“We’re certainly going to miss him next year” – Kristian Woolf laments about playmaker’s departure

Lachlan Coote will be heading to Hull KR in 2022, and St Helens head coach lamented that fact in his post-match press conference after a hard-fought 30-14 victory over Wakefield.

The Saints fullback registered 18 of his side’s 30 points and often ran Trinity ragged in an accomplished display.

“He brings a lot of things to this team and he has done for the two-and-a-half years he has been here and I know he will keep doing that for the rest of the year,” Woolf stated.

“He’s extremely safe and a really steady hand that helps our halves – he’s like a third halfback in his skill set and kicking game and his patience in attack in terms of where the ball needs to go.

“We’re certainly going to miss him next year.”

Woolf was happy with his side’s run out as he prepares for the Challenge Cup final next weekend.

“I thought that was a really good tough game of footy, we weren’t at our best but we had to fight to win that game and we were prepared to do that as well.

“When we were under pressure for the last 20 minutes, that’s when we played our best footy – it was exactly what we needed today.”

The Saints boss was happy with how returning star Matty Lees did after struggling through the week.

“He came through really well and I thought he looked really good.

“Through the week he had a little bit of a limp; obviously he hasn’t done much running for a long time so he was still limping a little bit through the week but he went really well tonight.

“We’ve come through injury free, we’ve got a few bumps and bruises but nothing to report injury wise.

“We needed to come through clean and a tough game of footy under our belt and we got both.”