{"id":187876,"date":"2025-06-16T02:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T02:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/187876\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T02:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T02:38:13","slug":"jack-welsby-explains-magic-weekend-actions-as-st-helens-fan-anger-addressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/187876\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Welsby explains Magic Weekend actions as St Helens’ fan anger addressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

St Helens star Jack Welsby has spoken out for the first time about his actions at Magic Weekend, and said defending his coach \u201cwas the right thing to do\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Newcastle, St Helens lost 17-4 to Leeds Rhinos, which was the third defeat on the bounce for Paul Wellens\u2019 men. There seemed to be a disconnect between the Saints club and fans, which included some wanting the club legend to be sacked.<\/p>\n

Wellens and some players copped personal abuse<\/a> by their own \u2018supporters\u2019, resulting in the fullback deciding not to go and applaud them \u2013 in defence of his team.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old coach was stood pitchside after the defeat and took vile verbal abuse from St Helens\u2019 own fans which forced Welsby to take a stand, as he walked straight down the tunnel instead of acknowledging the fans.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky Sports commentator Stuart Pyke on \u2018Sit Down with Saints<\/a>\u2019, the England international could see why there was dissatisfaction, but knows it went too far.<\/p>\n

St Helens star draws line under turbulent fan period<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a way to do it,\u201d the England full-back, who is currently out injured<\/a>, explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d had a couple of bad defeats on the bounce, and that was probably the worst of them. It [Magic Weekend] is a big occasion, big stadium and I can understand why the fans were angry, I just didn\u2019t think it was right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not got any abuse or was getting any stick, but I didn\u2019t want to see my mates and my head coach getting abused. I thought it was the right time to make a stand and defend them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welsby noted that if the boot was on the other foot, the situation would be different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t go into someone\u2019s place of work and abuse them, do you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI know it\u2019s different because we are on a bigger platform, but I felt like it was the right thing to do at the time. Maybe there was a better way of going about it, but I made amends and I didn\u2019t want it to carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saints won the following game away at Catalans. However, Welsby stood by his actions from the previous game.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Catalans, I could have easily gone over and clapped them [the fans], but I thought if I can\u2019t take the abuse, I can\u2019t take the plaudits.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cAfter Huddersfield, there\u2019s a line under it and we move forward together.<\/p>\n

The Saints currently sit sixth in the league<\/a>, and should their turbulent form continue, they are at risk of not making the playoffs for the first time in Super League history.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Helens star Jack Welsby has spoken out for the first time about his actions at Magic Weekend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-187876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114690726599184733","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}