NEW boss Kristian Woolf wants Saints to continue playing an attacking brand of rugby league ­— and points to the style played by the Tongan national side as evidence that that he does not wish to curtail players' expression with the the ball.

St Helens Star:

Woolf, who has taken Tonga to fourth in the World rankings, from from 14th when he took over in in 2014, says there are aspects of the Saints game that need to "be better".

But that won't be at the expense of Saints' natural flair and attacking game.

Woolf said: "Players will be given free rein to express themselves.

"I'm very aware of the history of the club and that the history is an attacking style of rugby league.

"That's exactly what we'll continue to do. I think the best example I can give you is the way we've gone about things with Tonga.

"It's very obvious for everyone to see that the Tongan players have a free rein to attack and in particular to use their skill level which is around a lot of second-phase play and offload.

"That is what worked really well for us against Great Britain and it worked really well against Australia.

"The approach will be similar here in allowing players to play to their strengths and play an attacking brand of footy."

The 44-year-old, who has taken up a two-year contract, plans to continue as Tonga coach but insists it will not interfere with his Saints job and no decision has been made on whether he will be involved in the mid-season international programme in 2020.

"I've had numerous conversations with the club about that," he said.

"There's an expectation here that we perform at a certain level and any involvement with Tonga can't interfere with that.

"That June Test is certainly something we'll have to have a look at but at the end of the year it doesn't interfere with at all and it's something I want to remain involved with."

St Helens are the only club without a new signing for 2020 and Woolf says he is happy with the current squad.

"At the moment I'm very happy with the squad we've got and, if at some stage we think we need to add to the squad, then we can see if that's a possibility but I think we've got a squad that can be better than we were in 2019," he said.

"We need to find ways to be better and, if we do that, we'll be hard to beat.

"I've obviously watched a lot of Super League and I think it's a very good standard.

"It's a little bit different but I think the standards are very similar, in particular when the top teams are going at each other."