Saints need to improve defence to be successful, insists LMS

St Helens forward Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook has acknowledged that his team need to defend better, if they are serious about winning this year’s Super League Grand Final.

The defending champions managed to win at Castleford last time out, but with a scoreline of 42-38 in their favour, it was clear the Saints defence was not firing at full capacity.

“It was end-to-end, I think it was thrilling for the people to watch,” said ‘LMS’.

“It was a good game, but we need to make our defence a lot sharper.

“It was a bit like touch football. It was end-to-end. It is a very small pitch there, so if you give a penalty away or make a mistake, they’re already on your 10 metre line.

“So it’s something we need to work on as a team – getting on top of our defence.

“We know we can attack.”

St Helens did go into a 20-point lead at Cas, but then surrendered that lead, and nearly lost the game, as they allowed the Tigers back into things.

McCarthy-Scarsbrook believes that that tendency to allow teams back into games needs to be extinguished quickly.

“We need to try to stop teams coming back at us. In this league, anyone’s got a chance of beating anyone,” he added.

“If we can sort that out, and stop teams doing that, then I think we’ll have a good chance of winning the Grand Final this year.”