Foster inspires Saints

Foster: Great performance

Jamie Foster starred in a 40-18 win for St Helens over Catalan Dragons in engage Super League XVI at the Stobart Stadium on Friday.

The 20-year-old scored a hat-trick of tries and kicked eight goals from as many attempts to bring up 300 points for the season, as Saints inflicted on the Dragons only their third defeat in their last 15 matches.

The French side would have gone third themselves with victory and they pushed their hosts all the way with another impressive performance, with Saints only clinching victory with late tries from centres Michael Shenton and Francis Meli.

Blow

The Catalans were dealt a blow with the loss of Scott Dureau and have now been defeated in all three matches in the absence of the influential Australian playmaker, but it was the lack of his goalkicking that proved costly.

Remy Marginet, plucked from French domestic rugby, proved an able deputy at scrum-half but managed to land just one of his four kicks at goal.

St Helens, who brought on Leon Pryce for the last 20 minutes for only his second appearance since last July, were in sparkling form from the start.

There were only four minutes on the clock when stand-off Lee Gaskell shifted play to the left and Meli worked Foster over at the corner for his 16th try of the season.

Foster kicked the touchline conversion and broke clear to set up a tryscoring chance for Meli only for Dragons winger Damien Blanch to pull off a superb cover tackle.

It was all square on 13 minutes when the grand old man of Super League, Steve Menzies, cut through for a try, to which Marginet added the goal, and defied his 37 years by jinking through the heart of the Saints defence to create another scoring chance which went begging.

Gaskell and Lomax then combined to once more attack the Catalan right and the barnstorming Meli proved unstoppable from 10 metres out to claim his first try.

Foster was again on target from wide out and extended his side's lead to 14-6 by half-time with a penalty.

Glorious

A 40-20 kick from James Roby gave Saints a glorious attacking opportunity early in the second half but the Dragons showed tremendous spirit in defence to keep their line intact and twice demonstrated their ability to conjure something out of nothing to keep the game alive.

A delightful crossfield move created the space for left winger Frederic Vaccari to cross at the corner and then Marginet's half-break got Menzies charging over for his second try.

Marginet was unable to convert either try, however, and in sharp contrast, Foster maintained his unerring accuracy by landing a second penalty before converting his own second try, a gift presented to him by a casual offload from Jean-Philippe Baile.

Flattering

That made it 22-14 but the never-say-die Catalans struck back yet again through full-back Clint Greenshields with a fourth try, but Marginet was again unable to add the goal.

That was the signal for Pryce to make his entry and he was involved in the move that enabled centre Michael Shenton to dummy his way over for the match-clinching try 10 minutes from the end.

As the Catalans' defensive heroics began to take their toll, Meli grabbed his second try and Foster completed his hat-trick to give Saints a flattering margin of victory.