St Helens beat Warrington 32-24 to remain unbeaten and top of Super League
Last Updated: 20/03/15 8:34am
Jon Wilkin inspired St Helens to an entertaining 32-24 victory over Warrington on Thursday, the Super League champions' first home win over their near-neighbours for five years.
Warrington had ended Leeds' 100 per cent record in toppling them from top spot in their last match but they could not repeat the feat against a Saints side that for an hour played like champions.
Wilkin, once more revelling in his role of makeshift scrum-half, was the architect of a superb victory, Saints' sixth out of six so far in their title defence, scoring one try and setting up two others to put his side into an 18-6 half-time lead.
St Helens' victory, which puts them four points clear at the top of Super League with a perfect record, was based on their aggressive forward play but some of the shine was taken away by the loss of outstanding second rower Joe Greenwood with a suspected broken arm.
Warrington carved out the first scoring chance of a frantic opening, with centre Ryan Atkins breaking out of his own 20-metre area to give winger Kevin Penny a sniff of the try line, but Saints scrambled superbly to keep it intact.
Greenwood broke the deadlock on 17 minutes when he took Wilkin's short pass to crash over for his fourth try of the campaign and Travis Burns kicked the first of his six goals.
Physical battle
The champions were clearly winning the physical battle but the visitors demonstrated their potency on 24 minutes when hooker Daryl Clark dummied his way over from dummy half.
Ratchford's goal levelled the scores but Saints, with hooker James Roby making a belated return to the side from the bench, struck twice in the last 12 minutes of the first half to establish control.
Wilkin fortuitously scored the first, taking advantage of a kind bounce by regathering the ball after centre Jordan Turner had twice kicked ahead, and the skipper then produced a sublime cut-out pass to get Swift over.
Burns' conversions made it 18-6 at the break and he attempted to extend the lead with a 40-metre penalty early in the second half but was off target for the first time.
Warrington pulled a try back on 48 minutes through replacement hooker Mickey Higham, however Saints were unmoved and scored their fourth try six minutes later through forward Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook.
Saints looked to have wrapped up the win when second rower Atelea Vea charged 60 metres after picking up a loose ball to set up the position for Roby to get right winger Tom Makinson over at the corner, and Burns' touchline conversion put his side 18 points clear.
However, Warrington were not throwing in the towel. Bridge gained possession from a charge-down to send Penny away for a deserved try and prop Chris Hill romped over from close range, with O'Brien adding both goals.
However, Burns had the final say with a last-minute penalty to seal a notable success.
