St Helens head coach Paul Wellens admitted “basic errors” cost his side what could have been a statement derby win over local rivals Wigan Warriors as they fell to a 24-14 defeat at The Brick Community Stadium.
The Saints mounted a comeback in the second half through converted Lewis Murphy and Agnatius Paasi tries, bringing the score to 18-14 with just seven minutes remaining.
However, a late Tristan Sailor knock-on gifted Abbas Miski his second try of the contest with just two minutes on the clock, Harry Smith’s conversion wrapping up the win for the home team and leaving Saints fans thinking of what could have been.
Despite the fightback, St Helens’ first-half performance had all but sealed the victory for their fiercest rivals, Wigan heading in buoyant and 12-2 up at the break after tries from Jai Field and Miski.
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Lewis Murphy dives in for a sensational try for St Helens
While Wigan showed skill to score their points, it was Saints who gave them the territory in which to do it, four knock-ons from Alex Walmsley, two from Joe Batchelor, plus the late Sailor addition summing up an afternoon where flair was hampered by players being unable to do the basics early on.
For Wellens, that made the comeback even more frustrating as his side had left themselves too much to do, the St Helens native admitting he is “frustrated” at losing big games through a lack of concentration.
“My message to the team in the changing room after the game was that a lot of the pressure that we sustained in the first 40 minutes was self-inflicted,” Wellens said.
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Jai Field scores a superb opening try for Wigan
“It wasn’t errors playing rugby, it was basic errors at the play of the ball and not quite getting that side of it right.
“Obviously the conditions changed quite quickly but you’ve got to be good enough to adapt to that. You can have one maybe but we had two, three, four, five, six and that’s just way too much in a game of this magnitude against the quality of opposition that we were coming up against.
“All the points came from us giving up field position through cheap errors. Obviously two tries from kicks, one at the end where we spill a ball. Systemically we weren’t really getting broken down that much and you can say the same for them.
“They’re two good defensive sides but when you give teams like Wigan more field position than you’d like to have it show, like Bevan (French) comes up with a play to kick to Jai (Field) and Jai scores a try which was our only real defensive system breakdown.
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Field scores his second try for Wigan from close range
“There’s a lot to like about our performance but we can’t keep having the same conversations around how we’re not quite winning big games through our own lack of concentration at times.
“What we’ve just got to be is a little bit more patient, a little bit more hard nosed, not make those errors early on in the game. And that might just come a little bit sooner for us, but I was really proud of the way we finished the game.
“And I’ll be honest with you when we got that final try I felt like we were in with a good chance of going on and winning the game, but it just wasn’t to be.”
A big win will come and we will be able to say we deserved it!
It is not the first time St Helens have suffered at the hands of Super League’s big sides and their own discipline been an issue, Wellens himself citing their two recent losses against Warrington as examples of when “fundamental errors” killed Saints’ own chances.
Now, he wants St Helens to fix the simple stuff so that, as he believes they will, they can come good and can say they deserved the victory in the big game.
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St Helens head coach Paul Wellens said his side were the engineers of their own downfall in defeat to Wigan Warriors
“That’s my frustration and that’s the team’s frustration because a couple of Warrington games recently and obviously this one today, I can’t help but keep having similar conversations,” added Wellens.
“We’re doing everything in terms of our efforts and endeavour to win games but not quite just nailing a few important runs.
“If we want to take that next step, which I’m confident we will, I don’t doubt that for one second. But the responsibility is on us to make sure we make those little tidy-ups in our game because there’s so much to like about what we’re doing at the moment.
“I come away from today and Wigan have been a benchmark team for the last few years but I don’t come away from them thinking they’re far superior than what we are. They’re two very good sides who can be tough to beat.
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Wigan Warriors head coach Matt Peet was proud of how his team ‘overcame adversity’
“They just obviously in the opening exchanges control the ball a lot better than we did and that had a big say on the outcome of the day. We sent a message down to the players to keep going at this game because we were confident there was going to be opportunity there for us and to their credit they did.
“So I take real encouragement that there’s a playing group in there that don’t give in, they don’t say this isn’t our day. They very much nearly turned it into their day by their own determination and hard work.
“But again I keep coming back to the same point, we give ourselves probably too much to do particularly on an occasion like this.
“We were making just basic fundamental errors which were real killers for us.
“Ultimately on the way that we were in the first half I can’t come away from there saying that we deserve to win.”
Round 8 – RIVALS ROUND – every match live on Sky Sports
Sat April 19: Leigh vs Warrington – 1.30pm
Sat April 19: Catalans vs Salford – 6pm
Sky Sports will again show every game of Super League live this season – including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining four matches each week shown on Sky Sports+ via the red button.
