SAINTS boss Justin Holbrook praised his pack’s response to some of the criticism coming its way since the Challenge Cup semi-final defeat.

A mobile set of forwards stood up well to the Leviathans in the Wakefield pack, laying the platform for victory.

However, Holbrook felt that the criticism that preceded the game was harsh ­— and pointed out that the pack had fared well against the robust sets of Wigan and Warrington in previous weeks.

Holbrook said: “I understand the criticism of our pack, given what happened in the Catalans game, but I don’t blame our the forwards – I blame the amount of errors we made in that first 20 minutes.

“If we don’t make those mistakes – it would have been the other team looking poor in the middle, because we would have worn them out rather than the other way around.

“Going into Wakefield everyone was saying Wakefield’s big pack was going to destroy ours – I was confident it wouldn’t happen as long as we played the way we had been playing.

“It was a tight first 25 minutes but it was them that cracked not us so I was pleased for our forwards because they had been copping a bit of flak.”

Saints had gone into the game without top prop Luke Thompson, but in his absence Matty Lees and Jack Ashworth showed determination and energy.

Holbrook said: “ I couldn’t be happier with the way they have handled it.”

Saints have played most of the season with Alex Walmsley, but have coped well apart from the semi blip.

“There was no tougher test in the forwards than the Wigan and we handled that, likewise with Warrington the week after and we handled that.

"There were no signs of not being able to handle that area ­— the simple truth was we made too many errors that it meant they had all the ball and we did all the tackling.

“You not going to beat anybody like that,” he said.