St Helens coach urges calm following Leigh Leopards defeat as honest admission made

Paul Wellens admitted St Helens need to take lessons from their defeat to Leigh Leopards: but says the result can’t tarnish the progress his side have made in recent weeks.

Saints were beaten 16-4 by the Leopards on Thursday night, with that the club’s first home defeat against Leigh since 1982 and accordingly, their first in the Super League era.

A brace of tries from Joe Ofahegaue in the second half took the game away from Wellens’ side, who only trailed 4-0 at half-time in a tight contest.

The hosts’ only response came in the 79th minute from young centre Harry Robertson.

St Helens coach urges calm following Leigh Leopards defeat as honest admission made

Thursday evening’s loss was Saints’ first since a 34-4 thrashing at Hull KR in Round 13 having won five games on the spin since then.

Post-match, Wellens said: “We will very much keep it (the result) in context.

“We leave here tonight disappointed because we’ve been beaten at home in a Super League game.

“That never, ever sits comfortably with players, coaches, fans, anyone.

“But we’ve come a long way in four or five weeks, and we got a timely reminder tonight of the improvements that we’re going to need to make moving forward.

“If we do that, and it doesn’t feel like it right now, but this could just be a positive for us moving forward.”

The Red V remain fourth on the Super League ladder, but appear likely to drop to fifth providing Salford Red Devils are unable to pull off a shock away against Leeds Rhinos on Friday night.

With Saints not back in action now until August 1, Wellens added: “I cannot fault the players’ efforts, but there are a few areas we’re going to need to be better in if we’re going to achieve what we want to achieve this year.

“I’ve just said to the team that we’ve got to take our lessons from this.

“It’s been great winning games in the last few weeks, but when you get beat in a game like that and there hasn’t been a lack of effort, it means there’s been a lack of something else.

“That might be a little bit of detailed stuff, a little bit of diligence, a little bit of smartness, unforced errors. Things like that matter in big games and we need to tidy them up.”