ST HELENS head coach Paul Wellens has hit back against Sky Sports pundit Phil Clarke’s explosive “cheating” comments.
Clarke made the headlines following Saints’ 14-12 win over Huddersfield Giants with the comments: “Maybe when they’re prepared to defend on their own try line, maybe one of the reasons why Huddersfield and other teams can’t score against St Helens is that they’d rather slow down the opposition and concede six more tackles in their belief that ‘we will defend, as long as it’s not quick, we can defend our try line for two minutes’,” Clarke said.
“Maybe that’s something that the game’s administrators needs to look at.”
During the post-match analysis, Clarke went further, claiming Saints had “effectively cheated” to win a game against Salford in the 2022 season.
“They played a game last year against Salford at the end where they effectively cheated at the end to win the match in the league match and called on the rulings to be tweaked that would result in stronger sanctions.
“I do think that the game needs to be stricter at penalising sides that are purposefully holding down players or concede penalties or six agains near to their own try line.
“We need to see more yellow cards for that type of behaviour.”
Now, however, Wellens has responded and backed up his comments with some impressive knowledge of statistics.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve investigated but I’ve known something for a while,” Wellens said.
“What I will say first and foremost is, I don’t think theres a coach in Super League and in the NRL or anywhere in the world who isn’t trying to get their players to win tackles and in effect slow down the opposition. A coach would rather concede a six again than a try.
“I like Phil, I’ve always respected him and he has a right to his opinion and that’s not changed. At the same time I think it was ill-judged with the word cheating because one thing this team hasn’t done is cheated its way to success over the years.
“When you talk about the ruck area with OPTA statistics, in 2021 we had the average slowest play the ball in the competition.
“In 2022, we had the slowest play the ball in the competition and we currently sit joint last. I would ask Phil who is lying on who? With the devastating ball carriers we have, we haven’t come out on top in play the ball speed.”
