Woolf on Warrington defeat, St Helens fixture schedule, Wembley crowd

MC: It must be disappointing to see Friday’s game at Hull KR called off.

KW: We want to get a bit of continuity with our playing and certainly had that for a long period but just over the last couple of weeks it is unfortunate and unlucky that it has impacted on us twice now.

Over the last couple of weeks we have missed that continuity of play. We want to play every week and there’s no secret that you play your best footy if you are playing every week and get that flow where you get to review, make improvements and go again.

That is what we want to get into.

MC: Some teams have re-arranged games on Wembley weekend, that is not a luxury Saints have.

KW: If you look at the competition from here on in, it is extremely difficult to navigate your way through and in a lot of ways it is completely unreasonable.

Every game from here on in is on a short turnaround with the exception is the week leading into Wembley.

Every other week is a three, four and five day turnaround.

If you look at all the data from the last 12 months – the amount of metres players are covering within a game, the ball in play time, amount of tackles and the overall work-rate and fatigue it is certainly something that needs to be considered going forward.

We are going to get some real carnage at the back end of the year and every team is going to be in the same boat and it will be extremely difficult for everyone.

Next week we play three games in 11 days and I have spoken with other coaches and there are teams who are playing three games in eight days.

Everyone has injuries at the moment and carrying niggles and long-term injuries.

We can’t be postponing games and then adding more games into a schedule that is already asking us to play 16 games across the last 11 or 12 weeks of the competition.

MC: What has been the reaction from the playing group to Wembley getting a 45,000 crowd capacity?

KW: It was great news. It will be an atmosphere that we have not seen for such a long time – players love playing in front of a crowd and their fans and particular their own family.

To know that is going to happen is really going to add to the occasion.

It is something everyone can't wait for.

The atmosphere and noise from the Cup semi final at a small ground was tremendous, so can’t wait to see 45,000 at Wembley – it will be outstanding.

MC: What has been learned from Thursday’s defeat by Warrington?

KW: Warrington started with a lot more than we did. We tried to find that hunger in the second half and earned our field position and opportunities off the back of that.

Unfortunately, in the second half our skill let us down.

In the first half they just beat us to the punch with the intensity they started with.

We have to figure out why we didn’t start with that intensity – and that is certainly something we have addressed through the week. It won’t be a problem again.

I have also got to take a bit of responsibility there in terms of our plan not quite working.

A little bit of that was execution and skill but part of it was what we were trying to put into place.

We had three goal kick opportunities, two in front of the posts and one to the side, to pick up six points.

Although you don’t want to win a game on penalty goals – but scoreboard pressure certainly changes the occasion.

I have got to take responsibility there in terms of being stronger and making sure we take those opportunities next time.

There are a couple of things we address out of that game – that is always the positive out of a loss in that you get to review yourself a bit harder and look at the things we didn’t do too well.

We will definitely have improvements going forward.