St Helens 75-0 Wigan

St Helens (35) 75 Tries: Gilmour, V. Anderson, Fozzard 2, Hooper, Talau, Wellens, Edmondson 3, Lyon, Gardner, Graham Goals: Sculthorpe 9, Lyon 2 Drop goals: Sculthorpe Wigan (0) 0

St Helens ruined Ian Millward's return to Knowsley Road as they breezed into the Challenge Cup semi-finals with a ruthless demolition of old foes Wigan.

Millward was making his first return to his former club after his sacking for gross misconduct and was given a warm reception by the Saints fans.

But any hopes he had of an upset with soon dashed as the home side ran riot.

Mark Edmondson scored three of his side's 13 tries, with Paul Sculthorpe kicking 19 points for the Cup holders.

Lee Gilmour opened the scoring in the 11th minute as Saints took charge from the off, opening up a 35-0 lead by half-time.

Wigan were simply outclassed as they slumped to another heavy defeat after last week's 70-0 mauling by Leeds.

The win came at a cost for the hosts, who lost stand-off Jason Hooper with what looked like a dislocated shoulder in the first half.

Saints also went into the game without scrum-half Sean Long after he broke a wrist in training on Friday.

Man-of-the-match Nick Fozzard was full of praise for his St Helens team-mates after the mauling of Wigan.

"We've played some great games but this has got to rate as one of the best because it's against one of our fiercest rivals," said the prop.

Saints coach Danny Anderson added: "It was entertaining for the crowd and all the boys did really well.

We could not build any pressure with the ball and our error count was pretty horrendous Ian Millward

"I'm very happy with the performance. It was a great team effort."

Ian Millward was hugely deflated after seeing his side slip to the worst ever defeat.

"The return was fantastic as far as the way the Saints supporters treated me. What was horrendous was what we did on the field," said the Wigan coach.

"We could not build any pressure with the ball and our error count was pretty horrendous."

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St Helens: Wellens, Albert, Lyon, Talau, Gardner, Hooper, Wilkin, Fozzard, Cunningham, P. Anderson, Gilmour, V. Anderson, Sculthorpe.
Replacements: Roby, Edmondson, Bennett, Graham.

Wigan: Gleeson, Dallas, Aspinwall, Wild, Carney, Brown, Moran, Seu Seu, Newton, Sculthorpe, Allen, Tickle, Beswick.
Replacements: Hansen, Godwin, Guisset, Hargreaves.

Referee: Ashley Klein (London).