SAINTS boss Kristian Woolf was delighted to see his Saints side make it two out of two – nilling visitors Hull KR in the process.

After a whirlwind start, in which tries from Regan Grace and Jack Welsby gave the champions a 10-0 lead, Saints had to battle against Tony Smith’s Rovers.

Always in control, Saints had to be patient when calls popped that early momentum.

And on the other side of the ball there was a real determination to keep the visitors on 0.

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Woolf said: "I was really happy with that performance. Hull KR came to play and we worked really hard to break them down.

"Our defence was outstanding - Hull KR are a tricky team offensively and throw a lot at you, they move the ball a lot and play a lot of second phase.

"If it sticks it is really difficult to handle.

"They challenged us at different times - and with kicks on plenty of occasions. I was happy with the way we kept turning up and handled the tricks well and scrambled really well when we had to.

"I was happy with our attack in the first half, but it became really difficult to score at different times and they worked really hard to try and bog it down and slow it down.

"In the second half when we had a bit of opportunity thought the referee did a good job there in the second half.

“We have to be careful, with the six again, that we don't allow teams to keep bogging the ruck and trying to spoil. It had a chance of becoming ugly but the ref did a good job in taking action and that opened the game up."

He praised the work of halves Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages in the job they did in directing the game, with the latter producing a fine performance with the boot.

“There were a number of calls in the first half that weren’t correct and that can frustrate you,” Woolf said.

“But we did a good job in staying at it and not getting frustrated, eventually they were going to break and that is what happened.

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“With Lachlan Coote not playing – who plays a big part in our kicking, with the kicks to the corner and a lot of those repeats - we spoke to Theo before the game to take a little bit more charge there when we did get in a good position and I thought he was great tonight.

“It is not just getting the repeats, but the kicks across to Tommy Mak – who has always got a chance of getting them back.

“He did last week and he went close a couple of times tonight.

“I thought Tommy was one of our best tonight – I thought he was outstanding.”

Prop Matty Lees was outstanding in his first stint, adding a nice offload to his skillset and playing a big part in Saints’ second try.

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Aaron Smith went off with a head knock sustained in the act of scoring.

“He has recovered up there but we will have to go through the process with him, like we did with Iggy last week.

“We won’t take any risks with our players and make sure they are looked after properly,” Woolf said.