SAINTS head coach Paul Wellens has spoken about the training week in the wake of Friday’s 46-4 hammering at Leigh Leopards.

That defeat, which featured Saints losing half-back Jack Welsby to a hamstring injury early on, marked the club’s first five-match losing streak in 38 years, so this group of players and coaches are in new territory in Saints colours.

Q: How has the mood in the camp been and what can be done in training this week to try and turn things around?

Wellens: “Obviously we’re being challenged and we know that.

“But I firmly believe that huge character really comes through when you’re challenged with tough times, not so much the good times.

“So we’re going to be challenged this week, the week after and for weeks down the track.

“We need to show our credentials as a team. We need to keep competing hard for each other and stick together and work together.

“It is unprecedented in terms of results we’ve had in recent times, but there are quite a lot of external factors that have hurt us as well.

“So in these tough periods we need myself, the staff, the playing group all to stick together and continue to work hard for each other.”

Q: What’s been learned from the loss at Leigh that’s going to help to try and turn the tide this Saturday at Hull?

Wellens: “We had some disruption there, didn’t we, and we probably didn’t handle it as well as he would have liked.

“From the Mark Percival yellow card we never regained control from then on.

“Leigh had 65 per cent of the possession and we had 35 per cent. And when you give that much ball to a good side, who are pretty confident at the moment, all it’s going to do is deplete your energy levels and I think that’s what happened to us.

“We need to get better at how we control and manage games. And that’s a challenge for us not just this week but moving forward as well.”

Q: In all of this, are there some players who are standing above and beyond showing the way needed to move forward?

Wellens: “I think there are a number of players in recent weeks.

“If you look at somebody like Matty Lees for example. He played 80 minutes against Warrington and then he backed it up with 70 minutes at the weekend.

“There are not many middles, if any middles, that will do that back-to-back weeks in Super League and that’s the situation that we find ourselves in.

“But when you have characters like that who are prepared to do it, and are happy to do it for the team, but also have the fitness levels and the capability to do it, I think you have to commend that.

“Although the results haven’t been great, you can also look at players like Curtis Sironen,Moses Mbye, James Bell and Daryl Clark have played a lot of rugby and big minutes.

“I’ve been asking a lot of them, particularly through the middle of the field. The plan was to spell Daryl Clark at the weekend but then we lost Jack Welsby, Moses ended up in the halves and Daryl had to stay out there for the full game…again.

“So when we talk about our energy levels being a bit depleted, on one hand they’re contributing to our own downfall in the amount of errors that we’re making but also we’re asking good players to do a hell of a lot more than they probably normally would do.”

* A team, fitness and injury news update is expected this afternoon.