Saints comfortably beat Giants at home

First Half

The Saints looked to attack strongly from the early sets, but some errors would deny an immediate impact. Six minutes in, Curtis Sironen believed he had opened the scoring after George Flanagan Jr. knocked on a high kick. Following a formal review, the Giants’ fullback had knocked the ball on into Mark Percival, and as such, it was ruled out.

Moments later, another chance was missed by the Red V. Mark Percival broke through on the left edge and fed the ball out to the returning Nene Macdonald, but in looking for an offload, he went into touch.

15 minutes in, St.Helens shifted the ball left to Owen Dagnall, and he ran off his own wing and across the field to take us just ten metres away and give Daryl Clark the ball. Our hooker was taken down by Tui Lolohea, who would then set off his own line quickly to deny Jackson Hastings a chance to get the ball moving again.

The breakthrough finally came in the 22nd minute. With the Giants on the back foot, Clark gave Sironen a short crash ball on the short side, and the big Australian would not be denied this time. Hastings added the conversion from out wide, 6-0.

Sironen then made it back-to-back scores to make up for the earlier denial, but it was all down to some Tristan Sailor magic. Our #6 chipped over the Huddersfield defensive line, recovered the ball, kicked it again and forced Flanagan to knock on. Quick to the loose ball, Tristan evaded more defence and gave Curtis a beautiful pass for our second try of the game, 10-0. Hastings did not add the conversion on this occasion.

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Half an hour gone in the heat, Jack Welsby came close to a terrific score after fending away several Giants to go inches short of the line. A few phases later, he was on the opposite edge, trying to give it to Macdonald, but Giants’ winger Lee Kershaw made an interception. Tristan Sailor sprinted back, with support from Daryl Clark to stop him.

The momentum that was in the visitors’ favour was soon extinguished. Hastings kicked from just beyond his own 40m line, the ball lingered in the goal area, forcing Taane Milne to have to pick it up, and Shane Wright tackled him in touch to force a goal-line drop-out. Jackson would then serve up a terrific assist for Macdonald to cruise in off a 20m big hit-out pass for the wing, allowing Nene to seal his return with a score. Another conversion from out wide was tacked on by Hastings to make it 16-0 ahead of the break.

Second Half

The Giants, desperate for a result as the team at the bottom of the league table, came out looking to wrestle back some control in the contest.

Paul Rowley’s Saints side had already dealt with a couple of alterations following the ruling out of both Matt Whitley and George Whitby following the Captain’s Run the day before, forcing a reshuffle. The Red V would also have to deal with the loss of Mark Percival due to injury, so young back-rower Jake Davies stepped in. Our #28’s first involvement was a strong try-line tackle to deny a Giants score.

Huddersfield had managed to push closer to our line, but were being turned away by the Saints. However, close to the hour mark and after sustained pressure, Cole Geyer from dummy half managed to scoot over to get the visitors on the board. Flanagan Jr. added the conversion, to make it 16-6.

Tom Humphreys came off the bench and injected some pace into the ruck quickly. The young hooker played a smart drop-off close to the line for Alex Walmsley to crash in and better four Giants defenders to get to the line and score. Hastings kicked the conversion for a 22-6 scoreline, quickly after the Giants’ try.

Into the 70th minute and St.Helens were handling the heat better. Hastings kicked a high bomb which was allowed to bounce; it was patted back by David Klemmer into Harry Robertson’s hands. The centre spotted a gap where the visiting fullback should have been and from 20m out went under the posts, 28-6.

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Saints sought to finish with a flourish. Walmsley, with a robust charge, sent Giants’ Zac Woolford to the ground, and our big prop stole us more territory. After a penalty, the Red V calmly played the ball out left, and Davies, who was now on the wing, dived into the corner, putting it down one-handed like a regular finisher! Hastings’ conversion attempt was judged as a miss, but the Saints’ half argued his case that the ball went over the post, but it was not to be argued; 32-6 it remained with five minutes left.

In the final two minutes, Davies would grab a second in a similar fashion. No dive this time; after a huge Hastings pass to find him in space, the back-rower did a smart spin to beat Kershaw to the line. Hastings would kick the conversion from the touchline to finish off the game.

Match Summary

Saints team: Jack Welsby, Owen Dagnall, Harry Robertson, Mark Percival, Nene Macdonald, Tristan Sailor, Jackson Hastings, Alex Walmsley, Daryl Clark, David Klemmer, Curtis Sironen, Shane Wright, Joe Shorrocks

Interchanges: George Delaney, Jake Davies, Tom Humphreys, Daniel Suluka-Fifita

18th man: Deacon Swarbrick

Tries: Curtis Sironen (22, 25), Nene Macdonald (32), Alex Walmsley (62), Harry Robertson (70), Jake Davies (74, 78)

Conversions: Jackson Hastings 5/7

Giants team: George Flanagan Jr., Lee Kershaw, Lewis Jagger, Jacob Gagai, Taane Milne, Tui Lolohea, Oliver Russell, Chris Patolo, Zac Woolford, Fenton Rogers, Zane Dunford, Asher O’Donnell, Tristan Powell

Interchanges: Thomas Burgess, Matty English, Mathieu Cozza, Cole Geyer

18th man: George King

Tries: Cole Geyer (56)

Conversions: George Flanagan Jr. 1/1

HT: 16-0

FT: 38-6

Attendance: 9,851

Full Teamsheet: R15 STH HUD Teamsheet

HT Draw Number: N0.18950 – £432