Kristian Woolf: St Helens boss happy with Catalans Challenge Cup preparations

St Helens have no concerns about preparations and travel going into Saturday's Challenge Cup quarter-final against Catalans Dragons in Perpignan, says boss Kristian Woolf.

The tie pits the two top Super League teams from last season against each other in a rematch of the Grand Final.

While the Dragons pose a test, Woolf is satisfied by the club's build-up.

"It's obviously a challenge, and how the game goes will get sorted on the day," Woolf told BBC Radio Merseyside.

"But our blokes are ready, our blokes are looking forward to it, and there are some things around the travel - and that kind of thing - which are challenges.

"Yet we think we've put together the best possible preparation we can come up with and we're in a really good position in terms of how we've been playing, we get into it with real excitement and confidence."

Woolf expects physicality from Catalans

Dylan Napa (left) and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook (centre) are two aggressive props who could lock horns

It is in the past couple of seasons that Catalans, under the stewardship of former England boss Steve McNamara, have emerged as a genuine competitive opponent for Saints - who have won the past three league titles.

The Perpignan club thumped them in the 2018 semi-final of this competition with a perfect gameplan to stifle, and also won the League Leaders' Shield in thrilling circumstances with a golden point winner against Saints at 2021's Magic Weekend finale.

However, it was Saints who came out on top narrowly at Old Trafford last October, and they also won the opening round game convincingly as Catalans' indiscipline cost them.

Woolf knows his players will be up against it in what promises to be a fiery encounter.

"If you look back to round one that was the type of game we got, and if you go back to the Grand Final it was the same," he said.

"We're expecting a physical game, we're looking forward to a physical game and it's something our players really relish."

Well balanced rivalries on the field

James Roby - still going - scored the opener in Saints' 2007 Challenge Cup win over Catalans at Wembley

The match-ups between the two clubs make for an ideally spicy tie on Saturday, in the early afternoon swelter of Perpignan.

Saints' opening round Super League win saw Dragons' Dylan Napa red-carded and Gil Dudson sent to the sin-bin, as the two front-rowers lost their cool, but the home side will need their bash and barge to level up the potentially rampaging work of visiting props Alex Walmsley, Agnatius Paasi and Matty Lees.

Spines are also top class across the board with Catalans' combination of Sam Tomkins, Mitchell Pearce. Josh Drinkwater and Micky McIlorum balanced nicely against the quartet of Jack Welsby, Jonny Lomax, Lewis Dodd and the evergreen James Roby.

With those positional match-ups in mind, talk of a new rivalry between the clubs is flat-batted by Woolf, although the Tonga boss can see positives in the extra competitiveness of such matches.

"It's probably just an add-on to a number of rivalries," he said. "We're the rival team for a number of clubs, and there's a positive to that.

"Most teams bring their best against us, and we get that real experience of playing at a higher level each week.

"Teams are coming to give us their best game, and we've got to find a way to overcome that and this week is no different."