Hull KR 18-32 St Helens: Saints made to work for fourth Super League win in a row
Last Updated: 30/08/20 7:31pm
St Helens made it four wins out of four since the resumption of their Super League title defence but were made to work surprisingly hard for a 32-18 victory over bottom club Hull KR at Warrington's Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Teenage utility back Jack Welsby, a replacement for suspended England winger Tom Makinson, scored two of the champions' five tries as they moved to within two points of leaders Wigan.
Saints were also without England centre Mark Percival and lost French half-back Theo Fages after half an hour with a knee injury, but that enabled evergreen hooker James Roby to display his versatility as he took on the playmaking duties with aplomb.
Hull KR at least breached the Saints' tryline, a feat not managed by the champions' most recent opponents Leeds and Castleford, and were level at 12-12 at half-time but could not prevent a seventh consecutive defeat which leaves them two points adrift at the foot of the table.
It looked routine for the champions when in-form England prop Alex Walmsley powered his way over for a try after only four minutes, and shortly afterwards Welsby went over unopposed from Jonny Lomax's cut-out pass after Roby had pounced on a stray pass by Rovers centre Shaun Kenny-Dowall.
Lachlan Coote added both conversions to make it 12-0, but Hull KR were in no mood to fold.
St Helens conceded their first points for more than three hours when their former full-back Adam Quinlan forced his way over for Rovers' first try on 23 minutes, and three minutes later winger Ethan Ryan grabbed a second after the champions failed to deal with Jamie Ellis' high kick to the corner.
Ellis was unable to convert Ryan's second but went close to scoring a try after kicking a 40-20 and then levelled the scores on the stroke of half-time with a penalty after Saints forward Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook was pulled up for a high tackle on Daniel Murray.
St Helens were clearly fired up by coach Kristian Woolf's half-time pep talk as they demonstrated more urgency at the start of the second half and went back in front when centre Kevin Naiqama raced onto Coote's short pass to cross for their third try.
Saints had been forced into a re-shuffle when Fages went off and Hull KR, who were without Super League's joint-top tryscorer Ben Crooks because of a calf injury, had to move half-back Ryan Brierley to full-back when Quinlan went off with a suspected broken arm 15 minutes into the second half.
The changes appeared to disadvantage Rovers the most as Saints found a purple patch to make the game safe.
Replacement hooker Aaron Smith went over from dummy half and, on the hour, Roby fired out a long pass that enabled Welsby to score his second try.
Hull KR grabbed a third try through hooker Matt Parcell 10 minutes from the end, but Coote wrapped up the scoring with a penalty to add to his five conversions.
