What Paul Wellens said about St Helens’ derby loss and George Whitby’s chances of starting next week 

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens has reacted to his side’s 24-14 loss to Wigan Warriors, including a verdict on star youngster George Whitby.

The Red Vee lost the game due to errors as they simply gave the ball back to Wigan on far too many occasions, however, they did show their class at times with a second-half comeback threatened but ultimately falling short.

Both sides traded penalties early on but Wigan would open up an 18-2 lead before the hour mark, which is when St Helens’ comeback started.

Unfortunately for Paul Wellens and his side, it was too little too late as they pulled it back to 18-14, only to concede another try due to an error in the final minutes.

It meant that St Helens lost the 373rd derby between the two rivals as Paul Wellens’ side continue to struggle in the big games, having already lost at the hands of Hull KR and Warrington Wolves (twice) this season.

St Helens boss rues costly errors versus Wigan Warriors

⏹ The Saints fall to a defeat at The Brick Community Stadium on Good Friday 2025#COYS | @LPL_Airport pic.twitter.com/AgLr1agqNd

— St.Helens R.F.C. (@Saints1890) April 18, 2025

Of course, losing to rivals Wigan hurts all the more and that was one of the key things Paul Wellens said when he spoke post-match on Sky Sports.

“On Good Friday, it’s all about one thing and that’s winning,” he explained, adding: “Unfortunately today we come out on the wrong side of the result and particularly in the first half I thought we were the engineers of our own downfall with the amount of errors that we made.

“We showed in the second half at the back end of the game that we can keep hold of the ball and we can challenge very good teams, we just need to do it more often.”

Asked for an explanation why his side weren’t able to do it more often, Wellens put it down to a “lack of concentration at times”, explaining: “Obviously the conditions have changed throughout the course of the game, you need to take a little bit more care with the ball in those situations and we lack that little bit of diligence and it hurt us.”

On the changes that fuelled the second half comeback, Wellens put it down to simply keeping hold of the ball and got through their sets.

He said: “Off the back of that they started to make a few errors and we got good field position and good players got their hands on the ball, George giving the ball to Tristan and Jack and we started to look really threatening. I was really encouraged by the end of the game But we certainly gave ourselves too much to do.”

Could George Whitby be Saints’ starter going forward?

🗣️ “He’s mature way beyond his years”

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens on the performance of George Whitby 📈 pic.twitter.com/alspcxwOlM

— Sky Sports Rugby League (@SkySportsRL) April 18, 2025

George Whitby, who was surely St Helens’ Man of the Match, was named in the halves ahead of Jonny Lomax and the Saints boss was asked about the 18-year-old.

Sky Sports’ Jenna Brooks labelled Whitby as “some player”, with Wellens agreeing: “He is. That’s why I played him today, because he’s mature way beyond his years. I knew an occasion and an atmosphere like this, I knew he wouldn’t be overawed by that.

“Look, he’s a young half-back making his way in the game, he’s going to make mistakes but we’re here to support him on that journey and the early signs are very very good.”

Whitby had started last week against Wakefield when Jonny Lomax was injured but the decision this week was selection based and it prompted Wellens to be asked if this will be the case going forward.

To that, he responded: “Oh potentially, he’s going to get plenty of games that’s for sure. He deserves that and I’m a big believer in you know when you get opportunity you’ve got to take it and George has certainly done that.

“All our players in the spine, George, Tristan, Jack, Jonny, and Moses who can play there, they’re all going to be important for us from now to the end of the season.”