Super League: St Helens 32-18 Huddersfield Giants - Saints overcome Giants comeback to move third

Tommy Makinson has now scored 200 career tries thanks to his hat-trick for St Helens against Huddersfield

St Helens weathered a late comeback from 12-man Huddersfield Giants to keep up their Super League play-off pursuit.

Tommy Makinson crossed twice to send Saints into an early lead before the Giants had Joe Greenwood sent off for a high elbow after 28 minutes.

Huddersfield responded through Matty English but Makinson completed his hat-trick just before the half-time hooter.

Ash Golding and Kevin Naiqama started Huddersfield's turnaround before Lewis Dodd and Jack Welsby rallied Saints.

The result means St Helens move above Challenge Cup winners Leigh Leopards into third place on points difference, while the Giants remain 10th but maintain their 10-point gap to struggling Castleford and Wakefield.

Saints took just four minutes to get off the mark when they worked the ball wide to Makinson who fought off Jake Connor to run in at the corner.

Naiqama was the catalyst for Saints' second try as they motored through a succession of passes, having been given a set restart when he was penalised for a failed intercept.

Welsby sent in a sensational last-ditch and decisive pass to the onrushing Makinson who crossed in at the right end of the field this time to give the hosts a 12-point cushion.

That gap looked even more comfortable for Saints when, just moments after he was introduced from the bench, Greenwood saw red for raising his elbow.

Huddersfield got their first points on the board in impressive fashion when Sam Halsall caught a kick on the last tackle to send English through to score.

But Makinson's third came shortly after Welsby shrugged off the Giants' defence to send him through to score his 200th career try.

Despite Saints' 12-point lead at the break, Golding and Naiqama - passed fit enough to start against his former club - raced through to inch them to within just two points of the hosts inside the final 10 minutes.

But Dodd's 76th-minute try, teed up from Sione Mata'utia's grubber kick, followed by him teeing up Welsby to score spared the hosts' blushes and wrapped up what should have been a much easier victory.

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens:

"It's probably going to sound a bit peculiar, but I think the worst thing that happened to us in that game was Joe Greenwood getting sent off.

"I spoke to the players about it, I think we expected things from that point on to come easy. As I've seen so many times, 12 men can galvanise. They work harder for each other and find something a bit different and I thought Huddersfield did that to their credit today, and we didn't respond well enough in that situation.

"I never sat there and felt comfortable in the game as I didn't like the way we dropped our standards. The players have come in straight off the field and they know. In some respect, that's a real positive, but we're going to have to do something about it."

Huddersfield head coach Ian Watson:

"We didn't start the game well. We gave too much ball to St Helens at the start which is obviously going to take energy out of you.

"For me, you've got Joe Greenwood who has been directly hit in the face - we had Joe directly hit in the face at Magic Weekend, we never got any penalties, he got concussed and then this game he's been sent off because he's lashed out.

"You talk about players feeling protected, that's not protecting players when they're getting hit straight in the face and they're the ones getting concussed on the back of it."

St Helens: Welsby; Makinson, Percival, Davies, Ritson; Lomax, Dodd; Delaney, Roby, Lees, Mata'utia, Royle, Knowles.

Interchanges: Batchelor, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Norman, Mbye.

Huddersfield: Connor; Halsall, Bibby, Naiqama, Golding; Russell, Lolohea; Hill, Milner, Wilson, Cudjoe, McQueen, English.

Interchanges: Peats, Greenwood, Hewitt, Ikahihifo.

Referee: Ben Thaler.

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