Alex Walmsley slams decision that went against St Helens as he highlights adversity

St Helens star Alex Walmsley has praised the character of his side in their historic win over Penrith Panthers in the World Club Challenge.

This came especially as he felt his side were denied “a perfectly legitimate try” in the second half.

Walmsley revealed his thoughts on the game in the Last Tackle Podcast as he said: “We’re very proud of what we achieved. Going into it the media downplayed it a lot in terms of what it would mean and what we were capable of. They went in as heavy favourites, and rightly so, I think we might have been 7 or 8/1. We’re not here to discredit those odds, we knew the task at hand was massive but we went in knowing we could do something special.”

It was then that Walmsley pointed out the decision that went against them:

“About 10 or 15 minutes prior to that Will Hopoate has a perfectly legitimate try ruled out which would have probably put the game to bed anyway. We had to deal with that and then obviously the try in the last minute, that was a crushing blow and a tough moment. From being 60 seconds away from being champions to having to go to extra time was another mountain for us to climb but we were ready for it.”

However, it was the Saints’ experience that carried them to the win:

“We’ve been in tough circumstances before but we know how to win big games. That’s probably what the key was, staying calm and sticking to our principles and our processes. We knew we needed one chance and we got that opportunity fairly early on and thankfully Lewis Dodd secured us the glory and got it over.”