Super League: St Helens 20-4 Wakefield Trinity - Saints maintain 100% record to go top
- Published
St Helens have now beaten Catalans Dragons, Hull FC and Wakefield Trinity in their opening three Super League games
Betfred Super League |
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St Helens (16) 20 |
Tries: Percival 2, Roby, Simm Goals: Makinson 2 |
Wakefield (4) 4 |
Try: Johnstone |
St Helens maintained their 100% winning start to the 2022 Super League season as they defeated Wakefield Trinity.
Mark Percival scored either side of James Roby's try to put Saints in control but Tom Johnstone got Trinity back in it before the break.
After a tense start to the second half, Josh Simm went over for the hosts in the corner to pad out their lead.
Both sides ended the game with 12 players after David Fifita and Curtis Sironen saw yellow late on.
The win lifts St Helens above Wigan into top spot in the early Super League table, while Wakefield's winless start to the season continues with a third loss in a row.
A comfortable first half for the hosts began with Percival's first score, before Roby crashed over from dummy half.
Percival worked on to Tommy Makinson's grubber kick to cut inside for his second as Saints continued their dominance.
Johnstone cut the deficit on the verge of half-time however as he latched on to Brad Walker's pass to touch down but Max Jowitt missed the extras.
Saints could have added a fifth try in the closing stages but Alex Walmsley was well held up as the hosts raced to work onto a Jonny Lomax pass.
Trinity saw Fifita sent to the bin with three minutes remaining and a minute later, he was joined by Sironen who was yellow carded for a swinging arm.
St Helens boss Kristian Woolf:
"Overall I'm happy. The first half was a good game of footy. Wakefield showed they were going to chance their arm as we knew they would.
"Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, so we had to make sure we worked hard and scrambled well defensively.
"Wakefield also worked very hard defensively and in the second half we got a bit bogged down and lost some intensity and it probably wasn't good viewing."
Wakefield Trinity boss Willie Poching told BBC Radio Leeds:
"I'm really proud of the effort. There's no fault in that, especially defensively. We fronted up and chanced our arm, which is part of what we wanted to do.
"They don't give you much and you have to take the opportunities you're given. We lost our composure a bit, we had a plan, we didn't quite execute how we wanted to, but they showed their quality.
"It's been a tough couple of weeks for us to go away to both Grand Finalists and I told the boys they deserve to hold their head up high."
St Helens: Welsby, Simm, Hurrell, Percival, Makinson, Lomax, Dodd, Walmsley, Roby, Lees, Mata'Utia, Batchelor, Knowles.
Interchanges: Lussick, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Sironsen, Paasi.
Wakefield: Jowitt, Johnstone, Hall, Minns, Lineham, Walker, Miller, Crowther, Ashurst, Pitts, Fifita, Bowes, Arona.
Interchanges: Kay, Whitbread, Battye, Batchelor.