St Helens lost two hookers to failed HIAs against Castleford Tigers with head coach Paul Rowley giving his assessment on the club’s options at the position, as well as addressing the role that Harry Robertson played.
The Red Vee progressed with a 32-8 win to book their spot in the quarter-finals and they started to showcase some of the expected Rowley-ball play.
Key to that was youngster Roberton, who was named as the full-back but appeared to interchange frequently, with the 20-year-old being deployed in the centres and also the halves at times, with Tristan Sailor often seen popping up at full-back.
Having hailed Sailor’s performance, Rowley was asked post-match about the role Harry Robertson had played, insisting that whilst there was fluidity, there still remained key assignments.
The Saints coach explained: “It’s not a free role, he’s got Briersy (Lee Briers) and Eamon (O’Carroll) there on his back if he’s not where he needs to be at any given time.
“He’s under the pump and continuously learning but he’s receptive and wants to learn, and he’s got that God-given talent with his athleticism, his speed, his evasive qualities. He’s a bit of a one-off isn’t he? He’s a good player to watch and we’ve got a few of them in the team now.”
St Helens boss explains options at nine after double blow
St Helens are needing those versatile players at the moment given their injury problems with Saturday’s win over Castleford seeing starting hooker Daryl Clark and back-up Jake Burns both fail HIAs.
The man who replaced them was Jake Wingfield with Rowley hailing the loose forward for his contributions, particularly seen as he was only just returning from injury himself.
He said: “It’s not often you lose both hookers but Wingy (Jake Wingfield) has come back and done a great job there at nine.
“He had to play long minutes, which would have never been in the plan on his return game.”
With the versatile Joe Shorrocks suspended for next week, Rowley was asked if Wingfield will be the solution at nine for St Helens’ clash against Toulouse Olympique.
“We’ll explore some other options and see what we’ve got but Jake is capable of playing nine,” Rowley confirmed.
“I can’t nail that down yet, there’ll be no doubt some surprises thrown in before then so we can’t plan ahead in this game at the minute.”
As well as hookers Clark and Burns failing HIAs, second-rower Curtis Sironen suffered a calf injury with Rowley unclear on the severity, simply stating: “We don’t know yet but he’s got a calf injury, a good calf is four, a bad calf is eight so we’ll see.”
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