St Helens thrash Hull KR to reach summit

St Helens have climbed to the top of the Super League table with an emphatic 52-12 victory over Hull KR at Langtree Park.

The visitors appeared to have no answer for a strong start from St Helens, who started the scoring in the 16th minute when Kieran Dixon failed to collect a kick under pressure, which allowed Joe Greenwood to touch down.

A second try followed just two minutes later when Adam Quinlan led a break which ended with the ball being shifted to Travis Burns for the score.

St Helens continued to dominate and the lead was soon 24-0 as Matty Dawson and Atelea Vea added tries, while Luke Walsh took his tally of conversions to four.

However, Hull's vulnerabilities in defence were soon forgotten as they forced their way back into the match with two tries before the interval.

First it was Dixon who made up for his earlier mistake by breaking through the St Helens resistance to touch down, before Dane Chisholm and Ben Cockayne combined to set up John Boudebza as Hull halved the deficit.

Any hopes of a Hull fightback were dashed early in the second half as Quinlan collected a kick from Chisholm before evading a number of challenges in a 70-metre sprint to cross the line.

Hull valiantly attempted to survive another long spell of pressure from the Saints, but they were unable to keep out Mark Flanagan before Walsh converted for the sixth time.

There was no response from Rovers in the second half as the Saints chalked up two more tries when Greenwood touched down for the second time, before Adam Swift stormed past Cockayne and Dixon for his side's eighth try of the night.

Walsh missed a conversion attempt for the first time in the match, before Swift added another try when a turnover allowed him to travel the length of the pitch.