MAC MAGIC
Louie is late Saints hero
A LATE try by Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook won it for St Helens – to leave coach Justin Holbrook breathing a huge sigh of relief.
The forward crashed over in the 78th minute – with the scores 18-apiece and the game set for golden-point extra-time – to deny battling Wakefield.
Trinity fought all the way to make it tough for Holbrook’s side, and he said: “I’ve got to give my players credit.
“We’ve only had one friendly – which was my choice – but to come up with two good wins is very impressive.
“It is only round two but we knew that Wakey would be hard to beat today.
“It was everything we expected coming off their disappointment losing to Broncos last week and this being their first home game – but we did a great job because they would have put a big focus on those two factors.
“We handled the initial 20 minutes really well and were in control.
“In the second half we defended our lines outstandingly for four or five sets which probably won us the game.
“We were then good enough to get down the other end and come up with a try.”
St Helens led twice in the first half courtesy of tries from Morgan Knowles and Tommy Makinson.
Tom Johnstone’s double, coupled with a Danny Brough goal, made it 10-10 at the break.
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued when Regan Grace and Makinson both crossed either side of the hour mark.
Wakefield provided a spirited fightback once again – this time when Bill Tupou bulldozed over with Brough converting to level the scores. But Brough’s 73rdminute penalty miss from the halfway line proved costly as McCarthy-Scarsbrook accepted Jonny Lomax’s pass to touch down with two minutes left.
Wakefield boss Chris Chester said: “To lose in that manner is tough and disappointing, but I thought there was a lot of effort.
“If we keep turning up with that effort every week we will win more than we lose.
“We had plenty of good ball in the second-half to put more points on but it just wasn’t meant to be today.
‘‘We needed a response after last week (defeat to London) and we definitely got it.”