“Horrific” – St Helens fans and media react to humbling Hull KR defeat

It was a tough Saturday afternoon at the office for Paul Wellens and St Helens, falling to a comprehensive 40-20 defeat at the hands of Hull KR.

The humbling loss for Saints in East Yorkshire comes just three weeks after another resounding defeat to Warrington Wolves in the Challenge Cup, leaving head coach Wellens under pressure.

Fans and media appear to be losing patience with Wellens’ style of play, despite Saints still being top of the table. The pressure on Wellens remains minimal and seems a tad unfair at this stage, but this is a club with huge expectations.

The St Helens Star newspaper gave a pretty damning verdict on the Saints display, rounding up their live report by accurately concluding how “a tight game turned into a hammering”.

St Helens second best in every aspect

Following the match, the report summed up the display from the 10-time Super League champions in three sentences.

“Saints have suffered a second-half hammering to lose 40-20 at Hull KR. The game was tight at the break but Rovers ran Saints ragged in the second half. Rovers beat them to the punch up the middle and with their ball movement and nippy runners picking the usually tough Saints defence apart.”

In their write-up of Paul Wellens’ analysis of the game, the Star went further into a poor display stating: “Tight at half time, the Robins backed up their win against champions Wigan with a resounding second half display that saw Saints second best in every aspect.

“Although still joint top of the table, the defeat – so soon after the back of the Warrington cup drubbing – has left Wellens with plenty to identify and fix up.

“There were some alarming misses and occasions when players jumped out of the line, allowing Rovers to exploit with good support play. And there was plenty of craft, guile and zip around the rocking Robins, but at times it was horrific from Saints.”

Wellens admits improvements needed

Speaking after the game, Wellens was under no illusions about the shortcomings of his team’s display.

The Saints legend highlighted the poor defensive display that saw Rovers run in 40 points. It was a far cry from the St Helens teams we have seen of recent seasons who are notoriously hard to score against.

“Whenever you play big teams and whenever you play in big games, if you don’t hold up defensively you don’t give yourself a chance,” said Wellens.

“We need to rectify that and thought in the back end of the game what I didn’t like is that we stopped finding an effort particularly back through the middle of the field.

“I need to look at things again and objectify things because it’s only moments after a disappointing loss – but there’s certainly improvements in there for us.”

Meanwhile, fans also reacted to the result on social media. One stated on X that the performance ‘lacked cohesion and character’, while another stated the display was ‘one dimensional playing a game that everyone can read’.

The more damning comments suggested that the players ‘would not have dared put in that performance under Kristian Woolf’, while another rather harsh stated that the ‘clock’s ticking’ for Wellens at Saints.

Another damning indictment of the day saw crowd trouble with St Helens’ fans having to be separated from Hull KR fans in footage shared online.