St Helens 16-19 Leeds

St Helens 16 (0) Tries: Lyon 2, Hardman Goals: Lyon 2 Leeds 19 (12) Tries: McGuire, Ward, Lauitiiti Goals: Sinfield 3 Drops: Sinfield Smith praises hard-working Rhinos

Leeds withstood a remarkable second-half St Helens comeback to reach their second consecutive Grand Final.

The Rhinos produced a superb first-half defensive display to keep Saints quiet, and scores from Danny McGuire and Danny Ward gave Leeds a 12-0 half-time lead.

Ali Lauitiiti crossed in the second half to give Leeds a comfortable lead, but drama was to follow as St Helens' Jamie Lyon went over on 69 minutes.

Lyon set up Ian Hardman and added another try himself, but Leeds held on.

With heavy rain making life difficult for the players, St Helens started well and quickly laid siege to the Leeds tryline.

Jason Hooper's cross-kick found its way to Willie Talau out wide, but his dive to the corner was disallowed for a foot in touch.

Thought Saints were going to snatch it at the end, but on balance I think the best team won From BB Have your say on Five Live

Soon after, St Helens were again denied as Paul Anderson powered over the line only to be held up by three Rhinos tacklers.

Leeds took until the 10th minute to make their first serious attack and looked to have missed their chance as St Helens kept them out for three sets.

But an uncharacteristic error by Saints centre Lyon allowed McGuire to open the scoring against the run of play on 14 minutes

St Helens' Hooper out for season

Running out of defence after a scrum, Lyon was tackled by Chris McKenna and the ball popped out to a grateful McGuire.

St Helens tested Leeds' defence to its limits as Maurie Fa'asavalu and Keiron Cunningham went agonisingly close, but the Rhinos' defence proved impassable and that paid dividends at the other end as Ward profited from Matt Diskin's pass to cross.

St Helens started the second half with real intent, and a huge tackle from Paul Wellens on Richie Mathers fired up the crowd and his team-mates.

Leeds' Chris McKenna helped create his side's first try

But they looked well out of the game when Jon Wilkin's grubber hit Lauitiiti's leg to set up Leeds' third try.

Lauitiiti collected and showed real pace to go almost the length of the pitch, a score swiftly followed up by a drop-goal from Kevin Sinfield who also kicked all three conversions.

But Lyon, who had been quiet all match, suddenly hit top form as he powered over on the right for Saints' first try, which he converted.

Two minutes later, a delightfully timed pass from Lyon gave Hardman the chance to go over.

And after some casual defensive work from Leeds' Marcus Bai gifted possession back to Saints, Lyon scored Saints' third try in four minutes - again converting to bring the score to 19-16.

But despite the roars of a passionate Knowsley Road crowd, Saints - who will play the winner of Saturday's game between Bradford and Hull - had left themselves just too much to do against the reigning Super League champions.

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St Helens: Wellens, Hardman, Lyon, Talau, Gardner, Hooper, Roby, Fozzard, Cunningham, P. Anderson, Bennett, Gilmour, Wilkin.
Replacements: Higham, Fa'asavalu, V. Anderson, Graham.

Leeds: Mathers, Calderwood, Walker, McKenna, Bai, McGuire, Burrow, Bailey, Dunemann, Ward, Ellis, Poching, Sinfield.
Replacements: Lauitiiti, Diskin, Jones-Buchanan, McDermott.

Referee: Ashley Klein (London)