St Helens boss explains reasons behind Saints’ two key positional changes

THERE were some frowns when teenager George Whitby did not keep his place in the team for yesterday’s game despite being one of the few positive notes from the previous week’s home defeat by Hull KR.

However, coach Paul Wellens’ decision to switch the more experienced Moses Mbye to seven to partner Jonny Lomax was vindicated with the end result – namely two valuable league points.

Mbye’s kicking game was excellent – booming the ball down field with some clearance kicks but also pinning the Giants back with some shorter chips that were backed up by a good chase.

As an added bonus, the former NRL man’s cover defence was exemplary as Saints moved into fourth spot with three games to go.

Wellens said: “He was really strong there and that’s why I made the decision because I knew exactly what I was going to get with Moses there.

“And that’s no sleight on young George Whitby, and I thought he handled a difficult situation last week really well.

“But I don’t think I’d be helping his development if I had thrown him out there again this week.

So I’m certainly taking a long term view with George, who’s going to be an outstanding player for this club moving forward.”

That was not the only change, with experienced Sione Mata’utia – who has played most of his rugby at Saints in the pack – solidifying Saints’ left edge by moving to centre.

Mata’utia, who we still do not know whether he is staying or leaving Saints at the end of the year, was also really aggressive in defence and took his opportunity with the ball to score a second half try.

“Sione was really good – he’s not played centre for a bit but slotted in there and he looked like he’d never been away.

“He defended really well and was up and aggressive and again, that that kind of falls back into when I talk about identities.

“We’re at our best when we’re moving up quick, when we are aggressive and when we are putting teams under pressure.

“Huddersfield made a lot of errors today that they probably won’t be happy with. But a lot of those errors were what we forced as well.”