Did St Helens' Paul Wellens need the win over Leeds Rhinos to save his job?

Serious About Rugby League

St Helens scored one of the tries of the summer era to book their spot in the Super League play-off semi-finals, but after a season of scrutiny and criticism, how badly did Paul Wellens need that win? Sam Cook explains

Transcript

00:00Look, Paul Wellens has been scrutinised, criticised at every twist and turn of the season, really.

00:13Look, this wasn't the perfect St. Alan's performance with, you know, an attack that

00:18was pretty jaded, but how much did he personally need that win?

00:24Massive. I mean, you see the outburst of emotion at the end of the game. I think

00:28Pete mentioned at the start, he is one of Rugby League's good guys. He does cop, he cops

00:35a lot from fans. I think as journalists as well, we ask questions because you understandably,

00:41they've signed Tristan Saylor. That's all it comes down to this season, really. They've

00:45signed Tristan Saylor to play six and he can't play six to the standard that they need. And

00:52it just means shuffling other pieces. So whether that's on him, whether it's on the recruitment

00:57side, we don't really know. But the persistence to keep China mixing, I mean, that was only

01:03the second time that Wellsby and Lomax had played in half with Saylor at fullback, with round

01:0927 being the other time. You should not be going into the playoffs with that being the

01:14situation. That said, they've still managed to win. And I think almost it's the point now,

01:20they've almost got to embrace the fact that their attack is what it is. They're not going

01:24to change it by next week or by potentially Old Trafford. That's an off-season problem

01:30I've got to resolve. But what they've got to do is embrace the fact that, I mean, they

01:35are one of the best defensive sides. They made it really ugly in the first half with some

01:40of the slowing down the rope. But again, I mentioned earlier, the playoffs are sometimes

01:45officiated a bit differently. Leeds maybe could have cottoned on to that and done the exact

01:49same. Saints are good at the dark arts, they're good at defending. I think if they embrace

01:54that, then there's no reason why they can't beat a whole KR team who haven't really been

01:59firing. But for Wellens, I'm really pleased for him. I think he deserves it. And I think,

02:07again, if you look at the fact, you've kind of been suggestible. We can't fix much of this

02:11attack at the moment. So what you've got to do is just lean into what you are and also

02:16leaning into the fact that the passion that's in that club and the passion emanates from

02:20him. So I think there are real life chants next week, to be honest with you.

02:31Thanks for joining us. Please like and share.

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