Potter pleased with defensive improvement

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Saints made a dream start to their qualifying play-off with three tries in the first 21 minutes from Tony Puletua, Leon Pryce and Francis Meli and defended superbly to keep the Giants try-less for the first time for 14 months. After watching his side finish the regular Super League season with a shock 24-12 home defeat by Catalans Dragons, Potter was delighted with their improvement, especially in defence.

"Defensively, it was very close to our best performance of the season," he said.

"It was a definite improvement on last week. You could see there was a lot at stake. It was a slow game and very hard to get points but that's what you get when the rucks are so slow."

Saints' reward is a home tie in the semi-final and the chance to rest players next week, especially after Keiron Cunningham (hand), Matt Gidley (groin) and Tony Puletua (shoulder) all sustained knocks.

Huddersfield, who have another chance in the play-offs against Catalans and could return to Knowsley Road in the semi-finals, scored their only points through a Brett Hodgson penalty and coach Nathan Brown was left to rue a slow start.

"There wasn't a great deal in the game, just the first 20, 25 minutes," he said. "We weren't quite good enough.

"In semi-finals you have to up the speed and we didn't do that in the first 20 minutes. Their line speed was better than ours as was their kick-chase.

"They are a very good side and we weren't far away."

Huddersfield forwards Stephen Wild and Larne Patrick sustained injuries which will make them doubtful for next Friday's preliminary semi-final but Brown confirmed that Scott Moore and Keith Mason will both return after serving two-match bans imposed for breaches of club discipline.