SAINTS need to be more ruthless according to Head Coach Keiron Cunningham following their 24-12 loss to Wigan on Good Friday.
“We had a couple of opportunities which we didn’t post and in those big games you have very limited chances,” he said. “We created quite a few opportunities but didn’t finish them off. I thought we started really well – in fact it was probably our best this year, but when the second wave of players came on the field one thing led to another and we ended up chasing our tail.
“Possession in rugby league does ebb and flow, but we put ourselves in a bad spot in the last 15 minutes of the first half. You can’t win a game on the back foot. It felt like we were surviving for long periods.
“Our left edge didn’t help us either. We have to make sides earn tries and we aren’t doing that at the moment. Jack Owens made a poor read on the first play but he is a young kid who is learning and I thought overall he had a decent game.
“But apart from that, some of the tries they didn’t have to earn. We had to fight and scrap for what we did. It was disappointing but we have another big one on Monday to get over it.”
He continued: “You can’t question the effort of the players in the second half. They fought well and showed guts and determination to get back into it but we have to be more ruthless. We can’t be this side that is famous for conceding tries and chasing it back.
“We have to be ruthless, grind it out and kick the ball long – like Matty Smith did this afternoon. But that is my headache to have and no one else’s.
“It does hurt. It is two points like last week and this coming Monday but emotionally there is a lot more around it.
“We want to win these games but we have to perform better for longer periods.
“We have to get some combinations we can work with. We need them on both sides of the field. We can’t build unless we have a stable defensive line and we haven’t got that.”
