5 takeaways from Saints' tough win at Huddersfield Giants

Here are five take aways from the win and performance.

1. 80-minute Matty Lees.

Gone in 30 seconds.

That was Saints’ initial plan on how they would use their 17 for last night’s game.

Losing Sione Mata’utia with a failed HIA sustained in the first set of the game meant Saints had to rejig their interchange and effectively losing a middle. Cometh the hour and a third, cometh the man -  and so step forward Matty Lees.

To play 80 minutes in the middle takes some doing; his contribution of 68 tackles, countless carries and his normal enthusiastic and aggressive chase was priceless as Saints ground out a win against a stubborn Giants side.

2. Resisting pressure/building pressure.

At one stage it looked like the curse of the 12-point cushion was going to strike again.

But the pattern of this one was slightly different. Giants came with some real intent and dominated field position, doing what Hull had done the previous week in limiting Saints’ go forward meaning that they had to endure plenty of tough times in their own end.

Saints came off the ropes three-minute purple patch changed that - with tries scored by Konrad Hurrell and Tommy Makinson.

A soft try just before the break gave the Giants a foothold back in the game.

The fact that Saints had to do it tough - and their defensive resilience was commendable - was in part down to their inability to enjoy any sustained periods of pressure of their own.

Saints have shown they can defend their line - and it only cracked in the second half on the fourth consecutive set.

But had they been able to build some sustained pressure of their own up the other end, force a couple of goal line drop-outs or make the Giants play out of their own 10 as much Saints had to do, then that would have taken some pressure off.

3. Konrad Hurrell's impact

Konrad Hurrell made a huge impact on his return from a two-match suspension.

On a night when metres were hard to find, Hurrell repeatedly made inroads in the Giants defensive wall.

On the attack he was devastatingly powerful close to the line for the first try, and then sublimely skilful with his pass to put Tommy Makinson in at the tight corner.

OK, he had a few hearts in mouths defensively when he jumped the line - but over the course of the game was a major plus.

4. Curtis Sironen's unsung contribution.

He maybe does not get the plaudits, but Curtis Sironen had another huge game.

The big Australian added some real steel to the Saints defence, and always puts plenty of venom into the tackle. With the ball he ran good, strong lines with some real purpose.

Even with his body language around the group, you can see how much the former NRL man has bought into the Saints culture. Top effort all round.

5. Challenges facing Saints attack

Saints’ attack is still finding its feet this year.

There are a number of factors involved with that since the return from Australia; the post Penrith comedown and repeated disruption on the Saints edges due to injury and suspension and the job the opposition have done in neutralising the way they play. It is unusual to see Saints having to play so much, particularly seen in their last play kicks, on the back foot.

It was interesting that Huddersfield’s tactic yesterday appeared to target the experienced Tommy Makinson with the challenged high kicks to the corner, rather than young Jon Bennison.

But maybe that was to immediately take Makinson - a strong carrier of the ball who traditionally starts the march upfield - out of the next carry.

Aside from that - particularly when Jack Welsby got involved - there were glimpses of what the side can do with the ball. And that will get smoother the more games Saints win, so a bit chicken and egg.

Jonny Lomax, despite copping a blow after the ball had gone, had a commanding game in the halves, which was much-needed.

Young scrum half Lewis Dodd has a huge responsibility on his shoulders - and is still finding his feet back in the team after missing the best part of a year with a ruptured Achilles, one of the most challenging of injuries.

And doing that on the back foot is not the easiest - but there will be aspects of play that he will be working on to fine tune.

It will fit together eventually - there’s a lot of rugby to play, but Saints are slowly but surely building back into the year after an understandably challenging start.