Betfred Super League
St Helens (12) 40
- Tries: Mata’utia, Mbye, Clark, Welsby 2, Sironen, Makinson
- Goals: Percival 6
Leeds (6) 10
- Tries: Handley, Roberts
- Goals: Martin
St Helens returned to the top of Super League after coming from behind to register a thumping win against Leeds Rhinos.
Ash Handley sent the Rhinos ahead, but Saints hit back through Sione Mata’utia midway through the first half and never looked back.
Moses Mbye crashed over on the verge of half-time to tip the game in Saints’ favor, and Daryl Clark padded out their advantage after the restart.
Luis Roberts cut into the hosts’ lead, but Jack Welsby’s double, combined with Curtis Sironen and Tommy Makinson’s scores, helped restore Saints into top spot in style.
The win, Saints’ ninth of the season, demotes Wigan Warriors into second place, though Matt Peet’s side now have two games in hand on their rivals.
Leeds, meanwhile, fell to their sixth league defeat of the season.
Handley showed great strength to charge over the line to send Leeds ahead, but their lead was short-lived, and they rarely threatened again.
The hosts responded when Matt Frawley’s wayward pass was collected by Makinson, who offloaded to Konrad Hurrell to send Mata’utia through.
Saints completed their first-half turnaround following a Leeds knock-on and made the most of their possession through Matty Lees, whose pass allowed Mbye to touch down.
Leeds suffered a blow at the start of the second half after it emerged Matty Russell had failed a head injury assessment, and it was made worse when Sironen teed up Clark to put Saints in control.
Welsby eventually scored their fourth, having caught Lewis Dodd’s high kick to go over.
Leeds struggled to gain any momentum in the second half, and their efforts at a 40-20 were thwarted by Welsby, who eventually played through Waqa Blake to set up Sironen’s 64th-minute score.
Makinson, who earlier this week announced he would leave at the end of the season after 14 years at St Helens, dived in to score his 200th try for the club, while Welsby bagged a second late on to wrap up a stunning victory.
Leeds Rhinos boss Rohan Smith told BBC Radio Leeds:
“Overall, it wasn’t the standard. We attacked the game to start with, and I thought we were in control for the first 20 or 30 minutes.
“The first half, the application and effort was good. Execution was a bit off, and the second half we got off to a really bad start.
“They put on some good plays back to back which made the scoreboard out of our favor, and I was really disappointed with the way we lost our connection defensively.”
St Helens:
- Welsby
- Makinson
- Hurrell
- Percival
- Blake
- Lomax
- Dodd
- Mata’utia
- Clark
- Lees
- Sironen
- Batchelor
- Bell
Interchanges:
- Mbye
- Delaney
- Davies
- Stephen
Leeds:
- Miller
- Russell
- Newman
- Roberts
- Handley
- Croft
- Frawley
- Oledzki
- O’Connor
- Sangare
- McDonnell
- Martin
- Smith
Interchanges:
- Lisone
- Nicholson-Watton
- Ackers
- Goudemand
Referee: Liam Moore
Credit: BBC Sport
