St Helens 38-12 Hull KR: Saints one win away from securing top spot

St Helens moved within one win of claiming the League Leaders Shield after a comfortable victory over Hull KR at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

There are three games of the regular season to go, with Saints facing Wigan, Wakefield and Toulouse. They only need to win one of those to secure top spot.

Meanwhile, Hull KR suffer back-to-back defeats, and their play-off hopes are now all but over, after Leeds also won.

Saints made just one change from the side that thrashed Hull FC last Sunday. Jack Welsby made his return to the side, with Sione Mata’utia dropping out after picking up a foot injury.

Hull KR made six changes to the side that was beaten by Leeds last Friday. Ethan Ryan, Ben Crooks, Sam Wood, Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Matt Parcell and Greg Richards all came out of the side. Meanwhile, there was a debut for Connor Barley on the wing. Also coming in were Lachlan Coote, Mikey Lewis, Rowan Milnes, Albert Vete and Zach Fishwick.

The first points of the game came from the boot of Tommy Makinson. He slotted a penalty through the posts, after Hull KR were caught offside.

Just before the 10-minute mark, the hosts scored the first try of the night. Jack Welsby threw a cutout pass to Makinson, who was able to run over in space in the corner. Makinson was then able to convert his own try from the touchline.

St Helens were able to increase their lead just past the halfway point of the first half. They got the ball back after a short dropout from Hull KR failed, and from the resulting field position, they found Makinson in space again on the right-hand side for his second try. However, Makinson could not convert from the touchline this time.

The hosts were averaging  a try every 10 minutes, and continued that trend past the half-hour.