Super League: Hull FC 10-42 St Helens - Jack Welsby scores hat-trick in win

Jack Welsby scored a hat-trick to bring up the win at Hull

Jack Welsby ran in a hat-trick as St Helens overpowered Hull FC to keep up their pursuit of Super League leaders Catalans Dragons.

Defending champions Saints went 16-0 up thanks to tries from Joel Thompson, Tommy Makinson and Welsby before Adam Swift scored against his old club.

Bureta Faraimo scored in the corner to reduce the arrears for Hull.

But Lachlan Coote's goal, added to tries from Kyle Amor, Kevin Naiqama and two from Welsby steered Saints home.

Kristian Woolf's side had last week's game against Huddersfield postponed because of Covid-19 protocols but there was little sign of any lasting issues as they kept their cool against a Hull side with plenty of threats.

The Challenge Cup holders had enough to match the big Hull pack although Matty Lees had to be withdrawn after failing a head injury assessment, and had the class to open them up out wide for tries from Makinson, Welsby and Naiqama.

Hull's two tries came in each half with the prolific Swift scoring from a Saints error, while Faraimo leapt highest for his score.

However, indiscipline cost them when Jordan Johnstone and Ligi Sao both spent time in the sin-bin in the last 20 minutes.

That allowed Saints to pull clear on their first return to the ground where Welsby's freakish added-time try won them the 2021 Super League title last November.

St Helens boss Kristian Woolf:

"Like he does every week, wherever we put him, Jack Welsby does a terrific job. He was outstanding again.

"f you look at two of the three tries he scored, it is that ability to put himself in the right spot. That is something we can't coach. He's just got that as a bloke and as a player.

"I'm really happy with our blokes. We had 13 days from the Challenge Cup where we couldn't do anything. We are short-staffed at the minute. We still have seven or eight players and two or three staff that aren't allowed to be in yet or are just coming back into the group."

Hull head coach Brett Hodgson:

"There was much more to like in that performance than there was on Thursday (in the defeat against Leeds). We are still working to be more clinically offensively but we were in the contes.

"Had Bureta Faraimo scored in the corner, it would have been a different result. Not necessarily a win but a lot closer than it was. Disappointed but, at the same time, plenty to like in that performance."

"Going down to 12 men against a fresh St Helens team is always going to hurt. Definitely disappointed with the last 25 minutes, conceding as many points as we did. But I'd rather focus on that first 55 minutes."

Hull FC: Wynne; Faraimo, Fonua, Scott, Swift; Reynolds, Sneyd; Sao, Johnstone, Satae, Ma'u, Lane, Cator

Interchanges: Fash, McNamara, Brown, Vulikijapani.

Sin bin: Johnstone, Sao.

St Helens: Coote; Makinson, Naiqama, Percival, Welsby; Lomax, Dodd; Walmsley, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Thompson, Batchelor, Knowles.

Interchanges: Lees, Mata'utia, Amor, Smith

Referee: James Child

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