St Helens head coach has given his verdict after the club’s 40-16 win over York Knights, with the performance of Jack Welsby a key talking point.
Welsby played for the first time since round when he dislocated his shoulder with the full-back playing off the bench, scoring a try late in the second half to help seal the win.
With Tristan Sailor displaying dominant form during Welsby’s absence, the pre-match focus was on how Paul Rowley would fit the pair in and the answer was that Welsby operated out of the halves when subbed on as he played just over 30 minutes.
Welsby was one of two who returned alongside Nene Macdonald and assessing their return, Rowley said: “With Jack and Nene we’ve got troops but a lot of it now is match fitness and game time. Them two boys have been sat down for a long time, so we shouldn’t expect too much.
“I thought they were steady without being brilliant today, but there’s much more to come from that two, and again, when them boys and other boys come back into the team and we start getting some fluency and finding our groove, then we’ll be better for it. We’re certainly finding a way, and like I said before, it’s a convincing win.”
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‘Tough to watch at times’ for St Helens boss
Despite running out such large victors, Rowley paid plenty of credit to York Knights with the scoreline not necessarily reflective of their effort.
“I think a lot of credit goes to York,” Rowley said, adding: “At 16-0, it looked like we could be in for a good day, but they’ve been good all year, they’ve been in the fight all year, and I actually think the scoreline doesn’t really reflect how tough the game was.
“To score 40 points and only concede 16 nevertheless, on paper, it’s a good win. I thought it was a tough watch at times in the second half, to be honest.”
Plenty of credit was also paid to Jake Davies, the young second-rower who signed a new deal only today and capped it off with a try.
“He’s very young and he’s a good size. I mean, he’s got a lot of work to do there as well, so he’s only going to get better,” Rowley said.
“The opportunity has come early for him, and he’s got a prolonged period in the first team now, and he’s excelled every week. Some players have that canny knack of finding the whitewash and scoring tries, and yeah, I wasn’t as fortunate.”
It’s Wigan Warriors in the Challenge Cup next up for the Saints and Rowley has explained that they’ll need to be far better if they’re to book a trip to Wembley.
“We always come away from these victories and still think we’ve got a long way to go and a lot to work on, a lot of improvement in us, so we need to find that improvement because Wigan will be a different beast next week. It’s a huge game, and with a big reward at the end of it, so we need to perform.”
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