St Helens moved to within two points of the engage Super League leaders after taking advantage of the dismissal of Leeds Rhinos forward Nick Scruton to take the spoils in an epic Grand Final re-run at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.

The champions, who had Scruton sent off after 53 minutes for a spear tackle on hooker Keiron Cunningham, were six points clear of their rivals eight days ago but are now looking over their shoulder after suffering back-to-back defeats for the first time since last July.

Saints’ 11th straight victory, which was achieved by the margin of five tries to two, enabled them to avenge this season’s home defeat by the Rhinos as well as their Old Trafford humiliation and also saw them gain a psychological advantage ahead of next month’s Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final.

It was stalemate in the opening quarter, which set the scene for a tough, physical battle in which Saints, without four regular forwards, held their own.

Referee Steve Ganson, in charge of his home-town team St Helens for the first time, placed on report a three-man tackle which left Saints substitute Maurie Fa’asavalu writhing in agony on the ground but the Samoa-born Great Britain international recovered to score the opening try.

The breakthrough finally came on 24 minutes when intricate passing by James Graham and Leon Pryce got Fa’asavalu into a hole and he bumped off full-back Brent Webb with surprising ease to cross for the opening try.

Sean Long added the conversion but the scores were level six minutes later when Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield touched down Danny McGuire’s neatly-judged grubber kick and converted his own try to extend his scoring sequence to 63 matches.

The champions almost went in front when Webb broke clear but Lee Smith over-ran the ball and Saints struck back immediately to regain the lead in fortuitous fashion.

Long’s kick hit the left-hand upright and took a wicked deflection to hand prop Bryn Hargreaves, hat-trick hero against Bradford Bulls a week earlier, an easy try.

Long made a mess of the goalkick but it took St Helens just four minutes to build on their slender half-time advantage, Pryce and Paul Wellens working the ball out to the left where Francis Meli finished decisively for their third try.

Leeds were far from out of it, though, and they looked likely scorers when Webb took Jamie Peacock’s neat offload to scoot away from Wellens but Matt Gidley got back to make the tackle.

But the Rhinos were reduced to 12 men on 53 minutes when Scruton was sent off for what looked like an horrific tackle on Cunningham, although the veteran hooker made a quick recovery.

Saints immediately made the extra man count, with half-backs Long and Pryce combining with Wellens and Willie Talau to get Meli over for his second try to take the score to 18-6.

It could have been even worse for Leeds had Sinfield not saved a certain try by ripping the ball from Long’s grasp as he went over the line while Cunningham lost the ball attempting a trademark close-range touchdown.

The misses began to look costly when on their first meaningful attack of the second half, Keith Senior sent winger Scott Donald over for his 18th try of the season, bringing him level with his opposite number Ade Gardner at the top of the engage Super League list.

Sinfield’s touchline conversion cut the gap to six points but Saints made sure of the win when Long’s high kick was plucked out of the air by Pryce for his side’s fifth try.

Long added the conversion and, after missing with a drop-goal attempt, completed the scoring with a late penalty.