Kristian Woolf delighted as Saints make winning Super League return

Having withstood some early fire from the Dragons, Saints – with returnee James Graham and Alex Walmsley leading from the front – began to physically dominate.

After a Lachlan Coote penalty gave Saints a foothold, the game turned and tries from Coote, the outstanding James Bentley and an impressive Zeb Taia put Saints in the driving seat the break.

That, backed up by a real will to defend and battle for each other, ensured that the two points were coming home.

Second half tries from Coote, a Tommy Makinson special and one from a galloping Alex Walmsley added the icing on the cake.

Woolf said: “I am really happy. I said all week that we had trained well for three weeks and that I was expecting a good performance.

“They are a good side the Catalans – they have plenty of class there and they certainly threw plenty at us.

“I thought our blokes were really good in the contact, the defence and the attitude they showed there plenty of times.”

Dragons threw plenty at Saints early doors and they had to show their mettle to keep them scoreless in that time.

But the Saints boss anticipated that – with Saints having the firepower to deal with it.

“We knew that they were going to come out really fast in that first 10 minutes and we had to match them there physically. I thought we did a good job of that,” he said.

“Jammer is an experienced player and he did a good job weathering the storm. Big Al was outstanding and that really opened things up. When he carried there was plenty of space for Robes to get out and play off the back of that.”

The game was the first under the new six again rules for ruck infringements and no scrums.

Saints appeared to deal with it well – weathering the storm when Dragons had back-to-back calls and making the most of their opportunities when they won them.

Woolf said: “The new rules suited our game tonight. The pleasing thing for me was when the Catalans got their ‘six agains’ – particularly just before half time when they got a couple in a row – I thought we were outstanding in that period.

“We held up really well and made a couple of errors – we scrambled together and saved tries. That is exactly what you want to see from a team – that desperation and desire not to let the opposition find points.

“When we showed that before half time I knew we were going to win the game.”

The win stops a bit of a rot for the champions having lost three of their opening five games and going into lockdown on the back of two poor defeats.

It has not eaten away them, but it must have fired them up – and they responded.

“They were happy after that,” Woolf said.

“There has been a real buzz since they got back to training.

“It has been a long time. They know that they have done the hard work and now they can play.

“I think the whole players and staff – when you have something like the Cas defeat that we were really disappointed with because we knew we were way off our best that day.

“It sticks in your mind the whole period. And it is certainly a bit of a driver in how the players come back, how we prepare, and we have to make sure we don’t forget that too because we have got a lot of footy to play.

“We have to keep getting better because the comp is going to ask us to.”