Cunningham sings Lomax’s praises

St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham was full of praise for Jonny Lomax, who was instrumental in both defence and attack on the way to a commanding 39-16 victory for the Saints.

“Jonny [Lomax] came up with some massive plays tonight. Defensively he was great and attackingly he was very good and the pendulum swung a little bit for us,” Cunningham told Sky Sports.

Despite the final result, Cunningham was disappointed with the start his team made, believing they overcomplicated things in the early stages.

“We sort of have had the cart in front of the horse in the first half,” he said.

“We tried to play a little bit of rugby when we didn’t earn the right to play rugby. That leads to forcing the issue and you end up on the wrong side of things.

“I knew what problems we could cause Catalans if completed and we did that in the second half.

“I don’t think we ever felt comfortable in the game until I took James Roby off with six minutes to go and that’s when I was comfortable. Even when you are 11 or 13 points in front.”