St Helens boss Paul Rowley has assessed the returns of two of his key man after last night’s victory over York Knights.
The Red Vee emerged as 40-16 winners over Mark Applegarth’s side, with Jack Welsby and Nene MacDonald both making long-awaited returns to the side.
Welsby, who started the game on the bench, played for the first time since round one, where he dislocated his shoulder against Warrington Wolves.
The England international played in the halves, moving Jonny Lomax to hooker, and he made an instant impact, playing 45 minutes and scoring on his return to help Saints to their fifth straight win.
Rowley revealed that the plan for his return was always to come on prior to the break and leave him out for the rest of the game.
The same can’t be said for MacDonald, who played longer than the boss wanted.
“I would have probably looked to have put him [Welsby] on after 30 minutes and left him out there,” he said.
“I would liked to have got Nene off. I didn’t want him to do a full game, but it never works out like that.”
MacDonald was featuring for the first time since early March after the PNG man needed surgery on his knee to put an end to some persistent and ongoing niggles.
Rowley continued: “It’s tough, and I’ve been saying for a few weeks we keep getting bodies back, but our injuries have been such long-term injuries that the lads are under-cooked.
“It will take a few weeks for them to get up to speed, and we’ve seen with Matty [Lees], I think we left him out there for long, long minutes today because he needed that and he’ll be better for that.”
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