SAINTS boss Kristian Woolf gave his thought’s on rugby league matters when the Star’s Mike Critchley caught up with him.

MC: Morgan Knowles banned for Friday - a shame given how well he is playing?

KW: He has been playing really well and up there with our best in the last few weeks.

He had a few little niggles at the start of the year which meant he missed a game or two.

But at the moment he is feeling fresh and wanting a bit more.

He is showing that in training and going out playing with the intensity that he can play with. He is going great.

St Helens Star:

MC: It is not just physicality in defence he gets the ball moving well from the middle?

KW: He is very skilful and it is something that is certainly something we are encouraging and have built into our game the last couple of weeks.

There is a lot more short passing between our forwards and a lot more ball play coming through our pack, and Morgan is a big part of that.

MC: Jonny Lomax was outstanding in Sunday’s win - how much of a tower of strength as he been?

KW: He was really good – but he has had a really good year for us if you look at the number of different half back and full back partners he has had on a regular basis. He has been the one constant there and done that coming through some serious injury for a number of weeks.

He’s not only played out of position but has had to get his confidence back in his own position.

I can’t speak highly enough about the way he’s gone about that; the way he has played and steered us around with a completely new 1, 6, 7 combination at the weekend.

St Helens Star:

MC: How is he coping now with the bicep injury?

KW: It is one of those that was always going to get more manageable with each week but also with him becoming more comfortable with it and being a bit more confident in knowing how to manage it as well.

I have spoken about his diligence, but he has done an exceptional job to out himself in that position.

St Helens Star:

MC: You can have a few bites now at finishing top - what is the plan?

KW: We just need to take each week as it comes as cliché as that sounds.

That is important because we need to make sure that we really prepare ourselves well and with an intensity and a quality that sets us up for the big games.

That starts on Friday in a challenging game against Hull KR.

That is all we need to worry about at the minute and once we get through that one we can worry about what we do with Wigan and then once we get through that we can worry about the last week.

As soon as we start getting too far ahead of ourselves we will lose sight of what is the most important thing – and that is this weekend.

St Helens Star:

MC: Hull KR have had a few missing in recent weeks and lost a couple more - but still a danger?

KW: They have a few missing, but so have we.

It does not matter who is not there – we have to worry about who we have got playing for us.

What is most important is how we go about it ourselves and how we go about playing at the moment.

We know we are playing a Hull KR team that is still desperate to get into the six and that is how they are going to approach the game.

We need to be just as desperate and when we play against Wigan there will be some desperation from both teams in terms of where they both sit, but also with the rivalry as well.

The Hull KR one is our main focus. We know it is going to be a difficult finish to the year with four games of footy to be played in two weeks and that is a bit of a ridiculous situation that we should not have.

We will figure out a way through it game by game.