

Catalans deserve praise

It is the end of the road for Catalans this year as they bow out of the play-offs in the semi-finals – but they deserve plenty of praise for their efforts this year.

Dragons chairman Bernard Guasch has single-handedly kept the French club afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

On top of paying the usual bills without revenue from crowds, Guasch has been chartering a flight to enable the team to fulfil their fixtures in England, at a cost of around £50,000 a time.

Guasch and the Catalans club deserve a lot of respect for keeping the competition in tact during this difficult year.

On the field, the Dragons have played some entertaining rugby in 2020 and they can take plenty of positives into next year.

Classy Coote

St Helens full-back Lachlan Coote racked up an individual tally of 24 points in Saints’ big win over Catalans.

Coote has proven to be an incredible coup for Saints since he arrived at the club from North Queensland Cowboys ahead of the 2019 campaign.

The 30-year-old’s link up play with Lomax and Theo Fages is a joy to watch and he is safe under the high ball. He’s been an excellent addition for Saints and for Super League.

Coote already has three Scotland caps to his name and it will be a big boost for the Bravehearts if he represents them again in next year’s World Cup.

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