St Helens player ratings in Warrington Wolves defeat: Numerous 4s and a 3 included…

St Helens’ miserable run against local rivals Warrington continued on Thursday night as they were beaten for the seventh straight meeting by the Wolves, losing out 32-18.

These are our Saints ratings following the Round 9 clash at the Halliwell Jones Stadium…

Tristan Sailor – 4

Saints boss Paul Wellens has moved star off-season recruit Sailor to his preferred position of full-back, and we’re yet to be impressed. He executed a great kick-off to earn the ball back in the first half, and the visitors got a try from that, but it was the highlight of his performance and that says it all.

Jon Bennison – 7

Bennison was heavily involved throughout, and got over for a couple of nice tries with one scored in either half. His defence was shaky at times, but he was far from the worst culprit on the night.

Dayon Sambou – 4

Young gun Sambou didn’t cope well with his adjustment into the centres, and his soft defence against Toby King as Wire grabbed the opening try set the tone, really. He was penalised for a needless escort midway through the second half, too, and Wellens’ feelings as that happened were made very clear.

Mark Percival – 8

Percival, ‘The Prince’, will turn 31 next month, but is aging like a fine wine, and was certainly Saints’ man-of-the-match on Thursday night. He had a hand in virtually everything the visitors did well, and was denied a hat-trick by the finest of margins. One of very few that can reflect fondly on the evening, individually.

Lewis Murphy – 5

Murphy wasn’t involved anywhere near enough on the night, though it is easy to forget he is only 23 given how young some of his team-mates are at the moment, so we’ll cut him some slack. No huge errors of note.

Jack Welsby – 6

Welsby is wasted in the halves. Yes, it’s a position he can play, but he’s been one of the best full-backs in Super League for a number of years for a reason. Everyone will have their own take, but he’s got to be moved back to #1 soon for us, even if that means Sailor being dropped.

George Whitby – 6

Whitby will only improve for the experiences he’s getting at the moment, and it says a lot about how highly he’s rated that he’s now keeping club captain Jonny Lomax out of the side. No blame can be sent his way for Saints’ failings on Thursday night. Not a great evening with the boot for the teenager, but that’s among the least of Wellens’ worries.

Alex Walmsley – 4

Walmsley hasn’t had a great time of it the last few weeks, and his knock on that led to Warrington’s opening try pretty much summed it up. He can deliver so much more, and he needs to.

Daryl Clark – 6

Clark enjoyed a lively first half against his former club, but then faded in the second half.

Matty Lees – 5

A decent first stint from Lees, but he failed to make any real impact going forward, not unlike the rest of Saints’ forwards.

Curtis Sironen – 4

It was a terrible decision from Sironen to offload the ball in that fashion so close to his own line early on, and that led to King’s opening try. The Australian only took in eight carries all night, too. Wellens needs more from him than that.

Matt Whitley – 5

If Percival wasn’t alongside Whitley, we’re not sure his rating would be so high. He’ll be glad to have returned to the back-row.

Morgan Knowles – 6

Stand-in Saints skipper Knowles was a contender for the best in their forward pack on the night, though his competition wasn’t high.

Moses Mbye (Interchange) – N/A

Too short a stint to warrant a rating

Agnatius Paasi (Interchange) – 3

Three carries and three metres made in a pretty lengthy second half stint. Those numbers are nowhere near good enough.

George Delaney (Interchange) – 6

Delaney’s efforts in every aspect of the game didn’t go unnoticed by us, and we’d wager they wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by boss Wellens either.

Noah Stephens (Interchange) – N/A

Too short a stint to warrant a rating