12-8 at Craven Park.<\/a> It was a tight, edgy and defence-orientated clash with neither side being able to build prolonged spells of dominance.<\/p>\nAnd, there were just two tries scored in the game with Joe Burgess and Deon Cross touching down in the second half. Ultimately, then, it was the boot of Rhyse Martin which proved to be the difference, with the second-rower kicking four penalties in the contest.<\/p>\n
As such, while they didn\u2019t get the points, Wellens was pleased with the grit, determination and defensive resolve his side showed for large periods as they begin to prepare themselves for the play-offs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a really high quality game in terms of the effort and intensity, a play-off feel to it,\u201d Wellens said after the contest. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the players, the way they kept going and there was period where we were under immense pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen or 11 weeks ago, we came here and wilted under that pressure but we certainly didn\u2019t do that tonight. We\u2019ve come a long way as a team but quite naturally we\u2019re disappointed in there. I think that\u2019s a sign of where we\u2019re at as a team at the moment, there\u2019s a lot to like about our game but there\u2019s a few areas that if we are going to be successful, that\u2019s not anything to do with effort and I\u2019m confident we can clean that up.\u201d<\/p>\n
St Helens boss addresses controversial referee calls<\/p>\n
The first points of the game came in the first half after a captain\u2019s challenge revealed Mikey Lewis had been hit late, somewhat controversially.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoft,\u201d Wellens said when asked what he thought about the decision and the captain\u2019s challenge. \u201cThat\u2019s almost re-refereeing the game for me. There\u2019s nothing in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had one penalty in the first half when Morgan Knowles got cleaned out and one just before half-time when Mark Percival kicked the goal. I\u2019m not so sure we got our fair share of the calls tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be really clear, Hull KR deserved to win the game, I thought they were exceptional at times. But sometimes you have to get the balance right from wanting the game to flow and allowing someone to be three metres offside, he pressures the kicker and he snuffs his kick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can say he should kick the ball better but the guy making the tackle can\u2019t be three metres in front of the referee. That happened too much tonight for my liking and we didn\u2019t get one single call in that area until it was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n
St Helens had a spell with 12 men on the field in the first half too with George Delaney hitting Eribe Doro high. Doro stayed on which might have spared Delaney, showing the lack of force, but it was similar to the yellow he received at Wakefield Trinity a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see quite a lot of those instances where a player is running upright at you and he gets tackled with his legs and starts to fall,\u201d Wellens added. \u201cWe can watch that in slow motion but imagine being George Delaney and that\u2019s happening at 100mph in front of you. It\u2019s hard to be critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we will do is try and find ways of being better if we can. It\u2019s being hyper-critical of George there I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rovers were given a yellow card early doors as well, with Rhyse Martin catching Morgan Knowles high. In that instance the impact was enough to force Knowles off the field and he went on to fail a HIA, meaning he will sit out of the clash with Wigan Warriors next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough one for us,\u201d the head coach admitted. \u201cThere\u2019s no getting away from that, he\u2019s pivotal to what we do at times with the ball and without the ball. We\u2019ll have to find a way of offsetting that loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the team did tonight, they showed how you offset that by not getting caught up in the fact Knowles wasn\u2019t there. Someone comes onto the field and they give their best effort. Joe Batchelor did that tonight, he\u2019s not played a lot of rugby for a while but he played in the middle for a long period at a real good intensity. That\u2019s what we need now, players coming into the team and stepping up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756254191_292_srl-logo.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Wellens was proud of his St Helens side\u2019s showing on Friday night despite seeing them fall just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-102673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"St](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AM20191.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n