Saints 24

Wigan 8

REVENGE was sweet for the home fans packed into the sell-out 15,100 crowd at Knowsley Road on Friday as Saints powered past a jaded Wigan side to book their place at Old Trafford.

Having lost the last three encounters against the Warriors, Saints pulled out a big performance when it mattered with a superb team effort based on a rock solid defence.

Although the incessant heavy rain ensured that the game was never going to be a free-flowing classic, it was an absorbing encounter which kept the full-voiced fans gripped to the end.

Saints played the conditions well - shattering the myth that they cannot play in the rain. They learned their lessons from the previous week, controlling the ball better in their own half and kicking wisely, often early in the tackle count, and invariably followed their kicks up with an aggressive chase.

They did the small things well. There was no repetition of the previous week's silly off-loads and with their noses ahead at half-time, they simply ground out the win and did nothing flashy.

After running rings round Saints on three previous occasions, Wigan's chief circus master Adrian Lam was given very little room and his partner Julian O'Neill was anonymous.

It was no surprise given the way Saints' magnificent packmen, superbly marshalled by skipper Chris Joynt, were stopping their Warriors counterparts from getting any sort of roll on.

Saints had plenty to offer going forward, with hooker Keiron Cunningham's storming runs from dummy half providing a real spark and behind Saints' dominant pack, Paul Sculthorpe and Sean Long had a field day.

Long, after a frustrating injury ravaged season, looked a fresh man and created three of Saints' four tries. The first came on three minutes. After good probing runs from Paul Wellens and Darren Britt, Long's floated pass gave Tony Stewart the opportunity to squeeze in at the corner.

Next from the Long armoury came a short pass popped up to Joynt, who forced his way over from close range to stretch Saints' lead.

Moments after Cunningham had been held up narrowly short of the line, Wigan grabbed their first points through an Andy Farrell penalty midway through the first half.

Although Saints were on top, the Warriors were not giving up without a fight. On 25 minutes the game erupted when big Kiwi prop Craig Smith had a set-to with Long - both were yellow carded.

While they were cooling off, the game was hotting up with Mick Cassidy bouncing off the attempted tackles of Cunningham and Peter Shiels to touch down and cut Wigan's deficit to 12-8.

It was Saints' only defensive lapse of the night and sparked the Great Britain hooker into making immediate amends. Taking the ball from dummy half, 15 metres out, Cunningham powered his way through the challenges of Newton, Cassidy and Kris Radlinski to touch down. Sculthorpe's conversion gave Saints an 18-8 interval lead.

An early Warriors score after the restart would have thrown the game back into the melting pot but cool heads helped Saints grind out the win.

Saints' play was dour but effective. The only score of the second period came when Sculthorpe collected Long's chip to touch down and start the celebrations.

It was a magnificent team effort with Cunningham, Long and Sculthorpe collecting their usual amount of praise.

But there were a lot of other outstanding efforts, not least from Wellens at full back. Not only did he put in some cracking try-saving tackles on Briscoe and Radlinski, he was unflappable at the back, defusing a variety of kicks, aided by some good cover from the wingers.

And carrying the ball, Wellens' sharp bursts early in the sets took pressure off his forwards and caught the Warriors on the back foot.

Saints: Wellens; Albert, Gleeson, Newlove, Stewart; Sculthorpe, Long; Britt, Cunningham, Ward, Jonkers, Bennett, Joynt. Subs: Hoppe, Stankevitch, Shiels, Higham.

Wigan: Radlinski; Briscoe, Aspinwall, Connolly, Carney; O'Neill, Lam; O'Connor, Newton, C. Smith, Cassidy, Furner, Farrell. Subs: Howard, O'Loughlin, D. Sculthorpe, Tickle.