Joynt steadies ship as Saints grab late winner

SKIPPER Paul Sculthorpe may have grabbed the headlines for keeping his cool to slot over the late conversion that gave Saints the spoils, but his predecessor Chris Joynt played a key role in delivering the crucial points.

With Saints trailing by four points, the animated former skipper Joynt could be seen swirling his arms around to gee up his pack colleagues for one final onslaught.

It did the trick - and with only two minutes left on the clock, Sculthorpe broke the line and sent the ever supporting Jason Hooper racing in for a thrilling touchdown.

Hooper was subsequently clogged in the act of scoring by Wolves' burly prop Danny Lima- which provoked a melee behind the posts.

But that did not put sure-footed Sculthorpe off his stroke with the noise emanating from behind the jam-packed stand signalling two points in the match and more importantly in the league.

It could have been so different, for although Saints dominated for large parts of the game, they could not convert that pressure into points.

And when Sculthorpe dropped Hooper's pass to bomb a certain score late in the game, it looked as though Wolves were going to claim only their second ever win over the Saints in this twenty third Super League meeting between the sides.

Saints had plenty of ball - and with the robust Keiron Cunningham again central to the proceedings, aided by a strong running Keith Mason, the pack was on their mettle.

None more so than Joynt, who pulled out a real captain's knock, with his tackle-busting charging runs constantly catching the Wolves off guard. No wonder he looked horrified when coach Ian Millward substituted him midway through the second half. He returned shortly afterwards and helped steady the ship for the final tilt.

After the sticky patch Saints have suffered, having that belief back won't do any harm ahead of the play-offs.

There were some weaknesses - although Sculthorpe had a great game, with Scott Moore rested and James Roby on the bench, Saints missed having an orthodox scrum half to give the play that bit more width and variety.

Defensively, new boy Gray Viane was found wanting a number of times - and that was ruthlessly exploited by halves Nathan Wood and Lee Briers, with strong running in that channel from Darren Burns and Mike Wainwright.

Sculthorpe started the scoring by storming over for a try after only two minutes, but the tit-for-tat nature of this game soon became evident.

Speedster Dean Gaskell cancelled that out with a try, following good work by Burns, converted by Graham Appo.

Both sides exchanged tries again at the midway point with smart work by Darren Albert, who cut inside to cause alarm in the Wolves defence. The Aussie flier off-loaded to Paul Sculthorpe, who slipped a wonderful pass out of the tackle to send the supporting Paul Wellens over for a super try.

Tricky Nat Wood then run rings around Viane for the leveller, before lanky forward Wainwright went over for a brace of unconverted tries on Saints' suddenly troubled right hand flank.

But on the stroke of half time Micky Higham showed tremendous determination to stretch over for another try despite Lima's tackle.

Sculthorpe's conversion and penalty just after the break levelled matters.

Although the scoring rate slowed, the incident count did not. Warrington looked as though they had scored following a 70 metre Wood interception, only for referee Ashley Klein to award Saints a penalty for offside where the move started.

Wolves did score again on 64 minutes when Briers sent Appo over in the corner.

Then oblivious to the rule change from 19 months ago, Warrington tried to take a quick tap from a penalty after Briers was clobbered by Hooper's chase on the kicker.

They tapped it and inevitably crossed the line with Saints players still streaming back, only for the referee to rightly tell Briers that he has to wait for the whistle.

They missed the subsequent kick at goal, to allow Saints the way back in to grab the spoils that lift them into fourth spot above Wigan.

Warrington: Cardiss; Fa'afili, Appo, Burns, Gaskell; Briers, N. Wood; Leikvoll, Clarke, Lima, Sibbit, Wainwright, P. Wood. Subs: Mark Gleeson, Hulse, Guisset, Hilton.

Tries: Wainwright (2), Gaskell, Appo, N. Wood.

Goals: Appo (2)

Saints: Wellens; Gardner, Viane, Talau, Albert; Hooper, Sculthorpe; Fozzard, Higham, Mason, Gilmour, Stankevitch, Cunningham. Subs: Bibey, Roby, Bennett, Joynt.

Tries: Wellens, Higham, Sculthorpe, Hooper.

Goals: Sculthorpe (5)

Att: 11,930

Ref: A. Klein,