‘Reality check’ - St Helens left licking wounds after mauling by Leigh Leopards

Shell-shocked Saints were demolished by a four try second-half salvo at Leigh Sports Village on Friday night, crumbling to a 20-12 defeat after monopolising the first half exchanges in which the Leopards were little more than also-rans and looked on the brink of a hiding.

But the world club champions, who seven days earlier had lost to Leeds Rhinos at the Totally Wicked Stadium, repeated the unwanted feat and cannot have any complaints about the final score line.

During a 21 minute post-interval spell the newly promoted Leopards knocked the spots off their neighbours and head coach Paul Wellens didn’t mince words when assessing his side’s second setback in three Betfred Super League outings.

The head coach said: “We have a lot more to learn going forward and knew how difficult the task at Leigh was going to be but we did not handle certain things as well as we expected.

“I thought we had been taught some lessons by last week’s defeat against the Rhinos, but there’s still a lot more to learn - and we have to learn quickly if we are to retain the title.”

Winger Tommy Makison added: “This is a reality check for us after what we’ve achieved in the past but we’ve got to put it all to bed and focus on what lies ahead.’’

The absence of several key players didn’t help their cause - and the second-half sin-binning of Matty Lees only exacerbated the situation in what can only be described as a Jekyll and Hyde performance..

Indiscipline at times just added to their second half frailties and with every other team wanting to claim the prize scalp of the world champions a tough summer seems on the cards..

But it’s a case of getting back to basics and realising that you don’t become a poor side virtually overnight...

Leigh: Gareth O’Brien, Tom Briscoe, Zak Hardaker, Ricky Leutele, Josh Charnley, Joe Mellor, Lachlan Lam, Tom Amone, Matty Davis, Robbie Mulhern, Joe Shorrocks, Kai O’Donnell, John Asiata.

Saints: Jack Welsby, Tommy Makinson, Ben Davies, Mark Percival, Jon Bennison, Jonny Lomax, Lewis Dodd, Agnatius Paasi, James Roby, Matty Lees, Sam Royle, James Bell, Morgan Knowles.