SAINTS boss Keiron Cunningham has urged his team to “look after” Luke Walsh a lot better after the star scrum half was targeted as the spot player by Leeds’ aggressive attack on Friday.

Clearly still regaining match fitness after recovering from last July’s horrendous broken leg and ankle injury Walsh has understandably yet to re-discover his own high standards with the ball.

Although opposing teams are going out of their way to make sure Walsh gets plenty of heavy traffic coming his way in defence, Cunningham expects those around his linchpin to help out more on his edge of the field.

Cunningham said: “I have not flown Luke Walsh 12,000 miles to make 50 tackles a match – he is here to run this team for me.

“Luke is back in the team after suffering a really serious injury and although he has been having trouble with his toe, he has been flying in training this week.

“I felt Luke was let down pretty badly by some players around him on Friday night.”

Having won the five previous games prior to Walsh’s return to the team, Saints have struggled in the three games since the Australian scrum half slotted back in.

It is almost as if the team knew that they had to give 110 per cent while they were depleted and have subsequently relaxed from that position since the cavalry arrived.

Saints must now re-discover the mentality that saw them win at Hull, see off Warrington at Magic and defeat Wigan as they push through the closing stages of part one of Super League and into the Challenge Cup semi final.

Having lost their last two league matches the placings at the top end of the table have suddenly clustered.

Huddersfield and Castleford have been bobbing along nicely under the radar, meaning that Friday’s game is effectively a four-pointer.

With three games to go Saints have to win two of them to make sure of a place in the top four at the Super 8 split and secure the extra home fixture that goes with that.

Cunningham said: “We have learnt a lot from that and have done some soul searching over the weekend. We had a tough video session and trained hard on Monday. The boys looked sharp and on the money.

“There’s no point raking over old ground now as that doesn’t change anything. I was disappointed and emotional after the game and wanted something more than I got.

“It doesn’t matter what I say to the players now, or the press, or anyone, about how bad they played. No one will feel more down than the players themselves.

“As a player nothing anyone could say would make me feel any worse about myself after a performance like that. The challenge is there now, the gauntlet is laid and they have to respond.

“It is a big game this week and the Giants will be coming to play. I’d like to think we aren’t a bad side ourselves though despite what happened on Friday.

“I am more than confident if we turn up that we will be a tough side to beat.