St Helens' Paul Wellens lauds world-class Tommy Makinson as Huddersfield hit

04 June 2023 , 16:21

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St Helens' Tomy Makinson celebrates one of his tries (Image: Getty Images)

Tommy Makinson scored four tries as champions St Helens heaped pressure on under-fire Huddersfield boss Ian Watson.

The England winger, 31, also created another for Joey Lussick with a cheeky flick pass and kicked six goals for a 28 point personal haul. He and Saints mopped up against their shambolic opponents at Magic Weekend. Makinson’s first came when Giants were down to 12 men after Luke Yates was sin-binned for a cannonball tackle.

Running off Jonny Lomax’s perfect passes, he rattled off four by the 66th minute. Boss Paul Wellens said: "I’m very happy. I had a great feeling all week. We had real energy about us and I sensed a big performance. I don’t mean in terms of racking up points but a team sticking to their identity.

“Tommy’s a beneficiary of all the great work from the halves on his inside. Our seven, six and one were instrumental and worked together the best they have done for some time. It’s the best we’ve attacked in some time and it’s a blueprint for us now.

"But I’m absolutely delighted for Tommy. We’ve had numerous conversations and while he’s not been playing poorly I’ve always said there’s more in his game. People will talk about his four tries but I really liked his defensive side of the game. He’s a complete winger like that and up there as one of the best wingers in the world.”

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St Helens' Tommy Makinson gets his second try against Huddersfield at Magic Weekend (Getty Images)

Watson’s expensively-assembled team have hugely under-achieved this term. They’ve slumped to ninth after losing five of their last six games. Giants took the lead via ex-Saints centre Kevin Naiqama in the seventh minute, Jake Connor converting. But then it was all downhill as Saints romped home with Konrad Hurrell (2), Mark Percival and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook all crossing.

Watson insisted: “We were still in the game at half-time but the changing room was quite flat. I can’t put my finger on why. Our momentum just went at the start of the second half. They picked us off too easy on our left edge defence. How poor that was was the worst thing for me. We weren’t good enough in that area. There's some individuals way off the mark at the moment. It's up to them to get better or us to replace them."

On being under pressure himself, Watson added: “There’s always pressure. I know that. But there’s pressure on every team and everyone. It's no different anywhere else. I have to concentrate on sorting it out, not worrying about pressure."

David Craven