Paul Wellens backs St Helens to return to winning ways following ‘alien’ start to season

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens has backed his side to return to winning ways following an ‘alien’ start to the season for his group of players.

The four-peat champions claimed the World Club Challenge over Penrith in February, but their trip to Australia has appeared to have a lasting impact on their Super League campaign so far in 2023.

St Helens have had to deal with several injury blows this year, with the likes of Alex Walmsley, Agnatius Paasi and Curtis Sironen currently sidelined, while Joe Batchelor is yet to make his first appearance of the season after suffering an ankle injury in the club’s win over St George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL pre-season challenge.

The side are four wins from eight and sit outside the play-offs in eighth position currently in Super League, an unfamiliar feeling for the current stars of the history-making side. 

“I think we can certainly grow through this experience that we’ve had.”

“It’s a bit alien to the group of players to lose as many games as we have done in the last couple of months,” head coach Wellens said during his pre-match press conference. 

“But what I would say, when we have a team that is used to winning, sometimes actually you lose a couple of games and you learn a bit more about yourself. 

“I think we can certainly grow through this experience that we’ve had. 

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of honesty amongst the group to be able to grow from this situation, but I see that in them. 

“I see how hard they want to work for each other and how much they want to improve and how much they don’t like losing.

“I think that’s really important, is that we’ve got a competitive group here that don’t like that feeling of losing and want to do something about it quickly.”

Paul Wellens previews Warrington clash

Thursday’s opposition comes in the form of Super League leaders Warrington, who enjoyed an eight-game winning streak before falling short to Wigan 13-6 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium last week.

It’s a complete contrast to last season in Daryl Powell’s debut campaign, having claimed just four wins this time last year nine rounds into the season.

Wellens paid tribute to Thursday’s opposition coach, with the televised game at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

“I think they’ve been impressive,” Wellens said.

“I think you have to pay a huge amount of credit to Daryl Powell.

“You look at last year and talk about doing it tough, he certainly did that.

“But he’s stuck to his beliefs and his principles and obviously brought in some personnel and recruited players that he wanted and is getting the results off the back of that.

“He’s certainly a coach who has turned the situation around in fine style and also they’re getting their results off the back of that now.”

St Helens v Warrington: The key thing to keep an eye on ahead of Thursday night blockbuster

FOLLOW: Keep up with all the latest on the Love Rugby League mobile app