Paul Wellens rues Saints' discipline and lack of composure

Although it appeared to like a straight-forward win was on the cards at one stage, Saints went off the boil -and kept invited an adventurous Leigh side to keep testing them.

And a big moment in Saints' unravelling came with Matty Lees' second half sin binning - with the Leopards pouncing twice in that 10 minute-spell to get a grip of a game that would never relinquish.

Wellens believes his side pressed the self-destruct button with their carelessness with the ball and ill-discipline.

He said: "The start of the game I thought we were totally dominant and in control, similar to last week.

"But - particularly when you come to places like this - it is important to stay in control.

"There are periods where you are going to be put under pressure - but we put ourselves under pressure far too many times tonight.

"When you do that at a place like this and bring the crowd into the game and they start to sense that they are in with a chance it becomes more difficult."

Saints had two players yellow carded last week and one sent off, and at Leigh the card for Lees proved their undoing.

"Obviously, at the end discipline again lets us down - not just that incident, there were a number of incidents there," he said.

"But it’s one of those situations where if we don’t learn, and learn quick then we are going to find ourselves in the same predicament moving forward.

"It was a big moment in the game. Leesy is disappointed, as you would expect. The way he chases the kick, that effort and energy is everything you want in a player, so I find it hard to be too critical."He is wanting to try and influence the result - but again, there’s a line and that was crossed with Leesy tonight and we’ve paid the price."

Newly promoted Leigh won their first game of the season last week at Hull KR after giving Catalans a tough game the week before - so Wellens knew what they were capable of. 

"They made it really difficult for us," he said.

"They came with a bit of a blueprint and they challenged us really well with the ball and with some steel and determination with the way they wanted to defend.

"We didn’t expect them to do anything really different.

"We watched their game last week against Hull KR and know how good of a side they are and how difficult this was going to be, but we did not handle certain things as well as we need to.

"I thought we had learned some lessons from last week, but there’s a lot more to learn.

"And we have got to learn those moving forward."

Saints started brightly and twice opened up the Leopards to take a grip of the game - but then they fell away from their game.

"In the first half we linked up well and had some great ball movement and challenged them on the edges and got a great try through Jon Bennison doing exactly that," Wellens said.

"We just went away from it in the second half, albeit we did not have as much possession - particularly in their half of the field.

"We looked disjointed and like we were not on the same page a bit of the time.

"That is something we as a coaching team need to look at - and look at quickly - so we can improve that because we know that when we are connecting and playing together we are a very threatening side."

With a number of Saints fans voting with their feet and walking off before the hooter it looks a world away from the heady days of last month in Penrith.

But that stems from a change on the pitch that Wellens is keen to address.

He said: "My biggest concern - in relation to the difference three weeks ago - is that we play in a huge game, that is tight and chaotic - but there was a composure and a trust in each other and a willingness to do what is needed in staying calm to see ourselves over the line.

"What we have had in the last couple of weeks is a lack of composure and almost been flustered at times.

"We need to handle those situations better - which we have done in the past, that is why it is more surprising.

"The first place I have got to look is myself - and whether I can do anything different to help the team moving forward."

On a difficult night Wellens praised the contribution of Jake Wingfield off the bench and Sam Royle 80-minutes in the back row and James Bell on the other side, with both stepping in for the two were suspended.

"Then you had James Roby, who was a warrior in the middle again, and who just keeps turning up," Wellens said.

"There were some pleasing individual performance tonight but I am more concerned about the team performance.

"What happened tonight was that there were too many people doing things on their own rather than working as a team and playing as a team, something we have built our success on."