St Helens 26-12 Hull FC: Two-try Zeb Taia sets Saints on the road to victory
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 07/04/18 8:02am
Zeb Taia shone in the absence of talismanic full-back Ben Barba as St Helens beat Hull FC 26-12 on Friday night to make it nine wins out of 10 in Super League.
Barba, who scored 10 tries in his first nine games of the season, pulled out of the game at the Totally Wicked Stadium with a virus but Saints still had too much craft for Hull as they carved out an impressive victory.
St Helens had a handy replacement in England international Jonny Lomax while Theo Fages slotted in comfortably at stand-off and it provided more game time for veteran half-back Matty Smith, albeit as a makeshift hooker.
The only disappointment for Saints as they completed a clean sweep of their three Easter fixtures was the loss of influential skipper James Roby to injury after 50 minutes.
There was also disappointment for Hull skipper and hooker Danny Houghton on his 300th appearance as his side's three-match winning run was brought to a halt.
Saints made the brighter start and scored the only try of the first half after just seven minutes, second-rower Zeb Taia showing great athleticism to pluck the ball out of the air from Fages' lofted kick.
Danny Richardson added the goal to make it 6-0 but Hull gradually came more into the game and ought to have been at least level by half-time.
Centre Josh Griffin had a try disallowed for offside and second-row Jordan Lane dropped the ball over the line.
The misses began to look costly when Saints increased their lead within two minutes of the restart.
Hull winger Jack Logan, deputising for the suspended Bureta Faraimo, put his side under pressure by dropping the ball from Fages' kick and in the next set, Fages and Lomax combined to put centre Mark Percival striding through a gap for
his 10th try of the season.
Richardson kicked his second conversion and added a penalty after 49 minutes to stretch his side's lead to 14-0 and the game should have been over shortly afterwards when left winger Regan Grace spilled Fages' pass with the line at his mercy.
But Hull pulled a try back after 56 minutes in controversial fashion. Centre, Jake Connor, was quickest to react to a handling error by Percival and sent Logan down the right wing before stand-off Albert Kelly arrived on his inside to finish, despite a clear hint of a forward pass.
Marc Sneyd, on his 100th appearance, added the conversion to trim Saints' lead to eight points but it only delayed the inevitable.
Impressive St Helens prop Luke Thompson had a try ruled out for a knock-on but there was no denying Taia as he charged onto Fages' pass to cross over for his second score after 67 minutes.
Thompson then received his due reward when he took Smith's pass to barge his way to the line for his side's fourth try to pile on the agony for Hull who had the final say when Jordan Abdul squeezed a pass out of the tackle to
send his fellow substitute Chris Green over for a consolation score.
