Kristian Woolf praises St Helens toughness after derby win over Wigan

The defending champions suffered an early injury and had a number of tries disallowed.
Kristian Woolf, St Helens head coach.Kristian Woolf, St Helens head coach.
Kristian Woolf, St Helens head coach.

St Helens coach Kristian Woolf praised his team’s toughness as they came from behind and overcame adversity to gain a 22-4 derby victory over Wigan to open up a two-point gap at the top of the Betfred Super League.

The defending champions lost loose forward Morgan Knowles with a head knock after eight minutes and had two tries contentiously disallowed before falling behind to a 20th-minute try from Warriors’ in-form full-back Jai Field.

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But they eventually cut loose and ran in tries through Tom Makinson, Jonny Lomax, Joe Batchelor and Mark Percival as they cruised to a ninth win in the last 10 derbies.

“Every team wants to be physical against us at the start and what I love about this group so much is that they absorb that and hang in,” Woolf said.

“A lot of things didn’t go our way but we played tough. I found both calls that went against us really hard to take because, when a ref sends them up as tries, you’ve got to find a strong reason to disallow them.”

“But we didn’t allow that to frustrate us, we stuck to our guns and took the opportunities when they arose.”

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The only disappointment for Woolf’s men were the injuries to Knowles and scrum-half Lewis Dodd, who hobbled off 16 minutes from the end.

“Lewis is a tough kid and for him to come off is a bit of a drama but we’ll find out more tomorrow,” Woolf said.

Woolf said winger Jon Bennison, who was deputising for an injured Will Hopoate, recovered from a “crusher” tackle by Sam Powell but believes the Wigan hooker ought to have received a more hefty punishment than a yellow card for the offence.

“It was a bad tackle, the kind of tackle we need to get out of our game,” Woolf said. “I’m not sure why it wasn’t a red card.”

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Wigan coach Matt Peet said Powell was full of remorse for the challenge and expects him to receive a suspension.

“We’ve seen it back and it’s not good,” Peet said. “Sam is disappointed, it’s not in his nature. His technique let him down, he needs to be better.

“Put it down to fatigue and bad timing. You don’t like to see any player hurt and I hope Jon Bennison is okay.”

Powell will be free to play against Wakefield on Monday but Wigan may be without influential scrum-half and captain Thomas Leuluai, who was forced off with a knee injury eight minutes into the second half.