NATHAN Brown has reiterated the need for his charges to be more physical.
Saints were dominated by a resurgent Huddersfield pack last Saturday and Saints Head Coach says a repeat is possible if they aren’t on the mark this weekend.
“If you’re not physically in the contest, things can fall the opposition’s way,” he said. “Everyone has games like that during the year and unfortunately ours came in round one which makes it worse.
“It has happened now though and we know we have to step up physically this week. The players were down, their pride was out and we didn’t plan on playing like that. They have taken their share of responsibility and the coaches have too.
“St Helens did the same to Leeds last year and they ended up playing at Wembley and won the Grand Final. If you don’t turn up physically then what happened can happen to anyone.
“We were happy with our progression from one friendly to the next and the way we trained; maybe we got a little bit confident.”
Brown doesn’t expect to make many changes ahead of the match at Widnes on Sunday and knows the Vikings will be buoyant after a solid win at London.
“I’m not into making mass changes after one result; I was confident with that squad of 19 or 20 ahead of the Giants game and I am confident they can do the job this weekend.
“Widnes did well at the weekend and we know Gareth Hock will be handful as will Kevin Brown. They have continued where they left off last year.
“I have been around too long to worry about pressing the panic button; if you look at every season good teams that don’t physically turn up get beat and that’s what happened to us last Saturday.
“I think in sport you can get talent, effort and commitment the wrong way round. You can’t just rely on talent. You need to have the effort and commitment first and then the talent follows. The players at St Helens know what effort is required and know what is needed. Perhaps we got a little too confident. We need effort, commitment and can’t rely on talent.”
