St Helens CEO backs Paul Wellens and responds to “outside noise”

St Helens’ Chief Executive Officer Mike Rush has responded to criticism of head coach Paul Wellens and given his verdict on the coach’s future.

Appearing on Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast, Rush spoke ahead of the win against Catalans Dragons with St Helens having also subsequently defeated Huddersfield Giants.

Both of those wins came by huge scorelines and were very pressure-relieving for Wellens who had been the subject of plenty of fan criticism in the opening ten rounds of Super League.

At the point of Rush’s comments, Saints had a record of five wins and five losses but their recent victories have propelled them to fifth ahead of this week’s clash with league leaders Hull KR.

It was widely viewed that the game between St Helens and Catalans Dragons in Round 11 was one where the losing coach would see pressure reach a climax, and that proved true with Steve McNamara sacked just days after the defeat.

As for Wellens, he’s gone on to record another large win but he already had the backing of Mike Rush, who confirmed that Wellens was the right man for St Helens when asked by Jenna Brooks.

St Helens’ CEO gives verdict on “outside noise”

One thing he did concede was just how hard it has been in 2025 with the outside noise with many fans calling for change.

“I said to Wilko (Jon Wilkin) that you can see it’s hard on Paul,” Rush explained.

“There’s nobody who cares more than Paul Wellens at this club. You don’t play 495 games or whatever it was and (not care). Paul is not daft, he knows results will dictate how far he goes as a coach. Not just at this club but in his whole career, results will dictate that.

“Do I believe that Paul Wellens is a good coach? Absolutely, I do.”

Much of the chat was focused on the ‘outside noise’, which Rush conceded he only hears second-hand via his daughter as he’s not on social media.

He stated: “We can’t let outside noise dictate everything but we can’t ignore outside noise. It always going to be a tipping point in sport, that’s in every sport.”

Rush referenced the fact he had to sack fellow club legend Keiron Cunningham in similar circumstances to those Wellens has found himself in, regarding fan pressure, confirming that to be the toughest thing he’d done in the job.

Paul Wellens needs time argues Saints CEO

It doesn’t seem likely that he’ll have to make that call on Paul Wellens anytime soon given the two recent results but also given Rush’s comments, with the Saints CEO backing his man.

Admitting to a “tough start”, Rush said: “Paul and his staff need to be given time to get it right. Paul’s not become a poor coach, we believed in him when we gave him the job, he won a World Club Challenge in his first proper game and he had tremendous start to last year until we got all of those injuries.

“I think in sport, confidence has a big role to play. It’s not a criticism of anybody but sometimes I wish we could be more positive, rather than with despondence and doom and gloom.”

There will certainly be more positivity going into a very tough clash at Craven Park on Friday night and Rush has called on the club to control the controllables, outlining his intent to do so by supporting Wellens and the staff.

He also noted a need for the club’s senior players to step up, something they certainly have done in the past two games.

Rush explained: “All we can do is control what we can control and at the minute that is offering support to the coaching staff and Paul, offering and listening to things he might want to change, listening to him about future recruitment.

“At the minute, one of the things me and Paul will talk about is what fans talk about. We’re no different in terms of making sure we’ve got the right mix of hunger, experience, young players, all within a salary cap.

“What we have to do is get the most out of your really experienced players who have to turn up and deliver. They’ve got to do their bit for Paul and I’m not pointing my finger at any of them but as a collective, everybody has to get on board and turn it around and I do believe we can do that.”