St Helens edge out Leigh in thriller

Betfred Super League

St Helens (12) 20

Tries: Clark, Feldt, Shorrocks Goals: Hastings 4

Leigh (16) 18

Tries: Charnley, Senior, Hodgson Goals: Cook 3

St Helens gave new coach Paul Rowley his first Super League win in a hectic, breathless encounter with Leigh Leopards at the Brewdog Stadium.

New signing Jackson Hastings kicked the decisive penalty after he had created and then converted a try for Joe Shorrocks, his first in the club's colours, to level the scores.

Leigh, after beating Leeds Rhinos in their opener last week, twice led through tries from Josh Charnley, Innes Senior and Bailey Hodgson, with Adam Cook adding two difficult conversions and a penalty.

Saints, who lost Jonny Lomax to a suspected broken arm and Nene Macdonald to a thigh injury, hit back well through tries from Daryl Clark and Kyle Feldt before Shorrocks and Hastings came up with the points that edged them to the win.

Leigh have bossed this fixture in the past two seasons, winning the last four meetings and Saints, after losing full-back Jack Welsby to a dislocated shoulder in defeat by Warrington Wolves last week, looked vulnerable early on after a re-shuffle.

Charnley finished in the corner to put the Leopards ahead but after Clark had barrelled over and Hastings added the extras to put them ahead, Saints lost Lomax to force more changes to their set-up.

A Hastings penalty increased the lead but Leigh came on strong as Tesi Nu sent Innes Senior in for a try in the corner and more fine handling by the Leopards ended with Hodgson feinting and darting over to put daylight between them and the home side.

Saints hit back when a fortuitous bounce from the restart gave them good field position and Feldt pounced for a try, but the loss of Macdonald further disrupted their ranks before half time.

Cook's early penalty opened a six-point lead but the second half belonged to Saints, who had clearly heeded Rowley's insistence that they needed to sharpen up their defence after losing to Wolves.

Hastings' short pass sent Shorrocks crashing over between the posts and after his conversion had made it 18-18, the 2019 Man of Steel added a penalty to secure the points.

St Helens coach Paul Rowley told BBC Radio Merseyside:

"It was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions for myself and the coaching staff. First and foremost, getting over injuries with a long time left in the game, was a challenge we had to get over pretty quickly.

"The players had to not let that derail what we are about and how we had prepared and planned and that we still had that belief, with people out of position, that we could hold tight, stay resilient and get the outcome we wanted.

"It's a long list of injuries and Jonny [Lomax] and Nene [Macdonald] going off so early in the game had a direct impact on the fluidity of what we wanted to do, offensively.

"As always, you learn more about people in adversity, so buckle up and we'll see where we get. Mid-season we'll have an influx of top-line players coming back.

"Jonny has a fractured arm, to be confirmed and Nene took a bang to his leg so we expect more investigation on that over the weekend or early next week."

"Leigh coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:

"We had the game won in the first half. The Leigh team of last year would have taken advantage of that and gone on with the job in the second half, but it wasn't to be.

"We were our own worst enemy, with so many mistakes and put ourselves under pressure against a St Helens team who were very enthusiastic.

"In the second half the wind was quite strong, we scored the try to go up eight points right at the end of the first half and they kicked off and got the ball back.

"That was a massive play in the game - if we go in at half-time up by eight it's a completely different ball game, but they're the little things we've just got to get through at this point.

"It's difficult to point the finger. We've got a lot of new faces and it's going to take some time."

St Helens: Sailor; Feldt, Macdonald, Cross, Murphy; Lomax, Hastings; Klemmer, Clark, Walmsley, Sironen, Wright, Shorrocks.

Interchanges: Robertson, Host, Delaney, Whitley

Leigh: Hodgson; Senior, Niu, Brand, Charnley; Cook, Lam; Trout, Ipape, Mulhern, Badrock, Alick-Wienke, Ofahengaue.

Interchanges: Hughes, Liu, Davis, Horne

Referee: Aaron Moore.