Saints crush Wildcats

Eastmond: deputised for Wellens at full-back

Kyle Eastmond scored two tries from full-back as St Helens claimed a 46-6 win over a dispirited Wakefield Wildcats at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium.

Eastmond, who had become the forgotten man since confirming his end-of-season move to rugby union, was an excellent deputy for Paul Wellens, who pulled out with an ankle injury.

Jamie Foster also bagged a brace, taking his Super League try tally for the season to 15 and moved past a century of goals in all competitions, as Saints moved to within a point of third-placed Huddersfield in the engage Super League table.

Wakefield coach John Kear admitted his side were "in a hole" after their 70-14 mauling at Hull KR a week earlier and have now shipped 208 points in their last four matches.

They trailed 46-0 until centre Aaron Murphy grabbed a try five minutes from the end to ironic cheers from the Wildcats faithful.

Eastmond, making only his eighth start of the season, got the scoreboard ticking over after five minutes, finishing strongly after the impressive James Roby accepted Tony Puletua's offload from the tackle.

Foster took Francis Meli's pass to score his first try and his second goal made it 12-0 with only eight minutes on the clock.

Jinked

Wakefield briefly threatened a fightback but Saints were strong in defence and Foster knocked on over the line before Eastmond took Roby's pass to jink his way over in trademark fashion for his second try on 29 minutes.

Saints' biggest problem was maintaining their concentration but any hope Wakefield had of making a game of it was dashed when they conceded two further tries in the last two minutes of the first half.

The Puletua-Roby combination once more unlocked the Wildcats defence and Eastmond combined with Meli to get Foster over for his second while scrum-half Jonny Lomax scored after the hooter had sounded following a break by Foster, whose fifth goal was his 100th of the season.

Wakefield's problems were not helped when centre Luke George had to be carried off with a knee injury early in the second half and they went further behind when Roby's short pass put Lomax into space and Meli dummied his way over for a try.

Back rower Chris Flannery then made the most of a defensive howler to grab his side's eighth try and Foster took his goal tally to seven from eight attempts.

Wakefield were a badly-beaten side but at least they avoided a whitewash when Murphy forced his way over, with Kieran Hyde adding the conversion.