WHEN St Helens walk out at Wembley on Saturday they will be led by not one but two coaches thanks to a rare arrangement.
While their past two Challenge Cup successes at the national stadium were under the guidance of Matty Smith, since the start of this season Saints have had joint-coaches in club stalwarts Craig Richards and Derek Hardman.
Richards moved over from being the head of women’s rugby while Hardman returned to coaching the side for a second spell, having been in sole charge for four years before Smith including leading their treble campaign of 2021.
It’s a unique set-up in rugby league but former England head coach Richards believes it makes perfect sense.
“Myself and Dec, we’re best mates and we’ve worked together for years,” he explained.
“When we were asked to go back to the team, we asked ‘who’s going to be head coach and who’s going to assist?’
“But when we chatted about it, we thought ‘why does it need to be a head coach – let’s just do it together’.
“We agree on most things, and when we don’t agree on something one of us will back down or we agree to disagree but we get there in the end.
“Last week for the York game we didn’t agree on the team selection, but we’re adults. It’s a bit like a married couple – sometimes you don’t agree, but you give a little and it works itself out.
“I’ve coached Dec at England (he was assistant to Richards, and still has that role under successor Stuart Barrow), and Dec has been head coach at Saints while I was head of rugby so he was fully in charge there.
“What we’ve always had the ability to do is not agree. We argue things out. I don’t think it should be comfortable, you shouldn’t agree on everything. Even if we fall out, we have a laugh about it afterwards.
“Dec looks a lot at the attack and I look at defence. He’ll look at the outside backs, I’ll work with the forward pack. So sometimes that has a bit of a say – if we want to make a change in the halves I’ll say ‘that’s your department’.
“It isn’t really that hard. And if one of us was the head coach and one of us the assistant, we would still argue!”
The arrangement has worked well so far with Saints back in a Challenge Cup final – edging past York Valkyrie in the last four – and unbeaten after three Super League games.
Richards says it’s a credit to their players that they are in a position to challenge for a fifth cup crown in a row.
He added: “When we took over at the start of the season, one of things we challenged the girls on was ‘have you become complacent? Are you willing to work as hard as in the past to get some rewards?’
“The girls have been absolutely determined, they’ve done everything and more that we’ve asked them of.
“It’s not been easily, especially the semi-final – that was such a tough barrier to get over.
“The girls have worked so hard that people think it comes easy, but like anything in life if you don’t work hard and don’t put in the work it doesn’t happen for you.”