Super League: St Helens crush Leeds Rhinos 40-10 to return to top of table | Rugby League News

St Helens scored seven tries and returned to the top of the Super League with a crushing 40-10 comeback win over Leeds Rhinos in Friday’s men’s and women’s doubleheader.

The Rhinos failed to score in their last meeting against the Catalans, but Ash Handley’s early try ruled out any chance of that happening for the second consecutive time.

But Saints dominated the rest of the half and after Curtis Sironen saw his try controversially ruled out by the video referee, Sione Mata’utia and Moses Mbye ran over to give the hosts a deserved 12-6 half-time lead.

St Helens were ruthless in the second period and breached the Leeds defense five more times courtesy of Daryl Clark, Jack Welsby twice, Sironen and his 200th St Helens try Tommy Makinson leaving.

Leeds took the lead in the ninth minute in spectacular style. Brodie Croft’s early strike unleashed Handley up the pitch and – after a couple of tackles – he touched in the corner as Rhyse Martin hit the sideline.

The home side thought they were level five minutes later after Sironen powered his way to the try-line, reached out and appeared to do the whitewash, but the video referee deemed the back-rower to be short in his attempt.

Saints finally had the first try of the contest after Matt Frawley’s initial interception tried to set Leeds on their way, but he chipped the ball straight to Welsby, from which his side capitalised.

Konrad Hurrell broke through the Leeds defense and offloaded to Mata’utia who leveled things up.

The visitors shot themselves in the foot when Luis Roberts dropped a high bomb which gave the opposition another set of six which they took advantage of.

Again, James Bell’s clever offload put Matty Lees on the way and gave Mbye a clear route to touch down and give Saints a six-point lead before the break.

St Helens doubled that advantage early in the second half when – at the last tackle – Sironen drove to the line and handed the ball to Clark, who was free to dive over.

Saints were starting to run riot over Leeds, who started slowly in the second half. This time Welsby showed great speed to beat Lachie Miller to punch in Lewis Dodd’s high ball and touch down.

The visitors didn’t have much to shout about, but they got a second of the night with 20 minutes to go when Roberts dived over in the corner to reduce the deficit to 14.

Saints had a fifth when Bell broke the line and – after Percival flashed the initial try – Sironen made no mistake to give his side a 20-point lead, prompting cries of “we want Rohan (Smith) out” from the disgruntled move. .

Makinson has already announced his decision to leave Saints for the Catalans at the end of the season, but he also got into the game with a corner kick and Saints kept their foot off the gas as Mark Percival broke over the line and he handed Welsby his second of the night to cap off a superlative performance.

Women’s Super League: Wasteful Leeds fall to defeat at Saints

Leeds Rhinos’ unbeaten start to the women’s season came to an end after a 12-6 defeat to St Helens at the Totally Wicked Stadium in the previous leg of Friday’s doubleheader.

Rhinos started the game with plenty of possession, being a constant threat on the Saints line with Sophie Robinson almost certain to score after cutting in from the left but a great tackle from Phoebe Hook denied her.

Leeds continued to close in on the Saints line but could not convert any chances into points. Hanna Butcher came close but lost the ball and Caitlin Casey was blocked.

The first points of the game did not come until halfway through the first 40 when Faye Gaskin added a penalty goal after Zoe Hornby made a high tackle. Gaskin then followed up with the first try of the match five minutes later when he spotted a gap in the line and crossed to score. Her successful conversion gave the Saints an eight-point lead.

The final points of the half again came from Gaskin who added another penalty goal, this time after Leeds were penalized for offside. The successful kick meant that Leeds went into the half 10-0 up.

In the second half, Keara Bennett crossed from close range as Leeds finally scored, reducing the deficit to four when Bennett converted at both posts.

A third Gaskin penalty pulled the Saints within six points and despite Leeds continuing to have most of the game, they were unable to score again.

Super League: Hull FC lose ninth game in a row; Leigh beat Huddersfield

Hull FC served a sobering reminder of the size of the task facing head coach John Cartwright as they slumped to their ninth consecutive Super League defeat against the revitalized side. Castleford at Jungle.

Cartwright is not due to take charge until the start of next season and would have been forgiven for giving it more thought after another abject display following their embarrassing reverse at London Broncos a fortnight ago.

Late tries from Tiaki Chan and Jake Trueman added gloss to a 30-22 final scoreline that barely did justice to the gulf between the teams as the revitalized hosts ran in five tries, including one to Rowan Milnes, who also made it a set perfect for conversions.

Bouncing back in style from their loss at St Helens last time out, the Tigers had only themselves to blame for not putting the game to bed before the break as two blunders gave their opponents a glimmer of hope at 18-10 .

But two tries in 15 second-half minutes from Jason Qareqare and Corey Hall effectively sealed a much-needed victory, despite a spirited rally from the visitors that proved far too little, too late.

Elsewhere, Leigh earned just his fourth Super League win of the season as Huddersfield they followed their Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Warrington with a disappointing 16-10 defeat.

The Giants were thumped 46-10 by Warrington to see their Wembley dream ended at St Helens last Sunday but were unable to come back against the Leopards.

Adrian Lam’s visitors took the spoils with first-half tries from winger Josh Charnley and hooker Edwin Ipape in an ill-disciplined encounter that saw Huddersfield defender Oliver Russell and Leigh trio Ed Chamberlain, Frankie Halton and Brad Dwyer, all freed from sin.

Ian Watson’s hosts scored second-half tries through second-half Sam Hewitt and center Kevin Naiqama, but Leigh held on for victory.

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