THE Saints celebrated playing at Langtree Park for the first time with a great 28-10 victory over Hull FC writes Graham Henthorne.
The defensive effort from the Saints was again superb stifling the life out of the visitors.
Hull could and should have gone ahead as early as the fourth minute but the try was ruled out for a forward pass. During this passage of play the Saints withstood three repeat sets on their own line before a relieving drive and smart offload from Shaun Magennis saw Danny Jones stopped short.
On the next set Josh Jones went outside his opposite number the speedy Reece Lyne before feeding the ball to Greg Wilde. He took it to the full back before passing inside to the supporting Danny Yates who was caught inches short by the full back who hadn’t fallen for Wilde’s dummy.
The Saints ball control was well below 50% leading to the visitors often gaining possession in the Saints half, but despite this extra defensive work the line was kept intact.
Then the Saints dealt the killer blow. Having been under the cosh for the first quarter the Saints put on a pre planned move from a scrum on the FC 40 metre line. Nathan Ashe dummied inside but fed Adam Swift on the outside who ghosted past the centre and outpaced the covering full back to the corner.
The visitors visibly wilted and the Saints turned the screw scoring with their next possession. Mark Percival was held up over the line in the right corner. But 2 tackles later quick hands put his centre partner Josh Jones in at the left corner.
Joe Greenwood then produced the tackle of the game to save a certain try. The Saints capitalised going down the other end and scoring again through Yates after Wilde had been denied.
The emphasis at half time was to improve the ball control, continue to work as hard in defence and the result will take care of itself. And that’s exactly what happened.
The ball control was near perfect, and it took a high kick to pierce the Saints line for the first time with a quarter of an hour left.
By that time, however, the Saints had run in two converted tries to be 24 points to the good. The first from the ever improving Greenwood, who used all his height to stretch over the line from a wonderful delayed pass from Yates.
The second was from another set play allowing young James Tilley to score on his debut at this level.
Mark Percival scored the final Saints touchdown adding to his two conversions. Magennis broke the line 40 metres out and fed it outside to the supporting Greenwood who was stopped short of the line. But from the play the ball Percival dove over wide out.
A consolation try right at the end spoilt the scoreline but the Saints were worthy winners.
Again the forwards laid the platform for the victory. Magennis, Anthony Walker and Jordan Hand made the hard yards which Yates, Ashe and Dom Speakman exploited. But just edging it for Man of the Match in a sound all round team performance was Joe Greenwood (pictured) who just seems to keep on growing both in size and stature.
Match Summary:
Saints:
Tries: Adam Swift, Mark Percival, Josh Jones, Danny Yates, Joe Greenwood, James Tilley.
Goals: Mark Percival 2.
Hull FC:
Tries: Ben Crooks, Richard Wilkinson.
Goals: Ben Crooks.
Half Time: 12-0
Full Time: 28-10
Teams:
Saints:
1. Adam Swift; 6. Corey Lee, 3. Mark Percival, 4. Josh Jones, 2. Greg Wilde; 18. Nathan Ashe, 7. Danny Yates; 8. Shaun Magennis, 9. Dom Speakman, 10. Anthony Walker, 11. Jordan Case, 12. Joe Greenwood, 13. Danny Jones.
Subs: 14. Marcus Baines, 15. James Tilley, 16. Jordan Hand, 17. Joe Bate.
Hull FC:
1. Jamie Shaul; 2. Crawford Mathews, 3. Reece Lyne, 4. Ben Crooks, 5. Jack Briscoe; 6. Danny Nicklas, 7. Richard Wilkinson; 8. Josh Bowden, 9. James Cunningham, 10. Mike Burnett, 11. Liam Kent, 12. Ben Crane, 13. James Newton.
Subs: 14. Jack Pickerill, 15. Alex Starling, 16. Curtis Jackson, 17. Liam Jackson.
