Saints boss Ian Millward: "It was an outstanding effort that answered any queries that were put to us in the week.

"But we were very good across the board. I thought Keith Mason was outstanding - I am not a coach who will be looking at five players and saying 'they played well'. I thought the 17 performed well tonight. It was just a fantastic performance.

"We have been very consistent all year - and today was a culmination of that."

Leeds coach Tony Smith:

"I am extremely disappointed. We were very slow out of the blocks and you can't afford to do that against St Helens.

"They sniffed the blood and went in for the kill and sure got it. All credit to them they can do that to teams. We can learn from that and we will.

"They are extremely good at finding the ground early in the tackle count and once they get the roll going they take advantage of teams.

"They are the best in the comp at getting down on the ground and then going again.

"And when you have people like Keiron Cunningham and Paul Sculthorpe on the back of that, they can exploit you - and they sure did tonight."