Former Penrith player says “weather gods smiled on St Helens”

Many have attempted to diagnose why St Helens defeated NRL Champions Penrith Panthers because in the eyes of many it can’t be as simple as the Saints being the superior side.

Now on the Vossy and Brandy Pod, Greg Brandy Alexander, a former Penrith player, suggested that the weather certainly played a part in the win.

“I wasn’t as confident as the bookies over here, it was a big start at around the 24 point mark.

“Once the game was locked in at the 18th Feb date, I had a lot of people ask me what sort of challenge will this St Helens side be.

“Not everyone over here gets up to watch the English Super League so it was a little bit of an unknown with a lot of fans, particularly in Penrith. I said that it’d be a challenge, this is a good team that’s won four premierships in a row and have got half a dozen world class players.

“The likes of Welsby, Lomax, Alex Walmsley, Tommy Makinson and Matty Lees. There’s some very good players and I think Australian fans maybe underestimated what Penrith were in for.

“The weather gods did smile on St Helens. I got out to Penrith at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and it was 40 degrees and I just thought ‘wow this is tough’.

“I know they’d been over for a couple of weeks but 40 degrees is probably going to be too much for an English side. Then on cue a big storm swept in and the temperature dropped by about 15 degrees, it was a nice 25 degrees.”