Paul Rowley has revealed that St Helens wonderkid Harry Robertson missed the club’s defeat to Castleford Tigers through injury.
Robertson, who had been an ever-present so far this season, was a surprise name to drop out of the squad following last week’s win over Huddersfield Giants.
The 20-year-old was replaced by the returning Mark Percival, with Saints having ‘one in, one out’ in terms of their injured centres.
Rowley confirmed that the coaching staff opted not to risk the speedster in this game, as any potential aggravation of that injury could lead to a long-term blow.
“He got a bit of a slight quad tear in training,” the Saints boss said post-match. “It’s a ‘days, not weeks’ repair.
“He’ll be fully raring to go, but the consequences of him playing and doing more damage would have been months, so it’s just precaution.”
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Paul Rowley assesses shock St Helens defeat to Castleford Tigers
The boss was honest in his words when describing the game, saying that he can’t argue that the performance was described as “awful.”
With double figures in errors and double figures in the penalty count, Rowley said: “They contribute to fatigue, and that contributes to physicality.
“…Cas had [momentum] for the entire 80 minutes, so credit to them.”
Being 10-0 down at the break, Rowley thought his side didn’t lack effort in the first half, but singled out a key series of events in the second stanza that epitomised the game as a whole.
He said: “The way to change momentum is to score the first points of the second half, which we did. Catch the ball [from the kick-off], which we didn’t, and have a solid set after points, which we didn’t.”
He added: “You change momentum by completing and defending tough and backing yourself in that arm wrestle, but we didn’t do that.”
