London Broncos 22

St. Helens 37

By PHIL HOWARTH

ANTHONY Sullivan must have bought Paul Newlove a drink or two on Friday night.

The stand-in Saints skipper won a place in the Super League elite when he became one of only four players to run five tries in a game - and each one was courtesy of outstanding work from Newlove.

Completing the league double over London also ensured fourth place for Saints and a home tie with Bradford Bulls in the play-offs.

Great Britain coach Andy Goodway was on hand to see the Sullivan/Newlove partnership firing on all cylinders in a fiery clash at the Stoop.

Newlove put in his best performance of the season as Saints rediscovered the form they had shown up to the defeat at Leeds.

Half backs Tommy Martyn and Sean Long were also at their creative best until the luckless Martyn was forced off with concussion after 50 minutes.

London threw everything into a sparkling game, recovering from a 21-6 half-time deficit to take the lead before a hat-trick in 12 minutes from Sullivan decided it.

Saints tore into this game, determined to put the disappointment of failing to beat Castleford the week before behind them.

Martyn charged down a Shaun Edwards kick after two minutes but the wickedly spinning ball evaded his grasp as the whitewash beckoned.

Not that Saints were to be denied for long.

A minute later Shane Millard gave Martyn the space to neatly sidestep into the gap and run in a simple try. Long goaled.

London hit back after seven minutes when Mark Carroll put stand off Glen Air through as Apollo Perelini mistimed his tackle. Chris Ryan converted.

The tension boiled over at a scrum soon after as Brett Goldspink and Carroll traded blows and Paul Davidson decided to take a shot at Robbie Beazley while the hooker's hands were still round his props' shoulders.

Davidson and Beazley were sin-binned while Carroll was blood-binned with a split eyebrow and the whole incident was put on report for study by the disciplinary committee.

Sullivan scored his first try after quarter of an hour when Damien Smith switched the play and Newlove shrugged off Edwards to race away. As he neared the line, the centre selflessly passed to Sullivan when he looked set to score himself.

A perfectly executed training ground move between Martyn and Long bamboozled the home defence and sent Sculthorpe in to score two minutes later. Long kicked the extras.

Long added a drop goal after 22 minutes for a 17-6 lead.

Beazley blew the chance to pull a try back two minutes later when he dropped the ball as he dived over the line.

Newlove burst through a Steele Retchless tackle to send Sullivan on his way through after 30 minutes and Saints looked well on top.

Prop Grant Young powered his way over the whitewash a minute into the second half after Air had barged down Martyn's kick and the London crowd suddenly sensed the game was far from over when Ryan converted.

Air caught Davidson napping to zip through six minutes later and Ryan's kick hit the spot.

The last thing Saints needed was to lose half of their creative partnership at this crucial stage but luck rarely seems to run Martyn's way.

The stand off was knocked cold when he caught his chin on John Timu's shoulder as he attempted a tackle and banged his head as he span to the floor.

The departure of Martyn from the field got the Stoop crowd further fired up but Rob Smyth wasted a simple chance to put his side in front when he fumbled Bart Williams cross field kick.

However, London were not to be denied and Williams finished the job himself on 59 minutes despite an apparent double movement as he went over.

Finding themselves on the wrong end of a 22-21 scoreline finally galvanised Saints into action and they regained the lead with the try of the game when Long, substitute Paul Wellens, Davidson and Newlove combined to put Sullivan through in a sublime move that stretched 60 metres across the park.

London battled hard but Millard wasted the easiest of chances when Chris Smith dropped the ball on his own line.

The game winning moment came on 70 minutes when Sculthorpe and Newlove engineered a move to put Sullivan through. Long converted.

Sullivan scored his fifth try three minutes later when the impressive Wellens passed out to Newlove who burst through a double tackle to send the delighted skipper on his way. Long converted.

London saw their play-off dream disappear for this year while Saints know a few simple improvements in defence could take them all the way to Old Trafford.

Team: Paul Atcheson; Chris Smith, Damien Smith, Paul Newlove, Anthony Sullivan; Tommy Martyn, Sean Long; Julian O'Neill, Keiron Cunningham, Brett Goldspink, Apollo Perelini, Paul Davidson, Paul Sculthorpe. Subs: Vila Matautia, Paul Wellens, Tony Stewart, Paul Anderson.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.