St Helens vs Wigan Warriors Prediction: Scully hopes for a Good Friday indeed

It's Good Friday, which means the traditional Betfred Super League clash between rivals St Helens and Wigan Warriors. This year, it's at the BrewDog Stadium, with kick-off at 15:00.

Saints legend Paul Sculthorpe discusses the club's recent form and provides his St Helens vs Wigan Warriors predictions.

It was a special weekend for the Betfred Super League, celebrating its 30th year since transitioning to the full-time summer era.

This was a very exciting time for the sport, featuring a new broadcasting deal with Sky and numerous evolutions within the game to bring razzmatazz and entertainment to all. This was all on show during Leeds' victory over Warrington Wolves at Headingley on Sunday.

Unfortunately, Saints in arguably the club's worst performance since 1996 and the inception of the Super League as they suffered a 52-10 defeat at Hull KR.

Straight from kick-off, the tone was set. George Delaney knocked on from the kick reception, which resulted in Rovers opening the scoring after just a minute and a half.

At the 10-minute mark, Mikey Lewis showed some much-needed urgency to gather a loose kick, but it was the four players he ran through to score that will be more concerning to Paul Rowley.

Next, it was the Saints' left-edge defence at fault - particularly Shane Wright who virtually let Tyrone May walk through him and put Jez Litten under the posts. After 23 minutes on the clock, the home side had recorded 18 uninterrupted points.

A couple of minutes later, it was more misery for the Saints right edge as Joe Burgess crossed for his second try. There’s no doubt Harry Robertson and Owen Dagnall are two of the most promising youngsters in the Betfred Super League, but there is some serious work needed in regards to their defence. Poor decisions and tackling technique is costing their team massively.

Another player who needs to understand there’s two elements to Rugby League - attack and defence - is Tristan Sailor. His complete lack of interest or effort to try and stop Burgess was frankly embarrassing.

Defence is an attitude, and if you don’t want to defend you shouldn’t be out there, especially in a Saints shirt. Unfortunately there were far too many Saints players who fit this bill Friday.

One of the scary stats from the first-half on Friday - Saints didn't have a single play in Hull KR's 20-metre zone in the opening 25 mins. You don’t win games like that.

One of the very few positives came after the break, as Noah Stephens took his frustration out on the Robins defence, running over Mikey Lewis and finding the supporting Dagnall to cross the whitewash and put Saints on the board.

Sadly, it wasn't long before business resumed and Joe Burgess completed his hat-trick.

The next score just about summed Saints' night up. An awful pass from Matt Whitley to Jackson Hastings on the last tackle resulted in a walk-in try for Rovers.

Whitbread added another converted try, before a consolation Shane Wright try ended the scoring and a forgettable night for the travelling Saints fans.

There’s obviously a lot of talk about the number of Saints players unavailable at the moment… but every one of the 17 that did play are full-time, signed Saints players and have to be better.

Be it youngsters, experienced players or new signings, there’s no excuse for poor fundamental skills, defensive attitudes and ill-discipline at this level - and to be honest far too many of this current squad look way off it.

Paul Rowley certainly has a job on his hands, but if ever there was a game for the players to prove doubters wrong, it’s this Friday.

If you can’t get fired up for a Good Friday battle with the old enemy Wigan, then there’s no hope.

The Warriors themselves will have lots to prove after a humiliating home defeat to the Huddersfield Giants who were still without a win prior to the fixture.

I don’t care what anyone says, Wigan are a completely different proposition without their two star players Bevan French and Jai Field. Not just their own obvious involvement, but the impact they have on players around them.

Both are out injured for a significant period, so there's no better time to take it to the wounded Warriors.

A sell-out BrewDog Stadium will be electric, and I expect both teams to thrive off that atmosphere.

I think Warriors will be slight favourites with title sponsors Betfred, but hopefully some harsh words this week will see a different St Helens performance. I'm putting faith in it being a very Good Friday for Saints.

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