Headlines
St Helens falter again
Monday 17th August 09
St Helens suffered more misery a week after their surprise Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final loss as they crashed at Hull Kingston Rovers yesterday.
The engage Super League leaders had been looking to bounce back after Huddersfield Giants claimed a place at Wembley at their expense but they were instead well beaten at Craven Park.
Daniel Fitzhenry bagged a double while Jake Webster and Peter Fox also touched down as Rovers eased to a comfortable 26-10 win in the second half.
Rovers had led 6-4 at half-time after Kris Welham and James Graham traded tries while Ade Gardner grabbed a late Saints consolation.
It was Saints' third defeat in six league games and they now lead the table from Leeds only by a narrow points difference of plus 15.
"We had our opportunities but we made too many errors," said coach Mick Potter, whose side have now lost twice to Hull KR this season.
"With the wind behind them in the second half Rovers really put some pressure on us.
"I know our points buffer over Leeds has slipped away a little this weekend and we shall have to look at that."
Rovers' win gave them a five-point cushion in fourth place with just three regular season games to play.
Third-placed Huddersfield's superb recent run came to an abrupt halt as they went down 28-18 to Bradford Bulls at the Galpharm Stadium.
After last week's heroics, the Giants perhaps suffered a cup hangover - although there was no sign of that as Brett Hodgson gave them an early lead.
Bradford responded with a stunning burst that yielded two tries for former Giant Chris Nero and further scores for Michael Platt and Paul Sykes.
Scott Moore, returning from the sinbin, and Danny Kirmond replied late on but it was not enough.
"The things that helped the Giants to Wembley and to sit in third place, we just clearly didn't have in the first half," admitted Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown.
The day's other game saw Wakefield Wildcats maintain their play-off push with a convincing 46-12 win over bottom side Celtic Crusaders.
Tevita Leo-Latu and Luke George claimed two tries apiece while Danny Brough scored 18 points and Sean Gleeson, James Stosic and Jason Demetriou also got on the scoresheet.
The gloss was taken off the win when scrum-half Brough was sent off for dissent late on.
"If it's going to be zero tolerance it needs to be zero tolerance in every game for every team," said Wildcats coach John Kear of the incident.
The Crusaders' tries came from Mark Dalle Cort and Steven Tyrer.
Meanwhile, Wakefield prop Ricky Bibey has agreed a two-year contract with his hometown Championship club Leigh starting next season.
In Saturday's games, Olivier Elima scored a hat-trick as Catalans Dragons beat Hull 18-6 to move into the top eight while Harlequins suffered an eighth loss in nine games. Luke Swain scored late on as Salford won 26-22 at Twickenham Stoop.
