Saints maintain 100% start

Sean Long kicked his 1,000th goal for St Helens as they overcame a spirited Huddersfield to make it two wins out of two at the start of Super League XIV with a 23-6 win over the Giants.

Ironically, Long had another off day with the boot, missing four of his five conversion attempts, but his drop goal two minutes from the end wrapped up victory at the Galpharm Stadium.

New signing Tony Puletua had earlier broken the deadlock with his first try in Super League while England winger Ade Gardner also got on the scoresheet on his 200th appearance for the club.

Huddersfield captain Brett Hodgson gave his side an early lead with a penalty and they had the lion's share of possession, but came up against a stonewall defence.

Saints half-backs Leon Pryce and Long then combined to get full-back Paul Wellens over for the first try on 14 minutes, while Long's solo break five minutes later set up the position from which Gardner scored his landmark try.

When centre Lee Gilmour scythed through for a third try on 31 minutes, St Helens looked to be running away with the game.

But Long's misses left the score at 12-2 at the break and Huddersfield came back into contention when centre Paul Whatuira re-gathered Luke Robinson's chip over the defence to score five minutes into the second half.

As Huddersfield piled on the pressure, the visitors came up with a series of errors, and both Brett Hodgson and Simon Finnigan reached the tryline without being able to ground the ball.

Puletua then came to the rescue, plunging over from close range and near enough to the posts to allow Long his first success with the boot.

Long then added his landmark drop goal before substitute Gary Wheeler's injury-time try gave the visitors a flattering margin of victory.