On-song Saints smash Giants

St Helens maintained their pursuit of Leeds in the battle to be crowned minor premiers with a thumping 46-16 win over Huddersfield at Knowsley Road.

A 12th successive victory means Saints again trail the Rhinos - who beat Castleford on Saturday - by two points at the top of Super League.

Coach Daniel Anderson included six of his seven England internationals who faced France on Friday in his line-up, Leon Pryce the only absentee.

Maurie Fa'asavalu - a try scorer in the 58-6 win in Toulouse - crossed twice for the hosts after Huddersfield had held their own in the opening quarter.

Battled hard

Boosted by a debut appearance from off-season signing David Hodgson, the visitors - who had won the first meeting of the two teams this season - battled hard before succumbing to the onslaught.

Once Keiron Cunningham scored the opener to break the deadlock after 18 minutes Saints came alive, running in three more tries before half time.

A long pass from Kyle Eastmond, deputising at stand-off for the rested Pryce, gave Francis Meli a walk-in touchdown in the corner before the Giants briefly answered back.

Tom Hemingway picked off a loose pass from Lee Gilmour to gallop away for a try that the stand-off also converted to make it 10-6.

However, Huddersfield's joy proved to be short-lived, Rod Jensen's sin-binning for obstruction on Paul Sculthorpe leading to Fa'asavalu scoring with almost his first touch off the bench.

Sean Long added the extras and was also on target when Ade Gardner darted over from dummy-half to notch his 22nd try of the campaign.

Even when Jensen returned the Giants couldn't stop the rot, Fa'asavalu barging his way over again to make it 28-6 at the interval in favour of the home team.

Formality

Such a one-sided score meant the second half was no more than a formality for Saints, who rubbed salt into their opponents' wounds with four more tries.

Centre Willie Talau helped himself to a quick-fire brace while James Roby and Long, who also slotted over four goals before going off, also went over.

Paul Sculthorpe added one conversion after taking over the kicking duties before the Giants gave their travelling fans something to cheer about with the final two tries of the contest.

Danny Kirmond's first since his winter move from Featherstone was followed up by Stuart Jones scoring against his former employers.