St Helens 48 Wakefield Trinity 6 - Some players are letting the rest down fumes frustrated Chris Chester
“We have got to defend a lot tougher than that,” Chester admitted after his team suffered a 10th successive defeat. “Eight or nine guys are busting a gut and the rest of them are letting their team-mates down.”
Trinity were pipped 20-16 by Saints six days earlier, but the champions were in a ruthless mood in the rematch, running in nine tries, six of them converted by Lachlan Coote.
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Hide Ad“We put in a decent performance last week and to come up with that tonight was disappointing,” Chester added.
“We need to change the attitude of some players. Ninety five per cent of the game is about attitude and ours was not very good.”
On-loan Huddersfield Giants winger Innes Senior provided Trinity’s only memorable moment, 18 minutes after the break, when he intercepted Jonny Lomax’s pass and accelerated away from Regan Grace on an 80-metre sprint to the line. Ryan Hampshire’s conversion made it 30-6 and that was the first scoring following half-time, but - after giving as good as they got for a while - Trinity conceded late tries to Grace, Lewis Dodd and Kevin Naiqama.
Tommy Makinson scored a hat-trick, including a stunning one-handed touchdown, as Saints led at the 30-0 interval.
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Hide AdTrinity, who were 12-0 ahead in the first quarter of last week’s game and 12-10 up at the break, were caught cold by James Roby’s first try after just four minutes.
Theo Fages had a touchdown ruled out on video evidence, because of a push by Zeb Taia on Reece Lyne, before Makinson’s first try doubled Saints’ lead after 16 minutes.
At 8-0, Trinity were still in the game, but Saints hit them with four tries in the final 12 minutes of the half.
Roby dummied through from acting-half, Alex Walmsley smashed over from close-range and Makinson touched down.
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Hide AdSt Helens: Coote, Makinson, Naiqama, Welsby, Grace, Lomax, Fages, Walmsley, Roby, Lees, Taia, Bentley, Knowles. Subs Peyroux, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Amor, Dodd.
Wakefield Trinity: A Walker, Johnstone, Croft, Lyne, Senior, Jowitt, Hampshire, Green, J. Wood, Kopczak, Ashurst, Tanginoa, Westerman. Subs: Fifita, Battye, Navarrete, Batchelor.
Referee: Robert Hicks (Oldham).