Ashton hat-trick gives Wire victory over St Helens

Matty Ashton has scored nine tries for Warrington Wolves so far this season

Betfred Super League

Warrington (16) 32

Tries: King, Ashton 3, Tai, Dufty Goals: Sneyd 2, Thewlis 2

St Helens (14) 18

Tries: Bennison 2, Percival 2 Goals: Whitby

Matty Ashton's hat-trick helped Warrington beat St Helens for the third time in five weeks to move up to seventh in Super League.

Having won the first league meeting between the sides last month, Wire also won their Challenge Cup tie before adding this third successive win over Saints.

Toby King scored their first try before Ashton crossed twice in the left corner but Saints responded with a try from Jon Bennison and two from Mark Percival to leave the hosts just 16-14 ahead at the break.

Ashton's dive into the left corner completed his hat-trick and Rodrick Tai and Matt Dufty went over to seal victory for Wire before Bennison scored his second try for Saints as a late consolation.

It was Warrington's fifth Super League win of the campaign while an injury-hit Saints remain in fifth position despite their fourth league defeat of 2025.

After two previous tight matches this season, the first half left little between the sides.

The hosts struck first as a Saints knock-on gave them a perfect attacking platform and from the scrum, King bounced off the first tackler to go over in the left corner.

Marc Sneyd then kicked a 40-20 to put his side deep into Saints' half before they worked the play left to put Ashton over in the same corner.

Saints responded as Warrington allowed the restart to bounce into touch and the visitors took full advantage with quick hands to send Bennison into the right corner.

The Wire immediately scored their third try as a pass went to ground, sucked in the St Helens defence and the ball was flicked up for Ashton to sprint down the left wing to score.

But the 12-point lead was whittled down to just two before the break as Percival scored twice for Saints.

He first drew the defence 10 metres out and stepped off his left boot and through a hole to the line before holding off three tacklers to power over for a second try.

Warrington extended their lead after the break as a long pass to the left wing created space for Ashton to dive spectacularly into the corner to complete his hat-trick.

Fortune then favoured the Wire as Pervical had a try ruled out that could have brought Saints level with his foot fractionally in touch before Dufty clung on to a pass between his legs before his wide pass set up Tai to slide over for his first try in a year.

Dufty put the game beyond doubt by cutting back off his right boot to scorch through a tired Saints defence before the visitors scored a consolation try as they worked Bennison into the right corner.

Victory for the hosts was dampened by the loss of Sneyd to a failed head injury assessment, meaning he will now miss their game against Wigan Warriors at next week's Magic Weekend.

Warrington Wolves head coach Sam Burgess told BBC Radio Merseyside:

"The team really care about each other. It was a real spirited performance. I've been here 18 months and I'd probably say that's my proudest win.

"We had a lot against us and I'm proud of the way they handled adversity and they came out the other side.

"There's still things we can tidy up but I don't need to pick the brains out of the game because the effort was outstanding."

St Helens boss Paul Wellens told BBC Radio Merseyside:

"It's obviously really disappointing. Not just the result but the performance. Some soul searching needs to be done both individually and collectively because it's way off the standard we need to be.

"I'm responsible for the results and performances of this team. I've never, for one second, shied away from that.

"For the second week in a row we've started really sloppy in a game. We've coughed up cheap possession, I can't keep talking about that, we've got to fix it up.

"We've done so much great work in pre-season and the early rounds and tried to implement things to improve our attack but to get the opportunity to attack you need to keep hold of the ball and turn up with a defensive attitude and resilience to earn the right to play and we did neither of those tonight and it needs to be better."

Warrington: Dufty; Thewlis, Tai, King, Ashton; Walker, Sneyd; Yates, Powell, Vaughan, Russell, Fitzgibbon, Currie

Interchanges: Philbin, Crowther, Musgrove, Harrison

St Helens: Sailor; Bennison, Sambou, Percival, Murphy; Welsby, Whitby; Walmsley, Clark, Lees, Sironen, Whitley, Knowles

Interchanges: Mbye, Paasi, Delaney, Stephens

Referee: Liam Moore.