Rugby League: Hanley pulls no punches

Sheffield Eagles 16 St Helens 21

Dave Hadfield
Saturday 10 July 1999 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

IF THIS turns out to be Ellery Hanley's last match in charge of the club, he was seen off by what was in many ways a typically uneven St Helens performance.

The club's board has called an emergency meeting for tomorrow to discuss Hanley's scathing criticism of them over the last week. The working relationship between him and the directors is now so bad that something will have to give.

"Nobody has said anything to me. My door is open on Monday," said Hanley, whose demands for his squad to be strengthened are at the heart of the deteriorating relations. "You ask the opinion of the players. They would all say the same things and so would a number of St Helens spectators. Changes need to be made. If I told you the ins and outs of how St Helens works you would wonder how the club survives. It's a disaster area."

Tommy Martyn is one of those senior players whose recent absence has put Saints and Hanley under pressure. He wasted little time in making his presence felt on his return and was the dominating figure of the first half-hour. It was his high kick, apparently taken safely by Waisale Sovatabua, that led to the first try after five minutes. Having done the hard part, the Fijian full-back unaccountably left the ball behind, presenting a gift four points to Anthony Sullivan, converted into six by Sean Long.

That ushered in a 15-minute spell of Sheffield pressure as they put together some rugby that contradicted their own run of only one win in 10 games. It yielded only two points, however, from a Martin Pearson penalty after he had clashed with Chris Smith.

Twelve points in six minutes then changed the face of the game. Again it was Martyn's kick that started the trouble, Smith out-jumping Matt Crowther to knock the ball back for Paul Wellens to touch down.

Then, after the power of Paul Newlove had pulled in the defence, Martyn exploited the lack of numbers on the left to squirm over. Newlove and Long's attack produced a penalty and a sin-binning for Sovatabua's holding down and Long kicked his third goal.

Despite what was now a healthy lead, Saints had never looked exactly comfortable against the Eagles' attacks. Gareth Stephens wrongfooted them completely after half an hour to steal over and Pearson's conversion, plus a 50-yard penalty before the break, kept Sheffield in touch.

Darren Turner and Sonny Nickle went to the sin-bin as the action became increasingly heated and Chris Thorman's penalty brought Sheffield to within six points.

The key period of play came when the referee, Nick Oddy, who sin-binned five Wakefield players at Wigan last month, claimed a fourth for this match, side-lining Chris Joynt at a time when Saints seemed to need all their resources available. But the only points during his absence were a Martyn drop goal and Long's penalty for offside gave Saints further breathing space six minutes from time.

Karl Lovell shrugged off a series of tackles to score Sheffield's second try with 90 seconds remaining. It was too late to make any difference, but it showed that, like their coach's job, Saints' performance had been far from secure.

Afterwards, Hanley appeared to be almost inviting the Board to dispense with his services. "I have no fear over anything," he said. "I'm loyal to my players and I'll be continuing along the same path. Whatever the Board decide is up to them."

Sheffield: Sovatabua; Sodje, Cardoza, Senior, Crowther; Pearson, Stephens; Molloy, Lawless, Baldwin, Jackson, Shaw, Doyle. Substitutes used: Thorman, Lovell, Molyneux, Turner.

St Helens: Atcheson; Smith, Wellens, Newlove, Sullivan; Martyn, Long; O'Neill, Cunningham, Davidson, Joynt, Nickle, Sculthorpe, Substitutes used: Tuilagi, Matautia, Price. Not used: Hall.

Referee: N Oddy (Halifax).

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in