Brown seeking consistency

Nathan Brown is looking for more consistency from his St Helens team, as the business end of the season approaches rapidly.

The Saints head coach thinks that this season’s Super League is close and competitive, and that his team need to find some solid form if they are serious about challenging for honours.

“The reality is that it’s a very even and open competition, the table reflects that. It’s a fact that there’s six teams within range of each other,” said Brown.

“I don’t think any of us have had a really great, consistent year. We’re first at the moment by a point, then there’s Leeds, and a host of others.

“We’re two thirds of the way through the season. We need to really knuckle down now and have a good five or six week block of consistent footy.

“Then we can start to build some momentum going into the back end of the year.

“Two more bad performances, and we could be fifth or sixth, that’s the cold, hard facts of the matter. All the players are aware of that.

Saints’ weekend defeat at Hull Kingston Rovers surprised many people, especially due to the size of the 40-10 scoreline.

Saints were beaten 26-0 in the second half, and Brown is keen to see a massive improvement against Bradford this weekend.

“I was really disappointed, and the whole group was disappointed,” Brown added.

“Credit to Hull KR, obviously they did some good stuff to get the result, but we probably handed the game to them in that first 20 minute period when he handed them two tries.

“The St Helens to Hull KR trip seems to be, for whatever reason, since 2006, what can go wrong at Hull KR seems to go wrong.

“I can’t put my finger on why.”

Meanwhile, Saints will be without halfback Luke Walsh for the visit of the Bulls to Langtree Park.

“Luke Walsh won’t be fit this week,” Brown confirmed.