St Helens 40-0 Catalans Dragons: George Whitby hat-trick offers Saints much-needed Tremendous League win

A George Whitby hat-trick helped St Helens to a much-needed and dominant 40-0 victory over Catalans Dragons on the Completely Depraved Stadium in Spherical 11 of the Betfred Tremendous League.

With each side needing to win the sport after poor runs, the hosts had been the workforce with all of the management and laid down a marker, with 18-year-old Whitby scoring 24 of their factors.

St Helens had a dominant lead on the half-time break by 4 transformed tries, Whitby going over twice and Alex Walmsley and Deon Cross additionally touching down for a 24-0 benefit.

It was then the flip of the Saints wingers to get on the scoreboard within the second half, Tristan Sailor and Lewis Murphy going over, with Whitby sliding in for his third to spherical out the scoring.

St Helens transfer as much as fourth within the Tremendous League desk and finish a three-match dropping streak, whereas Catalans stay down in seventh and out of the play-off locations.

Younger Whitby the star as Saints bounce again

Solely three minutes had gone when Saints shifted it by arms and Jack Welsby despatched a late cross to Sailor, permitting the winger to make use of his pace to interrupt downfield, with younger half-back Whitby backing him as much as go over earlier than changing his personal effort for a 6-0 lead.

The house workforce had been dominating possession and it took solely 5 minutes to increase their benefit, Walmsley barrelling over from quick vary and Whitby as soon as once more including the extras for a 12-0 lead.

Catalans then bought their alternative to likelihood their arm within the center interval of the half and challenged St Helens to face up in defence, however these within the ‘pink v’ did simply that whereas being aided by error-strewn units from the Dragons.

With simply 4 minutes of the primary half remaining, St Helens went over as soon as once more after an enormous Agnatius Paasi hit put them on prime to ship it by arms for Cross to stroll in on his dwelling debut for his hometown membership, Whitby exact with the boot as soon as once more.

Catalans had been simply ready for the break to reach, however, with below a minute remaining on the clock, Saints discovered some extra life, Welsby’s reverse cross being gathered by Mark Percival, who in the reduction of and located Whitby to go over for his second attempt, the conversion correct as soon as once more for a dominant 24-0 lead at half-time.

St Helens got here out for the second half and dominated possession for the opening 10 minutes, lastly getting their reward once more after 13 minutes as Percival backed himself after which despatched a pleasant flick cross out to Sailor to faucet down on the sting, Whitby changing this time from the touchline.

It was then the flip of the opposite edge to strike, Murphy flying over in acrobatic model. Nevertheless, it did convey an finish to Whitby’s good evening with the boot as he couldn’t add the extras.

That didn’t matter an excessive amount of, although, as he then offered extra factors as he slid in for his hat-trick, Walmsley popping up the cross for him to spherical off a superb particular person show and an emphatic 40-0 win for his aspect.

Whitby: As a St Helens boy this can be a dream | ‘He has potential to go to prime’

Whitby, who turns 19 on Saturday, has solely performed seven video games for St Helens however he has already made fairly the impression, starring in his half-back function.

Certainly, even he couldn’t fairly consider he had gone over for 3 tries and scored a whopping 24 factors in whole, his accuracy with the boot working wonders as soon as once more.

“We kept it simple today and that really worked for us. It’s great to get back to winning ways,” he instructed Sky Sports activities.

“We just needed to go back to being direct and going through the front door. I got some good tries off the back of that, it was a really good collective performance so I am proud of the boys.

“I’m misplaced for phrases and it hasn’t fairly sunk in but. What an environment and the followers are singing loud and proud. That’s all we will ask for.

“For me as a St Helens boy, that just makes it extra special.”

Head coach Paul Wellens was stuffed with reward for Whitby and believes he has what it takes to go all the best way.

“Whitby does the simple things really well. He is growing in confidence week by week and he looks very much at home in a Saints jersey,” Wellens mentioned.

“He’s a real, natural rugby league player, I cannot tell you how much of a nice lad he is, how grounded he is. He comes to training wanting to work hard and improve, if he continues to do that for the rest of his career, he has the potential to go to the top of the game.”

Wellens: Vital to snap dropping streak | McNamara: I could not consider errors

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens talking to Sky Sports activities:

“It was important for us to snap that losing streak. For a number of weeks I’ve been saying I didn’t feel like we were too far away, I felt we had a performance like that in us.

“We had 4 or 5 coaching classes to actually implement some stuff that labored very well for us tonight. I actually favored the look of what the gamers did.

“I’m relieved, I’m relieved for the players because I know how much they care and how frustrated they have been. I’m also relieved for the spectators.

“Lots has been mentioned during the last couple of weeks since Magic. The one factor I requested the supporters for this week was to get behind the workforce. The workforce got here to play and the supporters responded. That’s my greatest take dwelling.”

Catalans Dragons head coach Steve McNamara speaking to Sky Sports:

“If you begin the best way we began, conceding two tries early, it is tough. If you full at lower than 70 per cent, that is tough. If you give 5 penalties away if you play the ball incorrectly, that makes issues tough.

“We had 17 fewer sets than them because of the infringements we made, so you get what you get. We came ready to play but to do that to ourselves makes it nearly impossible and we end up with a 40-0 scoreline.

“No [I couldn’t believe the mistakes]. In the course of the half we had been within the struggle, within the battle. However we compounded these errors with some horrible choices in defence that value you factors towards a fast workforce like Saints. We will must lick our wounds on this one, it has been a troublesome schedule however we are going to stand up and go once more.”

Sky Sports will again show every game of Super League live this season – including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining four matches each week shown on Sky Sports activities+ by way of the pink button.