SL Preview: St Helens v Hull
St Helens will be hoping to extinguish the memories of their dismal first outing under new head coach Nathan Brown at Langtree Park when Hull visit on Friday night.
Saints were humbled 40-4 by Huddersfield in their Super League opener, and were scratchy in attack during their 16-4 win at Widnes last week.
They face a Hull side buoyed by last week’s win over Bradford, in which half-back Daniel Holdsworth was instrumental on his home debut.
The Airlie Birds will be hoping for an uneventful preparation to a game where they will come up against former Hull players Willie Manu and Jordan Turner, having lost star signing Gareth Ellis to injury in the warm-up before the Leeds game, and then seeing the Bradford game postponed last Friday due to an incident on the M62.
St Helens are missing injured pair Josh Perry and Lance Hohaia, but are hoping to welcome back hooker James Roby, who sat out the win at Widnes. There will also be a debut for Alex Walmsley, the young prop who joined the club from Batley in the close season.
Joe Arundel and Brett Seymour are unlikely to return to the Hull 17, having been dropped for last week’s win over the Bulls, with Richard Horne set to retain his place.
St Helens 19-man squad: Wellens, Gardner, Turner, Soliola, Meli, Lomax, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Puletua, Wilkin, Manu, Laffranchi, Flanagan, Jones, Gaskell, Makinson, Greenwood, Walmsley, Walker.
Hull 19-man squad: Arundel, Briscoe, Crooks, Crookes, Galea, Green, Heremaia, Holdsworth, Horne, Houghton, Johnson, Lynch, McDonnell, O’Meley, Pitts, Seymour, Westerman, Whiting, Yeaman.
Prediction: Should be a close one, but Saints to edge it – home win.
Stats:
Kirk Yeaman needs two tries to reach 150 for his career.
Yeaman has touched down 145 times for Hull FC (2001-2012), to go with 3 tries for England (2004 & 2011).
He has also made three non-scoring appearances for Great Britain (2006-2007).
Super League summary:
St Helens won 23 (includes win in 2006 Grand Final and wins in 2001 and 2006 play-offs)
Hull FC won 10
2 draws
St Helens highest score: 74-16 (H, 1999) (also widest margin)
Hull FC highest score: 44-6 (H, 2005) (also widest margin)