The Betfair Big Interview: St Helens England star Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook on Super League's Grand Final

Ralph Ellis
07 October 2014

Hard man - Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook on the rampage for Saints

Join

Twitter

Facebook

View the Betslip

St Helens are back in Super League's Grand Final after a three-year wait and determined to take the sport's biggest prize back from last year's champions Wigan. Betfair sat down with Saints England forward Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook to get some insight...

"There’s a handful of us left from 2011 – myself, James Roby, Gary Wheeler, Tommy Makinson and Jon Wilkin spring to mind – so we know what it feels like to lose in that stadium. People say it is the best place to win – I hope we find that out this week – but believe me it’s an awful place to lose."

Hi Louie, how are the preparations?

Good thanks, we get all the media stuff done and then it's down to hard work for the week.

After winning the League Leaders Shield, how important was it to make sure you followed that up by reaching Old Trafford?

It was huge. We've had a year of turmoil, losing three key players halfway through the season was not what was in the game plan, and to come through that and come top and then get to the Grand Final is a great achievement.

What does it mean to the group of players to have finished in first place?

You take a huge professional pride. It proves that as a 28-man squad in the Super League you are the best team in the competition, so I took a lot from that. As a group, after we got knocked out of the Challenge Cup so early, we set ourselves that target and we got there.

And what does it mean to you as a Londoner who came to the game very late?

Amazing. I'd never played the game until I joined Greenwich at the age of 17 and then got bitten by the bug. I tell people that if I can make it, anybody can.

Do you like the play-offs?

It's odd. Finishing top you play fourth, so we had to wait until the last day to see who we played, then the focus shifts to knockout rugby and you have to be on your game every time. Hopefully we can bring that good form to it this time.

You used the words 'this time'. Does losing to Leeds in 2011 still haunt you?

It was a sweet and bitter thing, a great achievement to be there for me because it was my first season for the Saints so to get to Old Trafford was terrific. But it was like a blur on the day. We started really well, scored some great tries, but then we had some injuries and then we just fell apart. It went so quick for me. It was just gone and I couldn't' remember anything. We had loads of players leaving and a great season just ended flat.

So what will be different this time?

This time I want to take it all in, and then go out and try to do the business. I just got caught up in it last time and this time I will want to handle it differently.

You and a few others, by the sound of it?

Yes there's a handful of us left from that team - myself, James Roby, Gary Wheeler, Tommy Makinson and Jon Wilkin spring to mind - so we know what it feels like to lose in that stadium. People say it is the best place to win - I hope we find that out this week - but believe me it's an awful place to lose. From a personal thing it was great to get there, I came from a club that had been bottom of the table and to go to a Grand Final in my first season was fine, but we lost and that was horrible.

Did you watch Wigan's semi-final the night after you'd clinched your place?

Truthful? I actually flicked between that and X Factor. This week is when the coaching staff will have the game plan together, and cut the tape for what we need to look at, and then we go out on the field and practise it.

Your thoughts on Wigan?

They are a class outfit. You don't finish second for nothing, they are a quality club with quality players. It will be a real tough game, every derby is. But we will have to be a composed team and stick to the game plan and know it will work. They are a top team, but on the day hopefully we can out muscle them and out play them.

Who are your key men?

The most obvious is that we've got the leading try scorer in Tommy Makinson on the wing, so hopefully he can get over for some more, but we have threats all over. I think Jordan Turner can step up to this game, and we've got the big men in the middle like Alex Walmsley.

Talking of big men in the middle that's your job. You're right near the top of the ball carrying stats - how do you handle the brutal nature of what seems like running at a brick wall?

It is alright in a way when you know you will try and get through, but when you know you will run in and get absolutely clattered by a five man wall you think "Hang on, this will hurt!" Seriously you don't really feel it in a game, you have so much adrenalin rushing through your body, you don't think. You try and pick the smallest one out and run at him!

We wish you luck - and we've a free £50 bet with winnings to a favourite charity to say thanks for your time.

Great - I support the Steve Prescott foundation, and I'll try a five-fold multiple that England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic will all win their Euro 2016 Qualifiers this weekend against San Marino, Bosnia, Georgia, The Faroe Islands and Gibraltar respectively. It pays odds of 7.38 in all - Wales are the only odds against side, but with Gareth Bale they can beat anybody.