St Helens boss Kristian Woolf hails his young side as they go down valiantly to Castleford Tigers

St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf could not have been prouder of his youthful side as they went down 30-10 to Castleford Tigers tonight at the Jungle.

The youngsters, led by the likes of Ben Davies and Daniel Moss, were full vim and vigour and even threatened to cause a huge upset when they pulled the score back to 18-10 midway through the second-half.

However, Castleford stood firm and posted another two tries to end the contest.

But, head coach Woolf hailed his side’s efforts.

“I was really proud of their efforts for the whole 80 minutes – it was so impressive,” Woolf said on Sky Sports.

“At 18-10 we were playing well and if we had kept hold of that set just after the kick-off then we could have threatened.”

Woolf picked out two of his young stars for praise.

“The defensive effort was incredible, but I thought Ben Davies picked up a number of important things.

“Jon Bennison gets better and better with each performance and when he went off that really hurt us, but overall it was a special night.”

The Saints boss also waxed lyrical about the older heads within the team.

“I thought Kyle Amor and Dan Norman did a terrific job and James Bell did really well.”