ST HELENS fullback Rebecca Rotheram has praised her teammates’ grit and determination after they left it late to seal an 18-8 win over York on Saturday.

The Red Vee were losing 8-0 early in the second half but tries from Emily Rudge and Phoebe Hook (two) sealed victory and kept Saints top of the league going into Friday’s clash with Wigan at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

“It was a tough game,” said Rotheram, who was named woman of the match after being pivotal in Saints’ comeback.

“York are a big physical team and we had to try and match that. We’d watched the York versus Wigan game the week before so we knew what they were all about.

“I don’t think they were really expected to go and turn Wigan over with the way they’d been performing, so we knew what we were up against and I think we matched their energy.

“At half-time the coaches just told us to stay in the grind. We knew it wasn’t going to be a walkover so we just had to stick to processes, get to end of sets and try to end them positively, which is what we did.”