4th Round
St Helens 78 d. Batley Bulldogs 14

2007 Challenge Cup Index [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: Challenge Cup

Cup Champions St Helens breeze past Batley
Sat March 31, 2007
Source: www.therfl.co.uk

Holders St Helens breezed through to the next round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup with a comprehensive win over National League Batley.

Saints, who were missing their inspirational captain Paul Sculthorpe and a host of other stars including Jason Cayless, James Roby and Willie Talau, romped home against a Bulldogs side who could not handle the hosts' formidable attacking arsenal.

The backbone of Saints' team - Sean Long, Paul Wellens, Leon Pryce and Keiron Cunningham - all starred, though, as the engage Super League team ran riot.

And although their focus may have been on the Wigan Warriors clash on Good Friday, St Helens were in no mood to take the foot off the gas as they looked to keep hold of the cup they won at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium last year.

Ade Gardner got Saints ticking over after only four minutes and then full-back Wellens crashed over for another simple try after he benefited from some good work from Long in midfield.

From that point the game, still only 10 minutes old, was effectively over as Saints went on to plunder a further nine scores to rack up 54 points at the break.

The home side were breaking tackles with considerable ease and they finished off a series of clean breaks with converted scores.

Rookie centre Stephen Tyrer ensured he got plenty of kicking practice as he stroked over eight first-half conversions and a further three in the second half to finish with a 22-point haul.

During the try-scoring procession Wellens went on to score a double as did Maurie Fa'asavalu and Lee Gilmour - who looked in great form ahead of the Wigan test next week.

Cunningham, who caused all kinds of problems for the Bulldogs from dummy half, also went over for an easy try during a relentless first period.

And not to be outdone by the forwards was Australian centre Matt Gidley - who ran in a try out wide and Francis Meli showed his electrifying pace to cross to put Saints completely out of sight early on.

Batley did enjoy a small spell of good pressure which resulted in tries from Tim Spears, Kris Lythes and Jason Mossot - with Ian Gordon tagging the extras - after Saints temporarily dozed off. But that was as good as it got for the Yorkshiremen.

Saints soon increased their lead when James Graham and Sculthorpe's deputy, Paul Clough, powered over and the Saints were threatening three figures.

That target was well in reach when Jon Wilkin touched down, with Meli going over for his second, but Daniel Anderson's men settled for what they had with nine minutes left on the clock.

St Helens (56) 78
Tries: Gardner, Wellens 2, Meli 2, Gilmour 2, Gidley, Cunningham,
Fa'asavalu 2, Graham, Clough, Wilkin
Goals: Tyrer 11

Batley Bulldogs (10) 14
Tries: Spears, Lythe, Mossot
Goals: Gordon

St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Tyrer, Meli, Pryce, Long, Fozzard, Cunningham, Hargreaves, Gilmour, Bennett, Wilkin.
Subs: Graham, Moore, Clough, Fa'asavalu.

Batley Bulldogs: A. Lindsay, Clemmie, Mossot, Langley, Marns, Gordon, Duffy, Best, Lythe, Stenchion, Watson, Spears, Paterson.
Subs: Barlow, Simpson, Henderson, Menzies.

Referee: R Hicks
Att: 4,335

Report source: www.therfl.co.uk

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