Super Saints go marching on

St Helens continued their upturn in fortunes under interim head coach Mike Rush with a 28-16 victory over Warrington at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Having registered a 46-6 thrashing of reigning champions Leeds last Sunday, Saints made it two wins from two since the departure of Australian Royce Simmons with an impressive display against a team that topped the table before the latest round of fixtures.

Paul Wellens bagged a brace of tries as the visitors, who lost home and away to the same opponents last season, roared out to a 22-0 lead.

Warrington did threaten a comeback with a try either side of half time, but they were well below their best to suffer their third reverse of the campaign.

Stunned silence

Saints simply picked up from where they had left-off against Leeds, running in four tries in the first 23 minutes to leave the home fans in a record crowd at the venue in stunned silence.

Just as he had done in the rout of the Rhinos, Ade Gardner opened the scoring by diving in at the right corner, Jonny Lomax adding the extras.

Warrington were also following a similar script to their last outing, making careless mistakes as they failed to complete their sets. But while Wigan failed to make the most of the opportunities gifted to them a week earlier at the DW Stadium, Saints cashed in to leave the Wolves with a mountain to climb.

Wellens' first was perhaps a little fortunate as the final pass from Lomax looked forward but his second came off the back of a Paul Wood error, Lance Hohaia sending the full-back through a huge hole.

Lomax landed both conversions and then showed his ability with ball in hand, spinning out of a three-man tackle to sneak a pass out for Francis Meli to finish. Although the kick was missed out wide by the half-back, Saints were still running at just shy of a point-a-minute.

It could have been an even greater lead too had Sia Soliola, picked in the second row in place of the injured Tony Puletua, not had a try chalked off due to doubt over downward pressure.

Hodgson hope

Warrington gave themselves something to build on for the second half when Brett Hodgson dummied his way in on the right, the full-back also adding the conversion to make it 22-6 at the break.

When winger Joel Monaghan dived over acrobatically by the right corner flag just six minutes after the restart, the comeback looked to be well and truly on.

Yet the expected charge never really materialised, Saints standing firm in defence, despite the odd scare near their own line, before sealing the two points with a fifth try from Soliola.

The giant New Zealander barged his way through the attempted tackles of Chris Riley and Chris Hill and then reached out to ground the ball over the line. Lomax kicked his fourth goal, condemning Warrington to a first regular-season loss on home turf since last June.

Tony Smith's side did have the last word, Ryan Atkins scoring possibly the best try of the match as the final hooter sounded, but it was no more than a late consolation as they were knocked off their perch, Huddersfield taking over at the Stobart Super League summit courtesy of their win at Leeds.