Wigan players devastated by defeat at St Helens, admits Shaun Wane
Wigan coach Shaun Wane said his players were devastated following their defeat at St Helens on Good Friday.
The Warriors were 12-2 down at half time, but managed to turn things around and went 14-12 ahead in the 65th minute. However, Saints fought back and won by a narrow 21-18 scoreline at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
And Wane said his players were gutted in the dressing rooms after the game.
He said: “I can’t put into words how bad I feel at the moment.
“The players are devastated, this is a very important game in our calendar but we’re a tight group.
“I thought with the effort we made, we could have got something out of the game. We were a bit dumb in areas and the second half of the game took a lot of juice out of us. Our technique and contact was a bit loose and St Helens rolled us easily.
“It’s early days, but it is this one game that hurts me badly. I’m fed up at the moment, but we need to get into Hull KR on Monday and get the two points.”
Sam Tomkins was ruled out on the day of the game due to illness while fellow full-back Morgan Escaré left the field in the second half and did not return, having failed a concussion assessment.
And Wane thinks the disruption wasn’t ideal, but didn’t make any excuses for the loss.
He added: “Losing Sam was a big blow and putting Morgan there and then losing Morgan didn’t help.
“We had a lot of disruption in the team, but I am proud of their efforts. We did some good things and made a great game, but it wasn’t enough to win it.
“We were all over the place which was unfortunate, but I am still proud. I will look back at the game and think that we did some really good things, but we need to be better in some areas.
“We will now look after the players and make sure the recovery is good. We will show them some good things that we did against St Helens and hopefully take advantage of Hull KR on Monday.”
Wane revealed Escaré is unlikely to play against Hull Kingston Rovers on Easter Monday due to a knock to his head, but Wane admitted Tomkins and Dan Sarginson could return. Gabe Hamlin and Romain Navarrete are likely to feature as well.