ROYCE Simmons pulled no punches when he declared Saints’ match against Wakefield as possibly the worst he had seen in rugby league.
Although his charges convincingly won 46-6 and it was a case of “job done” he admitted he wouldn’t be ordering the DVD for old times sake.
And, once again, Saints are counting the cost as four players could miss this Friday’s clash with Catalans after sustaining injuries in the win and in the lead up to the trip.
“I have to say that was very close to the worst game of rugby league I have ever seen in my life,” he said. “It was a very scrappy game. There was a lot of dropped ball, most of it not under any sort of pressure and as a result it was a very ordinary game of football.
“Sure it was job done, but we wouldn’t use it to advertise the game would we?
“We lost Paul Wellens during the week to an Achilles problem. It has been scanned and shows no sign of major damage but when he tried to run and push off it he couldn’t.
“We also lost three players in the match too. Cloughie [Paul Clough] has been out for 13 weeks and he comes back in and does an ankle. Wilko [Jon Wilkin] twisted his and then Francis Meli also has an Achilles problem.
“We’ve had a couple of Achilles issues over the last few weeks – the ground is hard at present and we’ll have to look at footwear to see if we can change that.
“We are disappointed for Cloughie. He hasn’t played for 13 weeks and we had to get him off. That shows how serious that injury is. Jon has had an ankle problem and has been playing with it. So like Meli’s we’ll have to monitor it.
“I think at least three of those men will be doubtful for Friday’s game as we have such a short turnaround.”
Despite the spectacle, Simmons did take time out to praise Kyle Eastmond who played at full back and scored two tries.
“We told Kyle to get in the middle and back up and he did that. He jumped on the back of breaks from Robes and TP and he had the speed to finish them off. He also got a full game under his belt too which is good for him.”
Saints are next in action this Friday (July 15) when they take on Catalan Dragons in the Super League.
Billed as the Pink Vee Charity Match for Breast Cancer awareness, it kicks off at 8pm.
Tickets for the game are on sale from the Saints Ticket Office in St Helens Town Centre, from 01744 455 052 or by logging on to www.saintssuperstore.com
