Harlequins 0-54 St Helens

Harlequins (0) 0

St Helens (22) 54
Tries: Talau, Roby 2, Pryce, Clough, Gardner, Wilkin, Eastmond, Meli, Graham Goals: Long 6, Sculthorpe

St Helens ran home 10 tries to crush injury-hit Harlequins and return to the top of Super League table.

Saints led 22-0 at the break thanks to first-half tries from Willie Talau, James Roby, Leon Pryce and Paul Clough.

Pryce in particular was impressive from his stand-off position continually breaking the Quins defence.

Second-half scores for Saints from Ade Gardner, Jon Wilkin, Kyle Eastmond, Francis Meli, Roby and James Graham sealed the visitors' comprehensive win.

The margin of victory proved significant for St Helens as it allowed them to leapfrog Leeds at the top of the table on points difference.

St Helens simply had too much power and pace for their inexperienced hosts and did not take long to hit their stride.

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Pryce and Sean Long frequently ripped the Quins defence to shreds, and it was only a fumble by Talau that stopped an early score.

Minutes later though Pryce and Long combined again to send Talau through in the corner.

Despite the Londoners tackling manfully, they had little answer to the jinking feet of Pryce, and it was the stand-off again who created space to send Roby under the posts.

Two further tries on the half-hour mark further extended Saints' lead.

First, Pryce jinked his way through the Quins defence to score, and then Clough burrowed over.

It did not take Saints long to resume their domination in the second-half as Pryce, Paul Sculthorpe and Matt Gidley combined to send Gardner over.

Saints continued to rack up the points, with Wilkin, Eastmond and Meli all crossing.

And as the visitors pushed for the half-century, late scores from Roby and Graham further compounded Quins' misery.

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Harlequins coach Brian McDermott:

"The scoreline makes it look like we rolled over but we did not. Saints were just white hot.

"It is worrying for the rest of the competition the way they are playing at the moment.

"We are struggling with injuries but that would be too easy an answer. It is a reason but it is not an excuse.

"We just have to put our bodies on the line and battle through."

St Helens coach Daniel Anderson

"It was a very, very good performance.

"We scored some exceptional tries - I was gobsmacked myself.

"We were by no means perfect but it was a great display."

On Leon Pryce, he added: "I thought Leon was absolutely brilliant - he was totally on fire.

"He has trained exceptionally hard over the last two years to get to where he is today."