Saints coach Potter says their quaretr-final display was faultless

Jun 1 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ST HELENS will head into their Challenge Cup semi-final showdown with the Giants on the back of a quarter-final success that coach Mick Potter found almost faultless.

The reigning champions beat Gateshead 66-6 at the International Stadium and played some sparkling rugby against their Championship opponents, with Matt Gidley, Paul Wellens, Chris Flannery and Leon Pryce all scoring two tries each.

It was the first time the sides have met since Gateshead were a Super League club in 1999, and the north-east club were determined to make things as uncomfortable as possible for their illustrious visitors, narrowing the pitch to its minimum possible width.

But Potter was unfazed after seeing his men record an 18th straight win in the competition, and said: “I’m very pleased. We executed some plays very well.

“There is always stuff you’d like to improve on but we found the balance where we took something out of the game, but there’s something there to improve on.

“Given that the width of the field was taken right down to 55m we still played accordingly and managed to score through the middle and through the edge. It didn’t matter to us. There were some good passing moves and some good ones through the middle.”

Potter, who coached the Catalans Dragons to the final in 2007, was also pleased to see his side continue their dominance in the second half after they had led 36-6 at the break.

“I think we did really well,” he said.

“We were professional and the determination was there right through the 80 minutes. We just probably had a couple of lapses of concentration here and there, with too much attention to detail, but other than that I thought we were good.”

Gateshead coach Steve McCormack was happy to reflect on a proud day for his club.

“I think this is a historic day for this club,” said McCormack.

“It was always going to be tough. We’ll learn from this experience, I’m sure.”