Keiron Cunningham answers: Beating Leeds, praise for props, Wilko's return and threat of Castleford

MC: Could you sense that performance coming in the week?

KC: I said to you last week, I genuinely didn’t believe we were far off.

We have played worse than we did against Huddersfield and won.

The break did us really good and I could just tell the vigour on the training field and we came out with a lot of intent. Just having Wilko out on the field helps drive everything.

They have trained super all week and you generally get a feel as a coach – and I could tell.

They took it into their own hands last week and did a great job.

All those small things that we do so well when we are on our game, probably better than anyone in the competition, is what we did from minute one.

We started with intent and I knew if we kept that up it would be a real interesting game.

Leeds could not keep with us at times and that was a sort of role reversal.

MC: Jon Wilkin may have planted the standard, but your starting props really set the tone.

KC: Kyle Amor was outstanding and he will be the first to hold his hands up and say he probably took a few things for granted a few games ago and he had to sit in the stand for a week.

He came back invigorated and was flying around, back to being the Kyle Amor we know. He is getting better.

I knew Andre (above) would do a good job with Mose Masoe not playing it was always going to be good to bring Big Al off the bench at a certain period.

For a big man, Andre can play big minutes as well. He is a great talent who is just going to get better and better. He wants to learn and all these things are unchartered ground for Andre.

The kid did really well.

MC: What was different to the previous three games?

KC: Defensively we did a really good job and forced a lot of errors with our good we were with our structures, defensive intent and our effort to get off our line and shut things down was brilliant. Booth of our edges were comfortable and the middles worked really hard.

Generally Saints beat themselves, but that sounds like a cop out or not giving other teams credit.

Generally it is ourselves, taking things for granted and not doing things that hurts us, but when our attention to detail is good and the will and want is there, we are untouchable.

MC: They were making sure they were putting the opposition ball carriers on the floor – with none of this letting them stand up in the tackle and then play the ball that has crept in during the sunmer.

KC: These are just the finer points of the game that when things are going well you do all those little things. Our contacts and wrestle was really good, as was the way we run our plays, the manner in which our forwards carried the ball, the way kicked the ball. JT played really well through the middle and then Wilko dropped in there and it flowed really nice.

There is a lot of improvement in us with ball in hand.

MC: How good was the kick chase?

KC: It was the best it has been all year – and when you kick chase like that, and then carry the ball back hard – they are the little indicators we have as coaches to let us know where we are at. I knew from minute one we were at the races and ready for a game and hopeful we can kick on.

MC: We have not seen Adam Quinlan’s pace used for a few weeks, but we saw it at Leeds. It is important to use an asset like that in attack.

KC: We have changed the way we play slightly and adapted things to suit our personnel a bit more. Now Wilko is back and I can use JT I have adapted the way we attack and that has made us a lot more threatening. I am pleased for the players – for Travis, Luke and Wilko and those boys who have done it tough.

But one game does not win you a Grand Final. We have to kick on and do the right things now.

MC: All of a sudden that anxiety goes, it’s not five losses in a row and confidence can be quite powerful asset.

KC: Our destiny is in our own hands. We have three games left and know if we beat Castleford we make the top four. All we can control is the next game.

MC: Cas may have had off field problems, but that team really does dig in together, especially at the Jungle.

KC: They should have beaten Huddersfield and would have done had they not got the sin-binning. Huddersfield got off lightly with that and they took it up a notch then, Cas are a good, well-drilled, well-coached side.

Daryl (Powell) gets players who move from club to club and maybe a few renegades, but he rounds them and puts them into his system and they go really well. Daryl is a great coach and I believe he will end up at a top club and have a lot of success.

He will get them going on Thursday because he knows what is on the line, but so do we. It was a hell of a game last time.

I just want us to go there with intent. I want the result, but am looking at the performance. When we produce the performance we generally get the result.

I would like to think that the penny has dropped with the team that we have potentially just five weeks left of the season.

MC: Are you looking at the same 17?

KC: It would be hard to look away from it. All 17 performed well, nobody let me down and our middles looked solid. It would be difficult to move away from that.

MC: I was surprised you got 80 out of Wilkin after such a long absence?

KC: I had a different plan of attack. JT was going to come off, Wilko was going to go in the middle and then I was going to spell him after half time. But Wilko looked fine cruising along. I did not want to take him off if I didn’t need to and the80 minutes will have done him a lot better than it did us.

MC: How far is Atelea Vea off ?

KC: Hopefully Wigan but probably Warrington.