St Helens (14) 40
Tries: Foster 3, Meli 2, Shenton Goals: Foster 8
Catalan Dragons (6) 18 Tries: Menzies 2, Vaccari, Greenshields Goals: Marginet

Jamie Foster scored a hat-trick of tries and kicked 16 points as St Helens moved up to third in Super League with a 40-18 victory over Catalan Dragons.

Foster put the hosts ahead, replied to by Steve Menzies before Francis Meli's try gave Saints a 14-6 half-time lead.

Frederic Vaccari, Menzies and Clint Greenshields closed the gap for the Catalans but Foster made it a treble for a memorable 28-point night's haul.

Late tries from Michael Shenton and Meli's second rounded off the night.

St Helens coach Royce Simmons:

"We played a side that had won 11 of their last 13 so we're happy to win. but we let in some soft tries.

"Jamie Foster's goalkicking was good and he's scoring some tries but you've got to give a bit of credit to Francis Meli.

"He gives him a nice little ball and, with his size and strength, he attracts the opposition to stay on him a bit."

Catalan Dragons coach Trent Robinson:

"It was obviously closer than that but we deserved what we got in the end. There were some poor plays from us in that last 10 minutes.

"I thought we were better than we produced tonight, even though we were good enough to be in the hunt.

"Remy Marginet is a good goalkicker. He had some wide attempts today but at Super League level you've got to put them over. It would have put more pressure on them.

"Rather than being a couple of points ahead, they should have been even or two points down and then we might have seen a different contest."

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

Catalan Dragons: Greenshields; Blanch, Baile, Millard, Vaccari; Menzies, Marginet; Casty, Henderson, Baitieri, Paea, Raguin, Mounis.
Replacements: Gossard, Simon, Fakir, Pelissier.

Attendance: 7,076.

Referee: Phil Bentham (Warrington).

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