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Watson wary of Woolf’s St Helens

Salford head coach Ian Watson is expecting St Helens to be just as good in the opening round of this season as they were in 2019.

Saints dominated last year’s competition, finishing a record 16 points clear at the top before going on to beat Watson’s Red Devils at Old Trafford.

Despite losing several fringe players, the reigning champions decided not to sign anyone in the off-season with a change in coach the only difference.

Speaking ahead of the Grand Final rematch against Kristian Woolf’s side, Watson was clearly wary of coming up against such a well-established team.

“They know each other inside out already,” he said. “They will keep their consistency and from what I have seen in pre-season, they have not changed too much in terms of the way that they play.

“It looks like they have focused on a few areas defensively to try figure up, and in attack it looks like they have worked on some little things that didn’t really need massive adjustments.

“They are champions for a reason so our big thing now is to go there and try put in the best performance we can and to try match them.”

Kristian Woolf replaced Justin Holbrook as St Helens head coach in the off-season. Credit: News Images

Much the opposite to Saints, some 13 players have arrived through the door at Salford ahead of the new campaign with 10 going out the other way.

This has forced changes in a number of key positions and Watson is aware that his team may take a while to get their combinations right.

“It will be a good indicator for us (against St Helens) to see where we are at, especially at this stage.

“That way we can see what we need to work on and build on our foundations from there.

“We are aiming as high as we can this season, especially with the players that we’ve got.

“They are a competitive group of players and they want to win things.”

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