Leeds look to deliver the goods by seeing off Saints

The reigning champions face a sudden-death play-off against 
St Helens at Headingley on Friday after squandering a chance to progress to within 80 minutes of another Grand Final.

Leeds were vanquished 40-20 at Warrington Wolves on Saturday and were comfortably outplayed by the side who lost to them at Old Trafford last season.

That may have raised some question marks – from the foolhardy, at least – about their ability to retain the title but second-row Ablett maintains there are no underlying concerns.

Leeds had lost just one of their previous nine games and he told the Yorkshire Post: “It’s not like we’ve had a build-up where we’ve been playing poorly.

“We’ve just had one of those days where we were off.

“We’ve done our review but we didn’t need to ask massive questions of each other.

“There’s a few things to fix but nothing drastic.

“The games leading up to it we were pretty good and it’s not that we were miles away.

“It’s nothing to do with our systems. We just got over-run and were nowhere near good enough.

“There was too many people not playing the way they can and we’ve no chance of winning if that happens.

“Warrington did play really well and had one of those days where everything seemed to come off for them.

“We were going toe-to-toe early on but then they started winning the rucks and were rolling down the field. We couldn’t defend that and it was probably our worst defensive display of the year.

“That was the most disappointing thing as we’d defended so well this year.

“But it is easily rectifiable and we’ll be ready for Saints.”

The visitors to Headingley arrive in good nick themselves, with seven victories from their last eight games.

A raft of injuries had Saints, unthinkably, struggling to even reach the top eight at one point under new coach Nathan Brown.

But the five-time Super League champions finished strongly in fifth and then won emphatically 46-10 in their elimination play-off at Hull KR on Saturday.

“Anybody who knows the game would have known this would happen,” said Ablett, who hopes to finish the season strongly not only for club success but to strengthen his own case for a place in Steve McNamara’s World Cup squad.

“They’ve had a few wins and Nathan Brown’s a quality coach.

“They’ve had some pretty bad injuries but Saints are almost fully fit now and on the back of a few victories will be dangerous.

“We need to concentrate on us, though, and make sure we’re in the right frame of mind.”

Leeds certainly know Saints will make them pay if they are not; in their last meeting at Headingley in May, St Helens ending a five-match losing run, overturning a 16-0 deficit to stun the champions with a 30-22 success.

However, the West Yorkshire club have a habit of delivering when it matters most.

When asked if he is ever surprised by their ability to consistently deliver Super League titles – Ablett has won four with Leeds – the 27-year-old said: “Probably not as we’re in here every day training all the time at a certain level.

“We’ve been up there most of the year and it’s probably reflected in our season.

“We’ve not had too many dips and we’ve probably saved our worst for one of the most important games (Warrington).

“But we’ve a lot of resilience and we won’t be sulking.”

Leeds hope to be at full-strength for the eliminator tie but will have to monitor half-back Danny McGuire closely in the next few days after the England international injured his ankle at Warrington.

The 30-year-old left Halliwell Jones Stadium wearing a protective boot and coach Brian McDermott admitted: “He is very sore, I don’t think it’s relevant to the leg injury he had (a broken leg in May).

“But he hasn’t trained (yesterday) and we’ll see how he is over the next 48 hours.

“We have got some cover, but we want Maggsy to be fit.

“He’s an influential player and has been good for us over the last couple of years and good for us in the big games as well.

“We aren’t writing him off just yet, we will give him until the last possible moment.”

Leeds and St Helens name their 19-man squad tomorrow while prop Andy Lynch will return for Hull FC in Thursday night’s elimination play-off at Huddersfield with centre Ben Crooks also hopeful of being fit.