St Helens coach Kristian Woolf believes Great Britain nightmare could help him

KRISTIAN Woolf believes he can benefit from Great Britain’s tour from hell – after being one of the people who contributed to it.

The Tonga boss has taken over at Super League champions St Helens, who contributed Luke Thompson, Lachlan Coote, Alex Walmsley and Jonny Lomax to the Lions’ four losses from four.

One of them was the 14-6 humbling by the Pacific island and the new man at Saints believes they may be hell bent on showing they are among the world’s best, which will help them.

Woolf said: “Sometimes a little failure can add more motivation.

“The club’s had success but the tour might help some of those players refocus for how they’re going to be better next year.

“Great Britain not performing hasn’t got anything to do with the competition over here in terms of the standard.

“I’ve watched a lot of Super League and it’s a very good standard. It’s very similar to the NRL when the top teams go at each other.

“Great Britain weren’t as successful as they hoped to be but look back at last year, England was very successful as they were at the World Cup.

“The standard of players shouldn’t be judged on one series.”

Woolf hopes to stay on as boss of Tonga, who were in meltdown because of as dispute with the country’s board that saw International Rugby League step in and form a ‘Tongan Invitation XIII’ after the best players refused to play for them.

He was actually sacked by the rebel board but followed victory with his reinstated team over Britain with a sensational victory over the mighty Aussies.

And he called on rugby league’s chiefs to improve the fixture calendar to enable further planning and further growth, with Tonga on the verge of becoming a tier one nation.

He said: “It’s always a bugbear with the tier two nations that we don’t get the same scope in terms of having an organised calendar and knowing what your next game is.

“I’ve been involved for six or seven years and the Oceania Cup was the first time I knew what was coming at the end of the year. The opportunity to play more than one game against the best teams in the world was a great opportunity and we certainly showed what we can do with it.

“There needs to be a lot more improvement though in terms of having a set schedule.

“I’ve had numerous conversations with the club and there’s an opportunity to remain involved.

“Any involvement with Tonga can’t interfere with here. Tests at the end of the year don’t and it’s something I want to remain involved with.”

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