Paul Rowley’s 22-word response as loan jibe made in wake of bruising Wigan Warriors defeat

Paul Rowley insisted any decision on St Helens needing to call upon loan players amid their injury crisis would not be influenced by others in the wake of their defeat to rivals Wigan Warriors at Magic Weekend.

Good Friday saw Saints win the derby against their arch enemy on home soil in remarkable fashion, with Hull KR hooker Bill Leyland the hero, appearing off the bench as a loanee and scoring a brace of tries.

Leyland and KR team-mate Jordan Dezaria had both been drafted in on one-week loans by Saints for that Good Friday clash at the BrewDog Stadium.

A few weeks later after Wigan then beat Saints in the Challenge Cup semi-finals, Warriors boss Matt Peet made headlines aplenty as he admitted he felt their rivals had ‘lost their identity’, referring to them bringing in players on loan as opposed to promoting youth.

The war of words continued, but publicly, both Saints head coach Rowley and Wigan counterpart Peet denied any ill-feeling prior to Sunday evening’s ferocious Magic Weekend concluder, which the Warriors edged 16-14.

‘We’ll decide what we do, not the influence of others’

A bruising encounter at the Hill Dickinson Stadium which had just about everything saw Saints back Jack Welsby sin-binned twice. Wigan hooker Brad O’Neill was shown yellow at the same time as him second time around.

The clash also brought plenty of injury worries for both sides, and both had already gone into Sunday’s clash with a number of absentees.

Saints lost George Delaney and Alex Walmsley to failed Head Injury Assessments (HIAs), with hooker Daryl Clark also picking up an ankle problem.

When asked post-match on Merseyside whether, due to being down to the bare bones again, Saints may need to dip into the loan market, Rowley responded: “If I thought we did, we would.

“Nothing else will influence it, we’ll decide what we do, not the influence of others.”

‘It’s been a ridiculous season in terms of injuries’

Saints remain sixth on the Super League ladder and occupy the final play-off spot, but now have seventh-placed Leigh Leopards breathing down their necks.

Rowley’s side are next in action on Sunday afternoon on home soil as they host newly-promoted Toulouse Olympique.

With Leigh in action before them this weekend, they could find themselves outside of the top six by the time that game comes around on Sunday.

On the difficulty of his squad selection for that Toulouse clash given the mounting number of injuries, Rowley said: “It’ll be the same as we’ve done every week, it’s not a choice we’ve got and it’s not a luxury.

“It’s been a ridiculous season in terms of injuries, as we all know.

“We’ll just pick the bones out of it in the week and see what we’ve got.”

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