St Helens 40-6 Leeds: Player ratings and major talking points

Champions St Helens produced their best performance of the season to brutalise an already injury ravaged Leeds side. It was relentless from the Saints who were clearly hurting from last week and the young Leeds side couldn’t handle what was thrown at them.

Major Talking Points:

1. A wounded animal bites back

This was probably the worst possible time for Leeds to face the reigning Champions. Just like their last three encounters against the Saints, they were ravaged by injuries especially down the middle where Saints dominated. But making things worse for Leeds is the fact the Saints came into this game on the back of a heart breaking, treble denying defeat to Catalans. Saints were out to put the league on notice, wiping away the disappointment of last week and did so with a brutal performance.

2. Rhinos simply couldn’t cope

When Leeds have their full strength side out, or at least their full strength pack, they’re very difficult to get on top of down the middle. But with Mikolaj Oledzki, Alex Mellor, Zane Tetevano, James Donaldson and Morgan Gannon all absent down the middle it became virtually impossible for them to contain Saints. Guys like Sam Walters and Jarrod O’Connor were thrown in at the deep end well and truly and were overpowered by Alex Walmsley and co.

3. Walmsley’s best performance of the year

Against Leeds’ depleted pack, Alex Walmsley starred. James Roby provided him with a superb platform and he just burst through tackle after tackle. When he went off, Leeds had their best spell which says an awful lot. When he was on the field he was unstoppable.

Player Ratings:

St Helens
1 Lachlan Coote – 7
2 Tommy Makinson – 7
3 Kevin Naiqama – 7
4 Mark Percival – 8
5 Regan Grace – 7
18 Jack Welsby – 7
21 Lewis Dodd – 7
8 Alex Walmsley – 9
9 James Roby – 8
10 Matty Lees – 8
14 Sione Mata’utia – 7
20 Joe Batchelor – 8
13 Morgan Knowles – 8
Substitutes
11 Joel Thompson -6
16 Kyle Amor – 6
19 Aaron Smith – 6
23 Jake Wingfield – 7

Leeds
27 Jack Broadbent – 7
24 Luke Briscoe – 6
3 Harry Newman – 6
2 Tom Briscoe – 7
5 Ash Handley – 6
9 Kruise Leeming – 7
16 Richie Myler – 7
18 Tom Holroyd – 5
14 Brad Dwyer – 6
10 Matt Prior – 5
22 Sam Walters – 5
12 Rhyse Martin – 7
26 Jarrod O’Connor – 6
Substitutes
17 Cameron Smith – 6
20 Bodene Thompson – 6
21 Alex Sutcliffe – 6
32 Corey Johnson – 7