Saints douse Dragons' fire

St Helens overcame an error-strewn start to crush Catalans Dragons 30-8 and retain the Carnegie Challenge Cup on the final's return to its spiritual home.

Both sides seemed overawed by their surroundings at the new Wembley for the first 30 minutes, but almost inevitably it was Saints who were able to step up another couple of gears as the game progressed.

They gradually wore down the stubborn French defence and ran in three second half tries to ensure they remain on course for an unprecedented second successive treble.

The game was played in searing energy-sapping heat and fittingly it was the Dragons who started the brighter, helped by six St Helens penalties in the first 16 minutes.

But the smothering Saints defence was able to cope with a degree of ease with everything a rather flat-running Catalans attack was able to muster.

Gidley

The champions finally burst into life at the end of the first quarter when Australian centre Matt Gidley was forced into the corner by three defenders.

Moments later Jason Crocker had a try ruled out by the video referee for a hand over the dead ball line, but by now the traffic was almost all one way.

Ade Gardner knocked on in the corner when he should have scored and Leon Pryce was twice halted in the space of three minutes as he went for the line.

It was left to substitute James Roby to finally break the deadlock after 32 minutes, as he darted from dummy half 20 metres out and shrugged off four would-be tacklers on his way to scoring beneath the crossbar.

To the Dragons' credit they roared straight back, Adam Mogg catching Gardner drifting in off his wing and floating a miss-pass for Younes Khattabi to score in the corner.

But crucially, St Helens had the last word of the half 14 second before the hooter, as Gardner made amends by taking Gidley's - clearly forward - pass and running over Clinton Greenshields to score in the corner.

Sean Long's second conversion put Saints 12-4 ahead at the break and Paul Wellens quickly stretched that by touching down Long's clever kick after a mix-up between Stacey Jones and Greenshields.

Fourth try

On 50 minutes Saints had their fourth try after Long's initial break, the ball shipped out wide for Paul Clough to score.

The floodgates looked set to open but Catalans showed impressive resolve in standing firm, even hitting back with the next try when Jon Wilkins' pass was intercepted by Justin Murphy, who sprinted in at the corner.

After Ade Gardner's break from deep, Catalans conceded a penalty and Saints showed their opponents plenty of respect when Long called for the kicking tee.

The game drifted to a close in its dieing minutes, with Saints happy to sit on their lead and the Dragons content not to ship many more points.

They had to take six more before the hooter, Wellens offloading brilliantly to send Gardner in for his second try.

It was hardly a thrilling return to north London, but Saints and their fans will not worry about that, as their seemingly relentless trophy-laden progress continues.