St Helens will “go back to basics” in an attempt to get over the ‘cluster’ of errors that saw them let the game against Wigan Warriors on Good Friday slip away.
Saints lost 24-14 to the champions but in truth they beat themselves with numerous crucial errors, many of which were handling or around the play the ball. Speaking ahead of his side’s clash with Warrington Wolves, Paul Wellens explained his side simply made it “nigh on impossible” to get the win.
They did threaten a second-half comeback with 18-year-old playmaker George Whitby at the heart of that and Wellens praised his “exceptional” performance as he spoke on the decision to drop captain Jonny Lomax in favour of the teen.
However, even with Whitby’s brilliance, the task was too tough and Saints will have to learn those lessons and learn them quick ahead of Thursday’s clash with Warrington Wolves, as Wellens explained.
“It’s a Friday to a Thursday game, so it’s a shorter turnaround in that respect so we are limited in what we can do, but I think the beauty of that is that having played them twice very recently, we don’t have to sit down and watch too much vision or overplay things in that respect.
“Both teams know a lot about each other, given that we’ve played each other so recently. So we will very much lighten the load this week, whilst also being very diligent in terms of the things that we’re going to have to do well if we want to win the game.”
St Helens boss rues costly errors
The last two recent meetings have seen Warrington defeat St Helens. In fact, Sam Burgess has won all six of his games against Saints but he won’t have captain George Williams for this one and Wellens assessed how that may change the way that the Wire play.
He explained: “The game against Leigh at the weekend, they obviously had to do something a little different there, but they’re also really competitive right through to the end. I think you’re always going to get that with Warrington’s side.
“Losing a player like George, it’s all quite naturally going to affect it, but nonetheless I’m sure Sam and his coaching team are working really hard in terms of how they can navigate the loss of George.”
Whilst Wellens and the Red Vee will certainly concern themselves with how Warrington will play, he admitted that their main focus will be on tidying up the errors from their loss to Wigan. In total, St Helens committed 12 errors, the third-most of any side in Rivals Round, and Wellens spoke about how costly those errors were.
🔻 𝑺𝑸𝑼𝑨𝑫 𝑵𝑬𝑾𝑺
Paul Wellens has named his 21-man Saints squad for this Thursday’s @SuperLeague match against @WarringtonRLFC!
Read more 😇 https://t.co/6IlsZyXexa#COYS | St Helens Flooring
— St.Helens R.F.C. (@Saints1890) April 22, 2025
“There was a cluster of individual errors on the weekend which if you have one or two a game you can overcome them a little bit but we had so many we just made it so hard for ourselves,” he explained.
He admitted that the forward pack were ‘large contributors’ to the error count but argued their effort in bringing the physicality was admirable, noting: “We just need to tidy up those areas because we’re giving ourselves a hell of a lot to do and you do that against top opposition, it almost makes the task nigh on impossible. What we need to do is obviously get back to basics a little bit and hold the ball a little bit better.”
When trying to explain why so many costly errors came, Wellens said: “The frustration is that we’ve been pretty good in that area and they all come at you in one game but ultimately it comes down to individual concentration and focus and particularly around things like just playing the ball properly.
“We know that we need to be better to give ourselves a chance so we’re going to continue to work hard and do basic drills around the play of the ball So we’re going to continue to work hard and do basic drills around the play of the ball because they’re important, even for the best players you still have to practice the basics.”
