St Helens 54-0 Bradford Bulls
Josh Jones’ hat trick capped off a wonderful night for St Helens as they ran away 54-0 winners against Bradford.
Jones scored two first half tries, and could have scored his hat trick earlier in the first half if it wasn’t for his own selflessness.
Paul Wellens put their Saints on the scoreboard after five minutes by burrowing through the Bradford defensive line to touch down.
The conversion went wide from Tommy Makinson, but he made no mistake the same angle after Josh Jones scored a similar try to Wellens’ putting Saints 10-0 up.
Sia Soliola made an easy break for St Helens, splitting the Bradford defence open with ease. He had Jonny Lomax in support who went onto score St Helens’ third try under the posts.
Bradford looked disorganised in both defence and attack, and this was displayed perfectly as Jones grabbed his second try of the evening.
Jon Wilkin’s grubber kick wasn’t dealt with by Bradford, allowing Francis Meli to regain possession. Meli offloaded to Jones on the Bradford line to take the home side’s score to 22 points without reply.
St Helens rounded off a near perfect first half, set up by the impressive Lomax. His break found Jones again on the left flank. Rather than grab his well deserved hat trick early, Jones selflessly passed outside for Meli to score in the corner.
Mike Rush was undoubtedly the happier coach with a 28-0 half time lead, and he would have been happier 11 minutes into the second half as Saints continued their dominance.
Roby’s grubber kick into Bradford’s in-goal was just about grounded by Wellens for his second try of the evening.
It wasn’t long before Makinson, who had up to this point converted five tries for Saints, scored his own try in the corner. This time the wind wasn’t kind to the youngster as the ball fell short of the posts.
Lance Hohaia and Lomax’s second try of the game took Saints up to the 50 point mark mid way through the second half, with a little help from two further Makinson conversions.
Jones grabbed his hat trick right at the death to put the icing on the cake for Rush, continuing an impressive run of form that looked very distant earlier in the season.
St Helens scores: T- Wellens (2), Jones (3), Lomax (2), Meli, Hohaia, Makinson. G- Makinson (7)
St Helens: Wellens; Makinson, Shenton, Jones, Meli; Hohaia, Lomax; Perry, Roby, Laffranchi; Puletua, Soliola, Wilkin. Subs: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Flannery, Flanagan, Clough.
Bradford: Platt; Ainscough, Whitehead, Lulia, Pryce; Jeffries, Gale; Langley, L’Estrange, Hargreaves; Olbison, Bateman, Elima. Subs: Manuokafoa, Sibbit, Burgess, Addy.
Referee: Tim Roby
Half time: 28-0
Attendance: 13,025