A DRAW at Wigan on Friday will be enough for Saints to clinch the League Leaders’ Shield.

St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf will be looking for his players to continue to build their momentum for the play-offs and in doing so achieving the prize for fishing top of the table as 2022’s most consistent side.

Wigan, on the other hand, will be aiming to topple Saints to keep their own slender hopes of top spot alive and lay down their own marker for the business end of the season.

With three rounds to play, Wigan are currently six points behind the table toppers and reigning champions.

“We’ll be playing our strongest side. It’s an important game to us and it’ll be an important game to Wigan as well,” said Saints head coach.

“It’s a game where we’re two weeks off the finals starting. It’s a game in which we get a real high intensity, exactly what we want as preparation for the bigger games in the finals just around the corner.

“We’ll be putting out the strongest side we possibly can. We’ll be going there to play a really good game of footy. It’ll be a great atmosphere in a game our players really look forward to. I know Wigan will be the same.”

Asked if he is happy to have the clash against Saints’ nearest and dearest at this stage of the season – and the first of three games in just over a week – Woolf was clear.

“100 per cent. Playing Wigan two weeks out of the finals starting is exactly what we want,” he said.

“It’s the challenge we want, it’s the intensity of a game we want, it’s going to be the atmosphere that helps you get prepared for the big atmospheres at the end of the year as well.

“So it’s everything we want in a game. Our players love these games, they want these games, they want the big atmosphere, they want a good crowd, it’s everything we’re going to need and everything that we’re going to want.”

He added: “But I don’t want to sound like I’m downplaying what we’ve just gone through either. We’ve had some really tough games.

“Hull KR really turned up, they really challenged us and we had to be good to beat them. And even when we got on top they showed they were still willing to chance their hand and they challenged us in different ways because they were willing to chance their hand. And they made it difficult for us to score tries and that’s the type of game we needed.

“If I go back a couple of weeks ago to Castleford they were exactly the same. They really challenged us and turned up to play.

“Salford really turned up to play and we didn’t only a few weeks ago as well.

“I’m really happy with what we’ve had over the last couple of weeks. We’ve been challenged, we’ve had to fight hard. Outside of some players who we’d love to have out there not being available, I’m really happy with the position we’re in in terms of we’ve had to fight for what we’ve got.”

They have got a few bodies back for the Wigan clash as well, although time will tell if they have lost the services of full-back Will Hopoate with a hamstring twinge.

“We’re obviously doing it a bit tough with injuries and in particular with some of our outside backs and that’s the way it goes. And there’s a lot of teams in the same boat,” said Woolf.

“We’re going to have quality there, it’s about who plays in the team each week.

“We do get Morgan Knowles and Curtis Sironen back (from suspension) and they’re two big players for us that have been playing great so they’re going to make a difference.

“It’s about who we put out on the field and I’ve got every confidence in who we put out on the field will do a good job.”

Woolf mentioned ahead of the Hull KR game that Dan Norman could be fit and available too.