Super League: St Helens 16-8 Warrington Wolves - Saints keep hopes of fifth consecutive title alive

Lewis Dodd opened the scoring for St Helens against Warrington

Reigning Super League champions St Helens kept their hopes of a fifth straight title alive with victory over Warrington in the eliminator play-offs.

Lewis Dodd's try gave Saints the lead in the opening 40 along with two Mark Percival goals, as Warrington were unable to hold out waves of attack.

Connor Wrench got the Wire on the board soon after the restart, and a penalty from Stef Ratchford levelled.

However, Tommy Makinson finished off a slick move to secure Saints' win.

They will now visit Catalans Dragons on Friday with a place in the Grand Final at Old Trafford on 14 October at stake.

The game was the perfect home send-off for retiring players James Roby and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook as the two teams treated the fans to an enthralling contest.

The pair, notably Roby on his 550th Saints appearance, have been talismanic in terms of their influence and at 37 years old each, helped carry their team to a semi-final berth.

In the first half, Paul Wellens' side were dominant with position and possession, and only two last-ditch tackles by Matty Ashton stopped them from adding to Dodd's score as the Wire left-edge defence was lacerated.

Curtis Sironen was put into space by James Bell's delicious pop-pass, and Dodd backed up to cross for the try that put Saints ahead, while a glorious series of tip-ons put Makinson in for the score that settled it out wide.

Warrington's season began with a rip-roaring eight consecutive wins but unravelled mid-campaign as they lost the confidence that took them to the Super League summit.

They scraped into the play-offs despite some unconvincing displays, and saved some of their most spirited efforts for this encounter.

Having failed to really trouble the bullish Saints pack, the Wire got a breakthrough early in the second half thanks to Wrench's pace and ability to skip beyond the cover defence.

Both sides had players sinbinned, with Alex Walmsley sent for 10 for a high tackle on Warrington's Jordy Crowther and Joe Bullock taking St Helens' Matty Lees high.

But the four-in-a-row champions showed their mettle in the soggy conditions, and will swap the wet north west for the heat of the south of France and a partisan atmosphere in Perpignan next Friday.

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens:

"It was frustrating that we didn't nail a couple more of those first-half chances and that's something we want to improve on because in the big games the opportunities are few and far between.

"But after Warrington scored, then Alex was sin-binned, the momentum shifted and that's when the resilience of the group really showed up.

"In tough moments in big games, that's when they're going to come up and you've got to overcome them, and that's the most pleasing thing about today."

Interim Warrington boss Gary Chambers:

"There was plenty of effort but you can't do some of the things we did in these kinds of games and expect to get a result.

"It was the finer details of the whole thing. To win these kinds of games you've just got to get a little bit more clinical.

"It was a game I expected us to go out and win and we did compete but we just came up a little bit short."

St Helens: Welsby; Makinson, Percival, Hopoate, Bennison; Lomax, Dodd; Lees, Roby, Mata'utia, Batchelor, Sironen, Knowles

Interchanges: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Bell, Mbye, Walmsley

Warrington: Dufty; Russell, Wrench, Ratchford, Ashton; Williams, Drinkwater; Harrison, Walker, Kasiano, Currie, Nicholson, Crowther

Interchanges: Mata'utia, Clark, Philbin, Bullock, Dudson

Referee: Ben Thaler

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