St Helens 54 Hull KR 0: Rovers whitewashed as St Helens cruise to an 11-try romp in finale

Rovers never recovered from the shock of conceding two tries in the first six minutes and have now leaked 134 points in their last four matches to increase the worries for coach Justin Morgan.

Paul Wellens's accomplished performance put his England successor Shaun Briscoe in the shade while Pryce was also in vintage form despite playing with a broken toe.

Saints made a dream start when an error from Briscoe gifted a second-minute try to his England predecessor.

Briscoe was the first to reach the ball from Kyle Eastmond's grubber kick to the line but it came free and Wellens demonstrated quick reactions to get the decisive touch.

Rovers had barely recovered from that shock when Eastmond took a pass from his half-back partner Leon Pryce to glide over for a second try. Jamie Foster was able to land just one of first three goal atempts tonight before going off with a cut head.

Centre Tom Armstrong, another member of Saints' young breed, marked his first appearance of the season with a try, courtesy of Pryce's "bomb", and second rower Paul Clough forced his way over from close range for his side's fourth.

Rovers could do little right and their defence cracked twice more in the last eight minutes of the first half, with Wellens putting Chris Flannery over and James Roby taking advantage of a superb offload from Pryce. Eastmond took over the goalkicking duties and landed two of his three conversion attempts to make it 30-0.

Pryce and Wellens combined to create tries for James Graham and Matty Ashurst before Foster, returning to the action bloodied and bandaged, scored his first Super League touchdown.

Rovers centre Jake Webster showed there was still some fight in his side when he got back to hold Armstrong up over the line but it was only a temporary respite with Gardner scoring two tries in the last 10 minutes.

St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Flannery, Armstrong, Foster, Pryce, Eastmond, Graham, Roby, Hargreaves, Dixon, Clough, Puletua. Substitutes: Fozzard, Cunningham, Moore, Ashurst.

Hull KR: Briscoe, Fox, Ratu, Webster, Cockayne, I'Anson, Dobson, Lovegrove, Murrell, Clinton, Netherton, Newton, Vella. Substitutes: Fisher, Watts, Wheeldon, Cook.

Referee: P Bentham (Warrington).