Tommy Makinson crossed for his 100th try in the Red V as Saints beat Widnes 28-6 on Easter Monday.
He joined teammate Mark Percival in bagging a brace as Justin Holbrook’s men put in a professional performance at the Halton Stadium.
It gave Saints the Karalius Cup as well as keeping them out front at the top of the Betfred Super League.
Saints got off to a great start when Ryan Morgan opened the scoring in the seventh minute – after Widnes couldn’t handle Ben Barba.
The full back forced a drop out with a piece of improvisation on the last and then went right on the resultant set to find Morgan for his first of the season.
Mark Percival then extended the lead with the easiest try he will ever score.
A simple kick on the last into the corner bounced kindly in front of Danny Craven, but instead of the fullback taking it the chasing Percival picked his pocket.
Danny Richardson making it 10-0 with the conversion.
Scrambling defence stopped a certain Charly Runciman try on 16 minutes and two minutes later they halted another Widnes attack under their own sticks.
Saints failed to heed the warnings though and after back-to-back sets Wellington Albert hit a fine line to get the hosts back into it.
Thankfully, the momentum shift was short-lived as on 28 minutes, Richardson put a grubber into the in-goal and Percival touched down for his second.
Richardson nailing a peach of a conversion from the touchline to give Saints a 16-6 half time lead.
Saints’ task of securing the win was made much harder one minute into the second half as Luke Douglas saw yellow for a tackle on Danny Craven.
But after Widnes had one chalked off on the following set, Saints went right down the other end and scored.
Fages linked up with Ben Barba and the full back skipped through three defenders to put down over the line.
Still a man short, Makinson then scored one of his specials.
Roby’s short pass sent Zeb Taia through the middle only for him to be hauled down about 20 metres out.
From there it went right, through hands, with Barba and Peyroux linking up to put the winger acrobatically over in the corner.
His second was just a special with the finish matching the sheer class of the build up.
On the last, Saints chanced their arm, Kyle Amor offloaded and the ball found its way to the winger off the back some wonderful linking play.
It was a fine way to bring up his 100th try for the club.
Saints could have had more points as the clock wound down but instead they produced an excellent goal-line stand to keep the Vikings out – as it has pretty much been all season.
Match Summary:
Vikings:
Tries: Albert
Goals: Gilmore (1 from 1)
Saints:
Tries: Morgan, Percival (2), Barba, Makinson (2)
Goals: Richardson (2 from 6)
Penalties Awarded:
Vikings: 8
Saints: 9
HT: 6-16
FT: 6-28
REF: C Kendall
ATT: 6706
Teams:
Vikings:
15. Danny Craven; 2. Stefan Marsh, 4. Charly Runciman, 24. Edward Chamberlain, 22. Ryan Ince; 33. Aaron Heremaia, 7. Thomas Gilmore; 10. Alex Gerrard, 21. Jordan Johnstone, 26. Edward Chapelhow, 16. Thomas Olbison, 17. Samuel Wilde, 28. Bradley Walker.
Subs: 19. Greg Burke, 20. MacGraff Leuluai, 23. Danny Walker, 36. Wellington Albert.
Saints:
23. Ben Barba; 2. Tommy Makinson, 3. Ryan Morgan, 4. Mark Percival, 19. Regan Grace; 6. Theo Fages, 18. Danny Richardson; 10. Kyle Amor, 9. James Roby, 16. Luke Thompson, 17. Dom Peyroux, 11. Zeb Taia, 12. Jon Wilkin.
Subs: 7. Matty Smith, 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 14. Luke Douglas, 15. Morgan Knowles.
RD9: Widnes v Saints
Match Action (Bernard Platt)
