Round 7
St Helens 42 d. Hull KR 14

2007 engage English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: engage English Super League

Round 7 Super League Summary
Wed March 28, 2007
Round 7 of the engage Super League provided us with plenty more of the unpredictable, thrills and skills that we've come to expect from this season.

There were three games played on Friday evening, the first of which saw Wigan travelling to the KC stadium to take on Hull FC. Hull's miserable season had improved dramatically after a hugely impressive performance last week against St Helens, to claim their first win of the season. It was Wigan, however, who came away with the two points after putting in an equally impressive performance to claim a 20-30 victory. Trent Barrett scored two tries for the Warriors, who moved into the play off positions for the first time this year. Wigan boss, Brian Noble, believes that Barrett is, "Going to be big for us" whilst Hull 's Peter Sharp described his teams performance as, "A pile of rubbish to tell you the truth".

St Helens got their season back on track after a routine victory against the other side of Hull at Knowsley Road. Saints' Captain Paul Sculthorpe scored a try and kicked four goals in his side's 42-14 win. He claimed the Man of the Match award as he continues his recovery from a persistent knee injury. Hull KR were without influential captain James Webster for the clash and coach Justin Morgan, was satisfied with his team's performance saying, "I'm proud of their effort and our attitude was good."

Friday night's other game saw Leeds run out 28-16 victors against Harlequins at Headingly. Harlequin's will think of themselves as unlucky after two of Leeds' tries came from deflections and another from a blatant forward pass. Tony Smith, who signed up to become the new, full time Great Britain coach on Monday, hailed new signing Brent Webb's impact on the game after he scoring two tries.

There were no games on Saturday, due to football and cricket, so Sunday saw three games. League leaders Bradford, were at home to the Catalan Dragons, however they found themselves on the wrong end of a 22-29 defeat. The Dragons came out all guns blazing to establish a 0-10 lead through tries from Casey McGuire and Stacy Jones. The Bulls came back into it, however the Dragon's defence laid the platform for them to claim only their third ever away victory. Catalan's coach Mick Potter said, " I'm very happy" about the result whilst Bradford Coach, Steve McNamara said that his team were, "poor and thoroughly disappointed with our performance."

Huddersfield again failed to claim a point from their home game against struggling Salford as they slumped to a 16-18 defeat. The Giant's seventh straight loss leaves them 5 points adrift, despite only having a 30 point negative point's difference. Luke Robinson scored a brace of tries to help Salford to their only their second victory of the season.

Wakefield coach, John Kear, described his team's 30-24 victory over Warrington as a, "Great advert for Rugby League". Kear was delighted with his team's guts after they recovered from falling 16-24 behind in a thrilling game at Belle Vue. The victory lifts Wakefield into second place on the table and reinforces their status as this years surprise package. Warrington coach, Paul Cullen blamed his side's composure for the loss saying, "there was enough effort and enough skill, but not enough composure."

The Super League takes a break next week to make room for the fourth round of the Challenge Cup.


Sculthorpe shows his class
Sat March 24, 2007
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Paul Sculthorpe once more showed his class as St Helens moved into third place and provided a harsh lesson to engage Super League new boys Hull Kingston Rovers.

The Great Britain skipper marked his first home appearance of the season with a try and four goals in a man-of-the-match performance that echoed his comeback heroics in the World Club Challenge win over Brisbane Broncos.

Sculthorpe started as a substitute but had a major impact during his 45-minute stint as he continued his encouraging recovery from a series of knee injuries.

James Roby, James Graham and Maurie Fa'asavalu also made significant contributions from the bench as the champions found their touch in an eight-try display.

Former Scotland rugby union winger Jon Steel scored on his engage Super League debut to give KR the scent of an upset before the champions hit back to lead 16-4 at half-time.

Rovers, who won four of their first five matches to set the pace in engage Super League XII, badly missed the organisation of injured captain James Webster and they have now conceded 70 points in their last two games.

They opened the scoring on 11 minutes, centre Luke Dyer getting a superb pass out of the tackle for Steel to touch down, and were far from overawed in a lively first half.

But St Helens gradually got on top as their class began to tell and Graham and Fa'asavalu in particular punished the visitors' defence with some powerful running.

The home side struck back when a break from full-back Paul Wellens set up the position for left winger Francis Meli to race onto Sean Long's perfectly judged kick to score an equalising try.

And the champions hit the front on 23 minutes when Graham proved unstoppable on a charge from 10 metres out and Stephen Tyer, who struck the woodwork with his first goalkick, added the conversion to make it 10-4.

Saints sent on Sculthorpe after 25 minutes and he immediately began to apply some skilful touches as well as taking over the goalkicking.

They extended their lead just before the break when Fa'asavalu took a short pass from the impressive Graham to romp over for a third try and the Knowsley Road crowd witnessed Saints at their very best three minutes into the second half with a superb try from 70 metres out.

Roby, a first-half replacement for Keiron Cunningham, sliced through the visitors' defence deep in his own half and the supporting Sculthorpe took play on before sending Leon Pryce haring over from halfway.

Sculthorpe's second goal made it 22-4 and Saints thought they had scored again when Matt Gidley broke away only to be brought back for a forward pass.

Rovers suffered a blow six minutes into the second half when a dazed Chris Chester, who had been switched from the pack to offset the absence of Webster, had to be helped from the field.

They pulled a try back when left winger Byron Ford took full-back Ben Cockayne's long pass to dive over at the corner and substitute Gareth Morton added a touchline conversion.

But Sculthorpe restored his side's 18-point lead when he took a short pass from Cunningham to crash over for his first engage Super League try of the season, which he converted.

And the result was put beyond doubt just short of the hour when Sculthorpe released Gidley and the Australian outpaced the cover to score his fifth try for the club and make it 32-10.

Saints emphasised their superiority with further tries from Lee Gilmour and Meli but Rovers grabbed a consolation effort through Morton.

St Helens (16) 42
Tries: Meli 2, Graham, Fa'asavalu, Pryce, Sculthorpe, Gilmour, Gidley
Goals: Tyrer, Sculthorpe 4

Hull KR (4) 16
Tries: Steel, Ford, Morton
Goals: Morton

St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Tyrer, Meli, Pryce, Long, Fozzard, Cunningham, Cayless, Gilmour, Bennett, Wilkin.
Replacements: Roby, Graham, Sculthorpe, Fa'asavalu.

Hull Kingston Rovers: Cockayne, Steel, Goddard, Dyer, Ford, Chester, Murrell, Aizue, Fisher, Vella, Ward, J. Netherton, Gene.
Replacements: Morrison, Weisner, Morton, Gannon.

Referee: P Bentham
Att: 10,523

Report source: www.superleague.co.uk

Article: Super Sculthorpe sparks Saints

Wed March 21, 2007
• Hull KR name 20-man squad for Saints away clash
  

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