Kristian Woolf reveals why St Helens overcame Huddersfield Giants so easily

St Helens took on Huddersfield Giants tonight at the Totally Wicked Stadium in what was Sky Sports’ Friday night clash.

It was a close encounter in the first-half with Jonny Lomax and Will Pryce both missing penalties, but Lomax was on target when Joe Batchelor crossed for a try in the first-half.

Sione Mata’utia was sent off for Saints after a controversial incident with the forward picking up Danny Levi who was prone on the field.

And, Woolf believes that referees are overreacting to milking penalties.

“I understand where we’re going there but we’ve not quite got it right and it’s not even a high shot to start with,” Woolf said.

“Blokes are lying on the ground trying to milk penalties and we’re reacting or overreacting to that – we’ve just got to get these decisions right.”

Agnatius Paasi scored just after the break to make it 12-0 before Jack Welsby made it 18-0 after skipping out of a tackle.

Morgan Knowles was later yellow carded for an elbow in the face of Joe Greenwood to reduce Saints to just 11 men with nine minutes to go, but that didn’t stop Saints and Lomax notched up another just two minutes later.

Lomax was in the thick of the action, saving a try from Pryce in the last minute with an incredible tackle before Welsby slotted over a drop goal to rub salt into the Giants’ wounds at 25-0.

With the final whistle, Huddersfield were nilled for the first team under Ian Watson.

For St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf, it was a superb win: “It was a great performance and I’m really proud of our blokes tonight,” Woolf said on Sky Sports.

“We were here to play and we were on our line for the first ten minutes and defended well all night. It was one of our best overall performances.

“I thought we were on top in the first-half and I thought the players needed to understand that. We needed to be patient with the ball in hand.”

Saints underlined their title credentials following this win and last week’s narrow victory over Wigan Warriors who themselves were in fine form as they hammered Hull FC, 60-0.