Kristian Woolf's reaction to St Helens' 25-24 defeat by Leigh

The negatives were the errors and ill-discipline which contributed, not simply to a 25-24 defeat, but to a performance in which they never really got to play the football expected of them.

Saints boss Kristian Woolf highlighted that ill-discipline afterwards when going through the performance in which both sides scored four tries apiece, but the difference was Ryan Brierley’s drop goal 33 seconds from the end.

Woolf said: “We made ourselves do too much defence.

“You don’t get a lot of opportunity with the ball when you are as ill-disciplined with our penalties. We gave four or five penalties away for jumping offside, and our fifth play was not great and we kept giving a lot of pressure releases.

“We need to make sure we are getting the opportunity to play footy. That was one of the disappointing things.”

Leigh took the lead with a try from ex-Saints scrum half Jamie Ellis and it took Saints a while to get up and running - not helped by the first minute withdrawal of skipper James Roby with a head knock.

When it did there were some nice touches, with debutant Joel Thomson touching down and Kevin Naiqama polishing off nice work from centre Mark Percival.

When Tommy Makinson scored his first of two tries on the hooter, after a nice long ball from Jonny Lomax, Saints looked well in control at half time with a 12-point advantage.

Saints drafted in virtually a full team of youngsters for the second half, but Leigh took their invitation back into the game with tries from Matty Russell and a close-range effort from Adam Sidlow.

Woolf said: “Leigh approached the game with a really good intensity and worked really hard to put us in some bad spots on their fifth play and worked hard with the way they defended afterwards.

“We gave away the sort of penalties we don't usually give away, we gave away a penalty with the ball, there were a couple of tackle one or two errors, in the first half and that doesn’t allow you to play footy.

“Then a couple in the second half for jumping offside and then on the fifth play, when we did get some field position, we kicked for seven tackles to the opposition.

“We did not give ourselves the opportunity to open up and play as much footy as we’d liked.

"But it is a trial and I wanted us to be put under as much pressure and be tested. That is what we got.

Leigh’s Brierley made Saints pay when after his late try was cancelled out by Makinson’s second, the full back slotted the winning drop goal.

But Woolf still got what he wanted out of the match.

“It is a trial,” he said.

“I wanted things to be put under a bit of pressure and that is what we got out of tonight.

“The whole squad got a run out – and the blokes we know who are going to play round one got a bit of contact and were put under a bit of pressure in the first half.

“And then we gave some young blokes the opportunity to play – some of them have only played one game in 12 months.

“It was good to see them get a run and see where they are at so we can give them some feedback on how they can improve.”

There were sound debuts from Saints’ four new recruits, with Woolf picking out backrower Sione Mata’utia’s first half display.

“Sione was probably our best in the first half,” he said.

“He made some really good contact and had some aggression about his defence and had some powerful carries as well.

“I also thought Joel (Thompson) did a very a good job on the left edge – and he’s a player who becomes more and more effective as the game goes on.”

With Matty Lees out with a foot injury, Saints started with Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook at prop and brough former New Zealand Warrior Agnatius Paasi off the bench.

“When Agnatius came on he did some really good things and chased his work and brought a couple of really good carries.

“We would have left him out there a little bit longer but he had a bit of an ankle strain quite early in the second half.

“Agnatius has a terrific carry and he has a terrific pass and offload too,” Woolf said.

Saints: Jack Welsby, Tommy Makinson, Josh Simm, Mark Percival, Kevin Naiqama, Theo Fages, Jonny Lomax, Alex Walmsley, James Roby, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Joel Thompson, James Bentley, Sione Mata’utia.

Subs: Kyle Amor, Agnatius Paasi, Aaron Smith, Lewis Dodd, Jake Wingfield, Josh Eaves, Dan Norman, Tom Nisbet, Matthew Foster, Nico Rizzelli, Ben Davies, Sam Royle.

Leigh: Ryan Brierley, Matty Russell, Iain Thorley, Junior Sa’u, Keanan Brand, Joe Mellor, Jamie Ellis, Liam Hood, Mark Ioane, Nathan Mason, Ben Hellewell, Jordan Thompson, Matty Gee.

Subs: Nathaniel Peteru, Adam Sidlow, Alex Gerrard, Tom Spencer, Matty Wildie, Blake Wallace, Craig Mullen.