After an unhappy night facing his old club, Jon Wilkin said the number of errors his Toronto Wolfpack side made and the class of St Helens were ultimately the reason for the Pack’s fifth straight loss in Super League.
“We tried to play but we made a lot of mistakes and the weather wasn’t great and it didn’t work out for us. Saints are the best team in the league, and they took their chances,” he said, after St Helens hammered the Wolfpack 32-0 at Warrington on Saturday.
“We’re trying to play differently for sure, but with that comes risk and the key is to get on the right side of that risk. When it doesn’t come off it can be tough to play in that environment, but when it does it’s great.
“Last week against Warrington moved them around a bit but although we threatened St Helens the end product was mistakes and you can’t do that against good teams.
“We got our discipline with the ball wrong and Saints punished us and that’s really as simple as it was.”
On facing the club he spent 16 years with in the top flight, Wilkin reacted positively.
“The weird thing about facing Saints was that it was actually just really familiar for me,” he explained.
“I think people expected it to be strange for me, but I’ve worked with a lot of these guys for pretty much all of my professional life, so it was very familiar.
“The weird thing was being at Warrington. If it had been at Langtree Park it would have been different, but it was strange being in the home dressing room at Warrington more than anything.”
The 36-year-old is playing through the pain currently, with Toronto’s injury toll resulting in him delaying knee surgery, but he is happy to play on until the time is right for the team for him to go under the knife.
“We’ve lost a few troops, so now we’re just waiting for a good time to have surgery,” he admitted.
“There are a few guys missing who can perform a similar role to what I can do in the team. When they’re back, I’ll probably get the surgery done.”
Last week the Wolfpack added Wigan Warriors forwards Ben Kilner and Jack Wells to their roster, both on a one-month loan.
Wells, who played 15 Super League games for Wigan in 2016 and 2017, making his debut at the age of 18, touring Australia that year with the English Academy team. He made his Wolfpack debut off the bench, while Kilner was also in the 21-man squad.
Wells played 16 games with Swinton Lions in the Championship last season.
Kilner has previously played on loan with Dewsbury Rams and Rochdale Hornets in the Championship. On 18 August last year he was a member of the Rochdale side that travelled to Toronto for the Championship clash between the Wolfpack and the Hornets.
THOMAS ALDERSON
