No shame in St Helens defeat, says Toronto’s Jon Wilkin

Toronto back-rower Jon Wilkin says there is no shame in their 32-0 defeat to St Helens, the first time the Wolfpack have failed to score in the club’s short history.

The Super League champions put in a ruthless display at the Halliwell Jones Stadium to send Toronto to their fifth successive defeat in their maiden season in the competition.

Wilkin told Sky Sports: “To be nilled by such a great defensive team in St Helens, there’s no shame in that. It was a shame how we attacked. I thought that was our problem. We just couldn’t get it going with the ball.

“Credit to St Helens, they just played with a different intensity to us. But we’re learning. There’s a misconception… I don’t know what people expected of us this year but we’ve just got a lot of learning to do an we’ll do better.

“There’s no easy games in this league. I played with St Helens for 17 years and you never took anything for granted. There’s no easy games in Super League, they’re all tough and none are tougher than these guys tonight. They’ve been the best side in Super League for three years and you can see why.”

Having now lost to all of last season’s top five, Toronto face a tricky trip to Leeds on Thursday night, with the Rhinos buoyed by their 36-0 win over Warrington last night.

They then travel to Huddersfield for a Wednesday night Challenge Cup tie, before taking on Wakefield at York on March 22.

Another trip to Huddersfield, this time in Super League, follows and then a trip to Catalans before they finally play a game in Canada, welcoming Hull to Lamport Stadium on April 18.