St Helens' Morgan Knowles vows to make most of World Club Challenge reprieve
Morgan Knowles can’t think of any better way to kick off St Helens’ latest Betfred Super League title defence than dumping NRL premiers Penrith Panthers.
The new season gets underway when Warrington Wolves host Leeds Rhinos on Thursday and other opening weekend highlights include newly-promoted Leigh Leopards hosting Salford the following night. Red-hot champions Saints are 2/1 favourites to make it a remarkable FIFTH title on the trot. But their round one fixture is delayed as they’re in Australia looking to make history against Penrith in Saturday’s World Club Challenge showdown.
And England loose forward Knowles would love to cause a shock in Sydney - especially after suffering World Cup agony last autumn. Five Panthers stars, including Jarome Luai and Stephen Crichton, were in the Samoa side that left England heartbroken in the semi-final. Knowles maintains that’s not fuelling his fire but said: “It is easy to get excited about - what’s coming up for Saints.
“Rather than going into the Super League kick-off and those wet couple of months, by coming out here we have something to really get excited about. The opportunity to play the World Club Challenge has been taken away from us the last couple of years because of the (Covid) climate we live in. So, I am really looking forward to playing in it and hopefully winning it with this group. The World Cup was an opportunity missed. But I’m looking to make the most of this with Saints.”
Super League sides, though, have won just two of the last dozen World Club showdowns with the Aussies generally ruling. And Wigan were the last team to win Down Under when famously beating Brisbane Broncos in 1994. Saints, in their 150th year, would love to emulate their fierce rivals’ feat.
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But Knowles hopes bitter rivalries back home will be put to one side as they aim to bring down the might of revered back-to-back Grand Final winners Penrith. He admitted: “They’re up on a pedestal and we’re over here not only for Saints but representing Super League and England. We want to put on a good show and make everyone proud. You generally don't get behind rival clubs but hopefully people do show us a bit of support for the World Club Challenge.”
St Helens' Morgan Knowles (Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com) (Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com)And the hard-hitting Cumbrian does already have rare experience of winning in Penrith. He was part of the Saints academy side that visited the Sydney outfit in 2013 and beat the Panthers. Star Penrith No7 Nathan Cleary, who guided Australia to World Cup glory last year, was on the opposition team that day. Did he always look like he was destined for greatness?
Knowles, 26, replied: “No. Not really. He was the big name but I can’t remember him standing out. I do remember Danny Richardson was man-of-the-match after scoring a hat-trick for us. He had a great game. We stayed in Penrith and got to use all their facilities so I knew a bit about what it was like before we got here. I’m looking forward to this.”
His battle in the middle with Australia No13 Isaah Yeo should set the tone and prove one of many classic match-ups. No-nonsense Knowles has been known to lose his cool but he isn’t worried about getting riled by the locals. He said: “I don’t think there’ll be any gameplan to do that but obviously it’s a big game and tensions will be high. It’s two good teams both wanting to win. We’ll be going at it. It’ll be good.”
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