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BEN Barba has continued his fantastic form for St Helens, helping the Super League club to a 36-18 win over Castleford in the sixth round of the Challenge Cup with a hat-trick of tries.
The former Canterbury and Cronulla fullback scored three tries — to take his season’s tally to 15 — and created two others as Saints helped erase the memory of their humiliating 53-10 defeat at Castleford in last year’s corresponding tie.
Barba has been in sparkling form this season as ongoing speculation links the star fullback to a possible NRL return.
His impact in the Super League has been enormous.
St Helens are a shadow of the side that struggled under Keiron Cunningham and, although most of the credit for the transformation should go to his successor Justin Holbrook on the anniversary of his appointment, the Barba effect cannot be overstated.
His electric pace, dazzling footwork and eye for an opening proved has proved to be a lethal cocktail for Super League defences this year and Castleford certainly had no answer to his array of brilliant skills.
The Tigers did not perform that badly and only two long-range tries, both against the run of play, separated the teams at half-time — but they have still to recapture their sparkle of 2017.
The Saints fans taunted the home side by chanting “one-season wonders” and Daryl Powell’s men have certainly been hit hard by the absence of an injured Luke Gale, the reigning Man of Steel, and are still sorely missing last year’s runner-up Zak Hardaker.
If Hardaker and Gale were the stars of 2017, then the Saints duo of Barba and Danny Richardson have stepped very nicely into their shoes.
The former Canterbury and Cronulla fullback scored three tries — to take his season’s tally to 15 — and created two others as Saints helped erase the memory of their humiliating 53-10 defeat at Castleford in last year’s corresponding tie.
Barba has been in sparkling form this season as ongoing speculation links the star fullback to a possible NRL return.
His impact in the Super League has been enormous.
St Helens are a shadow of the side that struggled under Keiron Cunningham and, although most of the credit for the transformation should go to his successor Justin Holbrook on the anniversary of his appointment, the Barba effect cannot be overstated.
His electric pace, dazzling footwork and eye for an opening proved has proved to be a lethal cocktail for Super League defences this year and Castleford certainly had no answer to his array of brilliant skills.
The Tigers did not perform that badly and only two long-range tries, both against the run of play, separated the teams at half-time — but they have still to recapture their sparkle of 2017.
The Saints fans taunted the home side by chanting “one-season wonders” and Daryl Powell’s men have certainly been hit hard by the absence of an injured Luke Gale, the reigning Man of Steel, and are still sorely missing last year’s runner-up Zak Hardaker.
If Hardaker and Gale were the stars of 2017, then the Saints duo of Barba and Danny Richardson have stepped very nicely into their shoes.
