St Helens head coach Paul Rowley showered loanee Bill Leyland in praise after the hooker scored two tries to help Saints down Wigan Warriors in the Good Friday derby.
Leyland scored two tries inside 70 seconds, including the go-ahead score, as St Helens scored four tries inside the final nine minutes to win 34-24 in incredible circumstances.
Zach Eckersley’s try just before the 70th minute looked to have put the game out of sight but St Helens kept fighting and they got what they deserved, despite losing at least one more man to injury.
Agnatius Paasi limped off inside five minutes whilst Shane Wright went for a HIA late on but it was another middle man that Paul Rowley was keen to praise, despite two-try Leyland claiming the Man of the Match award.
“I’ve got to pay credit to David Klemmer as well,” Rowley said, adding: “(He played) 80 minutes. I can’t praise him enough. Every week, in the tough times, we needed a leader and he’s been a leader.”
Leyland himself pointed to Klemmer when giving his Man of the Match interview, highlighting the prop’s efforts.
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Bill Leyland hailed as St Helens’ gamechanger
Assessing the game, his first Good Friday derby as St Helens head coach, Rowley said:”It’s very special. It’s a story, wasn’t it? The adversity that we came under during the game and before the game but you know that saying don’t you. I won’t say it though.
“All joking aside, the belief and the character has never been questioned with the group. Obviously, we had a tough week last week and we wanted to bounce back with all the things that we spoke about and we did that in the best way possible.”
Match-winner Leyland came off in the 57th minute as Daryl Clark left the field with Rowley confirming that not to be a head injury but part of the plan, however, he did admit that Leyland’s injection of pace was a gamechanger.
He said: “I absolutely agree. Bill Leyland is a good runner of the ball and he’s elusive and we thought that both teams have been in a battle and been on the road for long periods of time, so somebody like Bill would be just the tonic for us and open up the game.
“Daryl was playing particularly well as well so I was in no rush to change things just for the sake of getting subs on but it was just a waiting game and Bill got on and did the rest. Massive credit to him.
“He wouldn’t have understood the language we use here in terms of plays and stuff so he kept it simple and he ran. Luckily, he got over the trial line a couple of times.”
With St Helens so low on bodies and Leyland impressing so much, Rowley was asked if he’d be on the phone to Willie Peters to extend the deal beyond one week, to which he offered a measured response.
Rowley said: “It’s cup match next week, so Hull KR won’t want to cup-tie any of their players and we’re appreciative of them coming to our help really in a bit of an hour of need.
“We’ve got a lot of admiration for Jordan (Dezaria) and Bill so yeah, obviously if we could have them for longer than that would be great but they’re Hull KR players and we fully respect that.”
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