Warrington Wolves vs St Helens Predictions: Never write off the Saints, says Sculthorpe

St Helens scraped into the Betfred Super League playoffs and as a result face a tough qualifier against Warrington Wolves at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Saturday evening (17:30, live on BBC2).

Saints legend Paul Sculthorpe is on-hand for what could be his final column of the season, with his Warrington Wolves vs St Helens prediction built on hope rather than confidence.

I always say you can never write off the Saints, but this week actions must speak louder than words.

The extremely disappointing 18-12 defeat at Leigh last weekend removed the opportunity to finish the Betfred Super League regular season in fourth and therefore secure a home quarter-final against Salford Red Devils.

Instead, it was the Leopards who secured fifth, pushing Saints to sixth and thus ending Catalans Dragons' season there and then, despite their win over Hull FC 24 hours later.

The Red Devils were the big winners in the final round, with Paul Rowley's gamble of fielding a virtual reserve team against Wigan paying off handsomely, retaining fourth place and booking a home tie.

Saints head coach Paul Wellens admits it will take a Herculean effort for his side to win the Betfred Super League Grand Final now, with newly-crowned League Leaders' Shield winners Wigan at the Brick Community Stadium the task that awaits his side if they can get past an in-form Warrington at the Halliwell Jones on Saturday.

The performance on Saturday needs to be a million times better than that at the Leigh Sports Village.

Wello spoke after the game and said that despite a loss on the scoreboard, it was a win for the team. I have to disagree. I didn’t see any positives other than securing sixth place.

In defence of Paul, coaches are thrown in front of the Sky cameras straight after a game and there’s a bit of an unwritten rule about not saying too much. I’m sure the post-mortem in the changing rooms was very different.

It's do-or-die on Saturday, as we face a Wire side full of confidence having scored 120 unanswered points in their last two games. Saints will be hoping that means they're not battle-hardened, which can be taken advantage of.

We're going to have to be super aggressive, on both attack and defence. There definitely needs to be more cohesion on the edges, especially with the pace of the Wire's Matty Ashton and his teammate Josh Thewlis on the wings. But, that starts with controlling the big fellas and ruck speed. Aggressively, but with discipline.

On attack, there has to be a lot less unforced errors and more direct play with quick ruck speed and bodies in motion. Once on the front foot we have enough ability to cause any team problems. But players have to want it.

It goes without saying, it's not going to be easy. Betfred's Warrington Wolves vs St Helens Odds tell you that, with Warrington priced as 1/3 favourites and Saints 5/2 outsiders. I never thought I'd be saying that at the start of the year...

I've said this many times in recent weeks due to our poor form, but if Saints do manage to beat the odds then surely the winning margin will be a small one. Therefore, my optimistic suggestion is Saints by 1-12 points.

Let's hope the boys go out there and show exactly why they should never be written off.

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