World Club Challenge: Kristian Woolf ringside as protégé delivers against the odds Down Under

The club’s former Aussie head coach won a plethora of trophies during his three-year stint a the Totally Wicked Stadium.
St Helens ccelebrate with the World Club Challenge trophy. Image: Mark Metcalfe/Getty ImagesSt Helens ccelebrate with the World Club Challenge trophy. Image: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images
St Helens ccelebrate with the World Club Challenge trophy. Image: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

One special person was - quite rightly - invited to watch the World Club Challenge between Saints and holders Penrith Panthers at the BlueBet Stadium on Saturday and was delighted by the outcome.

The club’s former Aussie head coach, Kristian Woolf, who won a plethora of trophies during his three-year stint a the Totally Wicked Stadium before linking up with NRL new boys the Dolphins, took a ringside seat next to his successor, Paul Wellens, and no doubt passed on some useful tips to his ex-assistant.

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Wellens, who I have known since he first walked through the door at Knowsley Road as a fresh-faced youngster in the late 1990s, would be first to acknowledge Woolf deserves a great deal of credit to where Saints now stand in the Rugby League world.

He has handed the 42-year-old former club full back what some may describe as a poison chalice after the club’s near non-stop run of success over recent years.

The local lad’s experience of sitting in the hot seat is obviously limited at this stage of his career and it goes without saying that every other Super League club will be doubly determined to knock Saints off their lofty perch, but looking at the bookmakers’ odds that seems a distant hope.

The World Club Challenge winners are already quoted as 2/1 favourites to lift the Grand Slam for a fifth time in succession followed by Wigan Warriors at 4/1, while in the Challenge Cup they are quoted as 7/2 favourites, with Wigan at 9/2.

St Helens ccelebrate with the World Club Challenge trophy. Image: Mark Metcalfe/Getty ImagesSt Helens ccelebrate with the World Club Challenge trophy. Image: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images
St Helens ccelebrate with the World Club Challenge trophy. Image: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images
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🏉 Saints Super League season starts this coming Sunday when they travel to Castleford Tigers - a match which will be screened live by Channel 4, kick-off 1pm.

It will be an early test of the defending champions’ title credentials on the back of two games Down Under and the fitness level of the squad.

The Mend-a-Hose Jungle can be an intimidating place to go and often you never know which Tigers team will turn up on the day.