SAINTS boss Keiron Cunningham was pleased to see his side make it through to the play off semi finals despite some leaky defence.

But he was critical of the video refereeing system after seeing his men denied three tries when the call went upstars.

He felt the first of those calls – the disallowed Jon Wilkin score – altered the course of the match and made it an uncomfortable evening.

He said: "Our start was just what we wanted.

"But the thing that is getting under my skin is the video referee system we have at the moment. It is just becoming a mockery of rugby league. The referee makes a decision on the field and it gets overturned after it has been looked at 1,000 times.

"The Jon Wilkin no try is a massive swing for us and if it is given is game over. We had all the possession and at 24-0 it is game over for me.”

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Cas knew that anything less than a win would end their season and never gave up, even when trailing 18-0.

But Saints will have to take a good look at the attitude and application that saw Cas crack open their defensive structures with ease.

Cunningham said: "All credit to Cas, they had everything to play for and we knew they would come out fighting.

“We played into their hands. We were hard-nosed at first but then it started getting like touch footy; we missed tackles and were grabbing instead of using our shoulders like we did early in the match.

"All credit to the lads though, we had a chat at half time - and Cas they went full length from a kick - but we just kept finding a way. In situations like that over the last few weeks as a team we haven't found a way but tonight we did.

"There was a period tonight where we were right on it and then Percy's (Mark Percival) try isn't given.

“There are blokes putting balls down with their little fingers - Achurch drops the ball last week and punches the floor because he didn't score and it was given.

“Percy touched the ball down tonight and gets kicked in his face for his thanks and it is yet again another try overturned.

"I think what you are getting is players coaching players how to play the system. Joe Greenwood doesn't touch Ben Roberts and he dives on the floor. It automatically goes upstairs when it is a great and well-executed try.

“At one point we get head and feed at a scrum, the second rower goes down and it is reviewed and overturned. We might as well not have a referee but have a video referee instead.

"Three tries weren't given tonight but we were resilient and hung on in there. We went down the field and scored again.

“That is the sign of a good side. Would I have liked the score to be better? Of course, but I am happy with the two points. It's two away wins and I am more than happy with the points against two teams that needed to pick up points.

"When you look back, it was a typical Saints-Cas game, all that was missing was a drop goal at the end."

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Although Saints’ defence was flaky at times – with three misses proving costly in the first half.

However, he was pleased with what his team did with the ball in the way they executed their seven tries.

Cunningham added: "With the ball in hand I thought we looked electric. Walshy was great, Wilko too and Percy was phenomenal.

"Everyone stood up for us and backed up the start from last week. I would like our defence to be better but we were lovely with the ball."