THE KRIS OF LIFE
Woolf inspires men to turn on the style
KRISTIAN WOOLF believes the best is yet to come from his super St Helens side following a powerful 36-20 victory in Perpignan.
The Challenge Cup holders moved into the semi-finals after a convincing win over Catalans – but Woolf wants more.
He said: “The last couple of times we’ve come over here, we haven’t been great – but we were much better today.
“I’ve just told the team we’ve got a lot more in us. We were a bit nervous early on today but once we settled down, we were well on top.
“We’ve another big game ahead of us with Wigan this week and that’s what gets the players excited.
“We all know what the Easter derby means and the players are all chomping at the bit.
“The good news is that there doesn’t seem to be any injury concerns or issues from this game against Catalans so we’ll be up and ready for Wigan on Friday for sure.”
The Dragons lost full-back Sam Tomkins early in the game and his replacement Arthur Mourgue couldn’t inspire Catalans to recover from a 20-10 half-time deficit.
Catalans were first to cross the line when winger Fouad Yaha continued his scoring streak with a touchdown in the corner.
Saints struck back immediately when Will Hopoate stretched the Dragons on the right and a simple pass inside to supporting full-back Jack Welsby put the visitors back in front at 8-4 with a successful conversion.
Then Welsby turned provider for scrum-half Lewis Dodd as St Helens tore through Catalans with ease for a 29th-minute try, with Tommy Makinson’s conversion pushing them 10 points ahead.
Mark Percival then punched through some paper-light defence on the left to score Saints’ third try in five minutes.
The game took a turn when Catalans’ fullback Tomkins had to leave the field injured before Curtis Sironen was sin-binned for a high shot on Dragons’ captain Ben Garcia and Catalans responded immediately with a try for prop forward Gil Dudson.
Saints struck first in the second half with a short-range strike by Morgan Knowles from dummy-half, Makinson skilfully negotiating a strong wind to land the conversion from wide.
But Yaha scorched in for his second try of the game in the 57th minute after a period of pressure from the Dragons.
And Mourgue’s touchline conversion put the match back in the balance with 10 points between the teams.
Saints resumed their authority when prop Alex Walmsley created space for Morgan Knowles to step easily between the posts and score.
Then Jonny Lomax put Joe Batchelor over the line with just 10 minutes remaining and despite a late Tom Davies try, it was too little too late against the champions.
Catalans coach Steve McNamara admitted he was “really disappointed” with his side’s performance, and added: “We conceded some soft tries.”