By Mike Critchley

THE pre-match talking point revolved around whether Saints, mindful of their date in Cardiff , would 'rest' some of their key players for this clash against the league leaders.

But not only did Saints put out their best available 13 - they turned on the style too, blitzing the previously unbeaten Rhinos with an exhilarating brand of running rugby.

From the first minute Saints declared their intentions to take the game to Leeds - with the match played at a breakneck pace.

The sheer speed of Saints' play the balls left the flagging Rhinos defence bedraggled and bewildered - with skipper Paul Sculthorpe and Keiron Cunningham quick pick ups from the heels of impressive driving props Keith Mason and Nick Fozzard constantly putting Leeds on the back foot.

From that platform, Saints let their hands do the work to rattle in nine magnificent tries.

The army of Rhinos fans, who had turned up waving betting slips, wished they had brought hankies instead as their mocking mood turned quickly into despondency.

Their side, who had been rattling in points at a rate of almost 40 a match, failed to trouble the scorers until an hour had past - and by that time Saints had 44 on the board.

Saints grabbed the name by the scruff off the neck from the off and were unlucky not to get their opening try after only two minutes, when winger Darren Albert leapt onto Sean Long's magnificent cross kick only to fumble it forward.

It was a Long kick to the shaky Marcus Bai in the same corner that produced the error Saints needed to keep up the pressure.

And from the subsequent scrum Long was able to control a low pass with his foot before fanning the ball left, where big centre Willie Talau flicked the ball out of a two-man tackle to send Ade Gardner over in the corner.

Three plays into the restart, Mason hit the Leeds defence with a vengeance, smuggling the ball out to the ever alert Cunningham who cut his way through before sending Lee Gilmour scorching in from the half way line.

Although the scoring stopped for 12 minutes - the pace of the game did not and after withstanding a spell of Leeds pressure, Long's interception took play 50 metres down the pitch to turn the screw even further on the Loiners.

On the quarter mark Sculthorpe showed the ball before popping it inside to the rapidly advancing Martin Gleeson.

The Saints centre switched play inside for man of the match Jason Hooper, who raced in unopposed. Having been unable to get to grips with the pace of Saints game, some members of the Leeds side began to lose their heads with Wayne McDonald warned for his high tackle on Mark Edmondson.

Giant Aussie Matt Adamson also received a talking to for something similar, with Danny McGuire being placed on report for his late challenge on Long.

But Saints kept their cool, with Long's super ball missing out two dummy runners to send skipper Sculthorpe scorching over for a try, with Hooper bagging his second to make it 28-0.

It was not just their attack that earned the plaudits - despite their 28 point cushion, Saints defended it as if it was 0-0 with full back Paul Wellens' last ditch crunching tackle on try line bound Francis Cummins helping to keep the visitors on zero at the break.

Although it is hard to single out players Wellens gave another outstanding performance

A brace of Long penalties in the first five minutes of the second half kept the scoreboard and the clock ticking over - to surprising cheers from the home fans.

The volume of those voices were then turned up another few notches when Albert picked up a tricky Leeds kick on his 20 metre mark and spotted half a gap in the patchy Leeds chase.

After zipping through the first line on a diagonal burst, the Aussie flyer gave a reminder of how quick he is once he gets the ball in space as he sped 70 metres to score under the posts.

Another long-range effort from Talau, who straightened onto a smart pass from Gleeson from the scrum, to score from 60 metres.

Although nilling this free-scoring Leeds side would have been the icing on the cake, it was not to be with Rob Burrow's darting diagonal run bringing ironic cheers from the home crowd with a try on the hour mark.

But with Albert in the sin-bin for holding down - a baffling decision in view of the earlier high tackles which went unpunished - Saints were still able to bring up the half century with Ian Hardman squeezing in at the corner after quick hands had created half a chance.

Hooper showed there was no end to his talents, waiting for the hullabaloo over the pitch invading streaker to die down before calmly slotting over the touchline conversion.

Chris Feather grabbed another score for the Rhinos, goaled by Kevin Sinfield, but that was a mere detail as Mark Edmondson showed nifty footwork, chipping up a loose ball before racing 30 metres to touch down.

Saints Wellens Gardner Gleeson Talau Albert Hooper Long Fozzard Cunningham Mason Gilmour Joynt Sculthorpe Subs: Edmondson Fa'asavalu Hardman Bibey

Leeds Mathers Cummins Walker Senior Bai McGuire Duneman Feather Burrow McDermott Furner McKenna Sinfield Subs: Bailey Adamson Poching McDonald