KONRAD Hurrell marked his return from a two-match suspension by scoring one try, setting up another and by making a series of line-denting carries when metres were hard to find.

And Curtis Sironen, in his second game back since his ban, also produced a performance that underlined what Saints miss when he is not out there.

The big second rower adds an hard edge to the Saints pack, was hard to pull down with the ball and in defence he adds real venom to the tackles.

Coach Paul Wellens was happy with what the pair brought - but pressed home what they both need to do in order to make a more consistent weekly contribution to the Saints cause.

St Helens Star:

Wellens said: “Having Curtis back last week was great and I thought he had a pretty good impact last week.

“But I thought he was much better this week.

“I think he shows the more he plays and more often he plays, the better he gets.

“The challenge for him is around the discipline side of things and making sure he stays on the field.

“One thing is for certain is that when he is on the field he makes us a better team and more he plays, the more effective he is as a player. I thought he was great for us on Thursday night.”

 

Hurrell made a telling contribution, particularly in helping clear the line in the face of an aggressive Giants defence that had them on the back foot for large parts of the game.

“Koni is probably similar to Curtis, in that the importance of having him on the team consistently is massive for us as a team,” Wellens said.

“He is a unique player; if you look at outside backs in Super League there are not many like Konrad with the way he can carry the ball and take three, four or five players.

“That takes a lot of energy out of the opposition - but not only that, you saw the subtlety and his skill for Tommy Makinson’s try.

“Sometimes how skilful a player he is can get overlooked.

“Similar to Curtis, what we are looking for now is for him to string some games together, perform consistently well for a long period because he improves our team.”