Wellens on Saints win, early Leeds cyclone and injury update

He also gave an injury update on Curtis Sironen and Tommy Makinson - with neither featuring and the latter pulling out in warm-up.

MC: You had to withstand a fair bit of fire on that first 20/25 minutes?

PW: Did we ever…it was almost like we had been hit by cyclone and I thought there was a combination of things there.

They started the game with much more intent than we did and obviously with the way they like to promote the ball and move the ball and then with the agility and the athleticism of some of their players they can really hurt you, particularly when the ruck gets quick.

On the flip side, from our perspective, we probably need to be better in terms of our intent and how we start the game because we very quickly lost control. It took some time then to win it back.

MC: You had to scramble – and you did do that successfully, but you’ll be looking at the areas that caused that.

PW: Yeah, there's a number of things. Middles, edges, I thought just thought that as a collective our intent around our defensive work at the start of the game wasn't where it needed to be.

What was there like you've identified, was our willingness to scramble and work hard for each other. You end up probably working harder than you probably would have done in the first place if we hard worked hard early and we just didn't quite have that at the start of the game.

MC: A fair bit of disruption before the game – with Tommy Makinson pulling out?

MC: Tommy just pulled up tight with his hamstring in the warm up and couldn't feel like he could open up and you know when it's like that you probably foolish to take risk.

So we had a very, very last minute reshuffle and had some tough decisions to make under pressure, but we had obviously Jon Bennison moved to the right wing, Waqa Blake moved to the left wing, Matty Whitley moved to the centre and Joe Batchelor came off the bench, George Delaney came onto the bench.

So there's a number of changes that we had after losing one. Whether I got that decision right or not, I am not too sure, but it's a credit to the playing group really that they can handle that disruption and still go out there and get results.

With Tommy we will get the necessary scans done, but in all my time in the game I have never seen anyone with a hamstring issue come back in one week.

It might just be a bit of tightness and just need freeing up, and he’s good to play and then great. But if he is not then we will adapt like we did tonight.

MC: Your bench had a big influence on that game, but one of your starters Morgan Knowles was a tower of strength?

PW: Morgs is probably one of those that flies under the radar a little bit and toughness and way he plays the game week in, week out has almost become normal.

But I think he was probably the standout forward on the field there tonight. But what I think he is doing really well is getting the balance right between playing tough and physical, but also using his skill when he gets the opportunity.

MC: For Matty Lees that's quite a way to come back from quite a serious ailment - especially to break the line like that?

PW: That was our first real set in their half when Matty makes that break.

And Matty has obviously had a very rough period of time with the number of illnesses and different things have gone on there. We are prepared to be patient with Matty but it was just great to see him back out there this evening and get some minutes under his belt.

MC: How important was that score just before half time given the fact that they’d been on top for so long.

PW: I think it was important. You go in at 8-nil down and it is a very different game than 8-6 and obviously the psychological blow as well there in that instance.

By no means did that help us win the game but it was just obviously a good time to score, a good time to get ourselves back in the game given the fact that we'd been second best for long periods.

MC: Leeds really turned the screw at the start of the second half in forcing drop out and winning repeat sets. You had to come off the ropes there with the try?

PW: What I was really pleased with was that we made an error in that second-half and then ended up having to defend our line for two or three sets.

You've got to be able to do that, you've got to have that in your locker.

And whilst I'm sat there as a coach and the players you'd rather not have to do it, if you're going to be successful as a team, you've got to know that you can do it.

So I was really pleased that we stood up to that threat and then went down the other end and scored.

Good sides have that in them and I thought that that showed us tonight.

MC: Longer minutes from Moses Mbye tonight…is Daryl Clark ok as he didn’t return?

PW: Daryl is fine. it was a bit of a difficult one because we did have the late disruption, our substitutes plan went kind of went out the window a little bit.

My plan was to always get Daryl back on at the back end of the game and finish.

But we also had Joe Batchelor out there who we planned to play limited game time tonight.

So I was really concerned whether he could finish the game.

So I was holding Daryl back because we might have needed Morgan Knowles in the second row or something like that, so I kept him off.

And then I just thought we were travelling OK and didn't want to cause any more disruption than we had tonight. Daryl's fine.

He's an important player for us and has shown his quality since he's come here. We've got a big month coming up, so we're going to need all hands on deck.

MC: That is a big shift from Joe in his first real game of the season?

PW: He's come in off the back of an injury and that was his first game back tonight and actually thought his game got better as the as the game went on.

I thought he got caught, like the rest of the team, in a bit of a tumble dryer at the start of the game.

But one thing that Joe prides himself on is his effort and fitness and I thought that came to the fore at the back end of the game when we needed him.

MC: Konrad Hurrell’s best game of the season so far and he put a dent in the line a few times?

PW: Koni has really knuckled down throughout the course of pre season.

He's been really honest with himself and Konrad knows that if he looks after himself off the field and invests in his fitness, he's a player that's unique to us and gives us something a bit different.

What he does when he's at his best, is value the hard work first. He values the stuff that he does off the field to put himself in the best position and Konrad has done that really well over the last couple of months.

MC: And same again next week with the same opponents?

PW: Yeah, it's almost a review preview, isn't it? It's the same team, but a completely different challenge. We know that they're going to be disappointed off the back of losing that game.

We know that they're going to know that there were periods in that game where they were in the ascendancy and they're going to look at areas where they can improve – just as we are.

So although we are playing the same team it is probably going to be a different game next week and we need to be prepared for that.

MC: What is up with Curtis Sironen?

PW: He had a bit of a back spasm during the week, which again is something that if push comes to shove and we really forced it we could have played him.

But given where the squad health is are at the moment there's probably no need to take unnecessary risks and make something which is a short term problem a long term problem.

So we made what I feel is a sensible decision with Curtis there.