Cunningham wants Saints to be smarter with refs

St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham admits that despite his team winning at the weekend, they need to respond to referees better as a group.

The Saints progressed to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup by defeating Widnes Vikings, but Cunningham wants to see an improvement in responses to how different referees officiate the game.

“They really did play the referee a lot better than we did,” said Cunnningham.

“The referee did a great job and he let the game flow well, but the rucks were really slow.

“We should have responded better as a team, and we didn’t. Then we were on the back foot all the time, and Widnes were set waiting ready to go.

“It’s probably one of the slowest rucks we’ve had all year. We just didn’t respond well enough.”