Wakefield 41 St Helens 22

ST HELENS coach Ian Millward was quick to hold his hands after last night's shock defeat.

Great Britain star Keiron Cunningham had joined the suspended Sean Long and Martin Gleeson on the sidelines and, although captain Paul Sculthorpe led from the front once again, the visitors were comprehensively beaten.

Millward said: "They deserved to win. They have been playing really well recently, and they were a bit more clinical than us. They finished off things better than us.

"Losing Chris Joynt did not help, but it did not cost us the game. I would just sooner give a lot of positives to Wakefield than make excuses. They played really well.

"We had a couple of chances through Darren Albert, and maybe a couple of tries could have made a difference.

Leaders

"We are normally great at taking chances, but we didn't do that and they did. The opposition was stronger than us."

The defeat leaves Saints with more ground to make up on league leaders Leeds Rhinos, although Millward is not too concerned at this stage of the season.

He said: "No-one in our position looks at the top of the table."

Two-try Ben Jeffries and man-of-the-match David March led the way for the Wildcats to cause the upset.

Cunningham's absence gave a chance to young James Roby, and Millward was pleased with the way he acquitted himself.

Confirmed

He added: "I thought young Roby played really well. We put him on at half-time to regenerate us, and it shows we have some great young players coming through."

Millward confirmed that young forward Tim Jonkers had been allowed to join Salford Reds on a month's loan as he looks to regain full fitness after injury.

He added: "He is coming back from a knee injury and we just want him back as soon as possible."

Wakefield - T: Domic, Jeffries (2), Wainwright, Snitch, Tadulala, G: Jeffries.

St Helens - T: Sculthorpe, Gardner, Roby, Talau. G: Sculthorpe (3).

IESTYN Harris can look forward to a Bradford debut next week after the RFL yesterday cleared the former Warrington and Leeds star's return.

The Bulls paraded Harris, who has spent the past three years in rugby union, as their player on Thursday but the RFL did not process his registration immediately because of a complaint by Leeds.

Leeds claim they released Harris in 2001 with two years left on his contract on the condition that he returned to them.

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