St Helens and Leeds clash to decide the Super League title on Saturday
Talking points, team news and everything you need to know ahead of Saturday’s Betfred Super League Grand Final between St Helens and Leeds Rhinos, live on Sky Sports…
Meet the finalists
St Helens
Head coach: Kristian Woolf.
Captain: James Roby.
2022 Super League season: Finished first, won League Leaders’ Shield.
Route to the Grand Final: Semi-finals – beat Salford Red Devils 19-12 (H).
Super League titles: Nine – 1996 (finished top of the table), 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2019, 2020, 2021 (Plus seven pre-Super League championships).
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Check out the best tries from St Helens ahead of their Grand Final clash with Leeds Rhinos.
Leeds Rhinos
Head coach: Rohan Smith.
Captain: Kruise Leeming.
2022 Super League season: Finished fifth.
Route to the Grand Final: Eliminators – beat Catalans Dragons 20-10 (A); Semi-finals – beat Wigan Warriors 20-8 (A).
Super League titles: Eight – 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 (Plus three pre-Super League championships).
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Check out the best tries from Leeds Rhinos ahead of their Grand Final clash with St Helens.
Grand Final essential reading
Excitement builds for Roby in quest for four in a row
When it comes to the Super League Grand Final, there are few people better equipped to be leading their team into the big game than James Roby.
The St Helens captain is set to feature in the showpiece game for the 10th time when Saints play Leeds on Saturday and is aiming for his sixth winners’ ring, not to mention attempting to skipper the team to an unprecedented fourth-straight success.
Even after all those previous Grand Finals, Roby still senses the same feelings in the build-up to the game but knows he and his team-mates must strike the balance between enjoying that and focusing on the job in hand if they are to lift the title again.
“You never get rid of the nervous excitement and the anticipation,” Roby said. “It’s such a big game and it’s all anyone talks about in the lead-up.
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St Helens star Curtis Sironen is confident they will overcome Leeds on Saturday to win their fourth straight Grand Final.
“As soon as you win that semi-final, everyone is going mad for tickets and all they can talk about is another final. It does help probably being a part of it previously, but it never gets boring.
“It’s always a huge privilege to come and play in and be a part of, and luckily for us we’ve been a part of it for the last few years.
“Obviously we want to do it again on Saturday and we know that four in a row thing is dangling there, but we’ve got to get that balance between going out there and performing and being ourselves and doing what we generally do.”
At the start of the year, it seemed as if this would be the last hurrah for Roby, but the hooker’s decision to continue for one more season with St Helens means he will still have another shot at glory next year too.
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St Helens second row Joe Batchelor says there is no extra pressure on his side as they head in to the Super League Grand Final against Leeds looking for a record fourth straight win in the final.
Roby, who turns 37 in November, is glad there is not the distraction of this being his last game, although he will still approach it with the same ferocious competitiveness he always has.
“If it was my last game there would be a lot of questions and press around that, wanting to go out in the best possible way and the fairy-tale ending,” Roby said.
“It probably does make it a bit more relaxing personally, but it’s still a massive game and occasion and I want to win at all costs.”
Bentley relishing showdown with old club Saints
It has not always been the easiest of seasons for James Bentley, but he now stands on the verge of claiming another Grand Final success in his first year with Leeds.
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James Bentley grabs his second try of the night against Wigan.
The second row’s time with the Rhinos began in an inglorious manner as he was sent off in the opening game of the season against Warrington Wolves and he has missed eight games this year due to suspensions.
But, along with his team, he has turned things around in the second half of this season and it was his two tries in the 20-8 win away to second-place finishers Wigan Warriors in the semi-finals which set up a meeting with the club he left at the end of last season, St Helens, at Old Trafford.
“I am made up,” Bentley told Sky Sports. “If you had asked me at the beginning of the season who I would want to face in a Grand Final I would have said Saints.
“Obviously when you are playing against your mates you know what they are going to do, and you get into each other, but I have just got to keep my cool and not boil over.
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Jamie Jones-Buchanan has hailed the turn around in fortunes at the Leeds Rhinos this season and the way head coach Rohan Smith has brought out the potential of the players.
“It would be very special. It is the team that I grew up supporting so it wouldn’t get much better than that.”
The upturn in fortunes for Bentley has mirrored that of the Rhinos, with the team rising from battling against relegation to now standing 80 minutes away from a first Grand Final triumph since 2017 after only securing a place in the play-offs on the final day of the regular season.
Head coach Rohan Smith, who joined the club in May as Richard Agar’s permanent successor, has taken many of the plaudits for the turnaround at Leeds which has taken them to within touching distance of a ninth Super League title, and the Australian is banking on a big backing in the final.
“The Leeds fans last week [away to Wigan] were unbelievable so to think this week, that is going to be huge,” Smith told Sky Sports. “It will be a privilege to be a part of the day.”
McDermott: How to win a Grand Final
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Sky Sports rugby league expert and 2004 champion Barrie McDermott shares his top tips on how to win a Super League Grand Final.
Team news
St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf will have Morgan Knowles back in the squad after his two-match ban was overturned, with Dan Norman making a return to the initial 21 named on Thursday after suffering a broken cheekbone.
Will Hopoate also has a chance of featuring for Saints after being out with an injury since Round 24 of the regular season.
Rhyse Martin makes a welcome return for Leeds after completing a suspension and Ash Handley is rated as 50-50 to feature following his inclusion in the 21 after a foot injury.
The Rhinos are without Jack Walker, David Fusitu’a, Harry Newman, Aidan Sezer, Morgan Gannon and Tom Holroyd through injury.
St Helens: Jack Welsby, Tommy Makinson, Will Hopoate, Mark Percival, Jonny Lomax, James Roby, Matty Lees, Sione Mata’utia, Joe Batchelor, Morgan Knowles, Joey Lussick, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Curtis Sironen, Agnatius Paasi, Jake Wingfield, James Bell, Josh Simm, Ben Davies, Konrad Hurrell, Dan Norman, Jon Bennison.
Leeds Rhinos: Liam Sutcliffe, Ash Handley, Blake Austin, Mikolaj Oledzki, Kruise Leeming, Matt Prior, James Bentley, Rhyse Martin, Zane Tetevano, Brad Dwyer, Richi Myler, Cameron Smith, Bodene Thompson, Tom Briscoe, Sam Walters, Jarrod O’Connor, James Donaldson, Muizz Mustapha, Liam Tindall, Jack Sinfield, Zak Hardaker.