St Helens boss Paul Rowley has assessed his St Helens side’s defeat to Wigan Warriors in the Challenge Cup semi-finals.
The Red Vee were downed 32-0, in what is the club’s biggest margin of defeat against Wigan since 2000.
Saints let in six tries and scored none, despite having plenty of field position, particularly in the first half.
Saints haven’t been to Wembley since their 2021 victory over Castleford Tigers, and their record for not reaching a major final continues.
The result comes as Rowley’s biggest loss as Saints boss, not in terms of scoreline but in terms of importance and the way in which they have been toppled.
Providing his thoughts to the BBC post-match, Rowley believes his side were second best in most areas today, and given the amount of possession they had, it was poor execution that let them down.
“I thought Wigan won all the big moments, to be fair, particularly in the first half. We had a penalty count that didn’t do us any favours so yeah, just big moments.
“Overall, I think we’ll look back on it and there’ll be long periods of the game where we’re teritorially and resiliently pretty good. We had a lionshare of possession, but like I said before, big moments.”
The Red Vee did have to come through some adversity, with the side seeing Matty Lees go off injured in the first minute of the game, before Jack Welsby was shown a yellow card for a professional foul.
The boss said: “I think the [Daryl] Clark disallowed try was a big one for us. Offload, try, penalty, try, so they reacted better.
“They got excited at the right times, and for some reason we didn’t, so there’ll be a lot to learn from it, but it stings.”
Despite their Cup exit, Saints still sit joint-top of the league, and with that now being their only chance of success this year, all the focus will soon be on the league campaign, but not before they reflect on such a disappointing loss.
“Yeah, it will be, but I can’t think of anything else other than this at the minute. Losing Matty was big as well, but this is going to sting a little bit, so we’ll dust ourselves down.
“We’ve got a short turnaround now. We’ve got a Thursday night game [against Huddersfield Giants], so the rugby gods weren’t kind to us there either, but it might just be what we need.”
