Kristian Woolf explains how St Helens were able to defeat Toulouse and gives Regan Grace update

Last time Kristian Woolf’s men took on bottom club Toulouse they were shocked by the French side and returned empty handed.

This time around, they defeated Toulouse thanks to a strong first half in which they led 14-2 on route to a determined if not totally dominant win away from home.

So, a different result this time, after the game Kristian Woolf explained what was different about this St Helens’ performance: “I thought Toulouse played really well and we had to work really hard to get in top. I felt like quite early into the game you could see that we’d come to play and I thought that eventually we would get on top.

“It’s a tough trip and there were certainly some periods there where I thought we were a bit heavy-legged. I thought the trip, even though we did it different, still quite affected them a little bit but we’re good enough to get through it.

“There were no surprises. We need that Toulouse would turn up and would have a couple of tricks around their kicks and things like that. They weren’t a surprise this time.”

He also explained the difficulties of travel and how his side are going to have to get used to long journeys and maybe even travelling on the day: “It certainly helps if you get all the travelling right. There was a lot of travelling yesterday. We set off at 8:30 in the morning and got here at 7:30 last night so it’s a full day of travelling even though you’re not doing anything you’re still tired. We certainly couldn’t have done that today but there’s going to be times where we will have to travel on the day and get our heads around that and come up with a performance.”

🗣 Reaction | Hear from the boss follwoing our win over @TOXIII in what was another tough game…#COYS

— St.Helens R.F.C. (@Saints1890) June 4, 2022

The game also saw Regan Grace return with some amazing runs which led to tries and a try of his own to seal the win.

There’s been plenty of speculation about Grace’s future with rugby union clubs interested.

Woolf gave another update on the winger whilst praising his performance: “I thought he was great. It was great having him back in there. You miss players but when they’re back in the team and the speed and the footwork and the threat he poses particularly as he got more confident I thought he got better and better.

“I thought he was our best player today. In terms of him re-signing we’ve left him alone as the weeks have transpired so he could focus on his first game back and can focus on playing. Certainly in the next couple of days we’ll get back onto trying to get something finalised there. We certainly want to keep him and we’ll work really hard to. That doesn’t mean he’s made a decision to stay, he’s got a few decisions to make.”

You can watch the whole press conference here thanks to Saints TV.