St Helens boss Kristian Woolf hails Lewis Dodd and James Roby and dismisses goalkicking concerns

Kristian Woolf’s St Helens ran out 28-8 winners against 2021 Grand Finalists Catalans Dragons.

For long periods of the game, both sides connected heavily down the middle before Saints finally ground down their opponents.

At times, things boiled over with Gil Dudson getting a yellow card and Dylan Napa a red, but Woolf was happy with how his side performed on the whole.

“I liked it a lot, I thought it was a bit of a stop-start game and that can become frustrating and we allowed ourselves to get a bit frustrated,” Woolf told Sky Sports.

“I thought we played some good footy and our defence was really strong.

“We probably weren’t quite as good intense in the second-half but we still played tough and got the win.”

One man just can’t not be praised and that is the evergreen James Roby who played the full 80 minutes, even when Joey Lussick came on to play hooker.

“He’s exceptional, he’s up the front at conditioning and there’s no signs of him slowing down,  so when he’s like that he will play.”

Woolf was also asked about whether Saints had issues with goalkicking after Lewis Dodd missed four conversions alongside Tommy Makinson’s one, but he dismissed those concerns.

“It’s a harsh comment if you look at where the kicks were from and Tommy ended up kicking one and Tommy is a really good to be fair!

“It’s something we will look at that and we left a few points out there tonight but I thought Lewis had a terrific game out there.”