St Helens coach Kristian Woolf says there's plenty of room for improvement
St Helens held off a half fightback by Huddersfield to remain unbeaten in 2021
Thursday 22 April 2021 23:36, UK
St Helens coach Kristian Woolf insists his team has plenty more to give despite recording their fourth win of the season with an 18-10 defeat of Huddersfield.
The reigning champions added the Giants to their list of scalps in 2021 and remain unbeaten.
Saints took a 12-0 lead into half-time and then added a third try before holding off the home team in the second half to claim the victory.
But Woolf believes his side can play much better and will do so as the campaign progresses.
"I'm happy with how we're travelling along," he said. "We've got a lot of improvement in us. What we're doing is we're all willing to work really hard.
Trending
- World Darts Championship LIVE! Rock and Clayton headline afternoon session
- Saka out for 'many weeks' with hamstring injury
- Transfer Centre LIVE! Howe reluctant to sell Dubravka in January
- Double blow! Sterling out 'for a while' - so will Arsenal sign a winger?
- Liverpool latest: Van Dijk plays down quadruple talk
- Usyk vs Fury 2: Fury 'robbed'? What do the stats reveal?
- World Darts Championship schedule: Cross headlines Monday's action
- 'Cultural overhaul needed' | Neville slams 'mediocre' Man Utd
- Ref Watch: Pickford and Estupinan lucky to avoid unwanted Christmas cards?
- Man Utd latest: Neville says Rashford could go in January
"We know that we're going to get better with the ball. I was a bit disappointed with the two tries we let in.
"We defended for long periods and then let in easy tries. That's something we need to look at and improve."
Woolf admitted it was a brutal contest and his men were fully tested by the Giants.
"It certainly was very attritional," he said. "As we knew they would do Huddersfield came to play and they were desperate, and that made it hard.
"I was really happy with what we did in the first half. But we were quick to find things and made some errors off the back of that.
"In the second we had some really uncharacteristic errors at the start of the second half. But we were good enough to turn that around.
"All in all a good, tough win."
Huddersfield coach Ian Watson shrugged off concern over his side's winless start to Super League and says they are "moving in the right direction".
The Giants have now lost four from four but Watson, the former Salford boss who took over at the west Yorkshire outfit at the end of last year, can see signs of improvement and is remaining confident.
"It was massively a step in the right direction," he said.
"It's what we've been talking about and that's competing with the best teams. I thought we stood up really, really well in the first half.
"St Helens are very good at playing cup final footy, they know how to get into a grind and suffocate you with the way they play.
"It has to be educated and taught that to have that kind of system.
"We defended really well for large periods. It shows we can handle that kind of pressure."
Watson was pleased with the mentality his players showed and the character they displayed to score two tries in the second half.
"If we turned up with that mentality at Hull KR last weekend we win," he said.
"I'm more than confident going forward we'll compete and beat teams. We're going through a tough lesson at the moment.
"Saints got away from us today but our start was a hell of a lot better today. It's moving in the right direction.
"It will turn, 100 per cent. It's about continuity. You have to build the foundations before you're successful. It takes time."
