Mighty Iro equals league scoring record

This was all too easy for St Helens as Kevin Iro equalled the Super League record for tries in a match yesterday.

Iro's five tries proved thedifference between two sides reluctant to defend with the same commitment as theyattacked. That made it 14 for the season from one of the players who has thrived under Ian Millward's regime.

"He scored five and could have had another five," enthused Millward, still unbeaten as Saints coach. "Kevin's been great. He's scoring tries and I've found he really carries out instructions well."

Two early tries from Iro, both of which spotlighted his remarkable strength, put Saints in command after touch-downs from Sean Hoppe and Waisale Sovatabua had kept the scores level.

Apollo Perelini and John Stakevitch also went over as Saints continued to find the gaps in the visitors' defence, but their own tackling was not up to the same standard.

John Lawless got one back for the bottom-of-the-tableGiants, who at least had the moral victory of outscoring Saints in the second half.

Sovatabua's second, Dale Cardoza and Jene Ngamu kept them moving, but they still had no answer to Iro, who went over for three more with Chris Joynt and Perelini contributing the others.

The Huddersfield-Sheffield coach, John Kera refused to take much comfort from his side's relative success with the ball in their hands.

"We've scored 30 points away from home and we've still copped a hiding," he said. "We're leaking far too many points and it becomes a question of a desire to defend. We've got to be harder and tougher on ourselves."

Kera said that his team had not been surprised by anything that St Helens had thrown at them. "Ian sends a lot of play down one side of the field and you don't have to be a brain surgeon to know that, the way Kevin Iro is playing, it's going to go his way. We knew all about it but we couldn't prevent it."

There could be more teams coming away from their meetings with Iro this season saying much the same thing.

St Helens: Wellens; Smith, Iro, Hoppe, Sullivan; Martyn, Long; Perelini, Cunningham, O'Neill, Tuilagi, Stankvitch, Joynt. Substitutes used: Nichole, Hall, Henare, Bennett.

Huddersfield-Sheffield: Ngamu; Houles, Lovell, Sovatabu, Dekkiche; Thorman, Clinch; Molloy, Lawless, Lomax, Bradbury, Marshall, Turner. Substitutes used: Cardoza, Molyneux, Reilly, Russell.

Referee: R Connolly (Wigan).