Wellens scored all his tries in the second half

St Helens: (19) 53
Tries: Cayless, Pryce, Cunningham, Gidley, Wellens 4, Fa'asavalu, Meli
Goals: Sculthorpe 6
Drop-goal: Long

Catalans Dragons: (6) 10
Tries: Touxagas, Pelo
Goals: Bosc

Paul Wellens grabbed four tries as St Helens stretched their lead at the top of the Super League table with a 10-try demolition of Catalans Dragons.

Saints made a slow start, as the Dragons took the lead but tries from Jason Cayless, Leon Pryce, Matt Gidley and Keiron Cunningham put them 19-6 up.

Wellens opened his account two minutes after the break, and the Man of Steel had the Midas touch from then on.

Late scores from Maurie Fa'asavalu and Francis Meli brought up the 50 points.

Both teams were going into the match on the back of a demanding Easter programme, and St Helens certainly looked heavy-legged in the opening stages.

The visitors should have scored in the first minute when a chip to the left found Dimitri Pelo, but the winger's pass inside was intercepted by Adey Gardner.

Saints were uncharacteristically sloppy with inaccurate passes and knock-ons stopping their flow, and Thomas Bosc had another inviting chance for Catalans but what should have been the scoring pass sailed over his head.

But it was third time lucky for the Catalans when Touxagas strolled over unopposed on eight minutes after Stacey Jones's kick was easily patted back by Adam Mogg.

It took St Helens until the 17th minute to open their account, with Cayless powering over after Sean Long's cut-out pass gave him a route to the line.

The Dragons' composure began to desert them, with Pelo conceding a needless penalty on halfway - and a couple of tackles later, Pryce went through two tacklers to put Saints ahead.

Pryce kept the Saints attack ticking over

Cunningham burst over for a trademark try from dummy-half after Paul Sculthorpe had been held up just short of the line and with Saints back in the groove, Gidley was the next to score after some tired defence from the Dragons.

The visitors continued to attack, but a silly penalty conceded by Alex Chan saw them turn over possession and seconds before the break a Long drop-goal extended Saints' lead.

Saints started the second half where they left off with Wellens dummying his way over on 42 minutes for his first of the match.

The Dragons did not give up, and two delicate Stacey Jones attacking kicks created the pressure for Pelo to skip over after Long raced out of the defensive line.

But any doubt about the result was banished when Wellens crossed again after a clever offload from the outstanding James Roby.

Wellens's hat-trick try came after some brilliant interplay from Roby and Cunningham put him through from 20 metres out.

And he notched up four tries for the first time in his career on 68 minutes after a clever pass from Long.

The Dragons defenders were clearly exhausted and starting to fall off tackles, and the sight of Fa'asavalu in full flow was the last thing they wanted to see.

The Saints replacement powered over with six minutes left, and a weaving run to the line from Meli at the death brought up the half century of points for the defending champions.

"To get four tries is a wonderful effort - he produced performances like that all the time last season and that's why he was crowned Man of Steel.

"His support play was terrific but his team-mates helped him as well, although overall we were a mixed bag.

"It's been good to get six points out a very tough period and there was definite patches of fatigue.

"At the end of the day, we were the better side but Catalans deserve a lot of credit for the way they performed."

"No side can live with St Helens when they're in that kind of mood.

"We wasted those couple of early opportunities and you can't afford to do that with Saints because they'll just burn you.

"We could have done a few things a bit differently but it's difficult to handle Saints at the best of times.

"They're the outstanding team in Super League and it's up to the likes of Bradford, Leeds and Hull to try and stop them."

St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli, Pryce, Long, Fozzard, Cunningham, Cayless, Gilmour, Bennett, Sculthorpe
Replacements: Roby, Clough, Hargreaves, Fa'asavalu

Catalans Dragons: Greenshields, Bosc, Mogg, Wilson, Pelo, McGuire, Jones, Chan, Teixido, Guisset, Croker, A. Bentley, Touxagas
Replacements: Griffi, Ferriol, K. Bentley, Fellous