BBC Sportrugbyleague

By Julian Shea BBC Sport at the Millennium Stadium

Sean Long was in outstanding form for Saints

St Helens destroyed local rivals Wigan in a one-sided finale to the Millennium Magic weekend in Cardiff.

Saints were out of sight before half-time with two tries for Sean Long and one each from Jon Wilkin, Francis Meli, Ade Gardner and Willie Talau.

Thomas Leuluai gave Wigan a try before Long completed his treble and Talau and Gardner each claimed their second.

Harrison Hansen and Micky Higham scored for Wigan before Lee Gilmour notched Saints' 10th and final try.

St Helens' confidence was obvious early on from the way they were throwing the ball around, and the writing was on the wall before Long shimmied his way over for the opening try.

But the next two scores were a nightmare for Wigan.

First Wilkin took Jason Cayless's pass to ran half the length of the pitch with a genuine look of bemusement and surprise at the lack of challenges, and then Meli sprinted a similar distance after Talau intercepted a Sean O'Loughlin pass.

Matt Gidley's inch-perfect kick-through allowed Gardner to finish off a cross-field passing move with a try, shortly before went Talau over in the left-hand corner.

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Another long-range run-in gave Long his second as Wigan were steam-rollered into the Cardiff turf, with a drop-goal by Long just adding to the 40 minutes of humiliation.

Leuluai's try after the restart saved Wigan the indignity of being nilled but Saints' reply was for Long to run in his third try, followed by Talau's second, set up by Paul Wellens.

Gardner's second, which came with the Wigan defence in disarray, took Saints through the 50-points barrier, so not even Hansen�s try for Wigan could put a smile on the face of coach Brian Noble.

Higham also scored, only for Gilmour to restore Saints' advantage, and the way the game petered out was summed sight of a wave going round the stadium in the closing stages.

"I thought we were starting to get in the mood to put a performance on someone.

"We had 21 sets in the first half and completed every single one of them. That's unheard of.

"We relaxed a little bit in the second half but we scored some nice tries."

"It was embarrassing in a lot of respects in that first 20-25 minutes. We talked about a good start all week, and the only thing we did well was kick-off really.

"You've got to try and take something from the game, I thought a lot of attitudes changed. Let's not hide from the fact that it was slightly embarrassing at half time and people had paid good money to watch this.

"We've got a lot of things we need to fix up real quick because we need to be a whole lot better than that."

St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli, Pryce, Long, Cayless, Cunningham, Graham, Gilmour, Flannery, Wilkin.
Replacements: Roby, Bennett, Hargreaves, Clough.

Wigan: Mathers, Colbon, Goulding, Carmont, Richards, Barrett, Leuluai, Fielden, Higham, Prescott, Hansen, Coley, O'Loughlin.
Replacements: Coyle, Paleaaesina, J. Tomkins, O'Carroll.

Referee: P Bentham (Warrington)