SAINTS coach Paul Wellens gave his reaction to his side’s 60-4 victory over Castleford Tigers.
The game featured a Tommy Makinson sending off, a Waqa Blake hat-trick and it was Lewis Dodd’s first game since announcing his NRL switch.
Q: What were your thoughts on the sending off?
PW: I understand the way the games going, so I think we have to accept the there’s been significant changes made.
But I think even watching it when they’re replaying it and replaying it and replaying it again and the fact that you have to watch it that many, many times tells me that it’s inclusive.
There’s obviously contact there, but is that direct contact to the head?
I don’t think we can say for sure that that’s the case. So I think the most sensible decision would have been a yellow card and I can sit here accepting that.
But that’s obviously the decision that was made but what I am more pleased about is the response of our group to that sending off.
We understand now in the game, things like that can happen, and the resilience they showed throughout that period when we were down a man was probably the reason why we ended up scoring the amount of points that we did at the back end of the game.
Q: The Welsby try just after half time was a great way to start second-half?
PW: Absolutely. I thought the group were incredible in terms of the way they handled the whole occasion tonight.
They kept things really simple, very basic in terms of the way we went out about our business and really valued the tough stuff first and then off the back of that when we got opportunities to play.
I thought our halves Lewis, Jonny and Jack were instrumental in either opening them up or getting the ball to the edges with time and space so the likes of Konrad or Waqa Blake could hurt them as well.
It was a very good team performance and one that the team are very pleased with.
Q: You found some real cutting edge on that right edge with Konrad Hurrell rolling back years?
PW: Konrad is a handful when you keep it simple for him, just give him the ball and let him run and he’s hard to tackle. Obviously we can’t get too carried away because obviously Castleford had a hell of a lot of disruption tonight.
Obviously, they lost key players and were playing players in different positions so we certainly won’t get carried away, but I really like the work we did as a team in terms of exploiting them.
Q: And what about Jack Welsby’s performance?
PW: I thought he was outstanding last week in a beaten team, and he’s backed that up again tonight and it’s probably the best we’ve combined as halves unit in some time.
For Jack to have that effect on the game like he did, he needs Lewis to be getting his fingerprints on the game, he needs Jonny Lomax get his fingerprints on the game.
Quite often tonight they picked the right pass or made the right play and executed it off the back of that. It’s not always going to come like that. We’re not now thinking we’re going to score 40 plus points every week.
It’s just not the reality, but in terms of the way the halves combined tonight I thought were excellent.
Q: Noah Stephens made an impressive debut?
PW: When I knew Morgan Knowles was not going to be available I had no hesitation in picking Noah.
He’s been training really and had some games in the reserves and with Swinton on dual reg and thought he deserved the opportunity.
I thought he did a really good job. My plan was to get him out earlier, but obviously the sending off affected that because I wanted to keep some interchanges in the bag for the back end of the game if we were required to keep rotating, taking blokes on and off.
But I thought when he got on the field, I asked him to do two things in the week when I picked him early on in the week and that was to make his tackles and run the ball out hard.
Q: In terms of Konrad, will you look to keep him on board for next season?
PW: At this stage, absolutely, if he keeps playing like that. Konrad’s biggest challenge has always been keeping himself fit and keeping himself on top of his physical capabilities. And when he does that, he’s as effective as anybody in the competition.
What you’re seeing in Konrad tonight is a culmination of a lot of sacrifices that he’s made throughout the course of pre-season.
Early on in the season he’s a big bloke whose Tongan and quite naturally it’s a lot harder for those blokes to stay on top of things because they don’t have the same like physical make up as what your stereo stereotypical English kid does.
So they have to make a lot more sacrifices than others.
And when Konrad does that and when he does it well and he does it consistently then you can see how effective he is. We know we all love him at the club, he is obviously a huge character you see that you see that most weeks.
And I’m really pleased for him tonight to get the rewards off for those little bits of sacrifices he does make.
Q: And Waqa Blake – to get a hat trick will help him?
PW: I actually said when we first signed him and when we came midway through preseason, I actually said at that time we’re prepared to be patient and we’re prepared to give him the time to find his feet.
He’s on his own over here, settling into a new country, a new environment, different groups of players.
For all the ability that people have that’s difficult to do at times.
Waqa has done that there and there’s been periods where I haven’t picked him because I wanted him to work hard on his fitness and put himself in a better position so when he can play he can be effective.
He showed his effectiveness tonight, he carried the ball strong out of yardage and showed what a capable finisher he is as well.
Q: Did you feel like Lewis Dodd played in a way that suggested a bit of pressure had released off his shoulders?
PW: I think so. There’s been obviously a lot of talk and a lot of noise around him and you know that can be, for all you can try and get away from it and for all you can try and ignore, it’s almost impossible in this day and age given social media and how every time you pick up your phone, your name will probably pop up.
That’s probably the situation that Lewis has found himself in for weeks, months now. And I think now the fact that the decisions made we can all move forward as a team.
He’s been honest with the group, he’s been honest with me. We’ve had strong conversations around what we need from him now moving forward to the end of the year.
My biggest challenge for Lewis is you what we loved about Lewis when he first came through the door was his enthusiasm.
He was like the kid who ran around on Halton Hornets field all those years ago, just enjoying his enjoying his rugby and not getting too caught up in all the external noise.
And that’s what I want to see from him now until the end of the year and again his showed tonight.
If he does that and he plays free and backs his ability, which he has plenty of, then he can be effective for us.
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