Wellens Q&A: Discipline, Morgan Knowles, Leeds and selection

MC: The team’s success has been built on its toughness this last four or five seasons but how do you drill into them there is a line?

PW: It's finding what that line is and that where I've got to take responsibility.

On reflection, I don't feel I have been strong enough with the group in terms of identifying what is and isn't acceptable.

We have a number of players here who like to play the game physically and like to play the game what I like to call ‘on the edge’.

But if you are one of those players and that's the way you like to play the game, then discipline is the most important thing for you and too many times this year we've just gone not just over the line but way beyond the line.

I've used last week, and the incidents from previously as a real opportunity to draw a line in the sand in terms of what I expect of the players moving forward.

Look, I don't want the players to not play aggressively. I don't want them to not want to get off the line and defend tough and all those types of things. But there's a certain moderation of behaviour required if you're going play the game in that way.

We need to fix that up and fix it very quickly.

MC: Looking at Morgan Knowles - there is a saying give a dog a bad name and it sticks.

PW: Morgan knows that he is going to be a marked man in those types of instances now – and that is even more reason now to moderate his behaviour slightly.

The challenge for Morgan is to keep his identity. What's made him a real successful player and one of the best forwards in the competition is the fact that he can play physical.

We don't want to take that away from him but what I've managed to do this week is sit down with him and define some areas in terms of where he’s probably overstepped the mark.

If he can nail that down and become more disciplined then he still remains the best forward in the competition for me.

So it's a challenge for him, but one that I'm sure he's prepared to take on.

MC: A few weeks ago you spoke about getting Morgan Knowles and James Bell on the field at the same time coming back.

Last week you started Morgan at prop – do you see him playing a little bit more as a front row middle?

PW: No, I see primarily Morgan sharing that number 13 role alongside James Bell. I think they can complement each other fantastically.

I still believe that Morgan Knowles is the is the best 13 in this competition and he’s got to calm his discipline down a little bit and off he makes make sure he he's on the field more often because he's a real asset to our team and the players love playing alongside him.

I love coaching him I see that primarily as his role, but having been missing Matty Lees last week, I thought it was an opportunity to get a player in Morgan who's similar to Matty in the respect that he can play at great intensity for long minutes.

So it's an option that we do have up our sleeve should we need it moving forward.

MC: You get Konrad Hurrell and other players back this week – that will give you a bit of a selection headache in both in the pack and backs?

PW: Absolutely. Mark Percival is very close to returning as well - this week is probably a little bit too soon for him.

But we're going to have options there and competition for places. One thing that I'm a firm believer in is successful sides have is a real competition for places.

Players know that every week when they take the field, they've got someone snapping at their heels.

If they don't perform close to their best and live up to the standards that we expect here at St Helens then they can very easily find themselves out of the team as well.

So competition for places is really important and with some returning bodies this week and some more hopefully coming back next week, we're going to get more and more of that.

MC: Just to confirm again - Jonny Lomax was cleared with his head injury even though he did not return?

PW: My plan at the weekend with having Jon Bennison on the bench was to bring him on if the score scoreboard was favourable for us and to not play Jonny the full 80 minutes.

So my plan was to bring Jonny off and put Jon Bennison at full back and Jack Welsby into the halves.

Jonny came off for a head injury assessment, which he passed, but we then deemed it not necessary to put him back out there.

So it was kind of all part of the plan but it came about a little bit differently than we imagined.

MC: Looking at Leeds and reflecting on the last meeting – a game that was in the bag but lost in the last 10 minutes, but what did you learn from that experience?

PW: That you have got to keep performing, keep competing and you have got to nail opportunities when you get them and you have got to stay disciplined.

At some point in that game we were looking really comfortable and then you know what Leeds can do.

They can move the ball on you, they can come up some plays, they can hurt you in different areas and if you drop your standards or take a play off then Leeds will punish you in that sense.

That's a real challenge for us again this week and something that we're going to have to aim up.

MC: There has been an enduring rivalry between St Helens and Leeds, even going back to the 70s. What is it that this fixture brings out and what is it about Headingley that adds to it?

PW: Going to Headingley is always a really exciting challenge for any player, a wonderful stadium and always a great atmosphere there. So it's an environment that the players relish and it you know it's a genuine big game that excites players.

Going back a long, long way, there's always been a healthy rivalry between Saints and Leeds, but I think the fact that we have played each other in so many big games, certainly in the recent history, whether that be grand Finals or Challenge Cup semi finals, play-off games, different things like that.

You know we seem to always meet each other at various points. So over a long time a rivalry has been built there between the two clubs.

But I think, like most rivalries in the game, it's a respectful one. It's one that's built on integrity and respect for each other.

It's one that excites our playing group and you know we're looking forward to this challenge on the weekend as well.

MC: All of a sudden we're getting very close to the midway point, and the teams are very clustered between second and eighth. Does that reinforce that urgency to be picking up wins?

PW: I think what we want to do is start performing well consistently. The biggest problem for us this year has been the consistency in our performance.

So that is the challenge for us, first and foremost, and getting back to playing the way we play. That means sticking to our identity and what works for us as a team is really important for us.

And I feel that whenever we have had success in recent years, we've never really got too caught up on results.

We focus on the performance and have confidence that with the quality that we've got within our ranks that if we go out there and focus on performing well the scoreboard generally takes care of itself.

MC: There is still the game in hand but nevertheless it is so tight in the top half, and involving so many teams.

PW: That's part of my message to the team this week when I spoke about discipline.

If we'd have handled fewer areas a bit differently in terms of discipline, we'd probably we'd be sat around second or third and people would be speaking about us a little bit differently than they are at the moment.

And that's how important it is to get it right because different decisions like that can hurt you and hurt you pretty badly, particularly as you get to the back end of the season.

So consistency of performance, consistency in terms of meeting our standards is crucial for us.

And we need to start doing that and doing that well to start climbing our way up the table.

MC: Looking at the Challenge Cup draw you are going to doing plenty of travelling in June, aren't you, but what do you make of Hull FC away in the quarter final?

PW: Hull away is always a great challenge and it's always a tough place to go. It's similar to Leeds as it always has a great atmosphere there and the whole crowd really do get behind them.

And with it being a cup game as well, it obviously adds a little bit more to it. We go there again the week in the league.

So the M62 has seen plenty of us recently, but we embrace that challenge it's something that if you want to go on and be successful, go to Wembley and win the cup then those are the types of challenges that you've got rise to.

MC: And finally, this week Kyle Amor has announced he's hanging up his boots. He’s had quite a career?

PW: Obviously on behalf of the club and myself personally and the rest of the playing wish Kyle all the best for his future endeavours. He is now doing a wonderful job as pundit/commentator every weekend, and we are probably seeing more of him now on the TV screens than I did when he was here.

Kyle is a great guy who was a wonderful player in his career. He was certainly a wonderful player for us and no real contributor to the success that we had here at St Helens.

On behalf of everybody, we wish him all the best in the future.