Paul Wellens rues St Helens’ ‘small margins’ as Mark Percival absence explained

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens has spoken on the ‘small margins’ that cost his side their 20-12 loss against Hull KR, whilst also offering an injury update on Mark Percival.

Percival, who picked up a knock last week but managed to see the game out, was named in the 21-man squad but didn’t make the matchday squad with back-rower Matt Whitley forced into the centres.

That caused even more problems when winger Jon Bennison failed a HIA, meaning a full reshuffle was required as Tristan Sailor moved to the wing, Jack Welsby to full-back and Moses Mbye into the halves.

Kyle Feldt had not been named in the 21-man squad due to injury anyway and Paul Wellens confirmed post-match just how bad Percival’s injury was, confirming that he may not have even made it back in time for the Grand Final had St Helens progressed.

“He’s got a grade two MCL. He was in a knee brace and couldn’t really run so there was no point in trying to put him out there as he couldn’t do the job.

“Should we have made the Grand Final next week then I’m sure he’d have done everything he could to have been there, but he still would have been unlikely.”

St Helens boss highlights ‘moment’ but admits to lack of smarts on-field

The reason why St Helens are not in the Grand Final is just to ‘small margins’ according to Paul Wellens with the coach assessing a possible turning point in the second-half, which his side simply failed to capitalise on.

Asked about the Peta Hiku penalty for dissent midway through the second-half, Wellens admitted that he felt his side were getting back into it, especially having score the first try of the second-half.

He said: “There was a moment there and I sensed it in the ground that they got a little bit nervous.

“Had 12-0 gone to 18-0 then I think they’d have felt a lot more comfortable but when it went to 12-6, given what we’d done last week, they might have been thinking that we weren’t going to go away.”

Instead, errors set in and Wellens explained: “I don’t think we went away in an attitude and effort sense but we went away from being smart in the right areas and it made a big difference on the night.

“It’s small margins in these big games and you have to nail those moments, which is something we will look at moving forward as a team.”

Wellens is currently off-contract with his future still up in the air and he made no real effort to clear that up post-match, instead shining a light on the departing players which highlighted his class.

“I don’t want the emphasis to be on me and my future,” the St Helens boss said.

“I’m comfortable with whatever happens with regards to my future but we’ve got a number of players Bell, Batchelor, Mbye, Knowles and Bennison, they’re leaving the club and a lot of them have given a lot to the team. It’s important that we let them celebrate a couple of days with their teammates before they all move on to pastures new at the end of the year.”

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