Wakefield 6-46 St Helens

Wakefield (0) 6
Tries: Murphy Goals: Hyde

St Helens (34) 46
Tries: Eastmond 2, Foster 2, Wilkin, Lomax, Meli, Flannery Goals: Foster 7

Jamie Foster gathered 22 of Saints points with two tries and seven goals

St Helens maintained their Super League title aspirations with a crushing 46-6 win over Wakefield.

Saints were clinical in the first half, running in six tries, two from Kyle Eastmond, two from Jamie Foster and one apiece from Jon Wilkin and Jonny Lomax.

The visitors allowed errors to creep in after the break before Francis Meli and Chris Flannery went over.

Wakefield rallied in the final quarter, producing a well-worked consolation try, finished by Aaron Murphy.

Saints reaped rewards from moving Eastmond to full-back in place of injured joint skipper Paul Wellens.

The rugby union-bound England scrum-half looked back to his best, soon finishing off good work by James Roby and Tony Puletua for the opening try.

Meli then set up Foster for his first in the corner and the centre added his second conversion of the afternoon to make it 12-0 inside 10 minutes.

The Wildcats pressed their visitors and Saints, with scant possession early on, defended valiantly. But, when Saints did have the ball they looked fearsome, Eastmond going over for his second with a jinking run inside half an hour.

Eastmond then combined with Meli to create a second for Foster, who turned provider himself when he set up Lomax to go over after the half-time hooter.

After the break the hosts lost centre Luke George to a knee injury and fell further behind when Roby and Lomax combined to set up Meli.

Flannery capitalised on poor defending to grab St Helens' eighth and Foster took his goal tally to seven from eight attempts.

Trinity avoided the whitewash with a good try from Murphy, converted by Kieran Hyde, but the contest was over by half-time.

Saints coach Royce Simmons:
"That was very close to the worst game of rugby league I've ever seen in my life.

"It was a very scrappy game, with a lot of dropped ball, not a lot of it under any pressure. It was very ordinary. I don't think you'll see that used for advertising."

Wakefield coach John Kear:
"At half-time I asked the players for a summary of their first-half performance and they felt embarrassed.

"They did show some resilience and fight in the second half. We might have witnessed a bit of healing to go into next week. We said it was about getting ready for Wigan.

"People don't always realise but a lot of them are playing busted. It's easy to criticise and be negative but it's about time the players received a bit of support."

Wakefield: Blaymire; G Johnson, George, Murphy, Tadulala; Hyde, Lee; Korkidas, Rinaldi, Amor, Mariano, P Johnson, Tony.

Replacements: Hickey, Davey, King, Henderson.

St Helens: Eastmond; Makinson, Shenton, Meli, Foster; Gaskell, Lomax; Graham, Roby, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Soliola, Wilkin, Puletua.

Replacements: Moore, Clough, Flannery, Armstrong.

Referee: Steve Ganson (St Helens).

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