St Helens 34 v Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 14, Friday May 18, 2007

Saints weathered an early double blow as they came from behind to beat Wakefield in an error strewn match.

Losing Francis Meli in the warm-up, Dean McGilvray stepped up to the plate, even though he had already played 80 minutes for the under 21’s in the curtain raiser.

In other changes, Bryn Hargreaves slotted into loose forward whilst Sculthorpe moved into the second row and Matty Smith played in front of still unfit Sean Long.

And, just a few seconds in, Saints got off to the worst possible start when a clever chip through from Sam Obst was spilled by Willie Talau gifting the score to debutante Sean Gleeson. Rooney added the extras.

But Saints hit back immediately as Matt Gidley strolled in on the right after great work from Gardner and Sculthorpe; the captain tagging on the conversion.

Leon Pryce then showed his strength on 18 minutes to power over from 10 yards - just reward for a superb bomb a few seconds earlier which forced Wildcats’ Rooney to drop out.

Rooney pulled two back after a high tackle, but Saints went further ahead through Gardner – his thirteenth of the season.

The move was classic Saints - as it went from left to right from Matty Smith, before a neat inside flick from Gidley sent the man from Barrow in.

Saints continued where they left off in the second half, when a swinging arm penalty was converted into a well worked try.

Cunningham took a quick tap, fed to Matty Smith who passed to Wellens before the full back cleverly sent in Matt Gidley – the Australian always favourite one on one with the Wakefield defence.

Then, on 56 minutes, Paul Sculthorpe continued his excellent form with a cute pass to Pryce, who fed Gidley – the centre cutting inside – before Smith gave a slightly dubious pass to Wellens for his 19^th of the season. Sculthorpe added the extras.

Trinity’s David March managed to get himself 10 minutes rest following a late, late hit on Matty Smith; Sculthorpe calming things down with a two pointer in front of the sticks.

With the prop off the field, Saints enjoyed bucket loads of possession and with nine to go Wellens popped up with his second.Nick Fozzard bulldozed to just short of the line and on the next tackle, Cunningham fed the reigning Man of Steel – and who would bet against him taking that title once again?

Excellent with the boot all night, Sculthorpe made the conversion look easy.

Wakefield added a consolation late on through Olivier Elima following a fumble by Gardner.

Daniel Anderson said: “We were loose and scrappy at times and the conditions certainly didn’t help. But we are accumulating the points now and that is important.

“Our kicking game wasn’t great and that made it hard for ourselves but we did enough to win the game. Paul Wellens was an injury doubt all week after hurting his back - would you believe it - playing darts.

“Deano played really well and should be happy with his performance.”

Tries: Gidley (2), Pryce, Gardner, Wellens (2)

Goals: Sculthorpe (5 from 7)

Tries: Gleeson, Elima

Goals: Rooney (3 from 3)

Penalty count:

Saints 7

Wakefield 3

Half Time: 16-8

Full Time: 34-14

Attendance: 8,529

Referee: Gary Hewer (Whitehaven)

Man-of-the-match: Paul Wellens

Saints - Paul Wellens, Ade Gardner, Willie Talau, Matt Gidley, Dean McGilvray, Leon Pryce, Matty Smith, Nick Fozzard, Keiron Cunningham, Jason Cayless, Jon Wilkin, Paul Sculthorpe, Bryn Hargreaves. Subs: James Roby, James Graham, Paul Clough, Maurie Fa'asavalu.

Wakefield - Jamie Rooney, Waine Pryce, Sean Gleeson, Jason Demetriou, Paul White, Sam Obst, Paul March, Richard Moore, David March, Duncan MacGillivray, Ned Catic, Brett Ferres, Kevin Henderson, Ben Jeffries, Ricky Bibey, Jason Golden, Olivier Elima.