Justin Holbrook admits he is proud of his team and insists his young players will learn a lot following the defeat to London Broncos on Sunday.
A youthful Saints went down to the Broncos as Academy product Josh Simm impressed on debut whilst fellow youngsters Callum Hazzard and Josh Eaves also came off the bench to pick up their Saints heritage numbers.
Holbrook admits his side showed the endeavor and attitude and was proud how his team came back after falling behind early.
“I thought we competed really hard today. It got away from us in the end but we competed well,” he said.
“I was really proud how we came back and I thought we were unlucky in the first half to be behind like we were and with Louie in the bin and all that stuff. Nothing went our way in that first half.
“I thought we tried really hard in the second half and we had a real good chance when we got back into the game at 14-12 and then we made our own error and didn’t defend on the last play and once they got that try to take it to 20-12 they kicked away from then. I thought up until that point I was confident we would go on and win the game.”
Simm played 80 minutes in the centres and Holbrook paid credit to him as well as the rest of the Saints youngsters who he insists will develop following this experience.
“It is a big jump from Academy to first team and they will learn a lot from that today. They deserved their opportunity. We have some great young players at our club and I would have loved to come down here and get the win to celebrate with them but we didn’t play well enough and London were too good for us. For those guys to get their debuts is a special occasion for them, but unfortunately we couldn’t get the win for them.
“I thought everyone of our young lads did well today, but I thought young Josh Simm to play his first game of the season in the first team [was great]. He is a great young talent and while he didn’t do anything flash I thought it was really good for him to get a game under his belt in the first team.”
Holbrook had no regrets about throwing some of his young players in for their debuts and paid credit to London for the victory.
“It was the right time that’s for sure – we have played a lot of hard games and asked a lot from our players. I thought our young guys earned the opportunity and it was the right time absolutely. We made the right changes, but we didn’t play good enough despite doing well to get back in the game from where we were.”
