“Beat ourselves” – St Helens’ boss rues loss but highlights “easy fixes”

St Helens slipped to defeat in Perpignan against Catalans Dragons in a game that Paul Wellens has characterised as the Red Vee ‘beating themselves’.

Despite leading at half-time, Saints failed to register a point in the second forty as a staunch Catalans side gritted it out to register a fourth straight home win over St Helens.

The Red Vee took the lead when Jack Welsby carved Catalans open down the left-hand side but Mike McMeeken powered over to put the home side in front in the first 30 minutes that saw both sides have tries correctly ruled out.

It was the go-ahead try for St Helens that sparked controversy with Super League coach Paul Rowley claiming on comms that he was “unsure” as to whether Tommy Makinson ever grounded the ball.

Nevertheless, Liam Moore was certain and awarded it on the spot which meant there was no chance for a video referee to get a second look, a level of conviction from Moore that Rowley went on to applaud.

Lewis Dodd was held up over the line thanks to a brilliant Arthur Mourgue tackle, something Wellens labelled as a “key moment” his side failed to take, before Ikuvalu helped the Dragons re-take the lead before Mourgue’s penalty cemented the 14-8 victory.

Speaking to SaintsTV, Wellens was asked if he felt his side had ‘beat themselves’, to which he answered: “That’s how it feels. Again, I don’t want to take anything away from the opposition, but that’s my overriding emotion.”

What went wrong for St Helens?

Just a week ago St Helens were celebrating a Good Friday Derby victory with that win ending Wigan’s lengthy unbeaten streak, however, fast forward a week to the South of France and it was an entirely glum picture for Saints fans.

Wellens bemoaned his side’s impatience in attack, explaining: “I think when you play any big game, you’ve got to earn the right to play. We came in with a game plan tonight and we sensed that there would be opportunities to get some joy, but we wanted to get that straight away and against good teams in tough environments you’ve got to be able to earn it and we weren’t quite at our best in terms of that.”

St Helens’ attack was something that had copped plenty of stick from fans on social media and Wellens confirmed some of those sentiments, critiquing the completion rate of his side.

“I think we just got a bit too pass-happy. We want to evolve our attack, we spoke about doing that one better, but actually what we did with our approach was actually limit the amount of times we got the ball. We weren’t prepared to get through to the end of the set, we weren’t prepared to make them come out of their end as much as they made us come out ours.”

“Complete trust in the playing group”

Despite the defeat, Wellens was eager to state that there’s no need for an overreaction or panic, surmising what he’s learnt so far in coaching: “When you’re doing well, you’re never probably as good as you think you are and when you’ve been poor, you’re never as bad as you think you are and I think it’s one of those ones.

“There’s some relatively easy fixes in there for us I think because I completely trust in the playing group and I can’t question how much they could show that every week. You’ve just got to be smarter in certain areas.”

One thing that St Helens could not be criticised for in the South of France last night was their incredible away support with reports of 1,000 to 1,2000 fans making the journey, something that Wellens was keen to highlight.

Thanking fans for giving up their Easter period and their money to follow and support the team, he concluded: “I’m not seriously perturbed, it’s disappointing that we’ve lost a game. I feel for our supporters because they’ve travelled here in huge, huge numbers again. We’re disappointed for our supporters that we didn’t give them what they deserved.”

Next up for the Red Vee is a Challenge Cup tie against Warrington Wolves before they return to Super League with a home fixture against Hull FC.