‘The complete winger’ – St Helens star hailed as one of the world’s best

England and St Helens star Tommy Makinson is one the best wingers in the world, according to his club coach Paul Wellens.

Makinson showed his class at Magic Weekend with four tries in their 48-6 demolition of Huddersfield on Sunday.

The 31-year-old received huge praise from Wellens after his impressive try scoring exploits at St James’ Park.

Wellens said: “I’m absolutely delighted for this fella.

“Me and Tommy have had numerous conversations over the last few weeks. Whilst he’s not been playing poorly, I’ve always said to him ‘you’ve got more in your game’.

“People will talk about Tommy Makinson scoring four tries but I loved his defensive work, the way he got up at the end of the line, making strong decisions.

“When Tommy gets that side of his game right as well as his finishing which he is undoubtedly wonderful at – I think you’ve got the complete winger and that’s why he’s one of the best wingers in the world.”

Tommy Makinson calls for St Helens to build on Magic performance

It has been a mixed start for the Saints, who sit six in the Super League table, having won nine from 13 games in Super League this season.

The Saints, who won the World Club Challenge earlier this year, need to build on their clinical display at Magic Weekend, according to Makinson.

He said: “It breeds energy, I think that’s something we’ve been lacking.

“I think the first half of the year we haven’t consistently performed at a level that we know we can, whether that’s energy or whether things haven’t clicked, but we were able to perform for 80 minutes (at Magic) and show what we can do.

“We don’t get ahead of ourselves at this club, we know it comes with hard work and that’s like my game as well.

“Some games you can fly through and score two and think you’ve played well but in the reality of it, you need to get your complete game right and that’s when all of us are up there with the best players.

“We all know the energy we can play at. Speaking from a personal level, the first six or seven rounds we felt down on energy, I know a couple of lads felt that as well but lads go through different stuff. Obviously on the back of a World Cup and we went to Australia but at the end of the day we just didn’t perform the way we can.

“We are a great team, we know we are, but if we don’t perform to our level then we’ll get beat.

“There were different factors that played but you’ve just got to play at a level that St Helens Rugby can do and I think today, for 80 minutes there were 17 lads performing the way they can and the result came our way.”

Next up for St Helens is a derby clash with rivals Wigan on Friday night, 8pm kick-off at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

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