Foster penalty holds Hull

St Helens escaped from the KC Stadium with a point after a late Jamie Foster penalty secured a 24-24 draw against Hull.

Kirk Yeaman grabbed a hat-trick for Hull, scoring twice in the first half as the hosts raced into an 18-point lead.

But Saints rallied to move 22-18 ahead with a run of four unanswered tries, only for Yeaman to dash their hopes with a try late on.

There was still time for another twist though, as Foster nailed a two-pointer from distance to tie the scores up before both sides missed drop-goal chances.

St Helens, who were without eight first-team players, are now level on points with Warrington and Huddersfield at the top of the engage Super League table.

The visitors' injury crisis led to them giving a recall to Kyle Eastmond and they were clearly second best in the first half as Hull surged ahead.

Offload

The brilliant offload game of the home side produced results early as Sam Moa and Willie Manu kept the ball to allow Yeaman to cross for his first try.

England wing Tom Briscoe grabbed the second, stealing the ball from Sia Soliola before taking the ball round full-back Tom Armstrong from the next play-of-the-ball for a fine solo effort.

It got even better for the hosts when Yeaman crossed for his second to finish off a slick passing move involving Epalahame Lauaki, Danny Houghton and Richard Horne.

Danny Tickle converted all three scores to make it 18-0 at the half-hour mark, but Saints grabbed a lifeline six minutes before the break when Francis Meli sent wing Foster over.

Tom Armstrong also touched down before the break but video replays showed a knock-on by Eastmond in the build-up, giving Yeaman a let off after he failed to clear the danger.

Saints came out firing after the interval, though, and had turned the contest completely around by the 60-minute mark.

Tries

First, James Roby darted over straight from a scrum 10 metres out, then Michael Shenton collected Eastmond's flick out of the tackle to play in Ade Gardner.

A 40-20 kick from Jon Wilkin set up the position for forward Tony Puletua to barge over from close range for their fourth try, with Foster's conversion putting Saints four points ahead.

However, Hull hit the front again with just over five minutes left as Horne broke clear before laying off to Yeaman, who scampered towards the posts to set up a fourth conversion for Tickle.

It looked as if Saints' comeback would ultimately fall short, but they grabbed a share of the spoils when Foster kept his composure to kick the two points after referee Steve Ganson ruled that Danny Washbrook took out Nathan Ashe in the air.

Both sides tried to win it in the final minutes, but Tickle was off target with a drop-goal attempt while Eastmond had his effort charged down.