Saints crush sorry Wildcats

St Helens closed the gap on Super League's second-placed team Warrington after scoring nine tries in demolishing Wakefield 50-6 at Belle Vue.

Former England stand-off Leon Pryce was at his influential best as he grabbed Saints' first try before creating three of the next four against an overwhelmed Wildcats side.

It was the hosts who opened the scoring, however, as Kieran Hyde made a dream start to his Super League debut to take advantage of St Helens' error-filled start.

But the visitors soon found their rhythm and overhauled the early deficit before racing away in the second half to complete the rout.

Tevita Leo-Latu impressed during the Wildcats' early spell of pressure and second rower Glenn Morrison had two tries disallowed, but there were only fleeting glimpses of attacking promise from Wakefield.

Pryce cancelled out Hyde's try by bumping off the attempted challenge of Sam Obst and jinking over the line in the 12th minute of the match.

Tries

The visitors then took the lead after a neat grubber kick from Pryce allowed Ade Gardner to touch down for their second try.

After setting up the position with a 40-20 kick, Pryce then sent substitute forward Tony Puletua crashing over the line from close range.

Wakefield trailed by 10 points at the half and any hopes of a comeback were killed off when scrum-half Scott Moore played in Jon Wilkin within six minutes of the restart.

Hyde then fumbled Pryce's high kick, allowing 20-year-old Shaun Magennis to snap up the loose ball and score, before hooker James Roby burst into space to send Wilkin over for his second of the afternoon.

Saints were by now in cruise control and turned on the style when James Graham and Paul Wellens combined to send Magennis over for another try.

Wellens was again at the centre of the action as he strung the passes together with Roby before Puletua finished the move off for the visitors' eighth try.

Francis Meli, who was playing out of position at centre, completed the try- scoring four minutes before the end, with Jamie Foster bringing up the 50 with his seventh successful conversion.