SAINTS boss Keiron Cunningham reflected on some of this week’s talking points with the Star’s Mike Critchley.

MC: Everybody come through fit from Sunday?

KC: We seem to be OK, but it always helps when you have a win – especially one at a stadium with a lot of fans screaming and jeering you.

MC: It is pretty partisan there – and you don’t get away with any forward passes at the Jungle?

KC: Yes, I thought they were the fifth official at times, but you expect that. The referee did a good job and in my eyes he is one of the best refs in the competition at the moment. He did a super job in adverse circumstances because the locals were after his neck at times, but he stood pretty strong.

MC: Is James Roby ok after his facial knock?

KC: He got a bit of a bang on his nose and the concern was whether there was any fractures around his face. We did a concussion test on him but he was fine. He just returned after that.

What made me laugh was when he got the knock he ended up on the floor and was a bit disorientated, but then you turn round and he was making a 50 metre break with blood streaming down his face.

That is James Roby – that is what he does for this club and what it means to him. You just wish you could have 17 James Robys running around.

He is a true star of the game and what he does for the team epitomises St Helens rugby and all those old school players from that last generation. He is the sort of player you want as a role model.

MC: On that ground you turn the ball over and you are immediately defending.

KC: If you have a good set there you are on the 60metre line. When you watch Cas games you see that they don’t do yardage sets, they are always doing attacking sets and kicks. But you know what you have to do there and we were our own worst enemies at times.

We had good sets and then scored a great try and then we gave them cheap, easy ball by spilling it and they end up posting two tries off that.

MC: Some pretty good backing for the team on Sunday?

KC: The support was brilliant again and it doesn’t go unnoticed by the players. I spoke to some of the Castleford officials after the game and they thought it was great that our end was chocker with a couple of thousand people. It makes it a good atmosphere to counteract the Tigers fans.

MC: It was good to see the spine of your team bedding in together and that try at the end involving 9,7, 6 and 1 was straight off the training pitch.

KC: They are all playing well together. The more Jonny can play with Theo and Robes, and the more they stay fit and work together, the better it will be.

We play to our systems but we can play ad lib rugby because we have some good players out there. You get those good players out there and it makes the job a lot easier.

MC: The early days of Super League were dominated by the Saints left hand gang – Martyn, Joynt, Newlove and Sullivan. That is a high benchmark for this current crop but they are showing promise.

KC: They are young but they are our future. Theo is working well with Joe Greenwood and Percy. Theo is a good little player and the first training session I saw him train with Percy he just gave Percy early ball and you can understand how good of a player he is from how he sees the game. Mark Percival has probably never had as much ball in his life than he is getting at the minute.

Percy is a great player and we have to get him early ball and that is something we have been fight ing for for two years. Theo is working well with Joe, too, and with Jonny swinging down there it is looking threatening.

Tils had his best game in my eyes, in a Saints shirt for a long period. On both sides of the ball he was great and his carries were immense.

We work on defence with Tils and for home to be one of our better defenders on the day is good showing.

MC: Kyle Amor is stringing together some fine performances.

KC: He has been phenomenal, one of the stand out front rowers in the comp. He is not just doing it one week he is doing it consistently every single week and leading by example at the minute.

It was a challenge I put to Kyle, he was a bit up and down at the start but since we have had the conversation whether starting or coming off the bench, he has been killing it and really leading the way.

He knows where he wants to head as a player.

MC: We have not seen Matty Fleming this year, how far off is he?

KC: He had a neck issue which required a bit of surgery.

He is not far off now, and there is a chance he might play in the reserves.

It is unfortunate because I had high hopes of him this year and he would have played a lot of footy because we had a lot of outside back injuries.

Like Jack Ashworth he had really good pre-season, and I know if we get injuries I can rely on Matty this year.