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Rugby League

St Helens thrash sorry Wigan

14/04/2006

Coachless Wigan's problems were compounded as they were thrashed 48-10 by unbeaten Super League leaders St Helens at Knowsley Road.

The Warriors are bottom of the league and without a coach, though the club have been talking to Bradford Bulls boss Brian Noble.

And the high-flying Saints offered no respite with tries by Paul Sculthorpe, Paul Wellens and Sean Long before the break.

Ade Gardner increased the lead but Wigan did reply through Chris Ashton.

Saints were rampant late on with Ian Hardman, Jason Hooper (twice) and Leon Pryce all scoring, while Jordan James scored a late Wigan consolation.

Wigan have just one victory from their opening nine games and they have now lost six on the bounce, their worst run for 24 years.

Their poor start led to Ian Millward's dismissal this week and his replacement, with Noble the stand-out favourite, will have to arrest the decline immediately to avoid the threat of relegation.

Their young side battled hard but made too many basic errors and were ultimately outclassed by a superior side.

They started impressively but after Sculthorpe went through a gap on eight minutes and Wellens finished off a long-range attack soon after, the result was never really in doubt.

St Helens had plenty of opportunities to add to their lead but were kept out by some morale-boosting Wigan defence, although Pryce's break led to Long crossing on 38 minutes.

Wigan continued to battle in the second period but fell away in the last quarter as Saints scored four times in 14 minutes to complete the rout.

Wigan did have the last word through James but it was too little too late and the Warriors fans had to suffer the chants of "going down" from the gleeful Saints fans as they left to make their way home.

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