Kristian Woolf's reaction to Saints' win over Toulouse

He had praise for the second half performance – and the efforts of Matty Lees, Agnatius Paasi, Joe Batchelor and Morgan Knowles - and had special praise for James Bell and Jon Bennison.

We caught up with him after the game.

MC: It took a while to get into your rhythm – but it clicked in the second half?

KW: It was a tough game from a point of view that there is nothing riding on the result and you are coming up against a team that is getting relegated. So I can understand why it took us a little while to get going.

What I was proud of was the way we got going in the second half. You could tell that there was a different intensity in the second half and that they wanted to run the ball harder and give ourselves a bit of momentum and something to play off.

Once we did that then our halves had a bit of fun and had space and something to play with. I was really happy with the second half and it was really important that we finished positive and it was a good day for the club.

It was great to see the number of fans hang around and celebrate the League Leaders. It is great achievement for this group and I am happy that we got to finish positive and make that enjoyable.

MC: Once you saw the fatigue kicking in with Toulouse was it a case of being patient and then cutting loose last quarter?

KW: I was really happy with our second half aside from that dummy half try – that one was disappointing as we don’t usually give those up usually.

We were really positive in the second half – guys like Matty Lees, who played big minutes in the second half because Dan Norman copped an injury, had real intensity, Joe Batchelor and Morgan Knowles.

I loved Agnatius Paasi’s second stint – the way he came on and wanted to carry the ball and defend as well.

James Bell made a big impact as well and let’s now forget that James – like a number of those blokes- has played three games in the last eight days. It was great to see him come out with so much energy.

MC: James Bell’s enthusiasm gives you something – a player not in your natural starting 17 at the start of the year – but he’s given you food for thought at this back end?

KW: He has. The team was extremely healthy at the start of the year and rolling really well but since then it has been a really challenging year.

We have not had to many games this year where we have not lost anyone and the majority of those seem to be long-term ones as well.

It has been a challenging year – but that is why I am so proud of the group to sit here in this position having won League Leaders and not lost too many games with the amount of disruption and the amount of injury. All that we have had to overcome is an outstanding effort for the group.

Going back to James – he has got his opportunity through guys being injured and has done a realy good job and has learned how to play within our system.

Today we put him back in his favoured spot as a ball playing middle forward. We have had to play him in all sorts of different roles; on the edge, a bit of nine and all sorts of roles because of our injuries.

What he has been able to do is show his skill, show his energy and footwork, his intensity in D and I loved the hit that he put on (Harrison Hansen) in the second half.

Those kinds of things are the reason he has put himself in the picture to play in the really big games.

MC: There was some nice close inter-passing and support play and well-crafted tries in that game?

KW: I thought a couple of those tries were outstanding. I thought the first was really good – Jonny looking back on the inside and finding Matt Lees there and off the back of a bit of the cycle we created.

I thought some of the passing between players, and Kon kicking for himself when he saw an opportunity there, there were a lot of good tries there and it showed their heads were in the game in the second half and that they wanted to play some footy.

MC: The try Jon Bennison created for Jack Welsby was special – you have found something in Bennison this year?

KW: He’s a good player and a good kid and I have sung his praises plenty of times.

Injury has given him opportunity - but we brought Jon in for some training last year and although he did some things a little bit awkward what he showed straight away was that he wanted to compete, work hard and be at the front of anything that was tough and to do with conditioning.

That said to us that we had to sign him for this year – and he came into pre-season and did the same thing and really led from the front and shown how hard he ants to compete and how much he wants to learn.

He spends a lot of time with guys like Jonny Lomax and learning about the game and his role and spending time doing extras.

That is why you get the performances you see from him. He deserves everything he gets and has worked really hard for it and has made himself a bloke that the rest of the team really want in the team all the time and really respect as a team player.