Long inspires Saints rout

St Helens rounded out Millennium Magic weekend in fine style with a 57-16 hammering of arch rivals Wigan in Cardiff.

Scrum-half Sean Long led the way for Saints with a personal haul of 27 points that included a hat-trick of tries.

For Wigan it was a horrible case of deja vu. Back on Good Friday they had found themselves 22-0 down at half time on their way to a 46-10 hammering at Knowsley Road.

Second time around it was even worse, the Warriors shipping 35 points without reply in a shockingly one-sided first 40 minutes.

Inspirational Long

Not for the first time Long was the man who tore them to shreds, helping himself to 19 points before the break including the opening try thanks to some weak tackling, something that would plague Wigan throughout the contest.

If Richard Mathers' efforts to stop the first were weak at best then his attempts to tackle Jon Wilkin to prevent a second score soon after were diabolical.

Wigan's situation went from bad to worse when a loose ball allowed Francis Meli to gallop away for a third try, Sean O'Loughlin's gamble at trying to offload out of the tackle only resulting in his team conceding again.

Soon after Meli's fellow winger Ade Gardner got his name on the scoresheet, Matt Gidley's clever grubber kick finding him all alone out wide on the right, and that was followed by Willie Talau rolling over with Mathers stuck on his back for his first of two tries.

A sixth unsurprisingly arrived before the interval, Leon Pryce running through a huge gap almost straight from the re-start before offloading to Long, who sprinted in under the posts to leave himself the easiest of his five first-half conversions.

He even had the cheek to send over a drop goal just prior to the half-time hooter which couldn't come soon enough for Brian Noble and his troops.

Rare reply

No words of wisdom from the former Bradford boss could turn around such a dire situation, though they did at least manage the first score of the second half when Thomas Leuluai signed off before heading Down Under with a fine solo finish.

The try from the scrum-half only seemed to re-ignite the fire in Saints, who appeared to be angered by the audacity of their rivals breaking their duck.

A Stuart Fielden knock-on led to Talau's second and Gardner also bagged a brace when he picked up a loose ball out wide to trot in underneath the sticks.

Long slotted over the extras before heading from the field with 20 minutes to play safe in the knowledge that he had the man-of-the-match award sewn up.

To their credit Wigan continued to the very death, Harrison Hansen and Mickey Higham adding late consolations to bring a little more respectability to the final score.

However Saints would not be denied the final word, Lee Gilmour notching his team's 10th try and the last of the two-day event in the Welsh capital.