Saints crush sorry Quins

6:47am Sunday 6th July 2008

Leon Pryce produced a scintillating display as St Helens swept to the engage Super League summit with a crushing 54-0 win over injury-ravaged Harlequins.

Pryce, who crossed for a hat-trick of tries when the Saints demolished Quins at Knowsley Road earlier this season, ran the show from his stand-off position.

And the points margin was enough to see the visitors overhaul Leeds at the top of the table.

Pryce and Sean Long continually ripped the Quins defence to shreds, and it was only a fumble by Willie Talau that stopped an early score. But, minutes later, 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 James Roby under the posts.

Quins briefly threatened when Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook gathered a swirling kick-off and was held just short, but the hosts were unable to press home their advantage.

And two tries on the half-hour mark pushed the visitors further in front. First, Pryce stepped this way and that to split the Quins defence to score, and then Paul Clough burrowed over to stretch the lead.

After the restart, Harlequins produced a determined burst which saw both Gareth Haggerty and Tony Clubb go close to scoring. But normal service was soon resumed as Pryce, Paul Sculthorpe and Matt Gidley combined to send Ade Gardner over.

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

Pushing for the half-century, late scores from Roby and James Graham poured further salt into the Londoners' wounds.

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