UNLIKE Great Britain in the autumn Tri-Nations series, St Helens should have Paul Sculthorpe available for the play-offs. For a second successive year, Sculthorpe has stood down from the captaincy of the national team and will have a second operation on his chronic injury to his right knee once the domestic season ends, probably with St Helens lifting the engage Super League trophy at Old Trafford on October 14.
That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from their majestic 54-18 destruction of Leeds Rhinos, which gave them the League Leaders’ Shield to add to the Challenge Cup they won last month. Sculthorpe, a spectator at the the ten-try demolition at an ecstatic Knowsley Road on Saturday, will have a cortisone injection to enable him to play in the Grand Final semi-final against Hull in three weeks.
“Hopefully, the operation can rid me of all the injuries I’ve had in the past two years because they’ve all been related to this knee,” Sculthorpe, who has his sights set on St Helens emulating Bradford Bulls’ clean sweep of trophies in 2003, said. “I want to be part of this great Saints side this year.”
Jamie Peacock, Sculthorpe’s obvious successor as Lions captain, was as traumatised as the rest of his Leeds team-mates by the nature of St Helens’s victory. Jamie Lyon was rampant in scoring a hat-trick of tries and 24 points overall.