Lewis Murphy now has an impressive haul of 12 tries in six consecutive matchesSt Helens (6) 18Tries: Davies 2, Bennison Goals: Makinson 3Wakefield (24) 34Tries: Murphy 4, Hall, Jowitt, Gaskell Goals: Gaskell 2, JowittSt Helens secured their 11th League Leaders’ Shield despite suffering a home defeat by Wakefield Trinity.
After opting to play a much-changed, inexperienced side containing four debutants following Friday’s loss at Wigan, Saints still finished top thanks to the Warriors losing at Hull KR.
Wakefield winger Lewis Murphy ran in four of Trinity’s seven tries.
Corey Hall, Max Jowitt and ex-Saint Lee Gaskell crossed, while Ben Davies (two) and Jon Bennison replied for Saints.
Wakefield’s win ended a run of 11 straight losses to St Helens, going back to April 2018.
While Saints extend their record to 11 titles in the 25-year history of Super League, it is their first since 2019, having finished behind Wigan in 2020, before then being sensationally edged out by Catalans a year ago.
Already without suspended duo Curtis Sironen and Morgan Knowles, and missing several players with injuries following Friday’s bruising derby defeat, Saints coach Kristian Woolf handed debuts to Ellis Archer and Rio Corkill and wingers Keane Gilford and Ben Lane just a few days after Saints were beaten 30-10 at Wigan.
But their weakened line-up were no match for a Trinity side, who had Sid Adebiyi returning from injury for his first appearance since Easter, to help extend their timely run of form to five wins in six games.
They dominated the first half, leading 24-6 thanks to a first-half hat-trick from Murphy – his second treble in three matches – as well as tries from Max Jowitt and Corey Hall.
Saints made a bright start but, when Murphy broke away on the left edge, he unselfishly passed inside to the supporting Gaskell who touched down for a try, to which he added his second conversion after taking over kicking duties from Jowitt.
Davies claimed his and Saints’ second try in the 55th minute when he took a pass from Moss to score from close range before Makinson added the extras.
But, while losing their unbeaten home record was disappointing, news of Wigan’s defeat had filtered through to the Saints fans before youngster Corkill fed Bennison to race under the posts.
But it was the visitors who rounded it off when Murphy went in for his fourth try – his 12th try in just six matches.
St Helens coach Kristian Woolf:
“It’s an outstanding achievement for this group of men. With the amount of disruption we’ve had to cope with – and how much of your salary cap is sitting in the grandstand – we make sure they compete every week.
“Credit must go to the young blokes who stepped in following the lead of the more senior players. There was a lot of blokes out there who have played maybe one or two games.
“We beat ourselves in the first half making too many errors. It meant we spent too long defending our own line. What I was really proud of was the way we came back in the second half. We fought back and showed a lot of effort.”
Wakefield coach Willie Poching:
“It wasn’t by any means the prettiest or flashiest performance. The young fellas from Saints fought hard and were brave. It was difficult at times because we train to play against certain patterns.
“Fortunately, we had enough about us to get the job done. Credit to the players for backing up after playing the other night – the double fixture weekend has given an opportunity for others.
“Lewis produced some special finishes. Some of those tries took some real skill to finish. He can go as far as he wants to in this game if he invests his time into learning his craft.”
St Helens: Bennison; Gilford, Makinson, Davies, Lane; Moss, Archer; McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Lussick, Norman, Royle, Bell, Wingfield.
Interchanges: Baxter, Pemberton, Delaney, Corkill.
Wakefield: Jowitt; Evans, Croft, Gaskell, Murphy; Miller, Walker; Battye, Bowes, Aydin, Hall, Ashurst, Crowther.
Interchanges: Kay, Butler, Shaw, Adebiyi.
Sin-bin: Gaskell (79)
Referee: Tom Grant.
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