Magic Weekend 2016: St Helens 20-48 Huddersfield Giants

Jamie Ellis committed his future to the Giants this week by signing a new contract until 2019.

Second-from-bottom Huddersfield Giants put in an impressive performance to beat St Helens at St James' Park.

The Giants scored three tries in seven minutes through Jermaine McGillvary, Ukuma Ta'ai and Jamie Ellis.

Matty Dawson replied for Saints before the break but scores from McGillvary, Sam Rapira and Murphy made it 34-6.

Jack Owens, Theo Fages and Adam Swift scored either side of Danny Brough's penalty to give Saints hope but Ryan Hincliffe and Kyle Wood sealed victory.

St Helens came into Magic Weekend having won three of their last four games, knowing that a win would have put them level on points with the teams in second place.

After a pointless first 20 minutes, Keiron Cunningham's side found themselves 16-0 down and it took until the 36th minute for them to get on the scoreboard.

Giants winger McGillvary then posted his 13th try of the season within seconds of the restart.

And, despite a brief wobble following scores from Owens and Fages, Giants looked in control throughout as they secured a fourth win in six matches, including two over champions Leeds.

Paul Anderson's side will now be looking to make a charge towards the top eight with eight games of the regular season to play.

St Helens boss Keiron Cunningham:

"I thought we actually started the better of the two teams but we couldn't hang in there for long enough periods.

"I'm not overly disappointed with the team. There are very fine margins in rugby league and, if you are consistently not good for the full 80 minutes, you lose the energy battle and you get results like this.

"It's just happening too often for us. That's the disappointing thing. But there is still a long way to go in the season. The top four and the top eight is up for grabs for anybody. All we need to do is find some consistency."

Huddersfield coach Paul Anderson:

"It was probably the most experienced team we've had out all year. I just felt going back to experience was probably the right thing to do.

"It's been coming for a while. We've been building and even though we lost at Catalans last week, the performance with a young team was pretty good. We're a good team and today we showed some real patience.

"Saints asked a lot of questions and caused us some problems. I'm just happy with our resolve in a big game and on a big stage. But we won't fall in love with ourselves. We need to keep improving."

St Helens: McDonnell, Owens, Wellington, Dawson, Swift, Fages, Walsh, Tasi, Roby, Amor, Wilkin, Vea, McCarthy-Scarsbrook.

Replacements: Turner, Walmsley, Savelio, Knowles.

Huddersfield: Grix, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Connor, Murphy, Brough, Ellis, Crabtree, Hinchcliffe, Mason, Wardle, Ta'ao, Lawrence.

Replacements: Wood, Rapira, Roberts, Ikahihifo.

Referee: Ben Thaler (RFU).