Huddersfield Giants vs St Helens Prediction: Scully backing Saints to respond to disappointing Wigan defeat

Betfred Super League returns this week as St Helens travel to the John Smith's Stadium to take on Huddersfield Giants on Thursday night (20:00 BST, live on Sky Sports +).

Saints legend Paul Sculthorpe shares his Huddersfield Giants vs St Helens predictions, after reviewing last week's disappointing Betfred Challenge Cup defeat to arch rivals Wigan Warriors.

From the very first set of the game, it was destined not to be Saints' day…

The opening tackle of the Betfred Challenge Cup semi-final against arch rivals Wigan, saw Saints skipper Matty Lees leave the field with what we know now to be a season- ending knee injury.

As always, Matty was leading the defensive line from the kick-off, and unfortunately suffered a freak knee-on-knee clash with former Saint Luke Thompson.

That obviously changed how Paul Rowley would use his interchanges throughout the game, with Alex Walmsley entering the field on minute one.

That said, this wasn’t the reason Saints lost. They were completely outplayed and dominated by the Warriors throughout.

To be beat 32-0 in a Challenge Cup semi-final is frankly embarrassing.

Wigan looked a different level to the hosts. When you consider that Wigan had been in such a poor run of form ahead of this fixture, it didn’t show. On the other hand Saints came into this game on the back of a five-game winning streak and to many, favourites.

It took seven minutes for Wigan to post the first points. Some awful middle defence allowed Brad O’Neil to break clear and put Jack Farrimond under the posts. A Harry Smith conversion, followed by a penalty goal put Wigan two scores clear and gifted an ominous start for the Saints.

Daryl Clark was controversially denied a try by the video referee after what looked to hit the grass, but sadly that was one of the very few times we threatened the Wigan line.

I spoke last week at Matty Lee's testimonial forum about the returning Jack Welsby, and the dilemma Paul Rowley has of where he plays him, with Tristan Sailor again showing his best form from full-back.

He opted to play Jack in the half-backs alongside Jackson Hastings, but in my opinion this just doesn’t work. For too long now Saints have swapped and change in the halves with players who are not suited to the role.

Saints looked completely clueless and disorganised on attack, and the zero points scored in a semi-final proved it.

Too many one-out plays, basic fundamental errors, and lack of movement off the ball meant Saints were always going to struggle to break down one of the best defensive teams in the Betfred Super League.

Lewis Murphy was last week celebrating a new three-year contract at the club, but unfortunately his performance will have left some of the Saints fans asking questions.

Too many basic errors for this level. He was also involved defensively in the next two Warriors tries by both Keighran and Eckersley, which looked to be sending the visitors into the break 16-0 to the good.

Unfortunately, there was more misery for the Saints faithful, with eight seconds of the first-half remaining Joe Shorrocks handed an interception pass to Joe Wardle, who ran 50m to score under the posts and give his side a 22-0 half-time lead.

The second half saw both teams hold strong with no points scored for 34 minutes.

However, this deadlock was broken by Wigan halfback Farrimond, whose individual effort embarrassed the St Helens defence to walk in under the sticks.

The final nail in the Challenge Cup coffin came from Adam Keighran, who was quickest to act on a Harry Smith cross field kick.

The biggest disappointment for me was the lack of urgency, energy and fight by the home side, who were out-skilled, out-muscled, and out-classed by a team they beat 5 weeks ago.

Challenge Cup semi finals don’t come around too often, and when they do you need to throw everything you’ve got at them. This wasn’t the case on Saturday.

If the club are to get back to winning silverware, we need to get back that big-game mentality.

That game has now been and gone, and all focus now is on the Betfred Super League and Thursday's trip to Huddersfield Giants.

This is always a tough fixture, partially due to the lack of atmosphere there, and playing the team bottom of the league.

In these games you have to create your own energy, and focus on what you can control.

The Giants have won only two of their 10 fixtures this season, one of those being Wigan! This shows if you don’t turn up with the correct mindset you can come unstuck!

This is a game Saints have to respond with a performance, and a ruthless one. The current Huddersfield Giants vs St Helens Odds are as follows: Huddersfield are 13/5, the draw is 16/1 and Saints are 1/3.

I’ll go for a Saints -18 win.

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