Super League: Huddersfield Giants 18-34 St Helens

Rick Stone won only six of his 18 games in his second spell as Newcastle Knights head coach

St Helens defeated Huddersfield in Giants boss Rick Stone's first game in charge of Super League's bottom club.

Stone saw his side go in 22-12 down at the break thanks to Saints tries from Joe Greenwood, Jack Owens, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Jordan Turner.

Danny Brough and Tom Symonds responded for Giants before the break, and Jermaine McGillvary got them back to within four points.

But Adam Swift and Alex Walmsley crossed to seal Saints' victory.

Saints' victory moves them level on points with fourth-placed Catalans Dragons, while Huddersfield, already consigned to The Qualifiers, remain bottom after Leeds' victory over Wigan on Friday.

Stone, who replaced the sacked Paul Anderson this week, had seen his team get right back in the match when McGillvary crossed and Brough converted to make it 22-18.

But Brough's last-tackle kick forward was intercepted by Swift on his own try-line, and he ran the full length of the pitch to score.

Saints withstood a hefty amount of pressure, with Symonds having a try ruled out for a forward pass, before Walmsley's try wrapped up their fourth straight victory.

Huddersfield Giants head coach Rick Stone:

"We showed some real good things, plenty of bad things and everything in between. We fought hard but gave away some soft tries.

"The first 15 minutes of the second half put us in a position to put some pressure on Saints but we couldn't maintain that pressure.

"They play differently in the Super League to what I'm used to (in the Australian NRL) and there was some real frivolous stuff from us.

"The degree of difficulty of some of the options we took was way too high and the outcomes weren't always great and we paid for that on the scoreboard."

St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham:

"I'm proud of how hard the group are working for each other and generally in rugby league you get what you deserve. I think in our last four victories we've worked exceptionally hard and got what we deserved.

"The boys have worked exceptionally hard and deserve all the plaudits they get because the comments have gone the other way a couple of times in the last few months. But it was a really professional victory today.

"Fourth get more home games than you get away games and we've always targeted top four, although a few weeks ago it seemed it might have got away from us.

"We are still reliant on other teams in the final game but all we can take care of is what we do - the variables away from that we can't do anything about.

Huddersfield: Connor, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Murphy, Ormsby, Brough, Brierley, Huby, Hinchcliffe, Rapira, Symonds, Lawrence, Ta'ai.

Replacements: Crabtree, Leeming, Roberts, Ikahihifo.

St Helens: Lomax, Owens, Fleming, Percival, Swift, Turner, Walsh, Walmsley, Roby, Richards, Greenwood, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Wilkin.

Replacements: Amor, Vea, Thompson, Knowles.

Referee: Joe Cobb.