Sorry Claret and Gold blown away by Saints
A RUTHLESS performance from St Helens dispatched an injury-hit Huddersfield Giants to secure a thumping victory at Headingley Stadium.
Five tries in 16 second-half minutes was enough to see off Simon Woolford’s men.
With just 16 players available for selection, you could argue Giants were due a bit of luck, however, just four minutes in, that theory was blown out the water.
A kick on the fifth-tackle deflected off the shins of Matty English and fell perfectly for Lachlan Coote, who scored the opening try of the game.
Saints doubled their lead after 13 minutes, this time Aaron Smith was the beneficiary.
The attack, started by a deflected Giants kick which fell nicely into St Helens hands, started in the Claret and Gold half and as they threw the ball around, Huddersfield simply could not contend with an overload in the middle and Smith scored under the posts.
The next 10 minutes belonged to Giants as they finally started to pose questions of the St Helens defence. However, a loose offload from Tom Holmes fell straight to Regan Grace, who had an open field to run into and put Saints 16-0 ahead.
Three successful conversions, and a penalty from Coote meant Saints took a 20-0 lead on the half-hour
Senior, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Turner, Young Russell, Holmes, Gavet, O’Brien, English, Hewitt, J. Wardle Wood. Replacements: Butterworth, Wilson, Trout, Edwards.
Coote, Costello, Naiqama,
Simm, Grace, Welsby, Lomax Lees, Smith, Walmsley, Bentley, Knowles, Graham. Replacements: Peyroux, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Amor, Ashworth.
mark. The end of the first half was a lot more promising for Giants, with debutant Owen Trout especially impressing with some tireless workrate in defence.
Huddersfield were able to weather an early Saints storm and were on the scoreboard themselves soon after through Trout.
A superbly timed
ball-steal allowed the debutant to run unopposed under the posts to score his first try in Claret and Gold.
Whatever glimmer of hope Giants gained from the try was soon eradicated by a score from Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, who atoned for his error that led to Trout’s try as Saints restored their 20-point cushion.
Grace then doubled his tally with a fantastic run and try to nudge his side over the 30-point mark.
If his second was a great solo effort, then Matty Costello’s try was a fantastic team move involving five players, an offload and a great pass from Jack Welsby and Saints, supported by perfect kicking from Coote, took a 38-6 lead.
Clearly not content with his kicking game, Coote added his second of the game and Saints closed in on 50 points.
Dominique Peyroux soon opened his account for the night as the defending champions continued to punish a tiring defence.
The half-century was swiftly conquered with a try from Alex Walmsley and Coote, yet again, landed the conversion to leave the score at 54-6.
It was always going to be an uphill battle for Giants, but they will not be happy with their performance, particularly their second-half showing.
Saints were allowed to attack and score far too easily and regularly and Giants will be hoping their injuryravaged squad is back to some sort of normality by the time they face up against Leeds Rhinos next week.