RETURNING St Helens star Paige Travis believes a new level of maturity within her side will be on show at Wembley as they look regain the Challenge Cup trophy lost to Wigan last season.
Saints made it through to their sixth consecutive final with a 30-14 victory over Leeds Rhinos in the semi-final, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for them after they let a 24-0 lead slip as Leeds scored three tries to make it 24-14 going into the final eight minutes.
Erin McDonald’s second try for St Helens ultimately settled any nerves, but for Travis a lot can be taken from that performance to benefit them at Wembley on Saturday.
“We know there is a lot to work on from that game as it was far from our best performance, but that is exciting because we know we’ve got a few more gears to go up,” said Travis.
“When you’re in a game like that you’d learn a lot – you learn things about big moments and you learn things about players.
“When we were having that stage of thinking ‘oh, could they come back here?’ we stuck it out, we managed to stay professional and we managed to stay on top.
“Being able to shift momentum like that in the game is important because when that momentum starts moving from you, it can be really difficult to bring it back. But I thought we did that really well in the last ten after 20-minute spell of Leeds getting on the front foot.
“We know that we’ve got to give everything to the very last minute – we’ve learnt hard lessons on that in the past – and that is something we have got better at over the years. It’s fine that momentum in the game changes, because we can handle that now, do the right things and have that breather moment to just bring it back down.
“We’ve definitely developed and matured as a squad in that respect and that’s something we’ll take to Wembley with us.”
Prior to last season’s 42-6 defeat at Wembley, Saints had won the trophy for four consecutive years, and even though she wasn’t part of the squad that lost its grip on the trophy, Travis was still left hurting from the defeat as much as her teammates.
“The Cup did feel like ours for a while, so it’s strange to think somebody else has taken that from us,” added Travis, who spent last season playing for Parramatta Eels in the NRLW.
“It was so hard watching last year’s final from Australia and not being able to help or be involved, and I know how much it hurt the other girls to lose that game, so as much as I want to win this for me, I want it for the other girls more.
“I don’t think anyone expected the scoreline or the game to go as it did last year, but in a way I think it was the best thing that happened to them, because they then went out and had some really close contests with Wigan.
“It was a tough lesson to learn, but sometimes they’re the best ones you can have. Yes, it hurt at the time, but now we’re ready to bring the Cup back home. It’s going to be a battle, but it’s a battle that will be worth winning.”