Saints rub salt into wounds of old foes

St Helens 40 Wigan 18

Wigan hope their recruitment, which continued with Mark Calderwood of Leeds signing a two-year deal last night, will narrow the gap next season. For the moment, Ian Millward, the Wigan coach, had to be content with a grittier performance, which he said "showed a lot of character and courage".

Inside the first four minutes Willie Talau picked up a bouncing pass from Paul Sculthorpe and managed to ground the ball despite a three-man tackle. Martin Aspinwall then stepped into touch to turn Sculthorpe's kick into a 40/20. From the scrum, Jamie Lyon dumped a pass into the waiting arms of Darren Albert who put Saints 12 points up.

Wigan's bad habits were very much in evidence as Sculthorpe's tackle on Wayne Godwin presented another try after Stephen Wild's run had seemed to split the St Helens defence.

Lee Gilmour quickly outflanked the depleted defence for the third try, but something finally went Wigan's way on the half-hour when Aspinwall embarked on an incisive angled run and touched down between the posts. But Saints extended their lead before half-time when Jon Wilkin's high kick hit a post and James Roby pounced.

After a sin binning each, the 12 men of St Helens proved the more fluent, Wilkin and Talau setting up a long-range try for Ade Gardner. Mark Edmondson's try four minutes later was almost as spectacular as Saints underlined their superiority.

Some marvellous handling gave Talau his second, before a melee produced the rare sight of the Sculthorpe brothers getting to grips with each other. Bryn Hargreaves and Jerome Guisset got late efforts for Wigan, who deserve credit for persisting despite the gulf in class.

"It was a scrappy game and we let our guard down a little," said Saints coach Daniel Anderson.

St Helens: Wellens; Albert, Lyon, Talau, Gardner; P Sculthorpe, Roby; Fozzard, Cunningham, Anderson, Gilmour, Bennett, Wilkin. Substitutes used: Edmondson, Graham, Fa'asavalu, Moore.

Wigan: Melling; Dallas, Aspinwall, Vaealiki, Colbon; Orr, Moran; Guisset, Godwin, Hargreaves, Wild, Allen, Botham. Substitutes used: Newton, Tickle, D Sculthorpe, Hansen.

Referee: I Smith (Oldham). Replaced by:

A Lawton (Barnsley).