Paul Wellens reacts to ‘soul destroying’ defeat as St Helens coach credits Warrington Wolves

St Helens coach Paul Wellens admitted it felt ‘soul destroying’ to bow out of the Super League play-offs in golden point, but paid tribute to Warrington Wolves on reaching the semi-finals.

A touchline conversion from Saints centre Mark Percival on the full-time hooter sent their game with Warrington into Golden Point, with Wolves half-back George Williams adding a drop goal in extra-time to seal a 23-22 win for the home side at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

“In the immediate aftermath it’s just soul destroying really,” Wellens said in his post-match press conference.

“First of all, I thought it was an unbelievable game of rugby league. That’s what rugby league should look like, if rugby league looks like every week they tune in every week, people turn up on the terraces every week. Credit to both sets of players in that respect.

“I’m really proud of the playing group, the team and everyone connected with the club but obviously you carry that huge disappointment of being on the wrong side of the result.

“I think we gifted them 12 points and, if you do that in a big game, you are always going to make it difficult. We still could have got on the right side of the result despite that, but we hurt ourselves in a couple of big moments which we have to reflect honestly on and have to find improvement on moving forward. We didn’t make those mistakes through lack of effort.

“We never went away from the game and that’s what I’m really proud of. Earlier on in the year, I mentioned we had a bit of an identity crisis and what we’ve done in recent weeks is reconnected with that: and despite losing a couple of those close games, we haven’t strayed. We didn’t stray today, we kept playing our style of footy and kept playing the way we want to play and the way we enjoy playing, and that’s really encouraging for me moving forward.

RELATED: 6 conclusions from Warrington Wolves’ win over St Helens

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m so disappointed we’re not in the semi-final next week. I can’t state that enough because I feel, in the balance of the game, we maybe deserved that. But at the same time, we’ve lost games this year in a really ugly manner and even though losing tonight is really disappointing, it’s much easier to take when we haven’t rolled over – far from it.”

Saints’ defeat means their season is over, whilst Warrington face a trip to Hull KR next Friday night in the semi-finals for a place in the Grand Final at Old Trafford.

“And the final thing, just credit to Warrington, Sam and his team,” Wellens added.

“Obviously they are on the right side of the result and we’re on the wrong side of the result but I think both teams contributed to what was an unbelievable spectacle of rugby league. If rugby league is like that every week, then we’ve not got any problems at all.”

READ NEXT: Everything Warrington Wolves coach Sam Burgess said after St Helens win