Leaders St Helens beaten by battling Trinity

Super League leaders St Helens suffered only a second defeat of the season as Wakefield halted their own five-match losing run in a nailbiting contest at the Mobile Rocket Stadium.

England centre Mark Percival scored two tries, taking his tally for the season to 12, as Saints fought back from 22-6 down to close to within two points but they could not maintain their composure in a dramatic finish.

Wakefield, who had earlier scored four tries in 18 minutes through Ben Jones-bishop, Reece Lyne, Justin Horo and Bill Tupou, clung on for a 24-20 victory, their first at home to St Helens for six years.

Both sides finished the game with 12 men after Percival and Wakefield hooker Tyler Randell were sent to the sin-bin but, after losing their past three matches by a combined total of eight points, the Trinity coach, Chris Chester, was thrilled by the way they held their nerve this time.

“I aged about 10 years in the last five minutes but I couldn’t be more proud of my players,” Chester said. “We’ve been there or thereabouts for the last five games. I’m really pleased, it means I can sleep a bit better tonight.”

Chester says he dropped winger Tom Johnstone, who is in England coach Wayne Bennett’s elite training squad, as well as forward Pauli Pauli and half-back Ryan Hampshire, after a run of disappointing form. “They know the reasons,” Chester said. “It sends a clear message to the rest of the group that, if they’re not doing their job, they will be sat on the sidelines with me.”

The leaders were without captain James Roby because of a rib cartilage injury but coach Justin Holbrook refused to use his absence as an excuse. “Full credit to Wakefield, I thought they just worked harder than us,” he said.

Elsewhere, Castleford underlined the size of the task facing Steve Mcnamara as they hammered his Catalans Dragons side 41-0 to move into the top four. In yesterday’s other game, Salford won 30-12 at Huddersfield.