ST HELENS 40 CATALANS DRAGONS 0
ROB WALLACE, Totally Wicked Stadium, Thursday
ST HELENS enjoyed a warm Thursday evening, running in seven tries as Catalans played their third game in succession in England.
St Helens were looking to bounce back from their 4-17 defeat to Leeds at the Magic Weekend two weeks ago and they showed just how beneficial their week off had been.
Ahead of the game, both sides sat on ten points, only separated by points difference – though on this performance the two sides looked light years apart as St Helens moved into fourth place with a demolition of a dreadful Dragons side.
Saints looked to shift the ball early, and they enjoyed immediate success as Tristan Sailor broke down field.
The makeshift winger drew the full back and offloaded to the supporting George Whitby who dived over to open the scores. Whitby converted to give the hosts an early six-point advantage.
It’s easy to say that Saints were in the ascendancy. A drop-out forced by a great Jack Welsby chase allowed the home side to attack the Catalans line and a flick pass from Daryl Clark close to the Dragons line found its way into Alex Walmsley’s hands and the England prop charged over to score. Whitby converted to double the Saints’ lead.
Catalans worked their way back into the game over the course of the half with Luke Keary and Theo Fages combining to see Mathieu Laguerre go close but stout St Helens defence kept the visitors at bay.
As it was, Deon Cross extended Saints’ lead to 18 points four minutes before the break as Jonny Lomax attacked down the the left and Cross dummied and darted for the line, touching down ten metres in from the corner. Whitby added the conversion.
But the home side weren’t finished there and with the hooter ready to sound, the ever-impressive Mark Percival charged onto a Welsby drop-off and broke through the Catalans line with ease before finding the supporting Whitby who stepped Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet at the back to touc down. Whitby converted to give the hosts a 24-0 lead at the break.
It was one way traffic after the break but it took 13 minutes before Saints broke through, with smart play down the right seeing Percival flick a pass out to Sailor who touched down in the corner for a deserved
try. Whitby added the conversion to take the score to 30-0.
Saints extended the lead to 34 points 12 minutes from time, Lomax and Welsby combining to haul the ball to the left and Cross sent Murphy over to score acrobatically in the left corner. Whitby missed his touchline conversion effort.
Completing his hat-trick, Whitby supported Walmsley close to the Catalans line and dived over to score the simplest of tries to the right of the posts. The halfback duly converted to take Saints’ advantage to 40 points.
The challenge for Saints was to try and keep the Catalans to zero and outstanding defence on their own line prevented a rampaging Tevita Pangai Jr and Jordan Dezaria from scoring and Sailor prevented Nick Cotric from touching down Keary’s kick to the corner with two minutes remaining.
