St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham slams players after 46-18 loss to Leeds
Last Updated: 06/07/15 1:12pm
St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham said that some of his senior players will not be able to look themselves in the mirror after losing 46-18 to Leeds.
Saints were expected to come out fighting to avenge their 41-16 loss to Leeds in April at Langtree Park but were under pressure from the first whistle at Headingley and were at sixes and sevens for most of the match.
The loss means that Saints have suffered two defeats in a row in Super League after going down to Castleford last time out but it was the performance of his players that had Cunningham seething, rather than the actual result.
"It is just not good enough and it is not what we do as a club," Cunningham told Sky Sports.
"I am deeply disappointed and there are a lot of players in there - a lot of senior players - who won't be able to look at themselves in the mirror for a good few days.
"One thing as a club that we always pride ourselves on is our performances and our senior players always lead from the front; but this was embarrassing.
"It is easy for me to point fingers at people and at junior players but today it was disgusting from some senior players.
"We have to learn from this. If you don't want to play in big games, then you are definitely at the wrong club. We want to be involved in big games.
"I want to apologise to all the fans who have travelled over here and we have tossed up that sort of garbage. It just was not good enough for St Helens rugby."
Leeds coach Brian McDermott said: "We nailed our chances early. I don't think we were actually that dominant. We were not brilliant but we did score 22 points in that first half.
"We were really clinical when we got the chance to score."