Paul Rowley pulls no punches in honest assessment of St Helens’ humbling

Paul Rowley refused to defend St Helens’ performance after his injury-hit side was thrashed by Hull KR.

Their five-match winning streak came to a screeching halt at Craven Park as they were defeated 52-10 by the defending champions, with Joe Burgess and Mikey Lewis both scoring hat-tricks.

Saints have been doing it tough on the injury front this season, with a string of key players including Jack Welsby, Matty Lees and Alex Walmsley, all out long-term.

But despite that, Rowley insisted the display they dished up against the Robins wasn’t good enough.

He said: “Defensively, whether it be structure or physicality, it was way off the pace and probably took our second half from Toulouse last week into today.

“They completely dominated us in field position and territory as a result of the physicality really, so it’s a simple start, the physicality, and we weren’t good enough and we were beaten in that area.

“There’ll be a review for all the team, obviously, so there’ll be a lot of, as always, soul-searching. We’ve obviously got some bodies missing, but still, it’s disappointing and some hard lessons learned, well, hopefully learned, but you know, the humbling, call it what you will, we’re disappointed, but as always, it’s part of the journey. We’ll have to learn and learn quick because we’ve got another physical team on the horizon in Wigan.”

Mark Percival was withdrawn at half-time, with Rowley providing an early prognosis on the centre.

“He’s just been carrying a bit of an injury to his leg, so there wasn’t any point risking him at that point. It could have been made worse, so just protective really.”