SAINTS coach Paul Wellens has responded with facts to dismiss Sky pundit Phil Clarke’s accusations that his side were cheating with the way they sought to slow the play the ball down against Huddersfield.

The former Wigan loose forward made the claims after the game, throwing in the incendiary words of “effectively cheating” and calling for action.

Those words have incensed Saints fans since Thursday, but Wellens calmly responded by simply pointing to the Opta stats since 2021.

Wellens declared that these show that his side are more sinned against than sinners - and returned serve with the question: “Who is lying on who?”

Asked about Clarke’s comments in the weekly media briefing Wellens said: "I have known something for quite a while (on the statistics).

“But what I would say first and foremost is I don't think there's a coach in Super League or the NRL, or a rugby coach anywhere in the world, who isn't trying to get their players to win tackles and in effect slow down the opposition.

"There's no coach who would prefer to concede a try than give away six again and we're no different and we have got a group of players, who work hard in that area.

“What I will say around Phil Clarke is that I like Phil, and I've always respected him and his right to his opinion and that has not changed.

“But at the same time I think it was probably a little bit ill-judged, particularly when he used the word ‘cheating’ because one thing this team hasn't done is cheat its way to success over the last few years.

“When you talk about the ruck area, what I can tell you about from facts and the Opta statistics from 2021 when we won the competition, is we averaged the slowest play-the-ball in the competition.

“In 2022, when we won the competition, we had the slowest play-the-ball, and this year we currently sit joint-last in the average play the ball speed.

“I would ask Phil the question which team is lying on who because with the devastating ball carriers we have, we don’t have much luck in terms of coming out on top in the average play-the-ball speed.

“That's just food for thought the other way. Opinion is opinion, but sometimes you need to look at the facts."