St Helens turned in a dominant display to see off Wigan and set up a revenge clash with Bradford in next Saturday's Grand Final.

The minor Premiership winners shook off the memory of their defeat by the Bulls last week with a gritty demolition of their arch-rivals at Knowsley Road.

Saints made light of the rainy conditions by racing into an 18-8 lead at half-time with tries from Anthony Stewart, Chris Joynt and Keiron Cunningham.

And they denied their opponents a single point after the break to end their three-match losing run against the Warriors in style.

Saints were determined to take the early initiative after being blitzed by Bradford in the first half last week.

And Stewart gave them the perfect start after only 90 seconds when a pass from Sean Long sent him over in the corner.

Paul Sculthorpe made up for missing the conversion by sending over a penalty after seven minutes and Saints continued to put pressure on the visitors with a string of big hits.

When Wigan finally got a chance to threaten, they were let down by a string of errors.

And coach Stuart Raper's frustration continued on 13 minutes when Long worked the blind side on another Saints attack and skipper Joynt barged over for the try.

The visitors finally put some points on the board with an Andrew Farrell penalty before Long and Wigan's Craig Smith were sent to the sin bin for fighting.

Sculthorpe restored the lead to 10 points from the resulting penalty but Wigan at last made an attack count as Mick Cassidy rampaged through four tackles to touch down.

Cunningham had been one of the guilty tacklers, but the hooker made amends within minutes as he rampaged over to give Saints a comfortable half-time lead.

Wigan launched a series of attacks from the restart.

But Paul Wellens produced brilliant last-ditch tackle to stop Sean Briscoe sliding over for a try.

And Adrian Lam fumbled the ball in the face of ferocious Saints tackling after the visitors had opted to go for the try from a penalty.

Long was in fine form in his first start for five weeks and his chip forward allowed Sculthorpe to put the game out of Wigan's reach with a fourth try.

Saints were content to soak up the Wigan pressure as the clock ticked down.

And the only negative note was a groin injury to Paul Newlove which could make him a doubt for the Grand Final.

St Helens: Wellens, Albert, Gleeson, Newlove, Stewart, Sculthorpe, Long, Britt, Cunningham, Ward, Bennett, Jonkers, Joynt. Replacements: Higham, Shiels, Stankevitch, Hoppe.

Wigan: Radlinski, Briscoe, Aspinwall, Connolly, Carney, O'Neill, Lam, O'Connor, Newton, C. Smith, Cassidy, Furner, Farrell. Replacements: Sculthorpe, Tickle, Howard, O'Loughlin.

Referee: Russell Smith (Castleford).