St Helens CEO Mike Rush has told Sky Sports head coach Paul Wellens “needs time,” adding the latter has “not become a poor coach” despite a testing campaign. 

Speaking as a guest on the latest episode of The Bench Sky Sports Rugby League podcast with Jenna Brooks and Jon Wilkin, Rush offered his support to the under-fire Wellens.

After a poor start to the Super League season, St Helens have since gone on to pick up two big victories vs Catalans 40-0 and Huddersfield 46-4, but the side still sit fifth in the standings with truer tests lying ahead.

“I understand the expectation of this club, and that’s what it comes back to. The expectation is that we compete for everything, and we need to be in everything and in the big games,” Rush told Sky Sports earlier this month.

“Paul [Wellens] and his staff need to be given time to get it right.

“I know that sounds like: ‘Well, you’re going to defend him,’ but he’s Saints through-and-through. Paul’s not become a poor coach.

“We believed in him when we gave him the job, he won a World Club Challenge in his first proper game. He had tremendous success at the start of last year until he got all those injuries.

“I think in sport, confidence has a big role to play. And it’s not a criticism of anybody, but sometimes I just wish we could be more positive and look outwardly with hope and expectation and joy rather than despondency and what if and doom and gloom.”

Asked if he still believed Wellens was the right man for the St Helens job, Rush replied: “As I sit here, yeah.

“You can see that it’s hard on Paul because there’s nobody who cares more than Paul Wellens at this club. You don’t play 499 games, literally spilt blood chasing honours.

“Look, Paul’s not daft. He knows results will dictate how far he goes as a coach. In his whole career, results will dictate that. But do I believe that Paul Wellens is a good coach? Absolutely.

“Outside noise, genuinely, I’ve never been on social media. At no time have I been on it. I only know some of the things that get posted on there through my children. I’ve got a couple of older children that probably don’t report back but I’ve got a young daughter who’s in Year 11 that probably feels it a little bit at times because she sees the things.

“Paul’s the same. Paul’s got children, one’s working, one’s at school. So that’s hard. I think the interesting point is, we can’t let outside noise dictate everything, but we can’t ignore outside noise.

“There’s always going to be a tipping point in sport. And that, again, isn’t just at this club and in rugby league. That’s in every sport, there’s a tipping point.

“I can’t answer when does too long become too long. You know what it’s like in this town. I’ve got two dogs at home, they’re putting on pounds by the day because I can’t walk them on the field at the minute because everybody wants to give you an opinion about Paul Wellens.

“Literally, you go for milk, they want to give you an opinion, not just on Wello. This town lives and breathes rugby league. It’s such a bubble.”

Sky Sports will again show every game of Super League live this season – including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining four matches each week shown on Sky Sports+ via the red button.