Paul Wellens described the efforts of St Helens forward Morgan Knowles as ‘incredible’ after the club’s Challenge Cup win over Leeds Rhinos on Friday night. The Saints overpowered Leeds at the Totally Wicked Stadium, winning 22-14 to book their spot in the hat for Monday’s quarter-final draw.
Kyle Feldt got the hosts on the scoreboard in the first half before efforts from Tristan Sailor, Matt Whitley and Harry Robertson after the break put the club into a lead that proved unassailable. However, it was Knowles, who played almost the full 80 minutes in the middle, who Wellens could be heard waxing lyrical about after the game, with the Dolphins-bound loose-forward running himself into the ground once more.
“His performance today was incredible and he’s been incredible for us for many, many years,” Wellens said on The Sportsman’s coverage of the contest on YouTube. “It’s because he can do things like he did tonight.
“His engine is one of the best there is in the game and he’s able to do that because he works so hard week in, week out.”
St Helens didn’t have things all their own way in the fourth round tie and they were made to work in order to claim the upper hand. Wellens was delighted with the way his side came through adversity to break Leeds down, though.
“Really pleased,” the head coach said on the his side’s performance. “They can be quite anxious Cup ties because we know it’s do or die but I thought the way the lads handled it tonight was fantastic.
“There were periods in that game where we had to dig deep and hang in there but the players were played to do that.
“We reminded ourselves at half-time that good teams don’t just go away, you have to make them go away, stick to your game plan, be consistent with it and I thought at the start of the second half we did that really well and that told on the scoreboard. Like the quality side that Leeds are, they didn’t go away.”
On the notion of leading his hometown club to Cup success, he added: “It would be special, there’s no getting away from that. I’ve been around the game a long time but to coach my hometown club is truly an honour for me and to be able to do that down the track would be fantastic.
“There’s a lot of hard work to be done by everybody between now and then and that is our focus at this moment in time.”
