St Helens miss the playoffs for the first time in 64 years: defeat to Leigh marks the end of an era
St Helens, one of the most decorated clubs in the history of English rugby league, will not take part in the final playoffs for the championship title for the first time since 1962. The 48:10 away defeat to Leigh Leopards on September 4 definitively extinguished the team's last hope of finishing among the top six in the regular part of the 2026 Super League season. The result is heavy in itself, but its historical significance goes far beyond a single match: it ended a 64-year run during which St Helens, through different competition systems and playoff formats, was regularly part of the title race. According to The Guardian's report from the match in Leigh, the hosts scored eight tries, four in each half, while the visitors' defence once again showed the weaknesses that have marked their season. For a club that has won ten championships in the Super League era, missing the playoffs represents one of the most striking sporting declines of recent decades.
An important historical context also corrects a common misunderstanding regarding St Helens' most recent major successes. According to the club's official records, Saints last won the Super League title in 2022, when they completed a run of four consecutive titles from 2019 to 2022. In 2023 they were not Super League champions, but instead won the World Club Challenge, defeating Penrith Panthers in Australia and thereby becoming world club champions. That is precisely why the current decline appears even more pronounced: only a few seasons after a period of domestic dominance and an international trophy, the team has finished outside the league's top six. St Helens' official club history describes them as the most successful club of rugby league's summer era, with a total of 69 trophies won throughout their history, so the current season represents a rare break in continuity of a kind that younger generations of supporters have practically never experienced.
Leigh turned the match into a demonstration of their own rise
The match at the Progress With Unity Stadium in Leigh carried completely different significance for the two teams. St Helens had to win and at the same time hope for favourable results from their rivals in order to retain a mathematical chance of qualifying for the playoffs, while Leigh could secure a place among the top six with a victory. According to official Super League data ahead of round 26, Leigh were fifth with 32 points, Hull KR sixth with 30, and St Helens seventh with 28 points. Such a standings situation meant that the visitors had no room left for error. Instead of a match that would extend their season, they got an evening in which the home team increased the pressure almost without interruption and ultimately won by a margin of 38 points.
Josh Charnley opened the scoring with his 281st Super League try, further strengthening his status as the competition's all-time leading try scorer. After his score, Super League confirmed that Charnley had extended his contract with Leigh for 2027, and the symbolic signing of the contract formed part of his on-field try celebration. David Armstrong soon increased the hosts' advantage, while St Helens briefly responded through Jacob Douglas and Tristan Sailor. That comeback did not last long: Leigh regained complete control before the break and went into half-time leading 24:10. In the second half Umyla Hanley scored his second try, Edwin Ipape forced his way over from close range, while Jacob Alick-Wiencke and Robbie Mulhern completed the hosts' victory for a final score of 48:10.
For Leigh, it was a result that confirmed the club's status as an increasingly serious contender near the top of English rugby league. The victory secured the Leopards a place in the playoffs, further emphasising how much the balance of power has changed in a short period of time. Coach Adrian Lam said after the match that his team could still move further up the table, while the final-round match against Wakefield Trinity leaves Leigh with the possibility of fighting for fourth place and home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. While St Helens closed the door on the postseason on the same pitch, Leigh threw it wide open and confirmed that they are no longer merely an awkward challenger. In the context of 2026, this is a club entering the playoffs with the legitimate ambition of extending its season significantly beyond the first elimination match.
A run dating back to 1962 ended without major drama
The historical fact of 64 years without missing the playoffs requires a broader perspective than the Super League itself, which has existed since 1996. The Guardian states that the last season in which St Helens were not part of the final playoffs was 1962, at a time of a different league system and a different structure of English rugby league. Since then, the competition format has changed several times, as has the number of teams entering the postseason, but St Helens remained present when the championship was being decided. In the modern Super League era, playoffs in their current sense were introduced in the late 1990s, and Saints became one of the constants of the postseason. Ten Super League titles, including four consecutive championships from 2019 to 2022, reinforced the impression that the club's participation in the most important matches of the season was almost inevitable.
That is why the manner in which the run ended is particularly striking. It was not decided by a dramatic defeat in the final seconds, but by a convincing loss in which Leigh seized the initiative early and never relinquished it. According to The Guardian, St Helens arrived in Leigh without more than a dozen first-team players, while injuries had reduced the squad's continuity throughout the season. Official club announcements in mid-July had already demonstrated the scale of the problem: among those unavailable through injury at the time were Mark Percival, Deon Cross, Jonny Lomax, Alex Walmsley, Daryl Clark, Matty Lees, David Klemmer, George Delaney, Matt Whitley, George Whitby, Jake Wingfield, Lewis Murphy, Noah Stephens and Owen Dagnall. Such a list does not explain every poor result, but it provides important context for a season in which the team often had to change combinations and rapidly bring young academy players into the side.
At the same time, St Helens' problems were not limited solely to player availability. Reports during the closing part of the season repeatedly highlighted defensive errors, lapses in concentration and difficulties maintaining their rhythm against stronger opponents. At the end of August, Leeds Rhinos beat St Helens 34:6 on their own ground, after which the chances of reaching the playoffs had already become minimal. The defeat to Leigh therefore did not come as an isolated shock, but as the final confirmation of a trend that had lasted for months. Interim coach Eamon O'Carroll admitted the group's disappointment after the match, but at the same time said that changes were now needed, which may be the most accurate summary of the club's situation after the evening in Leigh.
Kevin Walters takes over the team at a moment of deep transition
The biggest change has already been officially confirmed. On August 20, St Helens announced that Kevin Walters would become head coach of the first team on a three-year contract and would take up the role after the conclusion of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup, at which he is coaching the Australian national team. Walters brings experience of working with Queensland in State of Origin and Brisbane Broncos in the NRL, while as a player he won six Australian premiership titles. St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus presented the appointment as an important move for the club's future, while O'Carroll will remain interim coach until the end of the current season. Walters will therefore enter 2027 with a clear task: to restore the competitive standard of a team that has long been identified with competing for trophies.
The reconstruction will not be merely tactical. St Helens are saying goodbye to two players who symbolise their modern era. The club confirmed that Jonny Lomax will end his professional career at the conclusion of 2026, after almost two decades in the St Helens system and several hundred first-team appearances. Lomax won five Super League titles, was part of the four consecutive triumphs from 2019 to 2022 and also won the Challenge Cup and World Club Challenge with the club. A few days later, the club also announced that Mark Percival would retire at the end of the season, after a career spent exclusively with St Helens; he made the decision after receiving a recommendation to undergo a shoulder replacement at the end of the year. When players with that level of experience depart within a short period, changing the team's identity becomes just as important as changing the coach.
For Walters, this means he will inherit not only a team that finished outside the playoffs, but also a dressing room in which the generational hierarchy is changing. Some experienced leaders remain, among them Alex Walmsley, who has extended his contract until the end of 2027, but at the same time the club will have to decide how quickly it can transfer greater responsibility to younger players. Injuries in 2026 forced St Helens to accelerate that process and give opportunities to talents from their own academy. In the long term, that could become one of the foundations of the rebuild, but in the short term it requires careful balancing between development and the need for the club to return immediately to the top. In an organisation with a history like St Helens', a season without the playoffs can hardly be accepted as the beginning of a multi-year period of waiting.
The last championship title came in 2022, and the world crown arrived a year later
When assessing the scale of the current decline, it is particularly important to clearly distinguish between the club's two most recent major trophies. The official list of club honours records St Helens as Super League champions in 2022, which was their fourth consecutive championship title and their tenth in the Super League era. A year later the team did not win the English championship, but achieved one of the most valuable international results in the club's history by winning the 2023 World Club Challenge. That trophy confirmed that St Helens were still, quite recently, capable of defeating the best teams from the other side of the world. That is precisely why the 2026 season feels like a sudden transition from the final phase of one winning generation into an uncertain period of building a new one.
The decline, however, did not occur in a single season. After the 2022 title, Saints were eliminated in the Super League semi-finals in 2023, were stopped in the elimination stage of the playoffs in 2024, and again reached the semi-finals in 2025. This shows that they remained competitive, but no longer had the dominant control over the championship that they had demonstrated during their run of four consecutive titles. The 2026 season now represents a new level of warning because, for the first time in more than six decades, the postseason will be played without them. For the club's management, the question is therefore no longer merely how to improve individual aspects of play, but how to shape a new core of the team, rebuild squad depth and re-establish the standard that had been almost taken for granted over recent decades.
Leigh's progress shows how much the Super League has changed
While St Helens search for a new beginning, Leigh's development illustrates the increasing competition at the top of the Super League. The club held fifth place before the match, and with the victory secured a playoff berth and continued a run of regular finishes among the leading teams since returning to the elite. Adrian Lam's side did not rely on just one star against St Helens: Charnley opened the scoring, Armstrong and Hanley created problems in the outside positions, Ipape brought penetration from the bench, and the closing stages were marked by Alick-Wiencke and Mulhern. Adam Cook was accurate with the conversions, turning eight tries into a scoreline that reflected the difference between the performances of the two teams. In doing so, Leigh gained both a results-based and symbolic confirmation that they belong among the group of clubs that can seriously think about Old Trafford.
For St Helens, that change in the balance of power carries an additional warning. History and trophies are no longer enough for a place in the playoffs to be taken for granted, particularly in a league where several clubs are simultaneously improving both organisationally and on the field. Heading into round 26, Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and Wakefield Trinity had already secured playoff places, while Leigh, Hull KR and St Helens were fighting for the remaining two spots. Only a few years after St Helens were finishing seasons as champions almost by habit, they now found themselves on the other side of that battle. It is a change that will probably have a strong influence on decisions regarding the squad, recruitment and style of play for 2027.
The final match of the season now takes on a different meaning
St Helens still have a home match against Hull KR on September 11 remaining in the regular season, but it can no longer change the fact that the club will miss the playoffs. Instead of a battle for the final ticket to the postseason, the match will have the character of closing a disappointing season and beginning the transition towards the Walters era. It will also be one of the final opportunities for the home crowd to see Lomax and Percival in a competitive St Helens jersey before their retirements. The result will still carry sporting significance, especially for Hull KR, but for Saints the more important question will be what kind of response the team can show after the most symbolically painful defeat of the season.
Missing the playoffs does not erase St Helens' place in rugby league history, but it changes the way their immediate future must be viewed. A club with ten Super League titles and three World Club Challenge victories is entering a period in which it can no longer start from the assumption that continuity alone will return it to the top. Official decisions already show that broader change is being prepared: a new coach is arriving, key veterans are retiring, and young players are receiving a larger role than had been expected at the start of the season. The 48:10 defeat to Leigh is therefore not merely the end of one competitive objective. It is a date that will be remembered as the end of a 64-year run and the beginning of a period in which St Helens must rebuild what for decades had seemed almost permanent.
Sources:
- The Guardian – report on the Leigh Leopards – St Helens match, result, course of the match, historical run and coaches' comments (link)
- St.Helens R.F.C. – official club history and list of trophies won in the Super League era (link)
- St.Helens R.F.C. – official report on winning the 2023 World Club Challenge against Penrith Panthers in Australia (link)
- Betfred Super League – official information on the playoff race ahead of round 26 (link)
- Betfred Super League – confirmation of Charnley's 281st try and contract extension with Leigh for 2027 (link)
- St.Helens R.F.C. – confirmation of Kevin Walters' appointment as head coach from 2027 and the length of his contract (link)
- St.Helens R.F.C. – official announcement regarding injuries and the large number of unavailable first-team players during July 2026 (link)
- St.Helens R.F.C. – confirmation of Jonny Lomax's retirement at the end of the 2026 season (link)
- St.Helens R.F.C. – confirmation of Mark Percival's retirement at the end of the 2026 season (link)