St Helens head coach Paul Rowley has called on fans to bring the noise in tonight’s Challenge Cup clash against a ‘very dangerous’ Catalans Dragons.
On the back of an emotion-filled win over bitter rivals Wigan Warriors, Rowley is all too aware that tonight could be a case of Saints crashing back down to earth in terms of an adrenaline dump and as such he’s called on fans to help do their bit.
Asked about the difficulty in getting players back up after such a tremendous high, Rowley admitted: “The challenge is to bring the same intensity and emotion as we did last week.
“Obviously, last week’s really easy but I think that (challenge) goes across the board, for the club and for the supporters and for ourselves.”
With almost 18,000 in the BrewDog Stadium last week, the atmosphere was electric, however, tonight will be a very different story on account of the minimal travelling fans and the fact that cup games are not included in season tickets, something that typically leads to a reduced crowd.
As such, Rowley has set out that it’s on all at St Helens, including the fans, to help elevate that atmosphere: “I think, as I’ve said a few times, we’re connected from top to bottom so I think we all need to cover that burden, so to speak, and that responsibility to bring some life to the stadium in games that are historically not as lively in terms of atmosphere because of the obvious reason that Catalans bring no supporters across.”
St Helens wary of Catalans’ spine
Whilst Catalans will bring minimal support, they do bring what Rowley described as a ‘very dangerous’ proposition with the St Helens coach offering plenty of respect to the team that the Red Vee have already downed once this season.
Previewing tonight’s opponents, he said: “In terms of their ability, yes, the best version of Catalans is a very dangerous one so we need to be proactive and make sure our standards are on form and if we do that and worry about what we’re going to bring to the party, then we feel that we’ll be okay.”
Outlining where the French side are most dangerous, Rowley said: “They’ve got some fantastic players. I think their outside backs in particular, none more so than (Charlie) Staines and then you’ve got (Toby) Sexton and (Lewis) Dodd in the halves.
“Throw in Kruise Leeming as well, I think they’ve got a fantastic spine and they’ve got a lot of soldiers who will go where they say and do what they want. So, across the park, I think they’re dangerous. The less chaos we can allow, the better.”
Tonight’s game is available to watch on Super League+ for £7.99.
Super League Rivals Round madness, broken video referee system and Challenge Cup predictions – Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show
