ST HELENS thrashed Castleford Tigers, 60-4, at The Jungle tonight.
Though Saints led just 8-4 at the break after overcoming Tommy Makinson’s early red card, Paul Wellens’ side recovered to post nine second-half tries in a comprehensive drubbing.
And it’s fair to say that Wellens was happy with the victory when he faced the press after the game: “The resilience they showed when we went down a man was the reason why we scored amount of points we did at the end of the game.
“I thouht the group were incredible in the way they handled the game tonight. They really valued the tough stuff, I thought our halves and Jack Welsby were instrumental in opening them up or getting the ball to the edges to the likes of Konrad Hurrell and Waqa Blake.
“Castleford had a hell of a lot of disruption, they lost key players and had players in different positions. We won’t get carried away but I really like the work we were doing.”
Wellens also hailed Blake for his performance as well as debutant Noah Stephens.
“When we signed Waqa, he came midway through pre-season and I said that we were prepared to be patient and were prepared to give him the time to find his feet.
“He is on his own over here and settling into a new environment. For all players’ ability, that is difficult at times but Waqa has done that.
“There have been periods where I haven’t picked him so he can work on his fitness so that when he does play he can be effective and he showed that.
“When we found out that Morgan Knowles would be unavailable, I had no hesitation in picking Noah. He has had strong games in the reserves and on dual-registration with Swinton.
“He was deserving of the opportunity and I thought he did a really good job. The plan was to get him out earlier but the sending off delayed that.
“When he got on the field, I asked him to do two things: to make his tackles and run the ball and I thought he did both.”
On that sending off for Tommy Makinson after the Saints winger hit Castleford’s Tex Hoy late, Wellens said: “I understand the way the game is going and we have to accept significant changes but even watching it with replays again and again and the fact that you have to watch it that many times, it tells me it’s inconclusive.
“There is contact but is it direct contact to the head? Is that the case? I’m not sure, I think a yellow card is the case and I’ve sat here accepting that.
“What I’m more pleased about is how we responded to that sending off.”
There is an injury worry for Saints though as Jake Wingfield suffered a “serious” shoulder injury.
“It doesn’t look good for Jake. He has had problems with his shoulders and we will have to get that scanned. The early signs aren’t good for him though.
“I know how devastated he is in that dressing room, it was the one thing that soured the win. It looks like a serious injury.”
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