SAINTS coach Paul Wellens was disappointed with his side’s uncharacteristically frail defensive effort in the 40-20 defeat at Hull KR.
Tight at half time, the Robins backed up their win against champions Wigan with a resounding second half display that saw Saints second best in every aspect.
Although still joint top of the table, the defeat – so soon after the back of the Warrington cup drubbing – has left Wellens with plenty to identify and fix up.
Saints trailed 16-14 after a nip and tick first half with well-worked tries finished off by Jack Welsby, Waqa Blake and Konrad Hurrell.
But early second half tries from Rovers’ Peta Hiku and Jez Litten put Rovers in the driving seat.
Even though Konrad Hurrell powered over to cut the deficit to 28-20, Rovers turned the screw on Saints – kicking deep and tackling aggressively to pin them back. Ans off the back of that scored two more tries from Dean Hadley and Ryan Hall to make it a rout.
Wellens said: “At half time I said there was a few things that I was a bit disappointed with around our defensive intent that we needed to tidy up and if we could do that then there’s more points in the game for us.
“Ultimately, we failed to do that and if I think anything, it got worse.
“So that’s the most disappointing aspect of the performance today is that there was a defensive fragility there, which is not usually associated with this group.”
Saints tried to promote the ball more than of late with Welsby in particular being a constant menace to the Rovers defence and he scored an excellent opener.
But for a change it was the other side of the ball that let them down.
“I was pleased with some of the things we did with ball in hand in creating opportunities, I think we probably left 10-12 points out there,” Wellens said.
“I thought Jack Welsby was outstanding out there and looked dangerous every time he has the ball and probably didn’t deserve to be on the losing side today.
“But whenever you play big teams and whenever you play in big games, if you don’t hold up defensively you don’t give yourself a chance.”
There were some alarming misses and occasions when players jumped out of the line, allowing Rovers to exploit with good support play.
And there was plenty of craft, guile and zip around the rocking Robins, but at times it was horrific from Saints.
“It was a system thing in the first half, allowing teams to come through us and even when we went down to 12 men and conceded a break again it was straight through the middle.
“That’s not within our system.
“So we need to rectify that and thought in the back end of the game what I didn’t like is that we stopped finding an effort particularly back through the middle of the field.
“I need to look at things again and objectify things because it’s only moments after a disappointing loss – but there’s certainly improvements in there for us.”
Any weaknesses were always going to be punished by a Rovers side who came into the game bouncing after dusting Wigan last week.
At times it looked like a real contest, defensive lapses aside with Saints coping with 12 men for 10 minutes after Morgan Knowles was sin-binned.
“They are a top team and have certainly proved that over the last couple weeks, you look at the squad, playing roster the coach they are certainly on an upward trajectory “This has always been a place where historically we’ve found it difficult, even when Hull KR are not riding as high as they are right now.
“When they’re in the form that they’re in, you have to come here and do it better than what we need to do.
“I spoke to the team before the game around these places – and we had it at Catalans a few weeks ago – they are very hostile atmospheres and the crowd are right into it.
“Very few decisions go your way, I said ‘just accept that it’s going to happen most of the time, so being prepared to suffer as a team.
“But I don’t think we were prepared to do that.
“Characteristically, at our best we can concede a penalty and defend it out, characteristically our best we can concede six again and defend it out.
“We have done that numerous times in big games and you only have to go back to Good Friday and look at the way we defended that day to see evidence of that “We just didn’t get that today and what I’ve probably got to do is spend the next 24-48 hours trying to figure out why.”
With Rovers just eight points ahead going into the last 15 minutes, they pulled out the master game plan by kicking deep and hemming Saints in.
Wellens said: “They kicked well. They turned us around, but they had more intent about their defensive work, particularly in the first three plays.
“We found it very hard to generate ruck speed. I mentioned that last week that it’s become harder and harder now but that’s just the way the game is being officiated and said that to the players you have to deal with it and accept it and get on with it because things aren’t going to change.
“So we have to work as hard as the opposition, work harder that the opposition. We have put as much energy and much intent into our defensive work as well as what they did.
“And clearly that wasn’t the case today and it is my job to figure out why.”