Wakefield Trinity 6 St Helens 46: Wakefield earn full backing of Kear after mauling

And he practised what he preached by drawing a positive from their second-half performance against St Helens, who moved to within a point of third-placed Huddersfield with this win.

Kear admitted his side were “in a hole” after their 70-14 mauling at Hull KR a week earlier and must now be wondering where their next win will come from, but he refused to criticise his players’ efforts.

“At half-time I asked the players for a summary of their first-half performance and they felt embarrassed,” he said.

“They did show some resilience and fight in the second half. We might have witnessed a bit of healing to go into next week. We said it was about getting ready for Wigan.

“People don’t always realise but a lot of them are playing busted. It’s easy to criticise and be negative but it’s about time the players received a bit of support.”

Centre Aaron Murphy grabbed a late consolation try after Wakefield trailed 46-0 but their problems worsened with the loss of three-quarter Luke George with an ankle injury.

“It was a shame because I thought he was one of our better players in the first half,” said Kear.

Kyle Eastmond made the most of his switch to full-back as he led St Helens’ scoring spree against Wakefield, who have conceded 208 points in their last four matches.

Eastmond, who had become the forgotten man of St Helens since confirming his end-of-season move to rugby union, was an excellent deputy for Paul Wellens, who pulled out with an ankle injury.

He scored two tries, as did winger Jamie Foster, who took his Super League tally for the season to 15 and moved past a century of goals in all competitions.

Eastmond, making only his eighth start of the season, got the scoreboard ticking over after five minutes, finishing strongly after the hugely impressive James Roby accepted Tony Puletua’s offload from the tackle.

Foster took Francis Meli’s pass to score his first try and his second goal made it 12-0 with only eight minutes on the clock.

Wakefield briefly threatened a fightback but Saints were strong in defence and Foster knocked on over the line before Eastmond took Roby’s pass to jink his way over in trademark fashion for his second try on 29 minutes.

Saints’ biggest problem was maintaining their concentration but any hope Wakefield had of making a game of it was dashed when they conceded two further tries in the last two minutes of the first half.

Puletua and Roby once more combined to unlock the Wildcats’ defence and Eastmond teamed with Meli to get Foster over for his second. Scrum-half Jonny Lomax scored after the hooter had sounded following a break by Foster, whose fifth goal was his 100th of the season.

Wakefield’s problems were not helped when centre George had to be carried off early in the second half and they went further behind when Roby’s short pass put Lomax into space and Meli dummied his way over for a try.

Back row Chris Flannery then made the most of a defensive howler to grab his side’s eighth try and Foster took his goal tally to seven from eight attempts.

Wakefield were a badly-beaten side but at least they avoided a whitewash when Murphy forced his way over for a consolation try, with Kieran Hyde adding the conversion.

St Helens coach Royce Simmons took little satisfaction from his side’s win.

The veteran Australian described the Engage Super League match as “one of the worst” he had ever witnessed and bemoaned his side’s continuing misfortune with injuries.

“That was very close to the worst game of rugby league I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Simmons.

“It was a very scrappy game, with a lot of dropped ball, not a lot of it under any pressure. It was very ordinary. I don’t think you’ll see that used for advertising.”

Saints went into the game without full-back Wellens and lost three players during the match, including forward Paul Clough, who was making his comeback after being out for three months with a shoulder injury. “Wello had a scan last week which showed no major damage but his Achilles is still a bit swollen and, when he tried to push off, he couldn’t,” said Simmons. “We’ll probably send him for an MRI scan.

“Clough has come back after 13 weeks out and done an ankle, which we think is pretty serious.

“Jon Wilkin twisted his ankle too and Francis Meli has a bit of an Achilles problem. I would say they are all very doubtful for next week.”

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: Blaymire, G. Johnson, George, Murphy, Tadulala, Hyde, Lee, Korkidas, Rinaldi, Amor, Mariano, P. Johnson, Tony. Substitutes: Hickey, Davey, King, Henderson.

St Helens: Eastmond, Makinson, Shenton, Meli, Foster, Gaskell, Lomax, Graham, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Soliola, Wilkin, Puletua. Substitutes: Moore, Clough, Flannery, Armstrong.

Referee: Steve Ganson (St Helens).