Saints cruise to record win

Bulls thrashed as St Helens claim 16th straight away win

Last updated: 23rd June 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Saints cruise to record win

Flannery: Scored in rout

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St Helens trounced Bradford 44-18 to surpass the Bulls' own record of 15 consecutive away victories in Super League.

Saints opened the scoring through Francis Meli before Bradford responded with converted tries from Glenn Morrison and Rikki Sheriffe.

But the class of the league leaders eventually told and four more scores from James Roby, Jon Wilkin, Chris Flannery and Kyle Eastmond gave them a 14-point lead at the break.

Semi Tadulala's 63rd-minute try threatened to bring the hosts back into the game but in the end it proved little more than a consolation for Steve McNamara's men.

Further gloss

Scores from Maurie Fa'asavalu, Tony Puletua and another from Meli added further gloss to the scoreline and brought Saints' total number of tries to eight.

Mick Potter's side, who sit four points clear at the summit, are now unbeaten on the road since losing at Castleford over a year ago.

Veteran scrum-half Sean long was absent due to a calf strain but the away side began menacingly and led inside two minutes following a sweeping move which culminated in former Bradford favourite Leon Pryce finding Meli with a fine pass.

The winger scrambled over in the left corner for a try which Eastmond failed to convert but the response from Bradford was admirable as they created two tries in quick succession to surge into a 12-4 lead.

Paul Deacon's neat offload left the St Helens defence bewildered and allowed Morrison to go over.

Things got even better for the Bulls six minutes later when Steve Menzies received the ball on the halfway line and then charged through a hole in the visiting rearguard before sending Sheriffe racing clear to cross in the corner.

The influential Deacon converted both scores and then added a penalty midway though the half to edge the Bulls further ahead.

Yet Saints refused to be down for too long and they created perfect field position for Roby to squeeze his way under the posts in the 27th minute.

Delightful

The score gave the visitors a new lease of life and a delightful break and teasing grubber kick from Eastmond almost put the returning Ade Gardner over in the right corner.

Saints continued to probe and were rewarded with 30 minutes gone when Flannery's kick caused havoc and Wilkin arrived at pace to touch down.

Eastmond added a simple conversion and then dived over the line himself on the stroke of half-time after Puletua's perfect offload sent him clear.

Eastmond added his fourth goal to send St Helens in at the break with a commanding 28-14 lead they never looked like relinquishing in the second half.