St Helens’ remarkable start is going under the radar – it shouldn’t

St Helens are six games into their Paul Rowley era and given the circumstances, it could hardly have gone any better.

Victory in France over Toulouse Olympique was their fifth straight win, leaving them just two points off Super League’s summit ahead of two tasty fixtures against last year’s Grand Finalists.

It is the context that makes the start impressive; Saints have been ravaged by injury. It’s not just the extent of the injury list – they were without 12 players for their trip to France. But it’s the quality of players they’ve not been called upon, too.

Captain Matty Lees hasn’t played a game. Jack Welsby hasn’t played since Round 1. Alex Walmsley has now missed the last three games. They’ve only recently got Mark Percival back, and they’re without the likes of Jacob Host, Curtis Sironen and Jonny Lomax long-term.

Lees, Welsby and Walmsley are all some way off returning too, that’s without mentioning Nene Macdonald.

The fact of the matter is that Saints have been without a stack of their best players and have kept winning. There are very few teams in this competition that would be able to win games with the regularity St Helens are without players of such importance.

It’s by no means time to get carried away yet. They scraped past Leigh and Bradford, and their second-half against Toulouse was poor. But finding ways to win with so much disruption isn’t something that should be underestimated. They’ve also been a delight to watch at times too, only Leeds and Wigan have scored more points than they have.

Clearly, the upcoming games against Hull KR and Wigan will be good indicators of exactly where they’re at but even then, defeats with the players they have out would be no disgrace. In fact, their run of wins arguably takes the pressure off them.

It might not have always been pretty in the opening stages of the season, but the importance of this period should not be overlooked.